Healthy Families through Nutrition

by Kara Spencer, LMT, CD, Maia Healing Arts

Hippocrates said "Let food be your medicine and your medicine be your food." Yet, most medical doctors do not have a comprehensive understanding of nutritional requirements for healing. The food you and your family choose to eat profoundly effects the whole being: body, mind, and spirit. Where does your food come from? How is it prepared? Who profits from your food? How did the cultivation and transportation of that food impact the earth? It is up to you to cut through the ignorance and marketing hype to bring healthy foods to your table, for the wellbeing of your health and the earth.

The choices one makes in the home, family, and kitchen impact personal and family health, as well as politics and global health. The simple and mundane tasks of eating and preparing food can become powerful statements and actions. To truly create change in our world and wellness, we must begin with our family and home: the parental is political.  The food that we choose to eat impacts our body, our community, our watershed, our bioregion, our nation, our culture, our continent, our oceans, our air, and our earth.

Eating organic is good for your health and the earth. An organic diet is the cornerstone to good prenatal care, as well as creating vitality throughout the lifecycle. Organic food production is profoundly healthier for the earth and communities, as well as the body. Eating local foods helps your body thrive in the local bioregion, as well as eating foods when they are in season. In addition, local foods require less petroleum wasted in the transportation and refrigeration of the food. Humans traditional ate the food from their local environment. 

Whole foods, such as grains, beans, vegetables, fruits, raw dairy, and organic meats have greater taste and nutritional value than processed foods. Simple kitchen arts, such as fermentation, dehydration, and cooking have been used by humans for thousands of years. However, factory processed food that cannot be created at home, such as hydrogenation of oils or the homogenization of fluids are tools of the commercial food industry and potentially harmful to human health. The less transformation a food has from its original natural state to the finished product, the more health value it retains.

The food we eat is a constant exchange of energy between us and the earth. As our diet changes to whole, organic, and local foods that are free of chemicals and preservatives, we grow closer to the earth, and our connection to life is strengthened. Eating local and whole foods in season can increase vitality, health, and immunity. Share organic foods with your children and family and positively impact their health for the rest of their lives, and the health of their future descendants. Discover how the people who lived in your region nurtured their bodies with whole local foods, and incorporate traditional foods into your diet. Share good food with those you love, and enjoy it together.