Eating... nowadays

The next time you try to work out just why you can’t think straight
and get everything you need to get done completed, consider
blaming your food.
It’s a scary concept- that our thoughts and ability to succeed can be
so affected by what we eat, but for millions of people around the
globe it’s a day to day war their body and mind pit against each
other.

Even on very simple terms, we need the fuel form food to survive.
While fasting can be used by some to clear the mind during certain
events, as a general rule, our brain needs feeding. And it needs the
right kind of feeding to do well.
We get plenty of health and nutritional advice all the time. In fact
in many ways it’s thrown at us from every direction. Even the fast
food giants now tell you exactly what’s in their products.
However it appears that the more we know about nutrition, the
more we studious avoid the facts. In less than ten years, nearly
three quarters of the western world is on the path to being
classified as overweight (or worse, obese or morbidly obese.) The
numbers of people looking to pharmaceutical relief for depression
and addictions is growing and our energy levels are collectively at
an all time low.
It might feel like we know a lot about food, but are we using that
knowledge? And how can we be sure that what we are putting into
our bodies is health, strength and energy?

For most of us, the sorts of foods we eat now are very different to
the foods we grew up on. There weren’t constant ads on TV on
how to lose ten pounds in ten weeks. Takeaways were a real treat
and no one did home deliveries. Mothers tended to be at home,
where they cooked often plain but also pretty nutritious food (meat
and two veg anyone?) There was probably home baking too, but it
was made with natural ingredients and didn’t have things like corn
syrup and fancy chemicals to keep it fresher for longer.
Supermarkets were not open twenty four hours a day. We had to
walk down to the corner shop to get bread, and that is all we got,
because everything else was so expensive. There were less impulse
buys on junk food. Fathers tended the home veg garden, and there
were sometimes fruit trees too.
It wasn’t all food utopia. We ate lollies. Rather a lot of them
sometimes. Pocket money seemed to go a long way. But it wasn’t
an every day thing. It was more of a once a week as soon as I got
paid treat.
Fruit was more expensive. If it wasn’t straight from our own tree, it
was metered out. We didn’t have huge portions of meat, and the
fill up food was generally a cheese sandwich.
But we weren’t obsessed about food either. Those were less
stressful times in more ways than one. These days on top of
worries about finances, jobs, family issues and stress, we worry
about food.

The old adage we are what we eat has never been truer than when
talking about our ability to focus and work. With our heavy use of
computers, cell phones, and televisions we don’t move so much.
We spend our days behind the wheel, behind the desk and then
behind a cushion when snuggled up on the couch. Not only are we
expending less energy, but we’re filling our bodies up with so
much more food and treats because we feel we deserve it.
We need food. It refuels us, gives us the energy we need, works
with our bodies to keep us alive. We use any nutrients we eat to
create new cells, growth our hair, and repair our bodies. If all we
give our bodies is junk, is it any wonder that we’re not feeling the
love?

The best sort of diet we should have is not so much about making
sure you eat an apple a day, and never touch another chocolate bar
again. It’s about basing your diet around three things: balance,
quality, and output.