Wednesday 11 February 2015

Food, it's no guarantee



With no offence meant to anyone posting stuff like this on Facebook or elsewhere; pictures like this bother me 




I don't know this guy, or what he does but one thing is sure: There is absolutely no guarantee that eating healthy will avoid all forms of disease, or that you will "never need a doctor". Believing in such things can set you up for great disappointment and feelings of guilt which I think is really unfair. "I didn't feed my daughter/son well enough", "I'm too poor to buy organic food", "I wasn't educated enough to know", "I could have prevented this". 

The truth is that most disease like the dreaded cancer is really a case of bad luck. I know of many people who lived healthy lives free from drink, smoke and recreational drugs and still got very sick. Yes it's a good idea to eat healthy and avoid over indulging in toxic substances but the truth could look more like this:



Now of course each and every one of us is going to die eventually, and we do minimise risk of disease by eating well, but we really don't get to choose how we die or if we get sick. 

I'm not professing unhealthy lifestyles, anyone who knows me knows that I like my healthy food. What I'm saying is that eating healthy is no guarantee of an easy exit from this planet and that these memes are misleading.

Judging by the uploads I see on social media we spend too much time worrying, making efforts to avoid disease, detoxifying, doing the right exercise, thinking "the right thoughts" to have a positive outlook, climbing mountains metaphorically or otherwise to get that healing, purifying, enlightening object we believe will make us almost super human. Sadly it's a quest we may fail miserably at.

So it's my humble view that yes, eat healthy, live the lifestyle that makes you happy and hopefully yes, disease will pass you by. But most of all work to be happy, do what you love and love what you do. Because at the end of the day what matters is the depth of your laughter and the days you spend loving your life and those around you.







2 comments:

  1. Food makes a difference for sure but it's also wise to remember that there's no consensus to what constitutes a healthy diet.

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