Eat whatever you want.
Thought the trick is knowing what you want.
If there is anything every animal ever to exist on earth knows since they are born it is what to eat.
So why are we so confused?
I have been on a lifelong journey with my health and diet.
I grew up in the dark days. My meals in mainstream America consisted of some crazy chemically combination of processed wheat, corn, soy, margarine, sugar and marshmallows…. and I won’t even start with what was in the water. I mean really… a school lunch of wonder bread with fluffernuffer spread and a twinkie and soda… what were we even learning in school. People wouldn’t even feed this to their pets.
Whyyy!!! There is really no good reason for this. It isn’t even cheaper or simpler or smarter or safer or tastier or healthier in any way at all. It just puts money in the pockets of corrupt companies that are poisoning us with what is meant to nourish us. It also seems to come from the same sentiment seen in so many aspects of our culture… that ‘man’ rules over our bodies and nature. And that ain’t good for anyone.
Many people are convinced that it is cheaper and more convenient to eat this way, but it isn’t. It is cheapest to cook food from scratch with simple local ingredients, especially when considering all the hidden costs of processing, packaging and shipping, not to mention the health and environmental costs. In terms of convenience, I don’t know who it is considered to be more convenient for. My grandma told me that when she had her kids she wanted to breastfeed them, but that was unheard of then and none of the hospital staff could help her, so she followed their suggestion to make formula, which involved mixing processed milk with tap water. She said it was too much to have to sterilize and microwave and mix the milk… and she missed out on bonding with her babies… and besides that is gross. It also certainly hasn’t been cheap or convenient to have health issues my whole life.
And this isn’t even really food!
I remember asking my parents if they were sure this was real food that we were supposed to be eating. They never questioned it, but I did.
To make a long story short, when I was a child, I became a vegetarian… and then a vegan. Vegetarianism was unknown at the time, and I had to fight for it… along with all the other things I did differently, which I now realize was simply me trying to do the right thing. As soon as I became an adult, I moved across the country to the west coast and found my own way. I had never heard of holistic health or herbalism or almost anything healthy, but I went to a used bookstore and bought every book on these topics. I started learning more and more and more… first on my own… and finally through formal trainings and classes. Through all of this, I have been eating healthier all the time. I started by eating the slightly healthier version of my favorite foods… and I worked my way up to where I am now. Now I eat everything I want… and I mostly want what is right for me and my body, mind and spirit. Knowing about my own body and health and how to take care of myself and others has been extremely empowering.
Because I grew up having to fight for (and against) my food, my diet became a part of my identity, and I became ideological about it, and it was almost like an eating disorder. I finally asked myself what I wanted to eat… for me and my body, not just my philosophy. I ate the happiest and healthiest form I could find of everything I ever wanted, even meat, with grace and gratitude… and I stopped craving so many harmful foods… and I finally felt full for the first time. Letting myself eat what I love has been so liberating… and what I really love is real food that is good for me and the earth and tastes good.
When I try to eat the comfort foods from my childhood that I thought tasted good, they don’t taste good or flavorful or even like food… and they don’t make me feel good. When I get hit the reset button, my body tends to want the foods that are good for me. I wonder how I ate all that sugar and am still alive, because now when I eat any sugar I feel bad, but I think I was just so tuned out and numb back then.
I am now in Nepal and have gotten everything else out of the way, and knowing what to eat gets easier every day. Guru Aama, an ayurvedic master and mother, makes my meals for me. Ayurveda is the science and art of life and health. It is all about how to live, love, and eat in health, harmony and balance. They say that food is the foundation of health, and food is medicine, and at each meal you have a chance to choose to be healthy. It also has diet down to a science, though it isn’t reduced to too much of a science as it is in the west. It practices a pretty perfect balance between the elements, nutrients and properties of food and how to help bring a person’s particular body type into balance. I have spent three months eating some combination of rice, beans and vegetables with a bit of dairy at each meal… and I don’t miss anything at all… and I feel full. I don’t know if the difference is that I’m far away, or the distractions are out of the way, or I’m more appreciative because I don’t always have access to anything I want any time, or the meals are made with so much love by the great guru mother…. or maybe all of the above. It is easy for the people here to know what to eat, because they eat what their ancestors have always eaten and what they have always eaten and what grows around them when it’s growing.
I know that the western world can be more complicated. We don’t tend to know who our ancestors are or what they ate or where our food comes from or what foods are in season… and most of our foods now are mutant monsters anyway. And what our ancestors considered real regular food is now considered a fancy costly delicacy only for privileged people. I saw a silly saying that said, ‘Eat organic food, or as our grandparents called it… food.’ The concept of health food in itself is crazy, because all food is supposed to be for our health… that is what food is. While we should think of feeding and caring for ourselves positively, I also don’t think there is a perfect diet that fits into our western way of life. The only perfect diet is what is perfect for each particular person.
So my best advice is just to train yourself to trust and listen to your body… eat real food from the earth… eat the rainbow… eat from as close the the source as you can… eat slowly and calmly… don’t eat processed sugar but don’t beat yourself up if you do… and eat what feels right in your head, heart and body.
And hellz no GMOs…
Food is more than just sustenance
It connects all of us
To our culture, our family, our story
This can’t be grown in a laboratory
Or made by one big company
Hungry for nothing but money
You know it’s true what they say – you are what you eat
Do you want to be a fishy sugar beet?
And do you remember when tomatoes tasted so sweet
And the smell of bread baking in the oven
And chicken soup lovin’
And birthday cake cutting
And licking off the icing
And making a wish…
This can’t be mixed in a petri dish
Or injected with genes from a fish
So I say Oh no GMOs
GMOs have got to go
I don’t want you in my bowl
I don’t want frankenfoods that glow
With sugar and spice and DNA spliced
I don’t want no soybeans and rice
With roundup ready fried
Corn insecticide on the side
Topped with a glofish garnish
I don’t want no GMOs in my dish
A fruit salad of frankenfish
You say tomato and I say what the * is this
With arctic apples, bacterial bananas, and papayas gone wild
Is it plant, animal, bacterial or viral
Would you feed this to your child?
Our life and seeds are controlled by 6 big companies
And our food is banned in 30 countries
And 64 have labeling laws
So we better wake up
We have a right to know
If our food is GMO
A science experiment spinning out of control
The big 6 have got to go
They are denying Americans the right to know
What’s in our food and how it’s grown
And hiding in our government’s shadows
So we’re gonna call them out of the DARK
All it takes is one small spark to see who they really are
Corporate criminals, thugs, thieves and liars
Monsanto, Syngenta, BASF, Dupont, Dow and Bayer
Do you ever wonder what Monsanto eats?
Money and power and corporate greed
That is one big fish to feed
And it will never be full or satisfied
Until all of life is patented and modified
Until all of life can be bought and sold
And straw can be spun into gold
So what do GMOs even do?
They are made to handle heavier herbicide and pesticide use
Leading to more chemical residue
And pesticide-resistant superweeds and superbugs
And they are made by the same thugs that made Agent Orange and DDT
Can you start to see this twisted parody and its players
Who cause the problems then sell their solutions
And have their hands in the pockets of politicians
A non-stop money making mission
And as for the farmers…
GMO seeds don’t save them money or increase yields
And they are threatened with cross contamination in their fields
And lawsuits served up by Monsanto
We will see which way the wind blows
They say you reap what you sow
So what’s the solution?
It’s not more pollution or genetic prostitution
So what do we do? What do we know?
Look to the forest for this lesson
Layers and layers of life and growth and food and medicine
Biodiversity breeds resilience and abundance all around us
A forest don’t need no pesticides or herbicides
To produce plants far and wide and miles high
It don’t need no GMOs
So now how does your garden grow?
So ask yourself what you can do
To take back your life, your health, your food
And ask yourself what’s more sacred than life and its seeds?
DNA is the way it is meant to be – it is our ancestry, our history
Life’s magnificent mystery
The world is changing, the paradigm is shifting
Can’t you feel it
Get your greedy hands off my double helix
Get your money hungry eyes off my nucleotides
The revolution will not be modified
#Or fuck it and eat whatever the fuck you want