Sunday Story...Eat Your Veggies

Sunday Story…Eat Your Veggies

OK, I have to admit that I am just a little bit ticked off. Wait, that isn’t quite right…I am way pissed. I am tired of beating my head against a wall of popular, conventional wisdom and misinformation. I am sick of people telling me myth and legends as truth. Folks, the science is in. You can keep living in a world where the world is flat and the earth revolves around the sun if you want but I, for one, am tired of listening to it. And I am not going to do it anymore.

What am I ranting about? What has me so hot under the collar? Food. Nutrition. The lies we have been told about nutrition. The lies we continue to tell ourselves about nutrition and the lies we foist upon our un-suspecting children.

The standard American Diet (SAD) is crap---Calorie Rich and Pathetic. How many different colored vegetables did you or will you eat today? How many processed edible non-food products have you thrown in the hopper? How come if everyone knows so much about food and how to eat and how to eat right are there 100 million people who are overweight, diabetic, or pre-diabetic? Why is 65% of the population overweight? Do you think our standard diet and those facts are related?

Today a friend was relating what happened at a meeting of educators. The people who will be teaching our children lots of things but most of all they will be teaching by example. Children will watch and absorb the hidden messages…the ones that we send energetically without knowing it…much more readily than the ones we stand up in front of the class room and spew. While sitting in a workshop what does she find on the table first thing in the morning? A bowl of candy. The beverage of choice? Coffee. Later the chex mix comes out closely followed by chocolate cookies. Those that aren’t drinking coffee are drinking soda. This is the example our children are getting? How can you think clearly when you brain is loaded up on sugar and caffeine. How can you sustain your energy throughout the day? More sugar and more caffeine?

On Friday my camp kids and I were talking about school starting on Monday and the topic of lunch came up. They hate the lunch served at school. Now these are kids who still like fast food and other components of the SAD (I haven’t completely corrupted/converted them yet!) and they all said how bad the food was. They often don’t eat lunch because the food is so bad. What!! I mean could it really be worse than fast food? Apparently so. As a matter of fact last year while at one of the school assemblies I walked in during lunch. And some of my students were there eating. I asked if they had eaten any green vegetables. And the lunch lady looked at me and said, “are you kidding, this is school lunch!”

People, this is bad and it appears to be getting worse. The most popular vegetable in North America is the white potato---a high glycemic, starchy vegetable that when cooked at high temperature creates an acid know to be a carcinogen. And the most popular fruit? The banana---another high glycemic and starchy food. The average North American eats 7 different vegetables, most of which are barely vegetables (corn, beans, potatoes and peas). Way back when we were hunters and gatherers our diets were highly varied…up to 75 different plant varieties. And we are not even talking about the effects of factory farming.

I am sure you have heard about the recent recall of eggs…something along the lines of 500 million eggs have been recalled. The tainted eggs all came from a plant in Iowa. Eggs don’t come from a plant. Eggs come from chickens, the last time I checked. We are ruining our health with our food. We are the most over fed people in history and the most under nourished.

Today the camp kids picked 5 different vegetables that they helped grow…they planted, weeded, watered, harvested, cleaned, chopped, cooked and ate. The bounty included onion, eggplant, summer squash, corn, broccoli, tomatoes, and basil. We created a healthy and filling lunch in less than 45 minutes from harvest to table. There was no processed food, no added sugars, and no edible non-food products. All the macro nutrients were there…protein (we used organic local eggs), carbohydrates (from vegetables) and fat (olive oil) as well as many micro nutrients…the vitamins and minerals that nature provided in the food itself. And we enjoyed our meal slowly with friends. This is the way we are meant to eat, to nurture our bodies and our spirits. Not with fast food not with added flavorings, added sugars, added vitamins and minerals.

Eating right is not rocket science. It really is simple. About 70% of your diet should be derived from plants. Plants that come from the ground. Not plants that make stuff. There is no triscuit tree, no bagel bush. 70%. Think about what you ate yesterday…how much from plant sources? How much from a box, a can, or a foil packet?

Your aging process is dependent upon what you put in your body. And we are all aging. We are, from the moment of our birth, getting older. If you put C.R.A.P. into your body your experience of that process is going to be exactly that…crap.

You only get one body folks and you better take care of it. None of you have a spare body in the closet. No amount of technology will ever be better that what you were put here with. Taking care of it honors your maker, honors your loved ones and sets an example for the rest of the world.

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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