DR. ANDREW WEIL SAID, “A healthy diet is the cornerstone of a healthy lifestyle.” Take a moment to reflect on this statement. A cornerstone provides strength to a structure, so it makes perfect sense that our bodies (aka: our personal structures) need something to help keep our cornerstones strong. The very essence, or cornerstone, of our health is found in the foods we choose to consume.
Consider the foods in your diet. Are there any weaknesses, a few cracks, maybe some holes in your personal structure? Ask yourself, “How strong is my personal cornerstone?”
Let’s get real for a moment. The cornerstones of many people may be showing some deterioration. The Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) is full of C.R.A.P. (carbonated drinks, refined sugar, artificial colors and sweeteners, processed foods). This type of diet is full of nutritional holes and causes your engine to gunk up, thus creating disease (or dis-ease) in your life.
C.R.A.P. foods are cheap. Marketing folks are pretty savvy in promoting this type of eating. Smooth operators pitch promotions geared toward our children: colorful, little toys in the kids meal; indoor play areas where children can play and then eat, eat and then play. I understand how this marketing draws people in, and I easily fell into the trap while raising my own children. But one day I woke up and realized this C.R.A.P. diet is not even real food — and it’s definitely not worth crying over that spilled bovine growth hormone (rBST)-injected milk.
Life essence has been removed from refined foods and replaced with chemicals and preservatives! You have probably heard of things like high fructose corn syrup, but did you realize this is a chemically created ingredient? We were not created to ingest chemicals, and in our attempt to digest these refined foods we are creating the perfect storm for illness.
Our cornerstones are crumbling around us. In the 1950s, diabetes affected approximately 1.2 million individuals in the United States; in 2010 that figure rose to 18.8 million diagnosed cases. Why? Is there a correlation between the genetically modified, overly processed foods, to the point of which our cornerstones are becoming incapable of supporting our immune structures? Certainly, hereditary factors play a role; however, the latter seems to stand out as the possible reason why there are so many more cases of disease.
If S.A.D. or C.R.A.P. are the cause of decay of our personal cornerstones, what can be done to strengthen our structures again? Can we realign our bodies to recreate health?
Yes, and it is quite simple.
It’s all about S.O.U.L. These are foods that are Seasonal, Organic, Unrefined, and Local:
- Drink water instead of processed, carbonated drinks. Water keeps you properly hydrated.
- S.O.U.L. foods contain the natural vitamins and minerals our bodies need to function properly. Grab an apple, some raw almonds or cashews, some wild-caught salmon; the possibilities are endless with the rainbow of whole foods available for your soul.
- Go shopping at a local co-op or a farmer’s market. Talk to the folks selling their foods at the local farmer’s market, because it is always good to know where your foods are coming from.
With the purchase of nutritionally alive food, you won’t have to pay later with disease (or dis-ease). S.O.U.L. foods are whole foods that are nutritionally alive and full of nutrient-rich vitamins and minerals. Our bodies have a wonderful way of healing from the inside out when our diets provide the proper food values.
What you eat is your choice, like everything else in your life. You can continue to eat a diet of C.R.A.P. and literally starve the cornerstone of your life essence, or you can eat a diet full of S.O.U.L. and watch as your cornerstone turns into a strong, beautiful, energetic, healthy dance of life!
RESOURCES
• Eat Less CRAP. Eat More Food.
• Food Safety: Natural vs. Processed Foods
• National Diabetes Fact Sheet 2011
• Andrew Weil, M.D.