Eating By Colour: a New Approach to Food

As a psychologist working with children and adults with eating problems I hear two frequently asked questions: “what am I supposed to eat?” and  “what should I feed my children?” despite the plethora of information about food and nutrition available. Over the years I have witnessed numerous health campaigns come and go, food fads, diets, food pyramids, various so- called health systems, magical formulae, various claims of mythical healing properties etc etc, all of which have done little to sustain a harmonious relationship with food.

Professionally I have seen thousands of adults and children in conflict with food. Subjected to mixed messages from family or the media, it has become too easy to develop a love / hate relationship with the very thing needed to sustain oneself.

The professional question for me then became, “How to make food friendly again for those who have developed a damaging relationship with it? How to rescue food from the spin doctors and restore an innocent relationship with it?”

The answer it seemed would need to contain the simple ingredients of any vital relationship: presentation, sensuality, variety, balance, company, comfort, and fun.

So over the years I used those ingredients in my presentations of fresh food to over a thousand young people both here and in the United States. The results? Sensational!

Real food excited kids again, its taste, fun and flavour, but the most successful ingredient was the colour. Products of a visual society, kids didn’t even try to resist my invitation to put as much colour on their plate as possible. The eating by colour method lead way into the creation of Rainbow Food, a book designed to help restore our original innocent relationship with food. It is practical, easy to use and is beneficial to the emotional body as well as the physical body.

My vision for  “Rainbow Food” is for children and families to once again enjoy the fun that food can be, that home kitchens will take back their power from manufactured food companies and that food will once more be a loving accompaniment to conversation, laughter and joy. For unless we reclaim our power, food companies will continue to hold us (and our children) for ransom, while they pedal their government endorsed toxic products. Nursing mothers will continue to be targeted as potential consumers of baby formulae and children will continue to be tortured by enticing commercial products carefully placed at their eye level in the never-ending aisles of every shopping mall.

Considering that many food companies manufacture pesticides and chemical fertilizers as well as fund experiments in genetic engineering, you have to be pretty naive to believe that they have you or your children’s needs at heart. So let us all parachute out of the great big marketing web in the sky and begin to follow the Rainbow into good health and happiness.

Once upon a time, when Nature was honoured and women too, babies were delivered onto this planet with as little interference as possible. In tune to Nature’s rhythms and her deep dark forces, a woman was empowered by the natural miracle of birth. As one contraction followed the other like endless waves on the ocean, a mother could ride the pain with confidence, at once the surfer and the wave itself. The mother’s body was able to do what it does best.


And then along came modern medicine and technology, packaging and body image and soon mothers were made to feel inadequate about their bodies and their magnificent role in developing the human race. They reached for books by experts and soon became confused and disillusioned. They began to question the value of their milk and sought safety in formulas and labels and nutritional information. They began to look critically at their swollen bodies and feared their breasts would lose their beauty.


Thriving babies once blessed by mother’s milk and tender company, became introduced to plastic, rubber and synthetics (teats, dummies, diapers): their tiny mouths prized open by metal spoons bearing commercial, sweetened products. When allergies developed and ADD, drugs were prescribed to calm children down. Conveniently the drugs were manufactured by the same chemical companies which controlled the world’s food production and distribution. Drugs and food triumphed hand in hand on the Stock exchange, a successful one stop shopping opportunity.


Soon children became pale and lethargic in a world where nothing soothed them. More drugs were administered to control their pain. Innocence was lost as deals were struck and money kept on changing hands.


Nature wept. “How could mankind sacrifice so much to have so little?” she cried as her tears flowed from the skies. She wept and wept until she could weep no more. As her last tears fell to Earth, they caught a touch of the Sun’s light and a Rainbow was formed. It stretched across the hills and the mountain side where a group of people lived. The group had long since left the cities to try a better lifestyle. They had planted their own food and were trying to live together but they were unable to do so in harmony. Some had been praying for a miracle, something that would bring some joy into this world. Surely this Rainbow was a good sign.


“I’m going to catch that Rainbow,” a little child declared.


“You can’t catch a Rainbow,” one of the people replied. “Rainbows are only an illusion of light. They really don’t exist.”


“Really?” the child said. “Well why is the Rainbow kissing the food over there?”


The adults looked over at their gardens and their crops. And sure enough the gardens were filled with Rainbow light.


“I know,” the child had its own answer. “It’s giving the food its colour. It’s making it into Rainbow Food.” And that’s exactly what was happening, but only the child could see it.


It took some time for the adults to realise that the miracle they had asked for had already happened. They had become so dulled by their drugs and their pain. But eventually they began to experience the Rainbow Food. Soon they publicised its liberating benefits.

 

Rainbow Food is a fresh approach to eating for the whole family. Rainbow Food is designed to restore our original innocent relationship with food. It is practical, easy to use, and is beneficial to the emotional body as well as the physical body.

Because food, body image and self esteem go hand in hand, Rainbow Food is a valuable tool for young people building body image and self esteem. It is also an opportunity for parents and adults to recover from the damage done during their childhood and adolescence.

To Eat by Colour is to be liberated from kilojoules, calories, food pyramids, information mazes, diet fads, myths and other formulae.

Rainbow Food is a sustainable experience, fresh and inspiring, resulting in harm-less choices.

To discover more about Rainbow Food and the work of its author, psychologist Denise Greenaway, visit:

www.mirrormirror.com.au

Published in byronchild/Kindred, Issue 1, March 02

 

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