The Miracle of Nutrition: Introducing and Beginning Whole30
I have spent the last few years being mostly vegan and/or vegetarian. It has been a choice that has come naturally over years of experimenting with various nutrition regimens. My body and mind felt lighter with a more vegetable, legume, and grain based diet. Not to mention the documentaries on the care of animals in the United States and the questionable farming practices that also aided in my desire to eat mostly plant-based. However, I have come to find that over the years, beyond the science, that one’s nutrition is a matter of personal preference. It comes down to one’s belief and intimate experience with food.
Just as one can live to work or work to live, the same goes for food. Do you eat to live or do you live to eat? Or both? What I would like to introduce is the idea of both, loving to eat while also enjoying the benefits of how food can deepen your sense of pleasure and fulfillment, because with the right fuel throughout the day, you just might be able to tackle anything that comes your way with more patience, peace, and vigor. Perhaps you can even tackle certain illnesses and diseases more adeptly, both mentally and physically. Thus, we welcome the idea that nutrition is not a singular compartment in life but rather one that adds to the whole, something that is more integrative and part of our natural being. If we are energy and food is energy, how can we not recognize that it is part of life to abide symbiotically together?
As with anything, from spirituality to science-based academia, the proof is in the pudding, your personal experience. You’ve got to feel it to believe it. But you also have to believe it to feel it. Again, we come back to the idea that living is an aspect of embracing the concept of, “yes and both,” from food choices to life choices. But how do we know what to choose?
Back in the early 2000’s, extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) was all the craze. Then there came a point shortly after when we found out that EVOO is only beneficial in smaller doses and is not recommended to use when cooking at high heat beyond 383 F, which is its smoking point. Side note, the smoking point for an oil is the point in which the oil begins to give off smoke continuously. This is when the fat molecules begin to break down at a faster rate and where the problem begins to occur. As the speed in which the fat molecules breakdown begins to increase, unhealthy by-products begin to form and get released into the food. I mention this as once upon a time EVOO was the “cure-all” for nutrition, until it wasn’t. Then came its successor, coconut oil, which as of recent, is having its own battle as the American Heart Association warns patients that it increases LDL, which leads to cardiovascular disease. This brief history of EVOO and coconut oil simply highlight the fact that science changes every day. One day what we are told is good for us might just be on the “do not eat list” the next. So, where do we turn?
If we pay close enough attention we could truly find that all food is bad and that we might as well not eat anything at all. It’s all poisonous, mass-produced, laced with hormones and chemicals, contributes to the carbon footprint, etc. Yes, it sounds dramatic but I make the point to emphasize the answer to the question, “where do we turn when it comes to food?” We go within. You know your body best. You know how your body responds to the food that is available to you. You know what choices serve you. Just as you know what spiritual text or guidance resonates with you, you will know when it comes to any food research you come across. It is a balance of knowledge and bodily wisdom. The Buddha even said, “believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” Hence, go with your gut (pun intended) when it comes to food. Go with what makes sense to you. The fact that you have paused to listen to your body, taking time to discern the most loving choice for your system, you can’t go wrong. I have heard it said that chocolate eaten with joy and without guilt is far better for your health than to resist eating chocolate with all the emotional baggage and worry that can bring which will also creates added stress to your nervous and digestive system.
Recently, I was prompted to turn within, myself, and inquire more about my eating habits. Why do I eat what I eat? How am I really feeling after eating certain food items, even the healthy ones? What prompted me was meeting a young woman who told me about Whole30. Whole30 is not a way of life or a diet, it is more of a food experiment. For 30 days, Whole30 leaves out all legumes, grains, breads, sugar, and alcohol. Thus, one is left eating fruits, vegetables, and sources of animal protein. I was mostly curious about the animal-based protein as I had kept away from meat, chicken, or seafood because of the following:
- My body felt better doing so.
- The research that resonated with me told me of the harmful way animals were treated and all the chemicals they were injected with. Their often horrid living conditions and what they were fed. More so, I even came across information that really no farm is safe, even the conscious ones, as cows are eating grass that is laced with what falls from the sky which is nothing but toxins from local industries and our carbon footprint.
- I often felt the energy of the animal and felt compassion and sadness for how this animal was treated and how it died, making it tough to stomach even a bite of the food. I felt the sacredness of the animal and felt guilt over how it gave its life so that I could eat it, always leaving me to question, would I do the same?
However, I have come to notice that at times my body is lethargic and tired, I have light mental malaise some days, and that I have been very bloated and gassy over recent years. So, when I started to research this 30 day experiment, I was intrigued. The premise of what food to eat must fall into what the authors, Melissa and Dallas Hartwig, call Good Food Standards:
- Foods that promote a healthy psychological response.
- Foods that promote a healthy hormonal response.
- Foods that support a healthy gut.
- Foods that support immune function and minimize inflammation.
Although I eat healthy and mindfully, I started to look at the flip-side of animal-based proteins and my substitutes, such as tofu, tempeh, and legumes. I started to considered that my body may be calling for a change with all its various bouts of digestive and energetic issues that have arisen recently. After doing my due diligence, I took the Buddha’s advice, I began to even question what I thought had been “right” and what I thought had been working for me in years past, making the decision to partake in the Whole30 and to log my experience here. In its own right, it is a walk in miracles. The miracle of change. The miracle of reflection. And the miracle of reviewing how I have been looking at food, my fellow animal friends, and myself. It is not a nutritional journey but an integrative one. Life changes. The body changes. The mind changes. Therefore, it only makes sense to pause and reflect on what my body may be asking for right now during this period of my life and what else in my life might asking for a bit of deeper questioning.
As I have prepped for Day One, today, I have had to come to terms with how I felt towards animal-based protein sources and my furry friends of land and sea. It is true, I am not a fan of eating another animal and, at times, when I have craved some sort of meat in the past, I have wondered if it is because I would like to exercise some sort of control over another because my life at the time seemed to lack my ability to control it, which I know I have none, making me wonder further if, as a human, eating meat is a means of falsely thinking we have control over another, even the animals we live amongst and sometimes may eat?
Animals are sacred. They are just as knowing as we are, often more so. They are intuitive beings that came to this earth to graze off the land and to live outside in nature. Many think animals were created for us to eat. I do not believe I belong in that camp. I believe we all, even animals, have divine purpose, but to believe they are all here for humans to eat is a bit narcissistic for me. It is like thinking that we are the only “human-type” beings in the universe. As with humans, each animal has his or her life purpose. Perhaps that is to help nourish another or maybe it is alert their human friend that a seizure is about to occur. We all, indeed, have our job to do while we are here.
I also have to take into account the view of other cultures. In Cambodia, for example, they eat things such as crickets and tarantulas. And some Chinese cultures even eat dogs. Who am I to judge? It is what works for them. I recognize that in order to respect others nutritional choices, I need to be more open to respecting what works for me by trying various things. Thus, here I am, embarking on a journey to broaden my horizons by the miracle of food: reflections, aversions, cravings, exciting new recipes and ways of cooking, and, in general, exploring new personal frontiers by the means of nutrition. It is all integrative after all and left to my own personal experience.
In the end, as I begin, I am reminded of something I overheard a friend once say regarding animal-based protein, she told me to never throw away uneaten meat. It was a rule she lived by and, now, I can see her point. If an animal gives her life for you to eat, honor that, don’t waste it. Bless the food and finish the food. Never throw away uneaten meat, it dishonors the life that was given so that you can nourish yours. And as I take the initial steps in Whole30, I bless this food of thought, as it, too, nourishes the journey ahead. Namaste.
For more information on Whole30, please visit: www.Whole30.com