‘Don’t eat carbohydrates. Don’t eat fat’.
‘Eat fat. Eat only saturated fats. Don’t eat saturated fats’.
‘Red meat is bad for you. Your body needs red meat’.
‘Don’t eat raw food. Only eat raw food’
……..(we could go on and on in this thoroughly confusing way!)
No matter whether you are chatting with friends, reading magazines and newspapers, or researching the cutting edge knowledge of the food world, we are continually surrounded by different diets and a seemingly endless flow of essential dietary advice.
I am not trained in nutrition, but I do eat everyday and have spent years exploring the somewhat crazy food paradigm that we all find ourselves living within. This article will explore some of the energetic understandings that have shaped my life.
And for those of you who are interested in exploring the most excellent food information that I have found then I’d recommend reading http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/unhappy-meals/, for a short and very astute exploration of how we got to the current state of nutritional confusion as well as what we can do about it. And also, if you have time for a more thorough exploration, Sally Fallon’s book, Nourishing Traditions, will give you food for thought that will nourish you for years (puns intended!)
What we eat determines our energy and whole-system health. This includes every aspect of our physical body, hormones, moods and emotions, cognitional ability, and our ability to connect into the web of life (or the food chain, however you view it). What we eat therefore determines thus, our spiritual connection too. It is difficult to feel connected with the universe when we are toxic, acidic and lacking vital nutritional needs.
What we eat determines how we will feel for the short term (after the meal, the day after and perhaps the day after that depending on our metabolism and elimination processes.)
What we eat determines our energy and our whole-system health for many years after the meal. Again and again I work with clients who have eaten consciously, ethically and excellently (!) for many years before walking into my clinic, and yet their bodies are struggling with the after-effects of the diets that they had several years previously. So perhaps they didn’t eat well as children, or when they first left home they lived on junk food, or they lived such hectic work lives at the high point of their career that their food culture revolved around eating out and putting ready-made meals in the microwave on the rare occasions they did eat at home. From practice-based evidence I would suggest that we eat for 10+ years ahead of the meal. Obviously this is irrelevant if your ‘poor’ food choices are occasional, but if they are the main bulk of your nutrition then the effects stay in the body for a very long time. I have found this is especially true for women as the energetic imprint of inadequate nutrition is held in the hormonal system for years. A large number of women who I have worked with for fertility issues were anorexic/bulimic for large periods of their young adulthood, and this nutritional after-effect was still governing much about the energy and thus the functioning of their hormonal system. Often a vital step to creating the right conditions for fertility is clearing the energetic patterns left from years of poor nutrition.
With love, Prune