Nutrition is a big buzz word these days. Nearly every week we hear about the newly discovered health benefits of whole foods or the harmful effects of denatured processed foods. From the heart-protective antioxidants in grapes and dark chocolate, to the cancer-causing downside of refined sugar, our national awareness of the role food plays in our health is on the rise. Healthy food has gone mainstream, yet personal health is still a mystery to many people.
It’s no secret that the Standard American Diet, appropriately acronymed SAD, is the worst diet humans can engage in; it has created a health crisis unlike anything seen in human history. Within the last 100 years, we have gone from growing, harvesting, and preparing our own food with our own hands, to mass producing concoctions that are made in laboratories. In the name of progress, we have blindly and tragically denounced many of our traditional real foods as unhealthy, and replaced them with synthetic look-alikes. Out of fear of rising cholesterol levels and heart disease, we swapped real eggs for Egg Beaters, and real butter for margarine.
Artificial sweeteners, artificial colorings, flavor enhancers, stabilizers, hormones, antibiotics, trans-fats, preservatives, and pesticides have infiltrated our pantries and eateries, stripping us of our birthright of good health. Most recently, in the 1990’s, genetically modified foods (GMO’s) were unleashed into our food supply without ever being tested for human safety. Since then, the incidences of food allergies, digestive disorders, and even cancers have risen sharply.
In its simplest definition, nutrition refers to “the care and feeding of an organism.” Understanding how to properly care for and feed ourselves is one of our most important human responsibilities. Holistic nutrition involves much more than healthful food choices.
It encompasses the care and feeding of the whole person: body, mind, and spirit.
”Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”Hippocrates
At its most profound level, health is not just the absence of pain, stress, or disease, but also an abundance of vitality, passion and purpose. It is the daily experience of wholeness and balance—a state of being fully alive. Getting to this state can begin with conscious and mindful food choices.
Holistic nutrition reaches beyond the conventional approaches of dieting and calorie counting, and employs a variety of approaches concerning food and nutrients, blending traditional ancient food wisdom from cultures around the world with modern scientific discoveries, as a way to individualize what works best nutritionally for each person. It takes into account a person's own culture, lifestyle, constitution, and how aggressive they want to be with obtaining the results that they want to achieve. Different illnesses, conditions or diseases have different nutritional requirements and each responds to diet and nutrition uniquely. This holistic approach provides ways for each person to participate in the care of their own health.
The underlying principles of holistic nutrition are nourishment, mindfulness, awareness and nutritional and environmental responsibility. It helps us to better understand food and appreciate it as an instrument of personal healing. Nourishing ourselves according to holistic nutrition principles becomes a wise, mature, and loving act of self-care.
The word diet comes from the Greek word dieta, which means discipline, or way of living. The Latin root of the word means “a day’s journey.” Holistic nutrition emphasizes and encourages us to approach changes in our food choices as a process to be taken one day a time. The key is to make real changes—changes we can live with successfully on a long term basis—in the way we approach food, fitness, and the challenges and opportunities of living. Changes are best achieved gradually, as an understanding of food and our own needs deepens.
The USDA National Organic Program strictly prohibits the use of GMOs in any food carrying the USDA Organic Seal. So if your food carries the organic seal, you know it’s not made with GMOs. Also, pay attention to the little stickers with numbers on them when buying produce. If the item is conventionally grown, the number has four digits (for example, 4060 stands for broccoli). If the item is organically grown, the number has five digits starting with a 9 (so it’s 94060 for organic broccoli). If the number has five-digits beginning with an 8, that means the produce you are holding has been genetically modified.
Maintaining a lifestyle that incorporates holistic nutrition into every day food choices can be extremely beneficial to our overall health and well-being. Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA) offers courses and programs in holistic nutrition, with specific focus on the concept of SOUL foods. For more information about holistic nutrition education, contact the SWIHA admissions department at 480-994-9244 or info@swiha.edu.
Dee McCaffrey is an organic chemist turned nutritionist and weight loss expert. She is an internationally recognized author who lost 100 pounds and has kept the weight off for over two decades. Her passion lies in teaching others how to shop, cook, and eat healthfully, while serving as a role model and inspiration for sustainable weight loss and healthy living. Her book The Science of Skinny has helped thousands change their approach to food, eating and balanced health.
Dee is the lead instructor in Holistic Nutrition at the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA). Nutrition is Dee’s life—she lives it every second of every day. Whether she is coaching a client, writing an article, or creating a new recipe, her passion for healthful eating is the underlying energy that fuels everything she does.