My philosophy around food

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• Food should be enjoyable, satisfying and nourishing. Eating should be something we look forward to, and only something positive in life. There are so many foods that tick all these three boxes so it doesn’t need to be either or, it can, and should be most of the time, all three at the same time. 

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• Let’s do the best we can. There are so many things we can’t control in our bodies and in the environment, like our genes and different toxins and pollutions that we are surrounded by. But the one thing we can control is what we put in our mouth. Thankfully, it is never too late to change our diet. Even just a few weeks of healthy eating will have a tremendous positive impact on our body, and a little change is better than no change. 

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• We should look at nutrition from a holistic perspective. Not from a reductionist perspective. We don’t eat a plate of protein, iron, vitamin-D, or fiber; we eat whole FOODS, which contain many different nutrients and compounds which all interact with each other in a complex way. It is important to look at the big picture, and not steer blind on certain micronutrients, antioxidants or probiotics. Don’t get me wrong, all those things are good for us, but it is easy to “not see the forest for all trees” if we focus too much on certain compounds in food rather than the whole food it self.

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• I don’t believe counting calories or spending heaps of money on certain “superfoods” or detoxes will make us much healthier, or happier. It is the total sum of what, and how much, we eat over a long time that is important. Much more important than what you ate on Saturday night, or how much money you have spent on the latest “superfood”, juice cleanse or detox. If you add a “superfood” to an otherwise not very healthy diet, it is not going to do much. And if you have a generally healthy diet, it is not going to kill you to sometimes eat things that are not considered that healthy. And remember, all vegetables are pretty much “superfoods”!

 

• We should respect the power of food. With the rising epidemics of obesity and chronic diseases, which are largely caused by poor diet, it is time we understand and respect that what we eat is even more important than our genes. We have a huge amount of evidence about which foods are disease promoting verses health promoting, and we should use that knowledge wisely. There is a lot of truth in “you are what you eat”.

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• “Let food be our medicine, and medicine our food”. I believe in preventing before treating, food before drugs. Many common chronic diseases and health conditions are preventable, treatable and even reversible, with a healthy diet. So when possible let us use the incredible power of food before drugs.

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• We should try our best to eat and live with compassion. Compassion for our planet and for all people whom we share it with. Compassion for all the animals, wild as well as farmed. We know that eating a plant-based diet leads to much less carbon emissions, less deforestation, less water consumption, less exploitation of natural resources, less water pollution and of course NO suffering among farmed animals compared with eating an omnivore diet.

 

• I believe in progression, not perfection. I encourage everyone to eat plant-based for health reasons, environmental reasons, and of course also for the animals. How far anyone takes this advice is of course up to each individual. Most important for me is that people have enough knowledge about nutrition to feel empowered to make the right decisions about what they want to eat, and understand that they have a choice.

 

• We shouldn’t be too quick to judge others or ourselves. When looking at food or talking about food it is important to remember that someone can look very healthy or be skinny, but might have a terrible diet and not be that healthy on the inside. Someone else might eat really well but have a few extra pounds, and that is totally fine! It is even better. It is what’s on the inside that counts, not only in love but also in health.

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• Our bodies and minds are interlinked, and that is important to remember when talking about health and wellness. You can transform your health tremendously by making wise diet choices, but just as diet is important, so are other things such as physical activity, sleep, social relationships, stress management, work environment etc. Diet can’t fix everything, although it’s a good place to start!

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