From Heart To Plate
It’s time to address an area of discussion that tends to be forgotten on the subject of food…Connection. We are all so eager to find out the latest research, new data, and the best trend diet for optimal nutrition (okay , maybe that’s just me!). However, our connection to the food we consume, is one of the most impactful reasons why we choose to eat what we eat. It holds the key to what keeps up healthy, and what makes us sick.
Our Past Connection
We are all rooted in a culture that was developed long before America came into existence. Some of us still practice the traditions of those cultures, while some may not even know what culture their ancestors were once part of. Either way, those cultural traditions began the impact of food on our health. All the food that our ancestors ate, was passed down through genetics. But, that is not really what I want to talk about today. While I am obsessed with cultural food traditions and epigenetic’s, there is a deeper connection that we all need to revisit daily (I would even state revisit at every meal).
Many of us Moms can recall moments in our childhood, being in the kitchen with our Mom and (if we were lucky) our Grandmother. I know I have so many memories doing my part for special meals, and even just helping on a regular day when I wasn’t doing school work or playing outside. Those memories can resurface so many emotions. Those memories are a beautiful motivation to create those warm and joyful emotions for our families, or possibly make a change for the better. They bring you back to a time when life was simple. As a child, we witness our elders move throughout their days with purpose, struggle, and commitment. No matter how stressful life was, the elders provided for the children. For us lucky ones, our elders provided home cooked meals. In some cases, the same recipes that our ancestors cooked, and the same recipes we cook today. Every now and then, we can head out to a restaurant, or a friends home, and be taken back in time by a familiar smell, taste, texture, or even feeling. I’m sure we all have a connection we are thinking of right now. (Mine is roasting peppers. I instantly think of my grandfather sitting in front of his little gas grill and a tiny mason jar glass of chianti.) These memories ignite a feeling. It is that feeling that we have the power to continue to experience, or replace them with a different experience all together. The one element that not one of us can deny, is those memories we carry of cooking and food, are all there because we experienced those moments with others. We were not alone. Most of us were blessed to still be part of a generation that new how to slow down a couple of days a week, cook together, talk, relax, and enjoy one another’s company. It didn’t even have to be family. The front door was open, and kids from the neighborhood would stop by, friends from church and work would come by. Barbecues were a massive occasion to invite most of the people we knew. Life was hard, but enjoying time with others seemed to be the priority in our free time. The food was fantastic (well, sometimes it wasn’t haha!), but the people we were surrounded by created an environment that imprinted the food we were sharing as a memory; bringing us back to the trigger of a smell, taste, texture, or feeling when experiencing a memorable meal. Our elders built a foundation for our eating habits. Cooking recipes from scratch, with the help of our families and friends, has always been at the heart of what our ancestors have been teaching us all along.
Our Current Connection
We are all aware that our current connection with food is quite a controversial, and a confusing one. We no longer have the knowledge of our ancestral traditions as a prime example to learn from. We all grew up, moved out, and became part of this fast paced, high stressed world we live in. Leaving little to no time to make “enjoying time with others” our top priority. We are all working more hours than we should, driving kids around to more than one after school activity, making sure our kids have a social life by planning play dates and sleepovers, volunteering at the schools, our churches, and other community affairs, trying to maintain a “healthy” relationship with our spouses by having date nights, attempting to have a social life ourselves, keeping up with daily house maintenance, and then we have to find time to practice our own self care! No wonder we have lost the free time to enjoy life with others. It’s especially not surprising that we have lost our connection with food. Every now and then we catch a wiff of something that brings us back in time, but those are becoming more and more rare for many of us in todays society. The fact that fast food drive thrus see our faces more often than relatives and friends do, is a very depressing fact.
Home cooking seems to be reserved for only Moms that are solely dedicated to being a Stay at Home Mom. But it is a high stress job for Stay at Home Moms as well. Cooking alone, and trying to cram in everything else that has to get done throughout the day before chaos strikes in the afternoon, raises our stress levels even higher than they already are! Cooking food for our families has become a chore; another thing on the “to do list”. Holidays are the rare occasions that we are able to experience that amazing feeling we once had when we were children. A feeling of being included and part of something special. Something we used to experience much more often in generations past. Thinking back, we can remember the pride on our elders faces when they were presenting the nourishing food they had been preparing for hours to their family. Sitting and talking, without technology interfering, for an hour, sometimes two was not a high stress situation. It was fun! The kids would attempt to escape, but every time the older men would scold them and tell them they couldn’t leave until everyones plates were empty…and then they would eat slower! Everyone was together, discussing, planning, and laughing over a delicious meal. We can bring that back! Moms can be so powerful from all arenas of their lives, but especially as the leader in the kitchen!
The Connection
It may be a bit confusing, blaming our lack of connection with others, to how food impacts our health. However, when we are stressed or feeling lonely, we tend to eat foods that are prepared with less care, leaving opportunity for less quality or contamination; we tend to eat larger (or sometimes smaller) portions; we tend to eat in a more hurried manner, which effects our digestive tract in a negative way, leading to gut health complications; it may also cause us to resent our food all together, which leads us to not even care about what we eat. This is so sad to see this connection be damaged over and over again in our society. The statement “Food Is Medicine” is so pure and true. We have forgotten how food can make us feel. Instead we just dump food in our bodies to “feel” full. But “feeling” full, is the last feeling we should experience while we are eating. We need to feel joy and connected before we can even come close to being truly “full”. You see, when we take the time to cook food from home with our family and friends, we are naturally eating healthier because everything is made from scratch…at least that is the true definition of making homemade meals. We have to know about ingredients, read labels, and prepare the best quality meal we are able to. No one wants to purposely feed their family and friends food that can make them sick. What most of us don’t realize when we are eating that fast food meal, in our car on the go, is that the owner of that restaurant, and even the employees, don’t really care about how healthy (or not healthy) you are. They aren’t mean or evil people. They are there to make money, not to make you feel joy or connected.
This isn’t to make it seem as though we have all messed up our eating habits. We have all been enticed and drawn in to a highly stressed and extremely sick society. Stress and loneliness are the leading causes of disease and death in our society. To be lonely, means to have no connection. To be stressed, means to have no enjoyment over the simplicity of time together. Is food a reason for both of these sicknesses to sway one way or the other? To cause joy or stress? To cause connection or loneliness? I feel as though they are a massive reason. Our emotions are extremely impactful on our choices that we make every day about what we put into our bodies. We just need to carve out a few minutes every day to ask ourselves some deep rooted questions. These may help us discover what our true connection is to our relationship with the food we eat:
Did I ever cook with my Mom or Grandma? (Or Other Impactful People In Your Life)
What are my memories of cooking and spending time in the kitchen when I was younger? (In Your Home Or Other Relatives Or Friends)
What smells, flavors, textures, and feelings take me back to a time that made me feel like I was part of something? (You Were Doing Your Part)
What smell, flavors, textures, and feelings take me back to a time that made me feel joyful and happy? (Someone Truly Cared For You)
Am I making those connected and joyful moments that I once felt, for my own family and friends? (Dinner Parties, Family Dinner Nights, etc.)
How can I make my food connect me to the emotions I want to feel? (Happy, Energized, Joyful, Connected, Rooted, etc.)
My Ask
In writing this Blog, I was discussing it with Rick, and we came up with a really fun idea that we are going to implement in our home. I want to include you all in it. So give it a try!
Choose one day of the week that everyone will be home, or one day that a group of family or friends can come over. Carve out a few hours to be together. Have ingredients all purchased and stocked in your kitchen! Gather everyone around. Delegate jobs to EVERYONE (even the little ones can tear lettuce, pull ends off of beans, etc.). Then, let the magic happen. Sit down and enjoy your feast together. Pour some wine, and enjoy one another. Slow down time that day, don’t allow the societal rush to take over. Try doing this two times a month, and maybe add more as you get into a groove.
Feel free to share with me any improvements you see along the way. I am excited to try this one out myself!
