PERSONAL STORIES
You Are What You Eat
By Brian Cunningham
During my first two years at Boston College, I was the typical college-aged male when it came to eating.
“Yes, I’d like a cheeseburger,” and “sure, I’ll have onion rings with that” were common phrases you might hear me say.
I made three or four trips per day to the dining hall, with my selection ranging from cheese steaks and mozzarella sticks to fried chicken and burritos. And to wash it down I’d often grab a bottle of juice– just to make sure I got my daily recommended fruit servings.
It didn’t matter to me that the cookies contained margarine. Of course, I had no idea that “margarine” is a simple way of saying “hydrogenated vegetable oil,” and that “hydrogenated oil” is a fancy way of saying “poison.”
If given the opportunity, it would be pretty humorous to travel back in time to my freshman year and sit down at the dinner table with my younger self. I’d let that younger man finish his pint of Ben & Jerry’s before showing him a picture. After staring at the image, my younger counterpart might say, “Who is that guy – he looks a lot like me.” Imagine the look on his face when I told him, “That’s you on your twenty-first birthday – and you’re a raw vegan.”
Raw vegan? What does that even mean?
Of course “I” wouldn’t believe it, but the same person who slowly but surely added 20 pounds of excess weight over those two years in college would one day try a diet consisting exclusively of nuts, fruits and uncooked vegetables – and stick with it for a week. The younger me would doubtlessly be skeptical, and would wonder how someone of such sound mind could ever commit to such a senseless and radical lifestyle.
You can credit/blame my roommate Jonathan for my current passion/obsession with health.
I can recall a time during freshman year when I purchased a box of donuts from a dorm-to-dorm salesman raising money for a charity. I kindly offered Jon a donut, and much to my surprise, he turned it down. Even more surprising was his justification – “Why would I ever put all that garbage in my body?” he asked, pointing to the ingredients label. I was shocked, and finished my donut – and his – alone.
Throughout my sophomore year in college I watched with derision as Jonathan would make weekly trips to Whole Foods Market – the mecca of health nuts, as I then saw it. I had nothing against eating healthy, but it seemed like such a waste to rack up credit card debt buying food outside of the prepaid meal plan. (Especially if that “food” was Bio-something organic probiotic yogurt. At the time, if you wanted me to spend thirty dollars on a container filled with billions of tiny creatures, you would have to be a slick salesman or a coercive goon.)
Now I do it willingly. I no longer eat exclusively fruits and vegetables, but I do keep a balanced diet of whole, fresh, and pure foods, to the best of my ability.
At this point, it still isn’t clear what cataclysmic event lead to my drastic reversal of philosophy. In fact, it was less of an upheaval and more of an epiphany.
While reading one of my roommate’s health books, it occurred to me – you really are what you eat. At that moment I swore off preservatives, pesticides, artificial flavorings and colorings, hydrogenated anything, and just about every synthetic chemical that is put into food and drink.
As my personal library of health knowledge and literature grew, I also tossed the antibiotic- and hormone-laden meat and even the body washes and shaving creams.
Many people are shocked with the way I changed my entire lifestyle because of “something I read in some book.”
I’ve heard that what I am doing is “radical,” “dangerous,” “too much,” “a waste of money,” and “just a fad.” Yet I have embraced this new outlook because I value my health and all that comes with it.
With the help of nothing other than diet modification, I have lost twenty pounds of excess weight and have ended my dependency on the allergy shots I received twice a month for half of my life. That alone offset the extra cost of organic produce that I am constantly questioned about.
Because many people don’t have the money to spend on their own personal health library and instead trust the system to take care of their health, I feel it has now become my own responsibility to share what I have learned.Â
People are seriously concerned about their health, as evidenced by the health buzzword of the week (“trans-fat free!” “antioxidant!”).
People want to eat well, and they are motivated to “fight cancer” or “battle heart disease,” using the food that they eat. If only that concern and desire to make the right choices could be directed to the proper channels, we’d have hardly any need to fight anything.
I’ve been told that life is too short to bother. I believe that is precisely why we must.
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Source:Â http://www.sustainabletable.org/features/stories/youarewhatyoueat.html
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