Addicted to Convenience

My wife’s sister made a comment yesterday: “What you eat has nothing to do with whether you ever have Cancer.” Her sister is very overweight, unhealthy, and unhappy. Yet, according to her, dis-ease is just a random manifestation in the body, totally unaffected by what she does or does not eat. I haven’t felt “wowed” by a comment, good or bad, in a long time. This was one of those comments that really inspires me to question exactly how someone who is well educated, reads books like “In Defense of Food” by Michael Pollen, and intellectually understands the basic fundamentals of nutrition could make such an incorrect statement.

I mean, with the logic of believing that what you eat doesn’t have any influence on any future physical and/or emotional conditions, I guess drinking excessive alcohol is harmless too? Heck, why not follow Andre Agassi’s formula and recreationally do Meth? I suppose that food doesn’t affect your weight, right? After all, weight, cholesterol, body mass, and body fat percentage couldn’t possibly have anything to do with your health if the foods that cause imbalance in those readouts have nothing to do your well being. Let’s take that a step further and assume if nothing that you eat or ingest has anything to do with your weight, how about acting like a glutton and eating Happy Meals every couple hours?

Okay, sorry for being sarcastic. Obviously food has a great deal to do with your health and well being; now and in the future. I find it absolutely fascinating what someone who knows better will say in order to protect his or her addiction to toxic substances. I only bring this up because I see it almost every day in some small way with the people I work with on the massage table. Indeed, healing and rebalancing could be so much more speedy if people didn’t glom onto toxic addictions. Really, what would your body look and feel like if you had zero attachment to anything or anyone that didn’t help you experience a constant stream of bliss?

I acknowledged a few interesting things though after assimilating the comment.

• A lot of people pay no attention to how they feel after eating to objectively observe how they are affected and adjust their habits accordingly.
• If you are insecure about yourself, you have the potential to feel very protective about the things that give you emotional comfort, even if you intellectually know that what you’re saying is completely false.

Neurologically speaking, pretty much everything we feel and label emotionally is a kind of addiction. After all, the ingredients of emotion are chemicals created and released by the brain and endocrine system. Sometimes it’s the pleasure of recreating exhilaration that floats your boat. Other people might enjoy the emotional addiction of infatuation and seek out new people to project that newness on. There are also those who use food as a tool to feel better about themselves, even if at the end of the day, feeling better is the last thing they experience after stuffing themselves silly.

If the sensations you experience when you eat dead, processed foods conceal your real feelings from coming up for healing, you may very likely find yourself making similar comments as my wife’s sister. The defense mechanism of protecting your experiences, whether they are right or wrong, is not a rational process. Seriously, how many addicts do you know that are casual and as-a-matter-of-fact about their substance of choice? When you acknowledge that everything we repetitively experience is a kind of addiction to the chemical reaction happening inside of our bodies, the verbal act of protecting the need to eat without consequences makes sense, doesn’t it?

I had to ask myself though, where/when in society did it become okay to adopt the eating habits that have overtaken America? The more I observe what’s on the shelves at my local grocery store, the easier it is for me to realize how deliberate food makers are about getting us addicted.

Firstly, did you know that M.S.G. is in almost every processed package of food you can buy, including the meals you order at McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s, Jack in the Box, Chili’s, Applebee’s, Denny’s, etc.? Why would any company deliberately choose to put an enormously addictive substance into your food? M.S.G. is known to manipulate your taste buds and make your brain think that you’re eating something delicious. You aren’t eating anything remotely delicious. That’s an amazing trick, huh? Don’t believe me?

Check this out: www.msgfacts.com/facts/msgfact12.html

Also, when you calculate into the equation that m.s.g. makes you want to eat more and is just as addictive as nicotine, is it any wonder how people like my wife’s sister are clouded by the poison of their chemical dependence?

When consider that m.s.g. is in almost all of the processed foods you eat; combined with the fast-paced lifestyle dominating the American way of life; is it really all that surprising that more and more people are addicted to foods of convenience?

We are a fast food nation. The faster, the better. Immediate gratification is the name of the game. Sure, that’s not true for everyone. In fact, a lot of people who might be drawn to read this article on my website may very well be extremely conscious about what they say, do… eat. Let’s get real though; we wouldn’t be in the G.M.O., processed food, m.s.g. inundated, fast food epidemic we’ve found ourselves dealing with if the majority of Americans weren’t addicted to convenience.

In a perfect world, having readily available access to a vast array of nutrient dense food would exist for anyone who reaches out to grab the fruits of the planet. You know what’s ironic? For most Americans, that’s exactly the case. Whole, organic foods are at your beck and call. That’s an amazing realization, isn’t it? You have everything you need to feel vibrant, blissful, and emotionally aware at the whim of your fingertips. Something happened though. Most Americans are being too easily seduced by fancy, colorful labels containing highly processed foods, rather than reaching out for those whole, nutrition-filled gifts from the planet.

Sadly, those whole foods are often ready to eat right off the shelf; just as accessible as the processed junk that American’s have become addicted to.

People give all kinds of reasons why they don’t eat more whole foods:

• It’s too expensive.
• It’s not filling enough and I have to buy more and spend more.
• “This whole health food thing is just another hippie trend.”

As for bullet #2: The reason why you aren’t feeling full from eating whole foods is simple, and it’s also important to point out that it’s totally normal. When your body is addicted to processed foods, you are not receiving the nutrition you need to feel satiated. In fact, the amount of m.s.g. alone that most people consume can easily confuse your brain from receiving the signal that your body is nurtured and full. That’s why you eat more food than your body actually needs to sustain itself at the most fundamental level. When you try to supplement your diet with raw fruits and vegetables, it won’t necessary fill you up in the way you are accustomed to believing “full” feels like. Why? Because m.s.g. has meticulously taught your body that full means stuffed, not nourished by what you eat.

Three things right off the bat:

• Foods take time to assimilate and create the sensation of satiation. That’s why it’s so common to overeat at one sitting. You stuff your stomach until it’s about to explode. Different foods take different amounts of time to digest. On average though, the “full” signal takes about a half an hour for your brain to receive it.
• If you’re eating mostly processed foods, you’re never actually “full,” because your body isn’t being nourished. Again, you eat more to give you that emotional satisfaction of feeling stuffed.
• When you eat lots of processed foods and stuff yourself silly, you are literally expanding the size of your stomach. So if you try to diet or integrate more whole foods into your predominately additive-based lifestyle, you will usually just end up eating more and spending more.

You also tell yourself that in this fast-paced American way of life, there’s no time to eat healthy, whole foods. That‘s the addiction part of you talking. That’s a major reason why people go for the heavier, processed/refined, m.s.g. tainted foods. Really ask yourself though, do you actually feel energized after eating a heavy meal? Probably not, and yet you keep on doing it because your body is so addicted to the nutrient-absent foods because of the additives. Again though, what’s sick about that last comment is, it’s all done on purpose to keep you spending more money and keeping food corporations profitable.

Keep in mind that addiction requires detoxification before your body is acclimated to feel more normal and optimal. You have to be aware of that. In fact, just acknowledging that one truth can dissipate some of the m.s.g. delusion you might be feeling. When you try to ease yourself off of a nutrition-absent lifestyle, you absolutely have to account for all those days when you have a headache, feel horribly fatigued, and don’t have any emotional fuse to speak of. Just like if you were detoxing off of drugs, your body has to release the pollutants stuck in your tissues back into the blood stream. Once toxicity is back in your blood (and that‘s when you feel like shit), you can cleanse it out of your body forever. In essence, when you wean yourself off of any kind of addictive substance, you have to go through the really bad days in order to reveal the bliss on the other side.

The true test for anyone who wants to improve their relationship with food is getting over the convenience of how readily available their drugs of choice are. So when you go into the grocery or health food store to shop, you’re going to be surrounded by stuff you crave. The more toxic you feel (from your body releasing toxins), the more junk you’ll likely be attracted to eat. Again, it’s no different from a junkie needing to get his or her fix.

An art form that’s been somewhat lost in this age of convenience is food preparation and cooking. By the way, if you are cooking out of a box, it’s not really cooking. Why has cooking become such a hassle? Well, everyone’s gotta make money, right? Cooking a nourishing dinner or preparing a delicious raw meal takes time. When you’re toxic and emotionally overwhelmed by life, you just sometimes don’t have the energy to eat well.

Also, most American’s are so far removed from actually farming the food we prepare and eat. The mere lack of seeing how food is grown makes it much easier to justify eating badly. The less you know about how your food is grown, packaged, and marketed, the larger disconnect between eating consciously and consuming food just to keep getting by in your day. In fact, a little tidbit of information I like to impart is when you farm with pesticides, it’s pretty damn obvious why growing food organically is more healthy. Organic farming is also much more diverse, in comparison to crops of fruits and vegetables grown for mass consumption.

The addiction to convenience has disconnected us from putting our hands in the soil and having a real understanding about how our food is grown and why it’s so important to eat organic. Believe me, when you have to cover up in suits that look like they’re from a radiation plant for fear of getting the chemicals on your skin, eyes, or nose, it’s not hard to fathom why pesticides are deadly toxins. Of course, if you don’t grow the food, you may never have any awareness about what’s on and/or in your food, much like the famous Russet Potato based french fries from McDonalds.

Our addiction to convenience has created a society of the walking-sleep; zombies anxiously waiting for the next m.s.g gorge-fest. That’s how toxicity affects us. Toxins burden our nervous system and fragment our awareness to feel extremely reactive and unstable. That’s not who you really are. I hope you get that. In that toxic, additive instability that is all too normal these days, we will typically reach for all those convenient and processed substances on our shelves (health store or not) because every bite keeps us more and more asleep to what we really feel at our core or true essence. That’s what addiction is: The invisible force field that prevents you from perceiving reality from a harmonious emotional space.

A lot of people who receive bodywork allow themselves the space to really feel the difference between experiencing what I call toxic-rigidity (i.e. toxicity stuck in your tissues impeding optimal range of motion, physical energy, and emotional integrity) and feeling free; unaffected by the bombardment that additive-based foods create. Bodywork can also really expose or reveal how toxic your body really is, because when all that dislodged crap dumps back into your blood, you’ll feel it. It’ll definitely help you become more aware of how much toxicity is wanting to be released and cleansed. That one simple awareness can be pivotal to you making new decisions about what you do or do not put into your body.

You have all the power to change your life. I invite you to take the first step and embrace the tools that I offer to help you become more aware about what feeling good means. The more you feel good, the more you’ll want to feel even better. Trust me, the change you know you desire isn’t hard, it’s just a matter of taking deliberate action. That deliberate action starts inside of your body. Let me help you stimulate the sensations that will catapult you towards the experience you really want, both of yourself and reality.