A lovely friend and colleague I trust and respect so much asked me a question on email this week.
Before I lose my nerve, I want to share with you my answer. And before we get started, I want to say a huge thanks to B. for asking me to answer this question.
I had no idea how much I needed to put this down on paper.
Q: What inspires you to lead through food?
As a Holistic Nutrition Practitioner, I think of food as having the potential of bringing nourishment on three levels:
Food nourishes our bodies and provides the nutrients and ingredients we need to function as humans, day in and day out.
Food nourishes the bugs of our gut - our microbiome. When we look after our microbiome, they look after us. It's that simple.
Food nourishes on a soul level too - quite possibly the most important part.
See, food is about more than the science.
It's about the love. And the hardships. And the stretching things out to last.
It's about bringing people together.
It's about building bonds & celebrating our cultures & our lives together with those at our table, and dare I say, those in our farming and agricultural circles.
Food? It's how you pass on your family's culture. Ain't nobody can make a Tourtière like my Acadian Grand-Maman did. And now me.
Food? It's one of the best known love languages - nourishing those you invite to your table.
Food, too? When you nourish a human well, you give them the tools to fully express themselves, and allow them to be who they are as a whole.
Good food is not only for the elite.
Good food is not restricted to the sector of society that has an abundance of time.
Real Food is what has nourished the people who came before us, that has fed the genetic code that has brought you forward through the ages so you could be here, today.
Celebrating all that the culture of food brings to the (literal and metaphorical) table is about honouring our Ancestors, and celebrating the abundance and gifts from the Earth.
Being a good steward of food + the culture around food is about honouring our place in the long line of ancestors, and in celebrating the riches of a healthy and vibrant Mother Nature.
Food is what makes us humans, and invites us to be a part of the whole. The concept of real food invites us back in to the role we play in the natural world - being a part of nature, not apart from nature.
I love food so much.
Real food is for all of the people, from all of the people, and all of the people to come.
I did a wee video on this. Check it out here.