Everybody's got an opinion on the healthy foods question, I suppose, and since someone just emailed me the question, I'm happy to offer my 2 cents.
Really happy, as it turns out, since contained in the answer is one of my pet peeves!
A number of factors are involved when we talk about healthy food choices. What does the reader mean by "eating naturally"? Since no one food plan seems to work for everyone, let's agree on basics like these:
- Eating fewer processed, prepared, and refined foods vs. more freshly-prepared whole foods
- Shopping more from the perimeter of the grocery store than from the center aisles
- Shifting toward plant-based foods as a greater percentage of one's diet than animal products (though I am explicitly not suggesting that everyone should become a vegetarian)
Certainly those choices constitute a healthier approach than running through the drive-through after work every day. A person who makes healthier choices, presumably, is rewarded with better health than a person who doesn't, all other things being equal.
All other things are rarely equal, and we'll discuss that in a moment. But before we do, let's explore the part of the question about "curing illness." There's a big difference between preventing illness, minimizing the effects of illness, managing illness, curing illness, and creating health.
While I suppose it's possible that a change of diet does in some cases cure illness, I sure wouldn't count on that strategy as the only thing to do in the face of something really serious. I wouldn't ignore it either. But I'd definitely recruit a team of people with medical and health training that I could trust to advise me on developing the rest of the strategy.
This is where I have the pet peeve. Sometimes, people think they've found the ONE THING that's going to fix it all. Just drop out refined sugars and my "xxx" is going to go away. Who are we kidding? Food is an important part of the solution, but it is rarely the entire solution.
Myself, I prefer to think in terms of creating health. About creating myself and my clients and coaching participants as inhospitable hosts for disease. Will a healthy diet create better health than an unhealthy one? Yes. Absolutely. No doubt in my mind, all other things being equal.
So how do you know if all other things are equal? Assume they aren't. I learned a long time ago that no two people walk through the door with exactly the same thing going on. Just doesn't happen.
This means that you could do everything "right" - eat healthy foods, exercise, call Mom on Sundays, get enough rest - and still get sick. It happens. Eating healthy is not a guarantee you won't get sick down the road. You've got a whole passel of unique vulnerabilities that maybe nobody knows about.
Healthy foods will help, however, if you choose them in an empowered way. Yep, there's one more little piece to the puzzle. If you want those healthy foods to create health, you've got to choose them in the right frame of mind. It's, I guess we could say, a second pet peeve.
So many times people attempting to create a healthy lifestyle end up making their choices out of fear, deprivation, or superiority. Sorry, but hanging out in those states just isn't healthy. Oops! It's often unintentional, but that doesn't matter. Fear is fear, and it doesn't create health.
For some tips on choosing healthy foods with ATTITUDE, click on over to the article I just posted on the Word Cures site: Attitude and Your Choice of Food: Holistic Healthy Living
Thanks for the great question! Keep 'em coming!
Elizabeth
