|
(Reprinted from the September 2009 Health Journal, Cumberland Times- News.)
This column is prepared by Allegany College of Maryland’s (ACM) Integrative Health Core Curriculum Project (IHCCP). A collaborative initiative between ACM faculty and health professionals from five Community Partner agencies (Western Maryland Health System, Archway, Allegany County Health Department, Family Crisis Resource Center, and HRDC Aging Services), the Project’s goal is to introduce evidenced-based mind/body medicine approaches into academic education and community health/mental health practice. This article begins a new series on “nutrition as medicine”.
When it comes to nutrition, I am a card-carrying “flexitarian”.
No counting carbs or calories for me. I never diet and have long since banned the “food police” and the “bad food bouncers” from my table. Nary a scale can be found in my home and the words “pinching an inch” are considered swear words which should be banned from polite society. In fact, the only nutritional guideline I religiously (and literally) cling to is my glass of red wine every evening.
Even at the doctor’s office I refuse to be shamed by the “weight weighers” who escort you to the large and looming weight scale in that that most public of places, the hallway (where is HIPAA when you need it??), and then smugly (or so it seems to the sinful) announce that not only have you shrunk in size, but increased in girth. (Bad news when you are only 59 inches.) Holding my head high and claiming every inch of my 4’11” and shrinking frame, I politely but firmly cut them off with a “I won’t ask and you won’t tell, OK?”
Who says ignorance is not bliss?
My food philosophy has always been “all things in moderation”, enjoying with gusto my occasional order of McDonald’s French fries or a healthy helping of Pringles, or a pack of tropical flavored Skittles. And despite this disregard for the “following the rules”, I’ve managed to make it to age 58 without missing a day of work in 21 years and only minimal change in my “energizer bunny” approach to life.
However, if truth be told, my clothes from five years ago no longer fit and I am a tad bit stiffer and a good deal foggier than I was a while back. And unlike my younger years when I could manage on five hours of sleep during the week and seven on the weekends, going more than three nights with less than six hours sleep leaves me cranky and even stiffer and foggier.
And then there is my slowly deteriorating night vision which makes my driving – never one of my strong points even at a younger age – about as close to “living on the wild side” as I am going to get.
However, all things considered, none of these are terribly serious and all are conditions generally attributed to “growing older” (or being “halfway to dead” as my kids told me on my 45th birthday.) But they certainly seem to be faint signals that that I might be entering that grey zone where I would be a prime candidate for a health reform “Cash for Clunkers” program aimed at aging baby boomers. Not a pleasant thought. Not a pretty picture.
So, when presented with the opportunity to attend Dr. James Gordon’s “Food as Medicine” training in Washington DC this past June, I decided to give nutrition one more try.
After five intense days of lectures by leading researchers, nutritionists, physicians, and dieticians, I came home a changed woman. I had seen the light. Where personal shame and blame had failed, science and a global perspective had succeeded. Like most people, I didn’t have much interest in thinking about where my food comes from or what it is doing to my body or the planet. But after listening to the presenters, the personal became political (to coin an old phrase from the sixties). Consciousness was the key – and by making decisions each day as to what I buy and what I eat, I saw I could make a difference, not only to my own health but to world health and the environment. That caught my attention where diets and rules and counting and measuring had failed.
My conversion experience was reinforced when I read the August 31 edition of Time Magazine’s feature story “The Real Cost of Cheap Food.” There on the cover were the words “WARNING….Why the American food system is bad for our bodies, our economy, and our environment and what some visionaries are trying to do about it.” The article concludes that the “industrial food system fills us up but leaves us empty….and has consequences which can’t be ignored any longer.”
So I finally get it. Nutrition is much more than calories in, calories out. It is about the way we eat, what we eat, and how our food is produced and who produces it. It is influenced by culture and power and ultimately will require a major shift in the way Americans look at the world. Bigger may not be better. And more may be less.
Yes, I am still a card-carrying “flexitarian”, but hopefully, I am becoming a more conscious one.
So join me in the upcoming months. I will explore how our system of food production has become a major hazard to our health, “feeding” the obesity cycle, and increasing the incidence of chronic illness – and some choices you can make to break that cycle. I will also share what I am learning about rebalancing the body using whole foods and supplements and suggest some wonderful resources to guide and empower you.
Meanwhile, here’s a simple place to start becoming more conscious. Take three deep breaths before you start to eat and if you are eating too fast, stop for a breath break. Breathe!
Cherie Snyder is a professor at Allegany College of Maryland and directs the Human Services and Integrative Health programs. She also serves on the faculty of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, DC. She can be reached at (301) 784-5556 or 5557. |
People eat the way they do because in most cases they have no other choice. If there was a vegetarian restaurant in this area I'd frequent it. But there isn't. If there was a local restaurant that served healthy fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, beverages that didn't contain high fructose corn syrup and healthy, organically-raised beef and chicken, I'd eat there. If I could bring myself to only eat fresh fruits and raw, fresh vegetables here at home, I'd do it. And when you go to the grocery store, most everything is highly refined and processed--marketed for taste, and the organic items are often prohibitively expensive. We aren't all college professors or physicians.
Here in the United States, virtually everything that has to do with vital human needs is a big corporate racket. And that especially includes eating. We're living right in the belly of the beast of corporate capitalism, and if they can reduce us to the point of doing nothing in our lives except work, sleep, and eat, they're sure as heck going to squeeze as much profit out of our having to eat as is possible, and will use the full range of technologies and devices of social engineering at their corporate disposal to do so. Unfortunately, often when you are victimized by an ongoing racket, it doesn't really matter whether you realize that you are being victimized or not. The racket continues anyway.