Sometimes,
it isn’t the food at all…
As a certified health coach for the past 7 years, I’ve been
sharing my information about how the food we eat literally becomes the body. I
believe this to be true and I feel that we, by our choices, create pretty much all
the good, and all the bad that the body experiences. It was the sadness of
watching family members struggle with obesity, diabetes, depression and high
blood pressure that led me on this path.
One day, a few years back, I was watching an interview with
anti-inflammatory specialist, Dr. Nicholas Perricone, in which he explained
that aging and disease are 40% genetic and 60% lifestyle. This informed
everything I did, knowing that I was more in control than I had originally
thought.
Every bite was bringing
me closer to optimum health or nearer to the grave.
This Monday, however, I was reminded of something that supports
the opposite view and it made me chuckle.
Lets preface this by saying that I have a deep affinity for
the elderly. Growing up, I spent a
great deal of time with my Nana and her brother and sister. My Nana lived to 85, her brother to 87
and my Aunt Bea to a ripe 95. They
were all healthy and vibrant with boundless energy, especially Aunt Bea. I
recall their diet was pretty simple.
Aunt Bea and Uncle Charlie would file into the kitchen for a breakfast
of fried Hebrew national bologna and eggs. Toward the end of their lives there
wasn’t much disease. Uncle Charlie
actually died in his sleep, peacefully. Yes, they all grew up on a farm and
spent the majority of their lives eating real food/ whole food. They were
lucky, since chemicals didn’t make it into the food supply until the late 1960’s.
They were all breast-fed because that is just what they did back then. So you
could say that they were “set up” for a healthy life. Still, I remember us all
gathering in the kitchen for ice cream sundaes on a regular basis. The health coach in me balks at this
steady use of nitrates and hard sugar, but it worked for them.
Their lives were rich with friends, culture and laughter.
This Monday I was in Fairway shopping for a client when a
woman in her 90’s shuffled by muttering to herself, loud enough for me to hear…
“I could walk around here all day and not find a damn thing!” She was adorable
with her kerchief on her head, slightly hunched over her wagon.
“What do you need?” I asked. She
replied very loudly articulating every moment of each word
“McCormick Baco-Bits!” we found
them in aisle 2 all the way on the top shelf. As I reached for them she barked,
“Grab me two of them!”
“What do you do with them?” I
questioned. She shook her head
with a sigh as she tilted her chin up to me
“I nibble on them all day long… I
know its no good for me but I can’t help it” We both laughed.
While you won’t find me exploring the pleasures of McCormick
Baco-Bit nibbling, I have been known to indulge in a pig-in-a-blanket every now
and again at a party and that’s OK.
