Tag Archive | Fats

Love and Food Addiction

Sep22

There is a reason people are addicts. No one chooses an addiction, especially a food addiction. Why would they?

Obesity runs rampant in the United States because it has become so easy to eat unhealthy foods. The quest for instant gratification flies in the face of honoring these bodies we wear from the time we are born to the time we die.

Fast food is easy, not as cheap as it used to be but still cheap, over-processed, and unprepared to provide the body with nutrition.

Fast, over-processed food is not meant to provide you with nutrients. It is meant to taste good and fill you up and that is what it does.

There is no energy involved. In fact, most people feel like sleeping after they eat at a fast food restaurant.

There is no love in fast food. It is salty, often greasy, full of fats–that’s why it makes you feel full temporarily–and it ruins your health.

Where is the love you used to taste in homemade pot roast with mashed potatoes made from real potatoes and fresh vegetables that we didn’t call veggies and say you had to eat them because they were good for you?

Food is supposed to be good for you. Food was once a way to express love.

But something happened along the way. Instead of enjoying all the tastes, flavors, and sensual feelings a meal once provided, food has become a tool to stuff down feelings and pretend it’s okay to be alone, ignored, and undervalued.

Food doesn’t feel good anymore. And most of the time, it doesn’t make those eating it feel the pleasure or nutritional benefits food is meant to provide.

This is particularly true for people with a food addiction.

Food addicts are missing an important, life-enriching nutrient from their daily lives. It’s not food we hunger for. It is love.

Love is the feast that fills you up but not out. It fills up your senses and tames your wildest hungers.

I am not talking about sex. I am talking about love. Without love, one can not overcome a food addiction.

With love, you can. It’s as simple as that.

It’s Never Too Late to Be Great! ®

Gimme Some Real Food!

Feb7

Where does your food come from? Do you know?

Throughout most of my life, I have eaten foods whose origin was easily determined. We had gardens and raised chickens, and bought milk from farmers in the area. We had apricot and peach trees. We raised strawberries and got apples from neighbors who bartered with us.

We canned and pickled, and kept frozen meat in a locker downtown. The vegetables from our garden were so delicious you could eat them raw right off the vine or stalk. Everything was prepared from scratch, and amazingly enough, it seemed very convenient at the time.

I have growing concerns about the prevalence of processed foods in schools and the ready acceptance of convenience foods in today’s households.

The power Monsanto wields over our food supply with their GM crops and patents is alarming. What the FDA considers good, nutritious food is not necessarily what I care to eat. Last year I planted an organic garden. This year, I will plant a larger one.

Here in the Tampa Bay Area, it is difficult to find Cod, Scrod, and shrimp that do not come from the coast of China. The seafood has no taste except for whatever flavor sauces add to it. Even then, it is mushy and has the consistency of a wet rag.

Why would anyone think it preferable to transport fish—everyday fish, at that—around the world for consumption by people who have lakes and/or oceans within 500-1000 miles of them?

Do they not take into consideration the polluted waters from which these fish are harvested and the amount of time it takes to get them from the source to the table of the consumer?

Eighteen months ago, I could buy fresh frozen Atlantic Cod Loins and Alaskan Salmon at my local Sam’s Club. It was expensive but it came from native waters and always tasted fresh and flavorful when I baked it with only lemon juice and balsamic vinegar.

No sauces or other seasonings were necessary. The tender fish flaked easily and almost melted in my mouth.

Most everything they sell now is fried, processed, sauced up, and greasy. Supposedly, that’s what the public wants these days. Cheeses are added to the already high fat content, and at least half the shoppers I see on any given trip are fifty to one-hundred pounds overweight.

Salmon is farm-raised, Cod is breaded, Cod loins are not available anymore, and frozen Mahi-Mahi has developed an unpleasant back taste.

Even Grouper, our “state fish” rarely has any flavor without breading and sauces. We haven’t had Halibut steak in this area for fifteen years or more. It is becoming a chore to find a nice place to eat out, and I rarely order fish anymore.

It is frightening to think that we could one day become the society depicted in Wall-E, one of the most telling movies I have ever seen.

But we had better wake up soon or that may become the fate of half the people in our beloved United States.

Not everyone is a food addict or an emotional eater but the stress is mounting and the ranks of the morbidly obese are swelling in a way that we can no longer ignore.

It’s time to wake up and do what you can. Plant some herbs or a small garden, a tomato plant, some parsley–something.

Refuse to put that garbage in your bloating stomach. Chicken, hamburgers, potatoes–those aren’t junk foods. It’s what is done to it before you buy it, and sometimes after you get it home, that makes it junk food.

You’re in control of this one, so make your demands.

Enough of this junk. GIMME SOME REAL FOOD!!!!!

Back on Track

Nov15

Sometimes life just throws you a curve and you don’t get out of the way in time. It’s tough standing in the middle of a field not going left or right. Sometimes you just need to stand there until you figure it out.

It’s true that when you are still and in the moment, the right place and time seem to find you. Timing isn’t about being “there”. It’s about being “here”. After all, when you arrive, you are always “here”.

I observe the way things are changing in the food arena, and I don’t like what I see. Tonight, I drove to Sam’s Club to buy a Honeysuckle White boneless turkey breast . Until recently, Sam’s Club was the only place I could find this boneless turkey “roast”.

After a long and challenging few months where stress reigned and food seemed to take the pain away, I am able to make the commitment to get back on track. I didn’t find what I was looking for at Sam’s. No clean meat there anymore. Everything is fried, processed, and highly salted.

I used to be able to get Atlantic cod loins and salmon that didn’t taste like you were chewing on a wet rag. Now, it’s only pizza, greasy rolls stuffed with oily cheese, high fat dairy items, and of course plenty of chips and candy. Who the heck can live like that?

I’ve watched the quality of foods decline as they are shipped half way around the world. I see people who are huge, without energy, and relegated to motorized scooters just to get around their homes. I wonder what will happen when an extra fifty or a hundred pounds  renders  them completely isolated from the rest of the world.

What  will happen to our society when the garbage that  passes as nutrition with a big FDA stamp of approval has redesigned our bodies and stolen our ability to be productive human beings?

Will only the rich be able to dance, play tennis, go walking or hiking, take a swim on a hot day, fly to an exotic destination in a regular aircraft for a week of total relaxation? Will we live to see a time when a movie like Surrogates is a documentary?

He who controls the food supply rules the world. I hope it’s true that food brings us together, because we’re going to have to fight for this one.

Addicted to Processed Foods?

Apr6

Many of the foods we reach for when we get stressed out are packed with sugars, fats, preservatives,  salt, and myriad other substances, some of which we cannot even pronounce.

Food addicts rarely crave celery, carrots, or broccoli when the triggers click. We are more likely to go for chips, candy, cookies, ice cream, or other snacks that are high in sugar,  fats, and sodium.

Unfortunately, these foods are highly processed and full of additives that may cause a food addict to crave them even after the emotional stress has eased.

Processed foods are readily available. You can grab a package of lunchables, a bag of chips, a package of wings and a soft drink,  a slice of pizza, or a pint of Ben & Jerry’s at a drugstore, gas station, or supermarket at any time of the day or night.

This presents a few problems. For one, you don’t have a lot of time to consider your decision. Fast food, a fast decision. Then there are the aftereffects like gas, bloating, upset stomach, lack of energy.

Food is supposed to give you energy, not take it away, something to consider when making a food choice. All those additives may contribute to your food addiction by affecting hormones in the body.

Overeating prepared foods with lots of fillers, salt, corn syrup, dyes, and MSG (which has many names and can be found in numerous processed food items) can cause bloating and weight gains of as much as 10 pounds overnight.

The best way to avoid overeating junk foods is to prepare your own food, but since many people have gotten spoiled by convenience foods that you just pop in the microwave for a few minutes, another suggestion might be to just cut back.

If you eat packaged foods every day, cut back to twice a week. Cook a meal three times a week and use the leftovers in creative ways for lunches and healthy snacks.

When you buy chips, buy a small package instead of the economy size so when you eat the whole bag, it will be only one or two servings.

Wean yourself off sodas which are usually very in sodium that can cause you to retain fluid and try flavored water or iced tea, or watered down juice.

If you’ve been eating deli foods and other prepared foods for any length of time, it may be hard to go back to regular foods.

Carrots and broccoli don’t have to be smothered in a fatty ranch dressing to give them flavor. They already taste good–well, the jury’s still out on broccoli.

If you think you’re addicted to processed foods, you may be right. Make a pot roast and take a roast beef sandwich to work for lunch. Add a few strawberries or an apple with some cheese.

Treat yourself to a nutrient rich meal that tastes good. You could get used to it. After all, everyone deserves a healthy body.