Yoga Nutrition

Just coming back from Maui where I lived on fresh foods, locally grown, and picked the day I ate them I am compelled to write about food . . . the food we eat plays an important role in our health; most Americans do not know what it feels like to feel good!  Poor food and sedentary lifestyles tend to make one feel lethargic.
And with the government trying to get too involved with our food supply via codex alimentarius and the HB 875 bill looming over us getting more educated about our food supply is important.

SLOW FOOD!  Make your own food, grow your own food! 
Check your cupboards—better yet check your grocery cart before the foods even make it to your cupboard!  How many foods do you buy in a box?  Processed foods are the absolute worst enemy—forget about worrying about fat, white flour, sugar, etc – worry about processed and GMO (genetically modified) foods!  If you eat fresh foods you will not get too much fat, white flour, or sugar!  It is processed foods that get these nutrients (or lack of nutrients) out of balance in our bodies.  It is startling to realize that in face of an obese nation, many of these obese people are sub-clinically mal-nourished!  That is right, they are fat from eating too many calories but mal-nourished from not eating nutrients.  This shows the state of our food supply!

Slow food does not necessarily take long to prepare!  Prepare your meals from fresh foods; primarily vegetables with a little grain, and for you carnivores out there cooking meat is not difficult nor time consuming.  Slow food is just a habit you get into.  If your habit is buying prepared foods realize that you are getting primarily GMO foods that have been stripped of nutrients and instead are laced with chemicals, preservatives, pesticides, sugar, salt or MSG . . . basically your anti-nutrients!

Educate yourself about what foods are in season locally (there is a seasonal list of foods and recipes on my website www.befityoga.com)--make these foods the staples of your kitchen,  supplement with other foods as necessary.  Breakfast should consist mostly of fruit and your main meal should consist mostly of vegetables!  I look at grains as a vehicle to get vegetables into your body.  For example, how many vegetables can you get into a wrap or on rice or over pasta?  How much salsa can you get on a corn chip?  How many vegetables can you put between two slices of bread?

And where to buy these foods?  It is not that difficult to buy from local farmers!  We have several CSAs in the area, and we happen to have a great farmers market right here in our back yard.  My Saturday routine is to teach and then go to the farmers market.  However you do have to know which stands to buy from, as sad as it seems many of the stands at the farmers market have food that were not grown locally by the farmer selling it!  My two favorite stands that I know sells their own food that they grow are Pippin Run Farms and D&S Produce.  And in the off season if they do buy food from other suppliers they are picky who they buy from and the quality of food they are getting.  In addition to a CSA and a Farmers Market ask around and see if you can find a farmer who will sell fresh meat and/or eggs to you (we happen to live in farmland! so this is easier than you think).  We are lucky to have a fresh supply of eggs here at the studio from a little farm where the hens are named and loved, fed a natural diet, and live the good life of running the farm yard!

Just a note on codex alimentarius and the HB875 bill, this bill is being promoted as a food safety bill, but what it is really trying to do is shut down organic and local farms and promote big agribusiness.  It is proposing that by the government regulating our food supply it will ensure us of safe food—however the problems in our food come from these big food companies!  The diseases are caused by large numbers of animals confined to small spaces.  If this  bill gets passed it will allow the government to tell farmers what to grow, how to grow it, what pesticides to use, etc.  It will basically ban organic foods and small farms and even back yard gardens!  Codex Alimentaruis is a committee that was set up by the WTO (world trade organization)—the WTO is a about money, not food safety (as are the FDA and the USDA!).  What codex alimentarius is trying to do is make all farmers register their farm animals so the government can track the animal.  This is fine and inexpensive for big farm businesses and time consuming and costly for small farmers, this is supposed to be done by December 31 of this year!  If this goes through it will put the small farmers out of business.  Monsanto is largely behind the bill and codex alimentarius as they have a lot to profit from.  Monsanto is evil, not only have they patented certain GMO seeds, but when the seeds blow into neighboring farms, they sue the farmer for growing their seed without purchasing it from them—and the farmer (in most cases) does not even want to grow their seed!

Sorry about the political stuff—I care very much about our food supply!  So try to buy foods that are not boxed, bagged, in plastic or styrofoam, etc. and remember SLOW FOOD—grow your own food and even more importantly cook your own food.

Written by Bobbi Misiti founder of BeFit Body & Mind Yoga, 2201 Market Street, Camp Hill, PA 17011  717/443-1119 www.befityoga.com

© 2009 Bobbi Misiti    BeFit Body & Mind YOGA

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