Learning HOW to eat...

Throughout my past 3 years here in England, I have been blessed to be surrounded by some of the most awesome Christian women.  They are women who challenged me to challenge myself about the foods we allow to enter our bodies.  Now, consider this... I am from South Louisiana.  We are known for our food.  Not for its health benefits but for its taste.  We do not use recipes, we use our brains and taste buds and we can produce some of the finest of fare.  However, because we will eat almost ANYTHING in Louisiana, we often times do not even pay attention to the things we put into our bodies.

As Christians, we all know that our bodies are a temple.  We know that we try to abstain from chemicals and drugs and things that may harm our temple.  Then why, do we not put as much thought into the food that put into them??? As Americans we have been lied to for years.  Think about it, the agency that controls the food pyramid is  the same agency that profits off of food sales???

As I have gotten older, and sadly as I have left Louisiana, I have been forced to learn and grow in all areas of my life.  Leaving your small town mentality forces someone to adopt their own thoughts and opinions.  Think about all the areas that we have been mislead as a society and blindly followed...

Example 1, So called health foods.  Dont believe me, then go and watch this video on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nGPlZawoRU

Example 2, Sodas are bad for you but if you drink Diet Soda you wont get all those calories.  No you wont but you are ingesting one of the worst ingredients ever created.. Aspartame.. Don't believe me.  Research it and find out.  Watch this video on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVrTKxTpZWY

I could go on and on.  There are so many examples of things we have been told were good and later found out were bad, that it would be impossible to list them all.  Then we fall into the trap of thinking about cost.  Eating correctly costs more money doesn't it?  Well, I will not mislead you.  It does cost more to adequately feed our bodies BUT doesn't doctor bills and missed workdays cost just as much.

If you go looking for a DIET plan to get you healthy and fit, there are PLENTY to choose from.  I have done many of them myself.  But honestly it is more of the same.  Who's science is accurate and who really does have the best idea of how to get your body to lose excess weight?

As a Christian, there is only one answer to that question. The CREATOR!  God created the perfect plan for how we are to nourish our bodies.  He gave us plants, vegetation and animals.  Why is it we now have this need to have more... We in essence say to God, what he gave us was not enough.  We need to modify its tastes or make it BETTER.  Wow, how like Eve we truly are.  That we think we are somehow able to create something better than what he has already given us.

We do not need modified food to get great taste.  We need to return to the foods that God designed for us to eat.  It is basic and no one wants to admit that we need to return to the basics.  What is so wrong with a plate containing a slab of beef, some broccoli (grown without pesticides), and a lavish salad of mix veg?  Why are we so repulsed by the basic food that God designed our bodies to survive on?

Oh, I could go on and on... About how our greed led us to women HAVING to work which led to the need for convenience driven foods which led to more and more lab created and prepackaged foods which led to more and more sickness and cancer which led to more and more people dying younger and leaving children in the same pattern of bad food choices.

As we have been here for 3 years and I have experienced living in a culture that thrives on eating fresh fruit and veg and grass fed beef and being able to shop at a chain supermarket and know exactly which farm gave you the meat you are purchasing, my eyes have been opened to a REAL FOOD REALITY that does not exist in most of America.

I have been re-establishing our families eating pattern for most of our time here.  We have removed products that we know to be detrimental and we have tried eating a better way.  But today, I am vowing to myself and to my God to begin to treat his temple-my BODY as sacred and as something that was entrusted to me by him.

This will be a long and hard journey as we relearn how to treat our bodies.  But I hope that with the strength of the one who moves mountains that I can and will have a family that will be honoring God in our food choices.   So stay tuned as I learn and grow and I am sure I complain and gripe as I find my way through this desert and into the land of milk and honey.

I have not blogged on here in a year.  But it is my hope to use this blog as a platform to share information I learn and recipes we love and all the ups and downs.

The new road begins tomorrow... Time to throw out the bad and fill in with the good.  Now that I know how bad some of this stuff is, I have a hard time even giving it away.  I dont want anyone else to eat it either.

The journey starts now... I will keep you posted.