Food for Thought...

...or would that be "thought for food"?

The Evil Genius and I have been watching a show on BBCA - You Are What You Eat. Bird calls the hostess "The Health Superhero". I've been using the show to help explain how food affects our bodies, what's healthy and what's not, and which foods benefit which parts of the body.

I've always explained to him how things help make the body strong and healthy...or not...but if I'm going to watch TV, I am going to use it as a teaching tool, too.

We've talked about how having a brown or beige plate means an unbalanced meal - a healthy plate is a rainbow, or at least a broad palate of color. We discuss the idea of whole, fresh, and raw being healthier than processed, and the closer to origin a food is, the better for the body it is.

At six, my son knows more about healthy eating than many adults. I wish someone had made the effort with me - there's a good chance I wouldn't have the fifty-acre...erm...forty-acre...arse and health issues I have now if someone had just explained about calories, vitamins, minerals, fiber, all that. Instead, they berated, called me names, and withheld food. Sigh.

The thing is - it doesn't do any good to create a sense of deprivation, of "can't have", because then we fixate, cave, and binge. And what's the point of being healthy, of having healthy habits, if we can't enjoy the extra time we get from them? If all we can do with those extra hours is think about our "loss"?

Here's what I think: I think we should know, really know, what we eat. We should know what we're putting into our bodies. We should taste what we eat, be mindful of it, enjoy every bite. Food shouldn't be laden with guilt; guilt does as much harm as sodium, as fat, as excess carbs. We should be conscious, mindful eaters, and we should be permitted to enjoy what we eat, be it a chocolate eclair or sliced cucumbers, without bearing a judgemental assault from the world around us. We should make the choice to eat, to be healthy because it's what we want - and if we want to be a dietary disaster, then we should do so mindfully, consciously, and without complaint.

With food, as with everything else, we should accept personal responsibility for our actions and know that there are always consequences - positive or negative - to what we do.

What do you think?