Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Wellness Wednesday

This video of highlights from a TedX talk in Manhattan touches on both the importance of local, chemical-free food and the way we've been duped into believing what we find on grocery story shelves something that is good for us and for our society. 


For years I've been saying in order to think we have to feed our brains - with food, good food. Our brains are physical, biological organs that need healthful food in order to function properly. Children in poverty, men and women behind bars, even middle-class families, can all benefit from a chemical-free, whole foods diet. Without good food, we our brains will not function property and, therefore, cannot make wise decisions. Why do we assume otherwise?

One of my favorite quotes from this talk was from Joel Berg:  
To be schooled you must be fueled. To be well read, you must be well fed. In fact, every major national goal - cutting obesity, restoring the middle class, cutting crime and incarceration, reducing healthcare spending, protecting our country from our enemies, and slashing poverty - to accomplish any of those things, we must first end hunger.
And I need to add that we must end hunger with real food, not processed food. Why we think our society can continue to grow and advance (in a good way) without farmers and without good, pure food is beyond me.

1 comment:

David said...

Cherie, excellent video on the need for real food. I had a discussion over cornbeef and cabbage yesterday with my cousin about this very issue. Her view point was from a perspective of better artery and muscle health but the discussion was the same. Eating real food takes time. A very high percentage of the American population are single family households. The preparation of real food and cleanup from the preparation for one person takes about the same time as preparation and cleanup for a family. Convenience of fast food has become the food of choice for those single people or families where both parents work. The art of every day cooking has fallen to a dreaded home skill. Left overs are put in a class of disgust instead of a source of purpose in a future meal. Creative kitchen cooking has been pushed aside because of the convenient variety of choices of immediate food available at restaurants or frozen microwave dinners. It's a sad thing that kitchens were the most active place in the house fifty years ago but now are left to snacks and microwave use. Thanks for the encouraging video.

Have a great real food day.