Would You Kill Someone You Love?

Art by: Naeemah Zaakirah

What do the actions of someone with a great amount of love in their heart look like? When you love someone, you want to do right by them and you want to see them at their best. Using this definition, can we honestly say that we love ourselves? Are we doing right by ourselves? Are we helping ourselves to be the best?

Fig. 1 Food Banks Take On a Contributor to Diabetes: Themselves

The article Food Banks Take On a Contributor to Diabetes: Themselves, describes a study that determined the effects of improving the diet of diabetics in poor areas. Many of their participants saw significant improvement in their health, but some did not. Those who didn't, like Mr. Cook (Fig. 1,) were found not applying the knowledge they had gained. Even though Mr. Cook knew what foods would help him improve his health, he still chose to eat whatever he desired, even if it was killing him. Would you kill someone you love?

Fig. 2: Self Love by Rhonda Gray

If you were to travel from coast to coast and ask everyone if they love themselves, most of them would say yes. Many people think that doing whatever they want to do means that they love themselves, but this is not entirely true because some times what we want is not good for us. We may want to super size our meals, but is it good for us? We may want to eat a bag of Doritos, but if we did can we say we love ourselves?

Fig. 3

The sum total of the choices we make determines whether or not we love ourselves. We should choose to eat the best foods so that we may live long healthy lives. Eating the best foods does not equate to eating the most expensive foods. According to Jayson L. Lusk and F. Bailey Norwood, the inclusion of meat products in one's diet, increases the overall food costs. They also noted that there are other studies that support their conclusion; "...using consumption data from a sample of French consumers, Drewnowski, Darmon, and Briend (2004) showed that increasing the number of meat products in a person’s diet was associated with significantly higher diet costs (Lusk and Norwood 2009) [1]."

Fig. 4: Family Eating Healthy

It is expensive to pay hundreds, thousands and even millions of dollars on medication; it is expensive to pay for the doctor/hospital visits; it is expensive to pay for a funeral; it is expensive to see our families hurting because of the choices we made. Our lives cannot be prolonged if we are not careful of what we eat. We cannot say that we love ourselves when we knowingly eat what is not good for us. With every bite we choose to take we are committing suicide; every plate we serve to our children, significant other, etc. is homicide.

Today's Life Changing Challenge (LCC) is, eliminate once unhealthy food item each week and replace it with a healthy choice. For example, if you find yourself constantly opening up a bag of cookies, trade in those cookies for a sweet succulent peach or your favorite fruit (if you have one). Another example is instead of buying potatoes, choose cauliflower instead. So when you are in the mood for some mashed potatoes, try making cauliflower mashed potatoes (click here for recipe).

At the end of each post there will be a Life Changing Challenge (LCC). These challenges are meant to guide you step by step in the right direction. If you choose to try it please feel free to leave a comment or send me an email (located in the "About" section) and let me know how everything went. I'd love to hear about your experiences and I hope this post was helpful!

"Eating the proper food...changes us in many ways. Not only does it give us good health, but it gives us a better way of thinking, as food and our mental power work in the same way. Whatever affects one, affects the other. Eating the proper food also brings about a better surface appearance. Our features are beautified by the health that the body now enjoys from the eating of proper food...Bad food takes away even the beauty appearance of a person.[2]"

Photo Sources:

[1] Figure 1: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/06/21/health/diabetes-food-banks.html?referer=https://t.co/GFjJzDKy5e

[2] Figure 2: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRNwUOBWOHU9dlR_M3Gvu-Nqaohp99dnj1R95l-HLgXnJMVGBgI2bhXnJMW0jRwAyaAtzn5AxJ-YEjG5fdGWSjwCzvBma-MWy5GX7JHzpLPhDNPlQXOhNasV-nT9bOUDtDVPs0ok6m7ZQ/s1600/self-love.jpg

[3] Figure 3: http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q3/Misselaineous10/Random%20Stuff/burger.jpg

[4] Figure 4: http://thyblackman.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/foodblackfamily.jpg

Literature sources

[1] Lusk, Jayson L. and Norwood Bailey F. Some Economic Benefits and Costs of Vegetarianism. Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. 2009. pg. 109-124.

[2] Muhammad, Elijah. How To Eat To Live. 1967. pg. 32