Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Go ahead, eat, but slow down

I read an *old story about a man riding very fast on a horse. As he rides past his friend standing on the side of the road, the friend yells, "Where are you going?" The man replied, "I don't know, ask the horse."

The man's reply more likely represents the pace and intensity of the kind of life we lead at home and at work, and we don't even know why and what for. Like, we allow the overscheduling of our kid's school activities and we allow ourselves to be overscheduled with work. Then we go on vacation and we feel that we have to go on every tour and see every tourist spot to maximize the day. Then we get back home and we feel that we need another vacation to rest from that vacation we just left. Then the vicious cycle begins again.

The whole week I was in Europe I've observed something that made me wonder: People there move at a slower pace, drinks wine or beer and eat cheese at every meal and yet I have not seen an obese person.(Unless that person stayed home because he's so obese he can't leave home.) And in restaurants on the town square, people talked slow and seemed to take their time eating and drinking. And I have not seen coffee served on plastic or styrofoam cup, so when you order coffee, you're expected to sit down. I was also told that their meats are not injected with hormones because the EU has long ago adopted this principle known as the Precautionary Principle, which states that something must be considered potentially dangerous until it's proven safe.*Here in the United States, our regulatory agencies have taken the opposite approach: Something can be considered safe as long as it's not been proven dangerous.

I don't have any medical training but I think it's safe to assume that it's not what we eat that makes us fat or sick, what makes us physically fat is that which is eating us. So let's ask ourselves: What's keeping us awake at night? Why do we have to keep running? Is it so we don't catch up with ourselves? I don't know, all I know is that right now, I need to catch up on my sleep. (if there's such a thing)


*Source:Experience Magazine 12/09 issue

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