Are you feeding your soul?

Welcome back! As promised in my first blog post, I would like to share with you my insights on health through the lens of primary food; food you will not find on a plate. To me, this is truly what determines how healthy an individual is. Secondary food is naturally also very important, and I will be sharing a lot of information about it in future posts, however today's post is dedicated to this very important topic that is generally underestimated.

Accialori is a small Italian village that has the highest number of centenarians in the world. A group of researchers coming from the Universita La Sapienza di Roma and the San Diego School of Medicine spent 6 months researching possible reasons behind this village inhabitants' longevity. While the inhabitants generally ate a typical Mediterranean diet, something else was clearly distinguishing this village. Researchers found another characteristic to their exceptional health: their immense "joy de vivre." The people of Accialori are generally laid back and stress free. They enjoy life to the full, and are very close. No one in this village ever feels alone more than a few minutes. They feast together, play together, laugh together , families and neighbors look after each other, and the whole village is like one happy family. Quoting health editor Rachel Younger after visiting this village, " We meet a couple of farmers not far off a century themselves who like to share a drink before dinner. To life! they bellow, toasting each other with toothless grins, hamming it up for our cameras. It's a wonderful life, if you know how to live it!"

It does not come as a surprise that lower stress levels, and a lighter approach to life directly affects health and longevity, so does this mean feeding your soul with joy is a recipe for a longer, healthier life? Absolutely! Everything we consider as nutrition is really a secondary source of energy. You can eat all the broccoli and kale in the world and still not feel vibrant because other areas in your life are unbalanced. Have you ever been passionately in love? Everything was exciting, you had that butterfly feeling in your tummy, woke up excited and looking forward to life. Have you ever been passionately involved in a cause or project or had a career that you loved? Do you remember how it was as a child playing , when your parents called you in for dinner, and that was the last thing you wanted to do in the middle of all the joy you were feeling? All those times you felt those tremendous feelings of joy and happiness, someone had to actually remind you to eat. Can you relate? 

When you feel joy in your life, food becomes yet another tool for pleasure providing support to your health so you can do the things you love. 

"We hunger for play, fun, touch, romance, intimacy, love, achievement, success, art, music, self expression, leadership, excitement, adventure, and spirituality. All these elements are essential forms of nourishment"- Joshua Resenthal, founder of the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. 

Joshua teaches, a nourishing life is built by a fulfilling career, loving relationships, an energizing and rejuvenating exercise routine, and a spiritual practice that soothes and invigorates. I will be writing in more detail about the different areas of primary food, and how we can work towards balancing them, so stay tuned.

Food is divine, cooking is an art , and sharing it with people you love is a pure form of joy! It is common to see health advocates who are extremists when it comes to food, and while its important to build that awareness and love yourself enough to genuinely want to nourish your body, it is necessary to be light about it and develop a healthy relationship with food. Food is not a religion, so don't turn it into one! Feed your soul joy and happiness, nourish your body with whole foods that bring you even further joy, and be light about it, cause at the end of the day there is nothing serious going on here.

Feel free to leave your comments below!