Sunday Story…Dietary Defense

As a Martial Arts Educator, a self defense instructor, a father, and a concerned member of our community I have been teaching people about self defense for over 20 years. For the most part that means I teach people how to protect themselves, their families and their property from individuals who may want to cause them harm. This consists primarily awareness training, boundary setting, and confrontation management (kicking a** and taking names).

Here is a sad fact: you are much more likely to be laid low by diabetes, obesity, heart disease, or the myriad of other life style diseases than you are going to be a victim of a violent attack. Learning how to defeat an attacker with a well placed “ninja” strike is sexy and exciting. Eating your vegetables? Meh…not so much.

The leading causes of death in this country are not gunshot wounds, knife attacks, or random violence. As a matter of fact, none of those even make the top 10. #1? Heart Disease. #2? Cancer. (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lcod.htm) You can do something about this, just like you can do something about random violence (be aware, set clear boundaries, know how to respond physically). But will you?

Most of us need to fix our diets. I could go on about the statistics regarding obesity and diabetes type 2 in this country but I will refrain. The fact is we are the most over-fed and under-nourished people in the history of the world. Read that sentence again. More simply…we eat too much of the wrong food. We have relinquished our connection to the food we eat. This is, in itself, unhealthy. Then we have allowed major corporations whose primary interest is in perpetuating their own profits to tell us what we should be eating. This whole process is perverted and wrong.

I am not going to tell you how to eat. I have some pretty strong opinions about it as many of you know. What I am going to tell you is this: EAT REAL FOOD. Not food that comes from a box, bottle, or can. Not edible non-food products that have labels on them with a list of ingredients created in a laboratory.

Some basic rules:
If you don’t know where it came from, you probably shouldn’t be putting it in your body.
If you need to read the label before you eat it, you probably shouldn’t.
If the food has more than 3 ingredients it probably shouldn’t be eaten.
If it has an advertising budget it may not be REAL FOOD (when was the last time you saw an ad for broccoli or carrots?)
If you grew it eat it.
If someone you knew grew it, raised it, hunted it, or caught it, eat it.
If it still has dirt on it, eat it.
If you have to think about how to cook it you probably should eat it.

None of us want to be the victims of violence. No one wants to be punched or kicked, or harmed physically. So why do you assault yourself with chemically altered food substances that steal your vitality? I get it…it tastes good and it’s cheap and fast. So for convenience you will risk your health? You will save a couple bucks today and spend lots on prescriptions in the future? This is backwards people…we should be spending our money upfront on taking care of our health instead of on the back end taking care of our sickness.

“Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food”…Hippocrates

Namaste

John Mariotti

www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.martialartsnevada.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com