Whole Food for Thought

The old saying "You are what you eat" is valid now perhaps more than ever. At present, we are confronting a great variety of nutrition-related health problems throughout the world. Malnutrition resulting in disease is rampant in Third World countries. Here in the industrialized world, people eat far too much manufactured and packaged food containing chemical preservatives for a long shelf life and lacking fibre and enzyme-rich, raw ingredients. Worst of all is the consumption of too much denatured, hydrogenated, modified and refined fat, sugar and white flour.

The western obsession with animal protein and packaged foods on a daily basis has made our population overfed and yet undernourished. The result is a greater incidence of degenerative diseases such as arthritis, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, cancer and many others.

It has not fully dawned on the medical community that there is a direct relationship between the decline of proper nutrition and the rise of disease. The fact is, our bodies need good food natural food, that is and not pharmaceuticals or inorganic chemicals. Yet the search for the miracle drug carries on while nutrition is rarely taught in medical schools.

Many studies involving primitive populations isolated from the rest of the world prove that people enjoy a healthy and long life as long as they eat local, natural, unrefined foods. When western-type refined, processed and preserved foods are introduced, these primitive populations suffer western-type diseases. The travels of Dr. Weston Price to the native peoples of an isolated area in Loetschtal, Switzerland, and to the Inuit people of Northern Canada are great examples. More recently, studies have been carried out in China that investigated the changing eating habits of thousands of peasants. All researchers came to the same conclusion: The refined and meat-based diet typical of the western world makes people sick.

Processed food is dead food.

Health and wellness, of course, are not only physical in nature. They involve our whole beings, including fostering good relationships in our families, in our workplaces and in our social lives. Equally important is a healthy attitude toward spiritual growth. Attaining a healthy body, mind and spirit is a continuous and lifelong journey.