A simple and very effective solution how to introduce healthy food to your family
If 10 years ago somebody would have told me that fruits are very healthy....... Healthy for everyday's eating as an excellent source of vitamins.... And even necessary - eating fruits is A MUST as a natural medicine for human body.... I would have replied: "Yes, indeed! I know this very well! I love fruits and eat fruits every day!"
But with age (as early as after 25 y.o.) I began to develop problems of health: BIG problems - that brought with them many troubles, sleepless nights and worrying headaches. As well as small problems that obviously decrease my work productivity, made me less outgoing and rip me off for many hours of enjoying the good state of physical health when everything was OK.
In general, all these health problems took lots of my time and money... Until I realised the simply secret that......... Even during all my adult life, I never developed a well-deserved appreciation as well as correct attitude towards fruits and vegetables. I am not afraid to name the reason bluntly - usually it is a lack of knowledge and lack of understanding.
Only then I understood that in reality I used to take fruits 'for granted'. That time the benefit of my 'eating fruits' was diminished to the very minimum as I eat only 1-2 fruits per day, usually after lunch or at breakfast time. If I happened to become hungry in between meals or on my way to work, home etc, I would rather prefer to have a light snack of a sandwich or a roll, but definitely not fruit. While it is the FRUITS that MUST be eaten on empty stomach - to derive more benefit as fruits are recommended to eaten separately without other food.
If.... If earlier I would have been told that I don't use fruits for sustaining my good health, I would've replied angrily "No, what do you mean! Indeed I use fruits! But my life- style is very busy, lots of hard work, endless stresses and, on top of all, poor ecology. These all affect my health very negatively. And can fruits do anything about that????!"
But now, looking to past, I must and I will admit: "Fruits and vegetables CAN dramatically change one's health. Especially if one knows HOW, WHEN AND WHAT TO USE for a particular health problem.....
In conclusion, the major reason of “Not going GREEN” and therefore, not benefitting enough from the Nature’s generous treasures is still hidden in the LACK of correct presentation of this valuable information!
Then even if parents don’t value these blessings of mother-nature, then how can one blame children for refusing to eat these Nature’s treasures while even those who want to lead a healthy life style, don’t have a full picture of WHAT vegetables and fruits can do to one’s body and mind!
Even if we have a basic picture such as: “carrot is good for eye-sight, oranges – to boost immune system, watermelon provides excellent cleansing effect”, still, in order to convince not only somebody but even yourself, we have to get more useful information. And, usually, this “info” comes in a form of boring statistic facts or dull, grey nutrition tables.
Stop! Please, stop for a moment! Don’t you understand that even you and I, like any other adult of any age, won’t pay sufficient (enough) attention to any information if it presented in a such ‘mind-numbing’ (dreary, uninteresting) form. This is not the method to encourage, rather on the contrary, it is a highly effective and quicker way to make somebody bored!
Nevertheless, then what to say about young children and their tiny inquisitive minds, whose learning skills performance is best when powered by bright, colourful associations and sharp fantasy-world imagination.
No doubt, anyone will agree with me, no matter what age we are, we all would prefer to read text that are combined with attractive, eye-catching images! That’s why the skill of colour-science is an independent science. And so many interesting books, research papers, scientific proof and related articles are dedicated to colours’ physiological effect on people’s mind.
Also, the second emphasis is on how the reading material is presented. Do not generalize, but personalize.
It is no longer a secret that the best, TOP read articles (with highest popularity and read coefficient) in magazines, newspapers etc. are stories with a main character i.e. a narration, with main hero, with sequential unwinding of a story: with a beginning, intervening occurrences and culmination, even if this is just a short narration about an event or product. If any readable material is interlinked with an individual and his/her personal experiences, it is always easier to read, easier to accept and easier to remember. That’s why we always read testimonials, as they come from somebody and are put in simple words that’s easy to digest.
As for myself, until the age of 30 I never showed much interest towards vegetables and, I am ashamed to say, even some fruits. And it is not that I wasn’t aware of healthy eating, of ‘greens’ benefits – indeed I heard and read now and then about it, but it didn’t create that bright image in my memory that would lead me on and be my ‘guiding star’ in my and my family’s eating plan (schedule).
Luckily enough, on my 30-th birthday I received not only best wishes and E-cards, but among numerous emails there was an unusual email from one of my friends. It contained a large juicy image of a pineapple, and a link with the unusual words
Healthy Birthday! A gift for your that hidden in... pineapples!??
The link leads to an article, actually more correctly, to an entertaining story about pineapples.
In a light form this story tells about a mother and her little son. And, at the same time, it is a very informative conception about benefits of pineapples (and fruits in general) that convey information to the HEART of the reader. This method not just narrates, it ensures that the one who reads (or listens to) will ABSORB, HEAR and REMEMBER the important information about this story!
Simple words make their way to the reader’s mind and heart, creating in his/her conscious ‘live’ images of a little sickly boy, his concerned mother and a deliciously juicy pineapple. The story also has a moral (and even business-minded) value as it concludes on a brief note that this little boy decided to help other people to stay healthy, and when he grew up, he became a medical scientist and businessman – he started a unique fruit-vegetables shop in his small town.
…To continue my own path to Healthy Food…
Being inspired by this first touch of this new approach and introduction to fruits and vegetables to the Mind and Heart, I was very excited to read the next story from the same book. Then the following, then all other stories which were available to be read online on the website (stories from the new book that is available in bookstore at amazon: The Storyteller’s guide to health food).
I can remember, the second story was about beetroot (again a very unique fairytale-like story about 3 sisters - beetroot of different types, but with lots of information, tips and even recipes). The third story was on watermelon. That particular story I happened to read in summer and this time I read it aloud to my friends because I wanted to check what their reactions would be. The effect can talk for itself – my friends’ appreciation towards watermelon and, of course, later towards all fruits and vegetables increased immensely. Moreover, they enthusiastically copied the story and shared it with their family, loved ones and even with neighbors.
No need to say that acquaintance with this brilliant ideas and innovative method exposed in these wonderful books of the project KindBook became a turning point not only in my life, but in life of my family and friends. Moreover, gradually and steadily it opened a new door in the lives of all those who are concerned about health and the value of healthy food.
If you are about to make your first step in HEALING yourself and HEALING our planet: leave those ‘boring’ %-tables for later! Firstly try to kindle in people a flame of interest in Nature’s gifts to humanity! Heal yourself, then Heal others. With this unique approach make them enthusiastic to increase their energy, productivity and health! And to teach our future generation how to be the best citizens of our Planet Earth: kind, healthy, successful!
And, last but not least! Remember the GOLDEN RULE: the more goodness you bring into the lives of others, the more goodness will come back to you!
Let me wish all of you what I wish for myself and my family - BEST HEALTH!
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(With compliments from the thankful reader of the book that is available in bookstore at amazon: The Storyteller’s Guide to Healthy Food by A.Lopatina and M.Skrebtsova).
