Stress and the Slow Food Movement


Have you heard of the slow food movement? It was created in 1986 by Italian journalist Carlo Petrini (in disgust of the opening of McDonalds in Rome). His creation was put forth as an option to the fast food mentality that swept the world a few decades ago. The premise of the Slow Food Movement , quite big in the US now, has three tiers: First, the food must be of the highest quality, (e.g., organic, not GMO’d or processed to death and unrecognizable from the natural ingredients of which it came.) Second, the food must be grown sustainably? (i.e., many foods are produced in unsustainable ways including monoculture approaches, food transportation, and the use of petrochemicals as fertilizers.) Third, the food must be harvested in a fair-trade manner (i.e., the people who work the fields must be paid an humane/living wage). The Slow Food Movement is also based on the concept of actually “cooking” the food with love (vs. nuking it in a microwave or eating it out of a cardboard box)… and eating each meal, each bite, fully conscious of the tastes, the smells, the presentation,—everything it took to make one fully appreciate the gift of each meal. Today, most people inhale their food, barely having it touch the tongue’s taste buds, nor conscious of where it came or how it got from the field to the fork.

With the fact that most food travels up to 1,500 miles in the US before being consumed, the Slow Food Movement invites people to shop locally (also known as the 100 mile diet), eat seasonally grown food (i.e., strawberries, available in stores nearly year round, are a summer fruit). The slow food movement began out of a concern that people were not cultivating a healthy relationship with food. Rather, most people have a nutritional relationship with convenience, to the detriment of their health. The Slow Food Movement is an effort to help people return to center with nutrition and eating behaviors. The Slow Food Movement; a relaxed way to eat. Bon Appetito!

Stress Tip for The Day:

What is your relationship with the food you eat? Do you cook your own meals? More specifically, do you cook the majority of your meals or are they prepared/processed elsewhere and heated up in your home, or simply eating out of a cardboard box? (by the way, did you know that the most common utensil in a restaurant kitchen in a pair of sissors to cut plastic bags containing processed food?) When you buy food in the grocery story, is it packaged (then cooked) in plastic? Do you have any idea where the food you buy actually comes from (how far away is it grown and how far does it travel?) The association between stress and disease includes the fact that our food is typically laden with petrochemicals that can and will cause harm to the body. How sustainable are your eating behaviors, from field/farm to fork? The the buyer beware! Please…take time to slow down and enjoy each bit of each meal you consume. You are worth it!

Links/Books/Movies Worth Noting:

For more on this topic please consider viewing this links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Movement


http://kingsriverlife.com/07/16/what-is-the-slow-food-movement/


http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20080319/revenge-of-the-slow


Quote for the Day:

“People in Slow Food understand that food is an environmental issue.“‑ Michael Pollan, author, In Defense of Food


Photo of the Day:

While in Tuscany last week, we ate dinner one night at Roberto’s Bistro, near the town of Pienza. Roberto is a big advocate of the slow food movement (these tomatoes were not picked by slave labor he told us) and the meal he prepared for us was nothing less than excellent. Here is a photo of our first course. Thanks, Roberto! Enjoy!

Brian Luke Seaward, Ph.D. is an internationally renowned expert in the fields of stress management, mind-body-spirit healing and stress and human spirituality. He is the author of over 10 books including the bestsellers, Stand Like Mountain, Flow Like Water, Stressed Is Desserts Spelled Backward, The Art of Calm, Quiet Mind, Fearless Heart, Managing Stress (7E) and his forthcoming book, A Beautiful World; The Earth Songs Journals. He can be reached through his website: www.brianlukeseaward.net

© Brian Luke Seaward, Ph.D.

Brian Luke Seaward

Author Brian Luke Seaward

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