YOUR FOOD

“This is what you’re made of”

Nutrition can be confusing but food doesn’t have to be. Over the years we have met with so many people who were either at a total loss as to what they should be eating or totally oblivious to the fact that what they were eating was hurting them.

Considering the number of different diets that are out there, the way food has been reduced to nutrients and how deviously foods are labelled and marketed, it should come as no surprise that few people have any idea of what a good diet really looks like.

What about you? Do you find nutrition and eating confusing?

The reason we ask is because if you do, this is something you really need to get sorted out and here’s why.

You know the age old saying “You are what you eat”. Well it’s quite literally true.

We have been created to thrive on the very specific fuel of natural whole foods and water. Not “survive” on the man-made junk so many people consume these days. When we compromise on what goes into our mouths, our bodies are compromised and we suffer.

The main reason so many people eat so "dangerously"is because they make their food choices based on “fun” rather than “fuel”.

This fuel and fun perspective works really well to help people appreciate how their different motives for eating impact their health. It is also a really practical way to help make better food choices. Simply ask yourself whether the food you are about to eat ranks highly on the fuel scale or not. You might be surprised as too how quickly it can make a difference to what you eat.

The scary part is that most people aren’t consciously even making the choice anymore. Eating for fun has become pure habit and it is repeated over and over and over again!

When you consider it like this, don’t the health and obesity trends start becoming pretty easy to explain?

Now try to imagine what might happen if more people who were fed up with living in their “food shack” made this food body connection. If they actually started thinking before they ate. Not just thinking however, but thinking in terms of food is fuel.

Well here’s what we think.

The next 30 years would witness a dramatic turnaround in general health. Obesity rates would plummet and people would experience the satisfaction of wellness firsthand. When they came to realize what they had been missing out on, they would not settle for the second rate pile of rubbish that “big business” wanted them to eat from. No longer would they believe that what they were eating was doing them no harm.

What more people need to know is that food that is great fuel is also great fun. Fun food that fuels great function and well-being is what we should be crying out for.

But before you get the impression of us having some twisted perspective, it is probably good to know that we live in Dubai. For obvious reasons it’s far more difficult to eat for fuel first there. There is an abundance of junk food that is attractively cheap in comparison with the better fuel food options. This poses both the cost and availability challenges that are usually offered as excuses for not eating well.

As far as circumstances go, it is then our mindfulness of the biological truth that “what you put into your body becomes your body” that enables us to cope with them.

Order needs to be brought back to eating.

The order of fuel first and then fun! There is too much at stake not to. Our own health and that of our children hinges on making this kind of change.

The good news is that it’s really not complicated to eat well. There are times when it can be more difficult but the effort to get it right is always richly rewarded.