Salads and Cheeseburgers: Is One Really Healthier Than The Other?

There is no such thing as a “bad” food.

Whenever we think of foods in the terms of “good” vs “bad” we usually accompany those labels with certain types of foods we’ve learned to label as “good” and certain types of foods we’ve learned to label as “bad.” For instance, most people – especially in our westernized cultures – would consider a salad to be “good” or healthy food, whereas a cheeseburger would be labeled as “bad” or unhealthy. The issue with these labels is that they are just that: labels that we have put on food (another label) that have no meaning behind the meaning that we have ascribed, or have been conditioned to ascribe. A salad is just a salad just as a cheeseburger is just a cheeseburger. The difference lies within the choice we make to consume or not to consume these different types of food. What makes a particular food an optimal choice vs a suboptimal choice ultimately comes down to the effect that that food has on our body and ultimately on our ability to live the life we say we want for ourselves – your Dream. The effect that a particular food has on your body has to do with where that food came from, how it has been processed, and your body-mind’s own unique needs at the particular time of consumption. Depending on these variables, a salad could leave you inflamed and gassy, just as a cheeseburger could be the perfect meal your body-mind needed to feel satiated, alert, and ready to continue creating your Dream. We are as different on the inside as we are on the outside. What may be a perfectly balanced meal for one person may send another on a blood sugar roller-coaster and straight to the bathroom. Also, there’s a big difference between a salad made from organically-raised, local, in-season vegetables with a dressing made with minimal, whole, natural ingredients vs a salad made from conventionally-raised, potentially pesticide-laden vegetables with a highly-processed, “Frankenfoods” dressing. The same can be said about the cheeseburger: The effect a grass-fed, grass-finished beef burger with raw, unpasteurized cheese and organic vegetables on a homemade sourdough or minimally-processed, gluten-free bun on your body-mind vs a McDonald’s Big Mac is going to be completely different. A salad is not just a salad and a cheeseburger is not just a cheeseburger. Food quality matters more than the food itself. Our bodies have evolved to consume whole, natural, minimally-processed foods that have been raised without the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. This all comes down to creating balance. Your body-mind knows exactly what to do if given the proper resources at the right time to help maintain functional homeostasis. If we consume things or take part in activities, thought patterns, or belief systems that create disharmony in our body-minds, ultimately this is what leads to dis-ease. When I work with athletes it’s not about hitting a certain caloric-intake goal within a certain macronutrient range. Although this can be a helpful practice at times, my main goal is to teach people how to choose the highest quality foods possible and how to re-establish the long ago outsourced sacred relationship with our body-minds so that we can become aware of and decipher the many signals and symptoms our body-minds are giving us on a constant basis. Once we can learn what our body-minds need and where and how to get it, we are able to create the best opportunity for harmony and balance within our body-minds that will ultimately manifest itself in the other choices we make in our lives, leading to harmony and balance in all aspects of our lives. Healthy people make healthy choices. Healthy choices make healthy people. What you do to/for yourself, you’re doing to everyone and everything else. What you do to/for everyone and everything else, you’re doing to yourself. It is all one and the same with an infinite number of unique expressions. And once you realize how to make optimal choices for yourself, it’s easy to be an example and an authentic source of guidance for others. You have the free will to eat whatever you want. Even though there is no such thing as a “good” or “bad” food, every choice you make has a consequence. The question is if that consequence is aligned with your Dream and helping you to create more balance and harmony in your life or if that consequence is something you say you don’t want. When you focus on food quality and developing a relationship with your body, you are much more likely to make choices that are aligned with your Dream and what you say you want for yourself, whether that’s a salad, cheeseburger, pie, wine, chocolate, coffee, peanut butter, apple, or pig testicles.