Food matters

Today I want to talk about food… because our food matters and when it comes to our daily choices, it really matters!!

Have you ever noticed or paid attention to how your body reacts to the different food you eat?

To give you an example. One year, while visiting my parents in South Africa, we went to visit some family for a week. During that week we ate really poorly .. we indulged in ice-cream, breakfasts with eggs, bacon, toast or some pancakes with fruit, cream, and honey. Pizza for lunch. During the evening it was a big braai or should I say BBQ for my non-South African friends, with some wine or some fish & chips. It was nice for the first few days but by the end of the week my body was SCREAMING out for some proper nutrition. My body was craving fruits, vegetables, fish, nuts, and seeds. The first evening back home, my mum cooked the most amazing curry chicken and vegetable stew and I can still remember how it tasted.

A couple of weeks ago I did a talk on the “Role of Nutrition” and when I asked the audience what they saw on this picture, one of the ladies said: “I see all the foods that I loveeeee to eat”.

Her response was very funny at the time and she made everyone laugh. But putting all jokes aside, this is what people are eating on a daily basis and they would class their diet as being “healthy”.

When I look at this picture I see lots of:

SUGAR
REFINED CARBOHYDRATES
ARTIFICIAL EVERYTHING: Artificial sweeteners, artificial flavourings, artificial texturing agents, artificial colours.
PRESERVATIVES
PROCESSED FATS + FOODS
CHEMICALS

We have to remember that food is INFORMATION. Our body needs nutrients to function. Every single process that occurs in the body requires nutrients. If we want our hearts, brains, lungs, and digestive systems to work properly, then we need to give our bodies the right type of nutrition to function properly. Our food provides us with the vitamins we need, like our B vitamins, Vitamins C, E, and A, etc. Our food provides the minerals we need, like calcium for example to keep our bones nice and strong. Our food provides all the protein, carbohydrates, and fats we need. Not to even think about the fibre, enzymes, water, phytonutrients and antioxidants we need.

How well your body is going to function is going to depend completely on WHAT you eat. Not just that, it is also going to depend on how well you digest your food and if the nutrients can get into your cells.

If you choose to feed your body with whole foods – like fruits, vegetables, healthy fats (e.g., seeds, nuts, or avocados), good quality meat and fish. Then your body will thrive, and your body will PROMOTE HEALTH.

But if you choose to feed your body the processed JUNK food, which are man-made and full of chemicals, preservatives, and artificial colourings. Like we saw on the picture above. Then your body will struggle to be healthy, and your body will NOT be able to function optimally. Your body will PROMOTE DISEASE instead.

The human body is incredibly resilient, and our body is capable of surviving terrible challenges. When our body starts to struggle it starts to show us. When we experience symptoms like headaches, pain, pain in our joints, we struggle to sleep, we gain weight, we have low energy and fatigue. All of these things are showing us that our body is out of balance and struggling. That is when we start to experience Dis-EASE in our body which very quickly turns into DISEASE.

What are you going to choose this week to put into your body?