festivore

Our senses are powerful tools that we have been given to stay healthy. The most pleasing foods are often the best for us; that’s nature’s way of pointing us in the right direction. Conversely, if it smells bad, don’t eat it. Listen to your body; eat when you are hungry.

Pleasure and biological success are natural rewards for making good choices. As a butterfly is attracted to specific flowers by their appearance, we find brightly colored fruits and vegetable appealing. We are drawn to them for a reason – we need the complex micronutrients that they provide. Similarly, sex is fun because we must do it to survive.

We are also hard-wired to like the taste of sugar and fat. In times of scarcity, they kept us alive if we could find them. Yet, sugar and fat were never intended to be so available in our diets. The food industry exploits these human desires to sell us unhealthy products – sadly, we now have to fight against our own basic instincts to preserve our health! Unlike sugar and fat, salt is an acquired taste, but it is a powerful attractant. Salt is particularly useful in preserving foods, but also in making tasteless, unnatural prepared foods more appealing.

Much of what we now count as “normal” in our lives exists in tension with our natural state. The constant drone of noise from traffic, background music, and TV, fills our ears. Smells of smoke and exhaust fumes desensitize our noses. Video screens and ad placements distract our eyes, competing for our attention. Artificial flavors, modified foods, and excessive amounts of sugar, fat, and salt fool our taste buds. We isolate ourselves from neighbors and from nature either in our cars or in front of the TV for five hours per day, on average. All of this overwhelms and deadens our senses, with dangerous implications for our health. We need to reawaken and train our senses; they will keep us on the natural path.