Worklife
Issue No. 1 - July/August 2001
food for thought
Caron Milhan is a professional dietitian and presenter of the All the Profits Run corporate health seminar series.
Optimal health is a balance between physical, emotional, mental, financial and spiritual wellbeing. We can’t look at areas of health in isolation, because all of them affect how we feel and, ultimately, how we perform.
Food is a form of pleasure as well as nourishment. Our taste buds are there for a reason. However, overindulgence in food as a main source of pleasure hurt us. We’re supposed to eat to live, not live to eat, and overeating creates an imbalance.
But if we put standard petrol into a car that needs premium what happens? It doesn’t run as efficiently and doesn’t last as long. The same goes for your body.
Unlike animals, we don’t instinctively eat what’s good for us. We choose our food through mental decision or emotional need. We can poison ourselves with plenty.
It’s hard to resist ‘junk food’. We’re trained to accept food rewards from infancy. It’s promoted to us while we are passively watching TV, only a few steps from the kitchen. Most junk foods are relatively cheap to produce, and cheap to buy.
As we move up the ladder we tend to move behind a desk. Not only do we use less energy, we tend to consume more. We may skip meals during the day, then binge when we get home. We may crave sweets to boost blood sugar that has dropped from lack of regular...
