Dietary Chaos
By Nathaniel Whitmore
“You are what you eat” is a familiar phrase, but seemingly not well understood. Human beings have long existed with a staple food as the center of their diet. First acorns and other tree fruits and wild foods of abundance were our staples. (Hence the significance of the oak tree and other such botanicals in ancient myth.) Then came grain. Rice in Asia. Wheat, oats, and rye in Europe. Millet in Africa. Corn in America. Et cetera. In harsh environments (difficult growing areas), people existed with wild meats as staple foods. The Native Americans of the plains, for instance, survived on Buffalo. It was their meat, their tools, their shelter, and their clothing. In short, the Buffalo was their sacred source of life.
The staple food was supplemented primarily by local vegetables and other foods from the wild or cultivation. While grains and acorns could be stored for use all year around, vegetables tended to be more seasonal. Until recent times, people have always existed primarily on staple foods and seasonal supplementary foods.
The paradox of today is that while it is quite luxurious and enjoyable to have foods from all different parts of the world and in all different seasons (made available through the use of fossil fuels, electricity, and plastic), it is undermining our health to have an abundance of highly processed, chemical ridden, stale foods. Today’s generations generally do not know the staple foods of thousands of years of human history. Even when traditions are somewhat maintained, they are infected by modern practices. White rice, for instance, has replaced brown rice; traditional ways of preserving foods have been replaced by chemicals and refrigeration.
“You are what you eat.” This phrase refers to a very basic fact of life. When you eat, you are consuming the energy that makes you who you are. It seems that it is not difficult to understand that psychology, emotions, attitude, and spirituality all help to sculpt a person- to make them who they are. We largely fail, however, to consider how the food we eat makes us who we are. And food is the very modeling clay of our beings! A vessel can only be as good as the clay it is made from.
The body is not merely a vessel, however. In holistic jargon, the phrase, “body, mind, and spirit,” often comes up. Holistic medicine is not based on “body, mind, and spirit,” however, it is based on the understanding that everything is energy. Body is mind, mind is spirit, and spirit is body. All is one and all is energy.
Often, someone will think that because they eat some vegetables, or fruit, or because they choose brown bread rather than white, that they are eating healthy. Or that because they take their vitamins, or scrub their toes well, or say a prayer every night, that they are doing what it takes to be healthy. Surely, certain vegetables could be generally considered healthy, but this does not mean that they are good for any person at any time. And the health promoting quality of such vegetables could be affected by the presence of chemicals in the soil on which they were grown or the lack of trace minerals in the soil. Simply because a vegetable is considered healthy does not mean that it will combat the negative health effects of snack cakes, the lack of exercise, or even a poor mental outlook.
People are endlessly searching for the “magic bullet”- the thing that they can take to make it all better. There is no food, or herb, or drug, however, that can serve as a magic bullet. Every aspect of a person’s life has an influence on their being. Holistic medicine seeks to take into consideration as many factors as necessary to understand the root of illness.
If a certain group of people existed for generation after generation in more or less the same area, eating the same food, they would probably develop a deep understanding regarding the way food nourishes life. Such wisdom would be passed down and would accumulate. If a woman learned from her wise mom, who learned from her even wiser mom (a grandmother who would have represented timeless knowledge to a young mom) about how to grow, harvest, and prepare food to create health and harmony in the family, wouldn’t she grow to be an even wiser old woman? And her daughter even wiser yet?
Today, traditional foods are rare. Traditions are largely gone. How is a young mother to understand how to balance her diet just right in order to nourish her baby and prepare foods for the family when her diet is unprecedented. She can not receive wisdom from her mother and grandmother about what foods or food combinations cause colic or other problems because the diet is all changed.
Recently, a troubled mother who attended one of my classes asked why food allergies and environmental allergies are so common. I could only speculate. She commented on how allergies were not so common when she was young.
I believe the world is a wonderful and mysterious place, but not without order. Traditions of living and eating have always been built around careful observation of natural order. Today, we are largely free from the need to discriminate between edible and poisonous plants growing in the wild, and we have grown accustomed to selecting our foods from the grocery store. We largely assume that if it is sold in the store, it must be edible. But this is not so! Foods should be chosen carefully, with regard to the laws that govern all of nature.
“You are what you eat.” If your diet and lifestyle are chaotic and disorderly- so might be your life and health.
For thousands of years the Chinese have revered Ginseng as a tonic herb. They especially prefer roots from the wild, which are considered to be stronger and more beneficial. Certain wild roots can be sold for many times the price of cultivated roots. This is because a wild plant is a direct expression of natural order. A wild plant is a product of nature that has overcome all of the challenges of life- competition, weather extremes, fungus, and disease. Since we are what we eat, such hardy rigorous foods are considered especially helpful for increasing one’s vital energy and overall health.
Nathaniel can be reached at (570) 224-0264. He works at the Honesdale Wellness Center and throughout the region.
© Copyright 2010 Connections Magazine
