4 Ways to Eat Yourself to a Better You
Our new series on Beyond Medicine is about why we need to eat our way to a better world. One of the most important reasons for eating for a better world is: your own health! Eating is something that we all do and what goes in our mouths, especially for us adults, is something we can control. There are many and varied influences that shape our eating habits. However, at the end of the day, it’s our decision, our bodies and our health that matter more than these outer influences. Here are 4 ways to be more mindful of how you can eat yourself to a better world, starting with a better you:
- Change habits, one at a time: we know that habits are difficult to change, but not impossible when it comes to our own wellbeing and the welfare of our loved ones. There are definite ways of overcoming the difficulties of changing habits. Recognizing and getting rid of conditioning, associations, comfort foods, stress eating and peer pressure are some tips – we must make the desired behavior easier to do, and remove barriers while providing viable alternatives. Focus on one habit to change, and work on it with patience and diligence until you’ve mastered it. Then, move on to another. For example, you might want to add more greens to your diet twice per day. Once you’ve done that, you might eliminate processed snacks.
- Know your influencers: one good way to eat is to know the nutrient contents of the food and what it does to the body. Ha! Easier said then done. However, there are reputable authorities and sites that give you the unbiased truth. The classic example is dairy and meat products. They do more harm than good when taken in large amounts, but the meat and dairy lobbies are so strong that people tend to ignore the harmful effects, hence the scourge of lifestyle (especially eating)-related diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and chronic kidney disease. ALL of these are linked to meat and dairy – see the China Study for more information – here’s a summary.
- Know mental and physical impacts of food: to contribute to a better world, we need to be fit and well ourselves. Food we eat has an impact on our bodies and mind. For us, eating plant-based foods makes us feel alert, energized, healthy, young and happy. We have a strong immune system and do not get sick easily, and typically we also recover quickly after illnesses. There are many additives (such as preservatives, flavor enhances, chemicals) in processed foods – such as dairy and commercially prepared meat products, as well as refined carbs that are present in pastries, biscuits and many fried junk foods. These additives are not friendly to our body systems and organs. They cause harm to the organs and predispose us to lifestyle diseases such as cancers and heart diseases.
- Know the risks: when we used to eat meat and dairy, we had allergies, felt heavier and had other problems that led to a higher risks of lifestyle diseases. Some of the risk factors for lifestyle diseases are increasing body weight, raised cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar levels. These mainly depend on the food we eat and our lifestyle. Junk foods increase our risk factors, and whole, natural foods directly from Nature help us stay strong with reduced risk of lifestyle diseases.
Being mindful and eating mainly fresh plant-based foods help to a large extent towards our health and wellbeing by reducing our risk factors, and helping us stay alert and productive. Feeling good in ourselves makes us better able to help work towards a better world. Stay tuned for the next post in this series and share with us your healthy eating habits and how they impact you and the planet.
