It must seem odd that a food philosopher, (as I’ve branded myself for the last 15 years) would write a blog titled ‘It’s not about the food” and you’re right. Odd and counter-intuitive yet spot on. One thing I’ve learned has impacted my clients more than any of the nutrition advice I’ve ever given is the ability to deal with our relationship with how we think and feel. This is the biggest factor in developing a healthy relationship with food and our body. This article is a distillation of the material explored in depth in Return to Food.
It’s Not About the Food
How we eat has less to do with the actual food and more to do with how we think and feel.
We think we are choosing food for how it tastes but the bigger trigger is how a food makes us feel either in the moment while we are eating it or for the drug like reactions that most foods give us. The farther the foods are from their natural state the more intense their drug like reactions can elicit in the body and we are left with stronger compulsions to have them again.
Eating in nature makes this simple as those foods that are more easily obtained in nature, in their natural state have all kinds of nutrients and protective qualities that cushion any addictive properties. Once we strip the nutrients and protective properties through cooking and processing, the more we can eat and the bigger the buzz they give us. They also have a corresponding dip in relation to the buzz and this triggers us eating for that buzz (even more so than taste) and again to compensate for the loss of nutrients and sensation of wellbeing we tend to eat more. In most cases with processed food it is not actually that the food makes us truly feel better but a drug like spike we often mistake for wellbeing.
Return to Food has a lot of material that is not related to food but in fact shows us how to nourish ourselves in other areas of life, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Most people who are struggling with their relationship with food are malnourished in those areas and if you’re really struggling chances are your mental, emotional and spiritual areas of your life are not just malnourished but toxic.
The Power of HyperNourishment
The antidote is to tap into HyperNourishment which is the process of removing the toxic input in the way of what we read, watch, listen to and how we feed and care for our whole being. The magic in our life starts to unfold in how we think and feel with new healthy nourishing input and it is amazing when we do this how we are drawn to choose foods that resonate at a higher frequency and contribute to a true state of wellbeing.
Choose a healthier thought and you’ll feel a healthier more empowering feeling. Choose to walk instead of sit on the couch and eat food that is dead and addictive while watching television that is negative and you will set in motion literally thousands of different reactions in the body that set yo up for better life decisions. We think it is about the food and this allows us to be sold diets and products that do for us what our body is infinitely more capable of doing. You have an innate wisdom and intelligence that far exceeds any diet or textbook on eating. Tap into the stream of wellbeing your body is set up to thrive on and you’ll automatically be attracted to foods that facilitate, healing, weight loss and energy beyond what you can imagine.
Check out my first interview here with a blogger in India , Dhivya Balagi. She was an absolute sweetheart and asked some brilliant questions saying ‘Return to Food’ was her food ‘holy bible’ .
Look out for my upcoming video blog where I talk about the Biggest Eating Disorder on television….