Integrative Nutrition

1. Integrative Nutrition Physical activity, food, water, healthy relationships, fulfilling activities and spiritual practice feeds our bodies and satisfies our hunger for living.

2. Healthcare vs. Self-Care • America spends over $2 Trillion a year on healthcare! • That is a lot of money. We spend far more on healthcare than any other country in the world. • The pillar of our healthcare system is operations and medications. Prescription drug costs continue to skyrocket. • With an aging baby boomer generation, medical costs will continue to soar. • About 80% of healthcare spending happen during the final years of life. • Almost no money is spent on education and prevention.

3. As we look to develop a national healthcare policy, what if we were to spend 2% of our national budget teaching people how to adopt healthier habits? • More than a healthcare system we need a self-care system where people understand how to make the choices that best support their lives. • We need people educated on whole foods, exercise and stress prevention.

4. “Just as food is neededfor the body,love is neededfor the soul”Osho “Change your diet and dramatically reduce the risk of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and obesity” T. Colin Campbell PhD Author, The China Study

5. What is Primary Food? • The foods you eat are secondary to all the other things that feed you—your relationships, career, spirituality, and exercise routine. Those are the things we call primary foods. • All that we consider today as nutrition is really just a secondary source of energy. • Think back to a time when you were truly happy. Everything was exciting. Colors were vibrant. Everything was magical and effortless, and feelings of exhilaration sustained you. You were floating on air. You forgot about food and were high on life. • Remember when, as a child, you were playing outside, having fun? Suddenly, your mother announced dinner was ready, but you were not hungry at all. The passion of play took all of your attention. • Sometimes we are fed not by food but by the energy in our lives. • These moments and feelings demonstrate that everything is food. We take in thousands of experiences in life that can fulfill us physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. • We hunger for play, touch, romance, intimacy, love, achievement, success, art, music, self-expression, leadership, excitement, adventure and spirituality. • All of these elements are essential forms of nourishment. The extent to which we are able to incorporate them determines how enjoyable and worthwhile our lives feel.

6. “Wellness and prevention, to me, is one of the true keys to changing the health paradigm in this country.” First Lady, Michelle Obama “Pay attention to your body. The point is…everybody is different. You have to figure out what works for you.” Andrew Weil, MD “No particular food or way of eating is the answer. Good food is that which nourishes without causing stress, allowing our immune system to spend its energy in healing. Many different diets will have healing effects. Often it’s not what we eat but what we don’t eat that helps us become healthy again.” Annemarie Colbin, PhD

7. Modern Food Movements Local vs Organic • The traditional definition of organic food is pure, pesticide-free, locally produced ingredients grown on a small family farm. • Since the 1990s the major food industry retailers picked up on the organic food trend. Now organic food is the fastest growing segment of the food industry. • As a result, corporations like General Mills, Wal-Mart and many other major distributors buy organic food from across the globe and ship it thousands of miles to a store near you.

8. A counter movement focused on local food is picking up momentum. Local food cuts down on food miles – the distance food travels from the field to your plate – and decreases the amount of fossil fuel burned. • Local food is available at health food stores, farmers’ markets and CSAs (community supported agriculture). Buying from these sources gives us an opportunity to build relationships with local farmers. • For information on organic foods, visit www. organicconsumers.org. To learn more about eating locally, visit www.localfoodcompanies.com.

9. Bio-Individuality • EVERY BODY IS DIFFERENT! We are too individualistic to eat the same exact food. Ever notice that men eat differently than women? Children, teens and adults all have very different preferences. People who work in an office eat differently than those who do physical labor. • Our personal tastes and preferences, blood types, metabolic rates and genetic backgrounds influence what foods will and won’t nourish us. • So, when the experts say, “dairy is good for you” or “fat is unhealthy,” it’s too much of a generalization. That’s why fad diets don’t work in the long run. They are not based on the reality that we all have different dietary needs. One person’s food is another person’s poison.

10. The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it. ~Michelangelo