When you dip your toe in the water and consider a healthier lifestyle, any number of changes may take place. Perhaps you decide that all those reports about aspartame may be true and Diet Dr. Pepper, though it makes you look cool, is not your best friend. Or maybe caffeine is your nemesis. Or candy. Or chips.
It isn’t until you fall all the way down the rabbit hole and learn the truth about food and nutrition that things finally, truly make sense. And when they do, a paradigm shift will take place. You can’t go back.
When you fully accept that whole, unadulterated, fresh, organic produce is the basis of a healthy diet and a means to heal the body, you will realize that nearly every food from a can, box, jar, or other package is crap. And after you’ve been eating right for a while, eating wrong will lose its appeal.
But why is it rare and so hard for someone to switch from a conventional diet to a truly healthy one? Why does it so often take a major health crisis before we even entertain the thought of drastically changing what we eat?
To a large extent, we are creatures of habit. We tend to look back on our childhood as the good old days, believing that whatever was good enough for our parents is good enough for us. The foods we were raised with are often the foods we eat today.
Few people realize that the change in America’s eating, the switch to packaged and processed foods, began during WWII. Prior to this time, America’s diet was much more wholesome. The next generation, the baby boomers, were raised on Jello, Kool-Aid, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, and every prepackaged adulterated food conceived by man. And with processed food came disease. Cancer deaths have tripled since 1900.
Habit isn’t the only hurdle. Eating healthy is so contradictory to our society, a radical change will affect leisure time, friendships, and extended family. Most, if not all, of our gatherings and celebrations include food as the focal point. And not just any food; sinful food seems to be the most revered. Once you truly embrace healthy eating, sugary foods and junk foods lose their appeal along with conventional restaurant food and most of the food still eaten by your friends and family. You have three choices:
- Be the host for every party you attend that involves food.
- Take your own food to every party or event.
- Make new friends.
Don’t let the logistics scare you off; you can do it. Your health and the health of your family come first. And if it gives you any comfort, know that the number of people who embrace health and healthy eating is growing.