Welcome to November!

This month Evolving Wellness, along with the Canadian Health Food Association, will be celebrating National Health Food Month!

We will focus this month on food that is truly healthy and was made for our bodies to eat and benefit from!

We will thus dive into the world of organics and wholesome, natural foods. We will introduce some stores, books and other resources that are based on the same paradigm. Finally, we will also take a look at food that is called “health food”, but may not quite measure up to the standards and purity of what it really means to be “natural” and “healthy”.

Let us thus take a look a little further, into how and why National Health Food Month originated and what you can truly hope to gain by familiarizing yourself with this initiative and applying it to your everyday life.

Why We Need National Health Food Month

It is no surprise that in our society today we have really removed ourselves from how Mother Nature intended for us to eat and live. Our disease and obesity statistics are proof of that.

It is thus, in this day and age more than ever, time to bring back the harmony and balance of nature into our lives whether that be in how we carry out our everyday tasks, how we think, how we move and perhaps most importantly how we eat.

Perhaps 100 years ago people still knew how to “eat from and of the Earth”, today however, this is a trait we have almost completely lost.

Ever since the 1950′s our food has increasingly become processed and refined and chemically enhanced. At first we marveled at the convenience and novelties, today we know we took it too far. It should thus come as no surprise to hear, that today about 75% of food at your local grocery store is unhealthy for you!

As the age of technology, automation and the economy took over, out went the balance, the harmony and the time we used to spend on doing things naturally.

Today, it is normal to eat fast food. It is normal to eat more sugar than vitamins and minerals. It is normal to cook your frozen dinner in a microwave. And as normal as all of the above are – they are not natural to our being or existence. They are not how we were naturally intended to live.

You may be wondering as to how do I know that – how can I be so sure? Well you can know that too and be just as sure if you look at the health of North Americans.

This is not about “changing with the times”, “getting with it” or “evolving”. Perhaps in a few hundred or thousand years we will evolve to tolerate junk and chemicals in our body – but that time is not now.

Hence, this is about going back to our roots of knowing what really is food, what does it do for us and how to stay healthy. It is also about finding balance in our lives to be able to break out of the vicious cycle of “no time” and find time to buy, cook and eat the right things. For if you do not have time to take care of yourself then how far do you expect to go in life, and more importantly what quality of life are you living?

It is therefore, now more than ever, necessary to re-learn what to eat and how to eat. This is the time to take back our health and go back to nature, who has never once disappointed us or lead us in the wrong direction. That is way more than I could ever say about the food corporations out there.

More About National Health Food Month

National Health Food Month started officially in the year 2000 and now runs annually in November, in Canada. It is an organized campaign to promote the use of natural and organic products as an integral part of health and well being.

The CHFA has three objectives for this event:

1. The campaign seeks to increase the awareness of natural and organic products amongst Canadians and to draw attention to the demonstrated benefits of these products.

2. National Health Food Month looks to improve upon the perception that natural health products are safe, effective and have health claims on their labels supported by evidence.

3. National Health Food Month aims to increase the awareness that the natural health product industry has been a regulated one since 2004 and that the organic industry will be one in the near future.  Such knowledge will continue to boost consumer confidence amongst Canadians.

Conclusion

I therefore hope to make this a fun and exciting event here on Evolving Wellness too and no worries if you are not Canadian or from Canada as we can all benefit from this campaign internationally. In fact, it would be great if it became in the future known as, World Health Food Month!

The benefits of eating natural, organic and wholesome food are overwhelming and today we have solid research for those of you who want or need it to back this up. I say that, because if one truly looks at this from a greater perspective and just uses their common sense, they will see that we do not need ANY research to back the claim that eating right from the Earth, unprocessed food is the healthy way to go.  After all, humans have been doing that and thriving from the beginning of their existence!

Let us therefore truly treat our bodies, by re-learning how to eat in a way that only benefits our bodies, strengthens our systems and overall health and not hurts it in any way, shape or form. Your quality of life and happiness depend on it!

Hence to do this, simply go natural, go wholesome, go organic!

About the author:
Evita Ochel, B.Sc., B.Ed., CHN - is a certified holistic nutritionist, biologist, educator, writer, researcher and speaker in the areas of health, science and holistic wellness. She is a nutritional science expert and her teaching and writing focus on natural, wholesome, plant-based and organic nutrition to achieve optimal health and longevity. Learn more about Evita Ochel or Follow Evita Ochel on Twitter.