While on vacation recently, I stayed at a hotel that offered free breakfasts. We all know that at "all you can eat" restaurants you eat more than you should and "treat" yourself to a few items. It's not unlike the dilemma that will be facing us through the upcoming holiday season.
At the next table were four extremely over-weight young people that were eating a breakfast of just donuts. Not one or two….but five or six donuts each. Then they wrapped some up for later. No fruit, no eggs, just donuts.
This didn't appear to be a one-time treat for these kids. This was a totally non-nutritious meal that a healthy body wouldn't easily tolerate.
I realized how much people still don't understand about honoring your body through proper nourishment. Families are relying on pre-packaged or fast foods, and most schools aren't educating or serving nutritious foods to students. The marketing of overly-sweet, chemical-ridden, non-nutritious, energetically dead food and drinks addict our population to sugar and carbs.
Yes, I said, energetically dead. What is that? It's exactly what it sounds like….food (and I use that word loosely)that because of chemicals, over processing, over-cooking, or microwaving, is without any life-force energy. It may have taste, it may fill you up, and some of it may even have some vitamins added (after the original vitamins were processed out), but it doesn't have any energy.
We need life-force energy to be healthy, and in Reiki we learn different ways of getting this energy.
We get it through oxygen, thus we do breathing exercises and techniques. We get it through sunlight and good quality drinking water. We learn to tap into the universal source of healing energy and channel it into our own bodies for healing. But we also get it through food as it was originally designed in nature.
We must get back to natural eating. And you don't have to be a nutritionist to under-stand how. It is quite simple - eat living foods. If it grows, it's alive. If it grows (or is fed) organically, it's even better.
If you eat food closest to its natural state, it will be full of energy. Raw is best. Steaming is good. Freezing is often a necessity, and is preferred to canned, or pre-cooked. Microwaving may be convenient, but kills the energy of food. Adding artificial flavorings and colorings, preservatives, and any chemicals (especially sugar substitutes) are all unhealthy for the body.
Meat, poultry, eggs and fish obviously have live energy. Buy them fresh or frozen, not processed, preserved or deep-fried into non-nutritious snack foods.
Speaking of snack foods, raw nuts are full of protein and healthy oils, dried fruits are naturally sweet and nutritious, and fresh veggies with dips such as hummus or yoghurt provide lots of vitamins. Eat real cheese with whole grain or rice crackers.
Shop only in the perimeter of grocery stores. There you will find the fruits &vegetables, meat & fish, and dairy departments. The isles in the middle are canned, processed, or processed snack foods. Try fruit markets and buy organic when you can.
People seem to think that healthful eating is difficult - but it's mostly commonsense.
I remember once when my daughter was a baby, she started fussing while at the mall. I sat down on a bench, brought out a fresh, very ripe pear and started scraping it to get little mushy spoonfuls. As my daughter ate her healthy snack a woman came up to me and said, "Watching you feed your baby made me laugh at myself. I have been feeding my kids the baby food bottles of peaches and pears and until this moment, I never thought of just feeding them the real thing!"
And that's the point. We have to THINK about what we're eating. If we consider how and why we nourish our bodies we will make better choices.
This year as you plan your meals for "giving thanks", think about the gifts that nature is giving us through food. Then give the gift of healthy eating to yourself and all you serve.