Sexy Broccoli.

One of the first questions I ask my students when we begin the nutrition chapter for the semester is: How can you be 100% sure that any food is good for you? The answers I get generally are:

It's organic!

It has pronounceable words in the ingredient list

It has a short list of ingredients

It's non-GMO

It's natural

It's fresh

This always highlights for me exactly how skewed our society is when it comes to food! The answer I am always looking for is that it DOES NOT HAVE A LABEL. We are so conditioned to "read the label" that it never occurs to us that food really shouldn't have a label. This is an unintended consequence of the industrialization of agriculture. While this was a good thing (don't argue with me here unless you can grow and produce all of your own food. It's MUCH harder than it sounds!!), it changed how we think about and choose food.We now believe that food comes from "somewhere else" and is nicely packaged with a label and nutrition facts, and appetizing slogans and graphics. Just like everything else, there is big money in food. Food companies REALLY want you to buy their products. When was the last time you saw a commercial for sweet potatoes? Or the (gasp....) regular potato?? Or Broccoli?? My guess is never- because there is no money in broccoli. It's not sexy. Guess what else isn't sexy? A muffin top, childhood obesity, type 2 Diabetes, and high blood pressure to name a few. These are the very real consequences of eating poorly. You don't want to hear this, but ultimately you are in control of your body, your life and your health. If you really want to be sexy, then I would put down the food label and find yourself some sexy broccoli.

#Wholefoods #nutrition #fitmom #health