YOU ARE NOT WHAT YOU EAT.

I would like to share with you a thought thats been building for many years now. Not only is this a thought but it is a rewrite of an age old saying. "You are NOT what you eat". Its even confronting putting this in print as I accept this is a challenging and indeed perhaps confronting notion. I don't dispute for one second that good quality food and variety of food is necessary for good health. A balanced diet is extremely important for health and well being, and yes five serves of veggies and two of fruit will go a long way towards the prevention of all sorts of diseases. We are incredibly fortunate to live in a country that for the most part has an extraordinary variety of foods on offer on a daily basis to make nutritional deficiency much rarer than in so many less privileged and third world countries. I do acknowledge here however that we also have some great inequities in Australia which causes me much shame and distress when I think that there are pockets of Australia where children are going hungry and families are struggling to afford a healthy diet.

So why do I think you are not what you eat? maybe its better said "Who you are, is not what you eat". You see, it worries me how so many people define themselves by their eating style. They are a clean eater, a no sugar eater, a paleo eater etc. In the interest of self disclosure, I get it, I am a vegetarian and have been my whole adult life. But, this is not who I am. It is just a food choice or preference. What I've noticed is that often when people define themselves by their eating preferences, should the situation occur where they eat outside of their assigned said diet they beat themselves up. They feel angry with themselves, they tell me they have so much guilt towards themselves, they feel ashamed, they feel bad and sad. They feel they need to confess, to avoid, to flagellate to make up for their bad behaviour through deprivations and restrictions. Then a new cycle begins. They feel they can't maintain the imposed rigidity, they abandon the new resolve, they often binge and then the self loathing starts all over again.

The reason I'd like to propose the notion that you are not what you eat, is because we are all so much greater than the food that goes in our mouths. We are made up of millions of personality traits, attributes, qualities, values and behaviours.
Our bodies have this extraordinary design and filtration system that includes kidneys and a liver. Provided we don't abuse this amazing inbuilt system it can easily cope with a few dietary digressions, a bit of sugar, the occasional overeat, the occasional under eat, the occasional period of a less than nutritious meal.

So heres to us being who we are, and the food we eat being the fuel to keep the engine burning. But you are neither a better or worse person, not a bad or good person, not a pure or impure person. Yes what you eat plays an important role in your health but you are not what you eat and who you are is not just about what you eat either, just a small part of a myriad of a million other things that make you you.

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