Our “GUEST BLOG” series continues and we excitedly introduce you to Sherry Strong.
A few self words about Sherry as we introduce you to her uplifting and educational positive energy blog:
Sherry is an award-winning Speaker, Chef, Nutritionist, Food Philosopher. She was the Victorian Chair of Nutrition Australia, Melbourne President of Slow Food and the Co-Founder of the World Wellness Summit. She has worked with elite athletes, billionaires, celebrities, CEO’s and everyday folk like herself to transform the way they relate to food and their body. Sherry is the founder and the creator of the Sweet Freedom Project – which includes a multi-media transformational platform dedicated to helping people get sugar-free naturally for life.
The philosophies and strategies Sherry has developed over 25 years working with people in food and nutrition, will help you understand and intuit what your body needs. Her philosophies combine the power of working with our intellect, intuition, psychology, and physiology to know what it is our bodies really need to eat to thrive as well as enjoy the gifts of food.
More Nourishing Than Food by Sherry Strong
I love food. I talk about it, write about and think about it pretty much all the time. It is the job of a food philosopher and I take it seriously.
It’s been said that money makes the world go round but I think it is food, at least for humans. Without food our existence stops. It is directly connected to our life so you may expect me to believe that good quality food is the most important aspect for developing a healthy relationship with food, our body and the planet.
I think there is something even more important. I’ve come to believe that the social context is as important as what we are eating and in many cases more important.
Food is about way more than fuel.
There’s a lot of rhetoric around food as fuel or food as medicine but food goes way beyond those two things and where it extends beyond fuel and medicine is part of what makes the human species different.
We eat socially to bond, to experience pleasure, to show love and to experience sensations that come from the naturally occurring drugs in foods. Food can transport us.
Food can heal beyond the medicinal ingredients in the food. Think of a gesture of soup when you are ailing. The act of love and generosity is healing and rejuvenating.
Saying food is only fuel is like saying sex is only intended for procreation.
I’d like to think that the human experience is heightened when we find the intersection and balance of pleasure and function.
I eat foods that nourish, energize, protect, and give me pleasure.
Sharing a meal with someone who I love, respect and care for is a joy that makes the conversation sweeter, difficult times more bearable and the human experience less lonesome.
“How we eat is more powerful than what we eat…as long as it’s real food.”
As I suggest in Return to Food in the Poem, We Are Meant To Eat Together; eat with people you love and respect, people who love and respect you, who love and respect food … I’ve had this experience with folks with every resource available to them and those who have the most modest of offerings. Food creates a bond that I cherish and am better for.
I’d rather have a bowl of greasy noodles with people who are kind, loving and positive, than the most nutritiously minded gourmet meal with people who are negative, mean and judgemental.
Expressing gratitude for the food and what we have is not only a way of being in the present, attracting more of what we want but it is something that sets our future on fire. Happiness researcher Shawn Accor says a child predisposed to pessimism can be transformed into a lifelong optimist simply through the practice of stating 3 things they are grateful for at the evening meal.
Giving thanks for the food, the hands that enabled it to be brought to the table, thanks for those you can share it with are 3 very easy things you can start with. If you are reading this on a device you own, have the vision or means to read it and can think of someone you care for to share it with, you have another 3 reasons. Pretty much, if you are breathing and able to read this, no matter what challenges you have in your life, you have WAY more going right for you. Gratitude is a powerful practice to accompany any meal whether you’re able to share it or not.
The power lies in a meal where we are kind to one another, we express gratitude for the food we are eating and all the hands that were involved in bringing it to the table, to make the food taste good and to share what we have we people we care about. Those kinds of meals have the power to change the world. They certainly have changed mine.
We are meant to eat together
Eat with people whom you love and respect, who love and respect you, and who love and respect food.
Eat with people who are learning to cook, with sincerity of heart; children are a great example of this.
Eat with all your senses, masticating textures, smelling sensuous aromas, tasting luscious flavours.
Eat with people who aren’t afraid to make noises like ummm, ahhh and oohh.
Eat with people who aren’t afraid to make a mess, lick their fingers, clean out the bowl, and eat with their hands.
Eat after the perspiration of a rigorous jog, invigorating walk, in the lusty afterglow from a roll in the hay; it’s much healthier than smoking a cigarette.
Eat with people who laugh and smile a lot, people who tell stories and spin yarns.
Eat with people who are generous and share. Full stop.
Eat with all your fondest memories, triumphs through tragedy, and memories of love.
Eat with people who love to cook and eat.
Eat with people who are gracious and grateful.
Eat with people who are non-judgmental and forgiving, who can see both sides of the story and still have an opinion.
Eat with love, passion, compassion in your heart, and while searching your soul.
Eat with people who love life and are genuinely interested in you and the world.
And, finally, if you eat like this and with people who do and are all these things, pleeease … invite me for dinner. Will you?
Sherry Strong
Stay in touch and reach out to Sherry:
Website: sweetfreedom.ca
Instagram: @sherrystrong1
Facebook: @strongsherry
YouTube: Sherry Strong
Twitter: @Strongsherry