You ARE What You Eat

Everything you put in your mouth has an effect on your body – for good or ill. There is no neutral ground. It must pack the best nutrition. The body expects to be fed something that will give it what it needs to build, repair, and strengthen itself.

Read that again . . . .

Think carefully about it.

Not all food is equally nourishing. Foods which lack nutrients cause your body to become unbalanced, cause inflammation, and disrupt the body’s own control mechanisms. It may not show up right away, but over time the whole system suffers.

You hear about ‘empty calories,’ or ‘too much salt,’ or ‘too much sugar,’ or ’too much fat.’ Foods which fit these descriptions please the palate – they seem to taste good at the time. When the rubber meets the road, they just do not perform as your body needs.

Many people (not you, of course) put ‘stuff’ in their mouths without thinking about this concept. Instead other factors come into play when they consider their desire for ‘something good to eat’:

★ The salty crunch of chips.
★ The cool, smoothness of ice cream.
★ The bubbly sparkle of soda.
★ The charred chewiness of steak.
★ They may fancy some other taste or texture on the tongue.
★ Boredom leads to finding something to keep the mouth busy.
★ A gnawing, hungry feeling hits, so they put darn near anything in their mouths to put a stop to it.
★ They hit a period of low energy and/or mood. Something filled with sugar and/or caffeine, sends the whole system into a tail spin.

When this ‘stuff’ goes into the mouth, it contains few nutrients. It does not deliver sufficient nourishment as it goes through the digestive process. The body then sends out signals of hunger which it hopes will provide the nutrition it needs to carry on.

So, one eats more, ... and more, ... and more ....

In this way, not only does one put on weight, but cravings, addictions, and allergies to certain foods develop. The intestines become blocked and sluggish – sometimes so blocked that only liquids can pass through. Many people eat large amounts of food, but are still undernourished.

Folks generally look at diet in an unsavory light: “a regimen of eating and drinking sparingly so as to reduce one's weight;” or, alternatively: “the kind and amount of food prescribed for a person ... for a special reason.”

So ‘diet’ is a word often viewed with fear. Many try one diet or another, only to find themselves in torment. The experience leaves them with a constant sense of deprivation. Severe restriction of calories results in low energy and depression. In the end these efforts provide only a temporary remedy for the problem one is trying to address. One finally gives in, finding themself see-sawing back to (or above) their original weight. The chronic diseases you seek to avoid still plague you, or you end up with some other malady.

Webster gives higher status to these other definitions, by placing them first: “food and drink regularly provided or consumed;” and “habitual nourishment.”

In fact, the word ‘diet’ comes from a Greek word which means a manner of living.

We prefer definitions emphasizing the ways foods we ‘habitually eat’ enhance our health.

Remember: the cause of a habit is repetition. What you habitually eat depends on what you choose to put in your mouth. So choose wisely – over and over again.

Now, ask yourself these questions:

“Why do you eat?
Do you ‘eat to live’
or ‘live to eat’?”

---------------------

This is the beginning of the current lesson in our online (by email) course in natural healing. For more information, check our web site.