The sensuality of food satisfies our need for nourishment, comfort and pleasure. Most of our collective and individual history is the story of eating: where to gather the food, how to keep it, who is trying to take it, what land is best to cultivate it, how riches relate to it.
For each of us the favorite flavour of a particular food reminds us of the security and love of being with someone who gave us warmth, who cared about us. Food then is also emotional support.
In our times with all the other miracles of our lives: technology, free-time, entertainments, we count also among the most miraculous the food store.

Every now and then, we overeat. As a result we have that bloated, uncomfortable feeling of being too full. What to do?

The most natural way to work with the results of too much food is to walk. Walk for several blocks, or a couple of km if you live in the country. Walk outdoors if at all possible. Walk in your local mall if that is what makes a walk happen. But do walk.

You will find very soon all the symptoms shifting as your body does what it needs to do, digest the large meal, but does so in much more ease. The muscle action and motion of your walk increases the blood flow and oxygen to parts of your body most in need. That blood flow and oxygen mean the whole process of digestion will occur more easily.

Many people believe a vegetarian diet to be the best. When we think about it, it's true that cows and lamb, the most common sources of red meat, take up much needed farm land. It is also true our habits in raising these stock animals, including antibiotics in their daily diet, force feeding them in some cases and in the case of veal leaving new born calves in small confined cages so they are unable to walk or develop muscle, are unhealthy and in some cases cruel to the animal.

These are some of the ideas behind becoming a vegetarian. But what about those people who desire and in fact need red meat in their diet?

We know from strict scientific experiment the hours before sleep are crucial in terms of digestion and of metabolism. Metabolism refers to how quickly your body breaks down elements of food into the energy we require for our daily lives. Some people have a very fast metabolic rate. These people experience quick weight loss, as their bodies very quickly use whatever food is put in for energy in life. Others have a slower metabolic rate. For these people, it may seem as though if they even smell a brownie they gain weight!

Knowing what times of the day or night to eat may help your body break down food more quickly and easily. This in turn helps you to lose weight if this is your goal, or to gain weight, if this is the desired result.

Knowing how to eat is as important as knowing what to eat. Many many people eat when under stress. The first sign of some of the tough waves in life and these people reach for the cookies, the doughnuts, the chips. It is a natural, biological impulse, coming from a time when we needed extra food during stress: stress in those times was very often related to a threat to the food source!

The rest of us do the opposite. We turn off our natural craving or desire to eat whenever stress levels hit a certain point. This too relates to a time when eating was dropped in favor of running away!

Sometimes the unwillingness to eat under stress becomes extreme. As the lack of food begins to take its toll in the body, stress is registered in every more refined amounts. In other words, when we eat properly, our bodies and minds are able to handle a certain level of stress in our lives with some sense of perspective.

We have all grown up with a few dietary notions which may or may not be in our best interest! We all believe for example that lots of dairy is good for us.

Dairy is one of the four food groups identified in Canada's food guides as necessary and important for us.

When I was told dairy may not only be unnecessary, but harmful, I was confused and at first did not believe it.

My naturopaths, a wonderful couple who work together, began to educate me. Many people they reasoned on this earth do not have access to dairy and yet they live extremely well. Their children flourish and their bones and teeth are strong. They have diets rich in vegetables and therefore in vitamins, minerals and proteins. Finally they convinced me to try this novel approach to eating not only for myself but for my son.

One common reason for overeating, for eating the "wrong foods" for craving and indulging in cravings is the need for emotional satisfaction. We all have common needs to feel important, cherished, loved and supported in our lives. However, we may not always take stock of what amount of cherishing or demonstration of loving support has come our way recently.

If during the course of a day you notice a sudden craving for, say, the old favorite, chocolate and the craving is so strong you just can not withstand until later in the day or perhaps even in the evening, you may be reacting emotionally to a food substance. Instead of reaching for that quick fix, try this: close your eyes, breathe deeply two or three times and think back through your day. Was there a moment of interaction with others in which you felt small, unnoticed, or noticed in a derogatory or demeaning way?

Food. We eat everyday, and often take for granted the habits and relationship to food we have accumulated over our lifetimes. We learned these habits originally at the knees of our parents. If their knees never saw the inside of a kitchen, then it’s likely we will be reluctant to cook, slow to understand how food affects us, and more likely to simply replicate the behaviors of these guardians.

Yet more and more information emerges from new studies regarding the necessity of a conscious, clear and pro-active relationship to the food we eat. That makes it sound a bit like a political quest, doesn't it? More complicated than you can take, given at the end of a work day, or work week, those bags of cookies, or packages of chips may be the only reward you can identify in the immediate sense. Even if you only occasionally indulge in Junk food, in fast food, in cheap products with a quick sugar return, the comfort these items can bring resounds clearly in your body, and your mind.

Ever noticed after a slightly heavy meal that dragging feeling at the pit of your stomach? What, you notice a slight "down", a heaviness after every meal you eat?

Sometimes this effect builds up slowly so we forget, meal by meal, snack by snack, what our bodies feel like when digestion is easy and elimination thorough. We don't notice until it is so pronounced we can't avoid feeling sluggish indigestion.

There are many ways to remedy this feeling. Most often our culture suggests adding elements into our already overloaded stomachs: products that take away the immediate symptoms of stomach bloating, gas, etc. but do nothing in the long run to help our bodies achieve optimum health. In some cases, these very products cause more stomach distress and long-term digestive "dis-ease" than if they were not taken in the first place!

Everyday we read more and more about food, its power in our lives, our need to focus on food as a source of nutrition, health, vitality and pleasure. Yet the sources of our food are fast being gobbled up by the agri-business sector: we have more money and fancier packaging with less and less nutritional value.

The old system of growing food you ate on your own piece of land worked in some ways to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. This had to do with ownership: the peasants who worked the land were compelled to give more and more of their hard-won harvest back to the aristocracy.

We have the same system now: we enter the supermarket, search for good products and have no idea whether buying produce from Argentina or Mexico is a good idea for us, for the Argentinians or for the future of our food production. One thing we can know is our purchases in large grocery stores do support agri-business. This means large profits for those at the top of the heap (the former aristocracy), a living wage for those who work directly for these agri-business, from the workers who wield the huge machines in the fields to the people who make those machines, and no checks and balances on whether the motivation of the corporate heads is in line with what the people who eventually buy their product want.