On Life As A Picky Foodie

This past weekend was pure bliss.  Vida and I had DW back after a looming deadline, and we took full advantage of family time including a wonderful, long walk on Hampstead Heath. 

Hampstead Heath is, without a doubt, my favourite part of London.  DW and I were commenting this weekend that over the past few years, we have walked there season after season celebrating, arguing, commemorating, taking moments to breath.  If the Heath could talk, it would know our most intimate secrets.

Our little girl loves it too now.  She points at the dogs, has long naps while we wander, watches the ducks in the ponds.  It has gorgeous wilder bits and beautiful manicured gardens.  Even a farmer’s market on Saturdays. 

This weekend, the Heath was filled with thousands of people, mostly women, in pink, Walking for a Cure to Cancer.  There were older women, younger women, women with bunny ears on, women who had tied themselves together to bring home the message that Cancer affects us all, mothers walking with their daughters, sisters, friends, co-workers.  It was quite a sight.

In the past few weeks, I have been excited about the WISH Summit.  WISH stands for Women’s International Summit for Health and it was set up by a beautiful vegan, raw foodist Warrior Woman named Tera Warner.  She seems to be on a fabulous mission to get us all thinking about ways in which we can improve our health. 

While I was really enjoying the interviews she conducted with forty experts in every field of health – spiritual, physical, emotional, social, financial, etc – one thing that really got me thinking was her crusade against the pink ribbon. 

As we all know, pink ribbons are the symbol of our fight against breast cancer.  How could someone who is so interested in promoting women’s health be so vocal against the research for a cure?

Tera, however, made, and kept making a really great point: it’s all fine and good for science to come up with pills and other technology to help us, but what about helping ourselves?  People want some kind of magic pill that will take away the cancer, without taking responsibility and making changes to their diet, lifestyle and state of mind. 

At first, I felt her powerful words were quite jarring.  Why bash the amazing work of researchers trying to eradicate such a devastating illness?  Surely people couldn’t be that callous?  Surely they would attack the problem from all angles?

But last weekend, on Hampstead Heath, watching these women who had raised money, who were walking to increase awareness trudge by, I got a clear answer:

The young woman couldn’t have been older than twenty-two or three.  She was clearly obese and sweating profusely.   Her skin was grey and sallow and she had deep dark circles under her eyes.  The pink outfit she was wearing was tight, as if it understood the irony of the situation and didn’t want to give any more than necessary.  And, as she puffed up a very small hill, our friend took a nice, long, delicious drag of a cigarette! 

Now I realize that breast cancer – the most prevalent form of the illness in women – isn’t lung cancer – the second most common cancer among women.  But seriously, who are we kidding here?

Please, people, let’s take responsibility for our bodies, our health, our lives!  I’m not saying that science doesn’t occupy a vitally important place within the realm of health and illness, but there are so many things we can do to help ourselves first and foremost.

According to Dr. Dean Ornish (and others), illnesses like diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease are 100% preventable and even reversible through diet and lifestyle.  Other studies have found a 70% inhibition of tumour growth in prostate cancer when subjects made dietary and lifestyle changes alone. 

That’s telling us something – and I don’t think magic pills were mentioned.

What's In A Word?

di·et n

Pronunciation: \ˈdī-ət\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English diete, from Anglo-French, from Latin diaeta, from Greek diaita, literally, manner of living, from diaitasthai to lead one's life

Date: 13th century

1 a : food and drink regularly provided or consumed b : habitual nourishment c : the kind and amount of food prescribed for a person or animal for a special reason d : a regimen of eating and drinking sparingly so as to reduce one's weight <going on a diet>
2 : something provided or experienced repeatedly <a diet of Broadway shows and nightclubs — Frederick Wyatt>

(source: Merriam-Webster English dictionary)

The word diet engenders all kinds of reactions. For many, diet has become synonymous with a restrictive way of eating designed either to bring about weight loss or better health. 

In fact a person’s diet is nothing more than another way of describing eating habits – no calorie counting, carb. restriction or protein gorging necessary. 

Years ago, as a university student in Jerusalem, I became involved in human rights and political activism.  Working with students from all backgrounds, religions and political views, the goal was to find a common ground on which to build a future based on peace.  One of the most frustrating disputes that I encountered at the time was the fact that the word peace meant very different things to each person – a first roadblock that we were constantly dealing with.

The word diet poses many of the same challenges: Atkins is a diet, so too is the Low GI as well as the Pritikin, South Beach and Zone diets – and many people in the Western World have spent at least a portion of their lives following someone else’s prescription for health and weight loss – someone else’s diet. 

Then again every single thing that you choose to put into your mouth is part of the YOU diet. 

So why not stop letting others dictate your diet?  It’s time to accept that Atkins worked for Dr. Atkins (or so his legacy still claims) and Montignac worked for Mr. Montignac, but what is appropriate for each one of us is our own version of diet.

I’m not saying that there aren’t things we can learn from each one of these visionaries, but in order to figure out what works for each one of us, what we need to do is combine all we know, all we’ve learned, all that has helped us and hindered us and create our own. 

You might not go and write a book about it, but that doesn’t make the You diet any less effective – after all, it works for you!

And that, dear friends, is the cornerstone of my work as a Holistic Health Consultant. Together with my clients we figure out what their diet story is.  This is and should be valid for one person and one person alone; because each one of us functions differently and every body is unique and wonderful and fed and nourished in so many different ways.  

I am currently offering various discount packages for readers of my newsletter.  If you’ve tried everyone else’s, why not give the YOU diet a shot?  Email me at Gabriela@thepickyfoodie.com for more information (be sure to mention On Life As A Picky Foodie).

Be well and enjoy,

Gabriela

P.S.  Friday Night Dinner in Paris is always special. In fact, every night in Paris is special.  But this week’s Friday Night Dinner was one for the record books: DW and I went out for an incredible meal to celebrate present number 22 out of the 40 he is receiving to mark this joyous year.  Check out the most expensive salad ever in this week’s Friday Night Dinner Blog!

P.P.S.  Ladies of London -- here's your last chance to sign up for the workshop that can change your life!