With all of the information bombarding us from all sides regarding how to be healthy and how to keep our kids healthy, I often throw up my hands in despair. How could a person ever do all that “they” suggest? I ultimately quell the confusion by returning to my grandmother’s advice…
If you want to be healthy, get plenty of rest, exercise, healthy food and fresh air.
In this complex, fast paced world of constantly changing ideas of healthy living and “what’s good 0r bad for you,” probably makes you wonder if it could possibly be that simple.
Now I must mention that my Grandmother wasn’t a doctor or nutritionist and neither am I. But some things just make sense….
It is my basic concept that the best way to a healthy family is to get close to the source.
Now you probably wonder what I am talking about… close to the source. Well… let’s take healthy food for example. I have in my hand as I write this, a name brand breakfast bar. What is the source of this “food” item? Where did the it come from? What are the ingredients that make up a brand name breakfast bar?
Hmmm…. reading… hmmm …. okay… Originally, the ingredients were something like grains, fruit, milk, salt. The grain grew in the soil, as did the fruit. The milk came from a cow. The salt from the sea. That all sounds okay. But the ingredients in this bar have been so processed that the only thing I can see that is unaltered is some vegetable oil. Strawberry flavored fruit pieces ?? Natural yogurt flavor? Glycerin? Calcium Carbonate? Maltodextrin? BHT?
That ingredient list read more like the label on the back of a shampoo bottle than a food ingredient list!!
My argument is that all this processing and altering of food ingredients and addition of chemicals is VERY unhealthy. One simple way to increase the health of your family is to simplify your diet and stay close to the source.
How do I stay close to the source?
If you eat foods as close to the source as possible, you end up eating butter instead of margarine… cheese and whole grain crackers rather than boxed macaroni and cheese… raw vegetables with a dip made of sour cream and seasonings instead of frozen vegetables with a frozen, fat laden sauce… oatmeal with maple syrup instead of poptarts…homemade english muffin pizzas rather than a frozen boxed pizza. The list could go on all day.
You can take a step further and choose organic produce over the regular stuff at the grocery store. Often the cost is similar. Choose fresh over frozen. Choose frozen over canned. Choose individual foods over premade meals. Read labels. Think about whether you want to be feeing your loved ones (including you) things you can’t even pronounce.
One great way to stay close to the source is to make your own snacks and meals. Click here for an article I wrote about cooking with kids.
Here are some resources that can help to get you eating close to the source.
Another way to stay very close to the source is to grow your own food. Maybe you don’t know how. We’ll get into that next. Maybe you don’t have room. We’ll get into that too. Chances are you can grow a few things. You can’t beat your own gardening for nutrition and the experience lasts for a lifetime. There isn’t much more gratifying than planting, watering and finally picking a tomato or pepper or carrot.
The point is that, in general, the closer to the source the more nutritious and healthy the food tends to be. Now that is simple.
Take my argument further and ask yourself how you can make exercise closer to the source. Shut off that video exercise game and go out for a walk with your family or to the park and get those little feet running around on the mother earth. Play catch or backyard soccer or run a race. Not to be negative about the indoor fitness programs, but there is something very healthy about getting out in the air and playing or walking or biking together.
And as I write about staying close to the source, it bears mentioning that we all need to be close to the Source of Life. Whatever you believe about the energy vibrating in our cells… whatever you believe about who or what set this world into being… whatever you believe about what guides you through your days and your troubles… whatever you believe that to be… It is healthy to take the time to get close to it, to stay close to it. From there we draw our energy and it only makes sense to stay close to the power source. Without attention to the spiritual self, the body and mind are more prone to illness, upset and dis-ease of all sorts.