Food to Eat
If your serious about trying to live a healthy life than the mostly likely place to begin your journey is to focus on food. We all eat food. We all (probably) eat something every single day and most of us probably eat at least two to three times a day. The average thirty year old adult has eaten over 30,000 meals…so needless to say we can all relate to food.
Now I’m going to ask you a very simple question. Do you eat food that tastes good or do you eat food that your body enjoys? If you read that fast enough you might think its a trick question, but there is an underlying difference between the two options. The question really gets to the heart of the role that food should and needs to play in living a healthy life…but first a quick story.
Pop Quiz Hot Shot
A few years ago I was in a leadership development program for my day job. We happened to be in the middle of a three day intense working session focused on public speaking, presentations and influencing audiences. During one exercise we were given ten minutes to prepare a five minute speech on a topic that we were passionate about. For some reason I completely froze. I could not think of a single topic to discuss. Here I was among some of the most talented people at my organization, and I was about to lay an egg in front of all of them. As the group came back together, I stared at the smoothie in front of me that I had purchased that morning in the hotel lobby and finally the light bulb went off. An idea popped into my head and my mind began to race. Now if I just had a few more minutes to think through my idea…
As luck would have it, I got the opportunity to be the first presenter. I stood up in front of my peers and began my presentation…“We are what we eat,” I began, picking up my smoothie. “Think of food not as something that needs to taste great or be some type of treat, but as the fuel our body needs to run efficiently. We should be more focused on selecting food that helps our body run better, instead of foods that taste better. Have you ever tried pouring a can of soda into the gas tank of a car? No, of course not, because we know that would ruin the engine of the car. So why do we all drink soda knowing it has a similar affect on our body’s engine?” I asked the room. Note to self – I don’t recommend carrying out this activity in a room full of soda drinkers!
While I’m not completely sure what spurred the topic in my mind, this concept of food as a fuel for our body is something that really stuck with me. I began to look differently at every speck of food that entered my body. I become more interested in the ingredients that made up my food choices and the impact these choices had on my well being.
A New Definition of Food
It’s time we look at food differently. Food is the main source of fuel that powers our body. It provides the energy our body needs to operate on a daily basis. Similar to any mechanical device, feed it the right type of energy and it hums along nicely. Feed it the wrong kind of energy and things start to break down. Below is a growing library of research that we have developed to help explore the impact of our food choices on our health. Check back frequently as we add more research and
email us with specific topics you would like us to explore!
– Benefits of a Plant Based Diet
– 5 Foods to Eat to Live Healthy
