“If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.” —Michael Pollan
by Carl Johns, LMT, Mountain Medicine Integrative Wellness Center
The point that Pollan makes is not necessarily about a particular diet, whether we eat from the plant or animal world or from both, but about what we instinctively know to be natural.
If it was made in a plant, it has likely been through some of the most unnatural processes we can imagine — and we prefer not to imagine them — so that it can be turned into a substance that we recognize as food, but that we know — and we prefer not to admit — cannot truly be nourishing food for our bodies.
What truly nourishes us?
Food that comes from the earth, in its natural form, pasture raised, organically grown, no ingredients, just real natural food.
And what else nourishes us?
Nutritious movement — walking in nature, dancing with live music, physical work and physical play. A treadmill cannot nourish us like a walk in the woods. To be nourishing in body,
mind and spirit, movement cannot be manufactured any more than real nutritious food can be manufactured.
Consider nutritious touch — as primal a need as food and movement. The idea that virtual reality can replace human interaction, play and touch, is unimaginable. Reality — the touch of the world on our senses, the touch of another on our skin, the sights, smells, tastes, feelings and sensations of the world that are natural to us, are the true requirements for nutritious living.
It is time to move away from the artificial, toward the real — enjoying good food and good conversation with family and friends, getting our bare feet in the grass, enjoying the sensations of a full body massage, joyfully dancing under the moonlight.
This is nutritious living that nourishes the body and nourishes the spirit, and it will bring us health and happiness. If we have temporarily lost our way, this is the call to what we have always known — the road home.