“food glorious food, la la la la la..while we’re in the mood la la la la la”
My first real interest in foods direct relationship and relevance to our well-being, developed as a teenager after I proclaimed “I will no longer be eating dead animals or dead birds ever ever again!”(that was so teenagerly pleasant of me–ha!!) With that lovely directive, I was then countered with a question from “those who must be obeyed”…my parents simply asked, “what will you eat?” And my quest began.

But, I need to explain that my foray into vegetarianism (sounds like a religious cult that you bow before the altar of the almighty-bountiful) was strictly because I love animals–not for health reasons at all. Health-schmealth, was not an issue in the olden days of the 60′s. Why, our beloved high school allowed children to smoke on campus, for goodness sakes!!  No, at 16 I was just feeling my way to “becoming”.  Without question, the person that sits at this typewriter today evolved straight from the seeds of that righteous decision maker, carefully planting: the moral compass on autopilot..the boyfriend/husband chosen..and the undeniable imperative, thou shalt do no harm (means vegetarian to me!). It all was so crystal clear and so obvious, that to veer off course would have been complete heresy on my part. Sooooo, getting back to “what was i going to eat?”-was not as simple as i had anticipated. This was the beginning of my nutritional journey; learning the very profound impact that food has on our homeostasis state of wellness. Not only the food itself, but the way in which it was grown and how it was processed. All of these elements must be considered.

I remember (which is amazing in itself), when I was interning in college at a special needs school, that my evangelism of “eat clean”, helped one young child that had severe behavioral problems. I discussed applying the Fiengold diet as a possible adjunct to the other therapies in use. The teacher in charge was quite willing, and within a very short amount of time the child’s attention span had marketably improved, and so did the learning. Clean, wholesome food has a wonderful positive force on all of us. Unadulterated, unprocessed, organic is the correct choice..don’t let anyone tell you that it is too costly, in the long run it is not. Also, in my hunting and gathering experiences, the healthiest foods are the cheapest!!

Processed foods today (any foods that are reconfigured and packaged), have so many additives–these raise havoc with our hormonal system (remember the last scary blog?) And, by jove, it is not just one food, its the whole fricken center of the darn grocery store. And, by jove, it is not just eating this crap once, it is a lifetime of adding it to our delicately balanced bodies…aaaahhhhhh! And the new research is really honing in on inflammation as the primary cause in the key roll of  tumor generation (both benign and malignant). Ingesting certain foods, our bodies become inflamed (I just imagined us all looking like lit candles..but i digress) and with this western diet, unmanageable stress, inactivity, and pollutants (both edible and breathed) our bodies become ticking time bombs tick tick tick tick……

The deposit that you make in your health today will influence your health right now, as well as lots of tomorrows. It costs WAY more to fix all of our dis-ease than to prevent it from ever occurring in the first place. So to those naysayers that laud the expense of eating healthy, I say “bah, humbug, it is far less expensive to prevent than to correct.” In fact, one of my favoritest (yeah, you heard me) meals is brown rice, fresh vege and fresh cooked dried beans. My gourmet life-mate gussies up everything with fresh garlic and olive oil and you would swear you were eating at heavens table! MMMMMM, and cheap too.

Before I bid adieu, I want to recommend a book. To date I have read, easily, 4 dozen books on health and nutrition. The latest to become part of my extensive library is, “Anti-Cancer, A New Way Of Life”, by David Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD. He is a brilliant man, researcher, doctor and brain-tumor patient. That combo makes for very compelling, honest and educational reading…. read it, digest it, apply it–and pass it on.