Perception

Changing the way we see food.

Our eyes are seeing colors, thinking VARIETY and ENERGY, but our bodies are not getting the array of nutrients they are expecting. We have been stripping, extracting, refining, and chemically altering foods until profitable and pretending it’s all part of the food spectrum that we should be able to dabble in. Our bodies don’t know what to do with these new nutritionally scarce and highly addictive items that are chemically closer to plastic than actual food.

The foods we eat are genetically engineered to bypass our brains saying STOP.  People are feeling guilty and weak and out of control, when they have grown up in a world where it is okay to eat whatever you want.  We have mistakenly learned to enjoy bad foods from poor education, marketing, and the ease of preserved products.

We have to become aware to change. It is not until we (or someone we love) have a health scare to take a closer look at what we eat.  And even if we do, the cravings and triggers are everywhere.

We are obsessed with the short-term wins from temporary mouth pleasure (hormonal and chemical reactions), not realizing the net long-term losses of health. We can turn this to a win-win if we learn to enjoy naturally occurring foods again (as our ancestors once did). It is becoming acceptable to say no to dessert first.  It is okay to say you like the taste of vegetables, and finding ways to cook them that are not boring.  It is socially acceptable to order well-cooked veggies rather than a burger or pizza – and if you want those, you can make them with the ingredients you (and your body) love.

Real nutrition tastes good.  Real food does not give you a stomachache or headache, or brain fog (and much worse) from neurotransmitters in your brain becoming fried with the hazardous molecules wreaking havoc inside of you.

The reason I want to see sugar is poison, is that I am trying to learn to reset my taste buds. I want to allow my body to respond to real nutrition. I know I am being tricked when walking into most stores to buy things my body will not benefit from.   I am trying to reset my goggles – my view of the world to break apart foods into real components. 

What we are eating is not even sugar. The sugars in fruits and veggies are meant to be enjoyed in moderation as they are in bloom, but instead we have been stripping, extracting, refining, and chemically altering items and pretending it’s all part of the food spectrum that you should be able to dabble in.

How the Standard American Diet (SAD) contributes to eating disorders. Of course we have issues in this country with body image and eating.  The food options surrounding us have been created to make us crave the easily accessible empty calories in pretty packaging.  Our food is nutritionally scarce and highly addictive. The foods we eat are genetically engineered to bypass our brains saying STOP.  The options people have are to eat and keep eating, binge and throw it up, or avoid eating all together.  And it’s not our fault! People are feeling guilty and weak and out of control, when they have grown up in a world where it is okay to eat whatever you want.  It is okay to starve our bodies of all nutrition. 

The problem is we are so hooked on this stuff as if it is a drug. Studies have shown sugar can be just as addicting as cocaine. A simple treat would be okay, but as a country we have shown we cannot have a single cookie. We eat the whole box, along with the pizzas and breads and pastas and sauces infused with sugars and oxidized, over-cooked vegetable oils. What do you think are in most ppls diets? It is not 90% real and 10% fake. It is 90% fake and maybe eating a banana or pop a vitamin pill and feeling like they’ve done well.

Yes moderation is okay bc our bodies can handle that. But the problem is: as a country we don’t know how to do moderation. Graph and explanation here of recommendations and actualities of American Diet. This is just one from a quick search, not that it is special for any reason. There are so many resources out there - too many to be able to sift through. We are inundated with info and need to break it down simply. Let’s start with an eye out for what makes us feel good and go from there.