Translator: Debra Sarafraz Reviewer: Dương Nguyên Giang
If you were told,
that it's not a matter of if,
it's a matter of when:
you are going to get cancer,
what would you do?
That's the message I got
about 15 years ago.
At the time,
I was working a crazy busy schedule
as a fashion executive.
And all of a sudden,
both my parents got cancer
at the same time.
And they ended up dying just about
a year apart.
After that, the doctors told me that
my best option was to cut off
both my breasts,
and start preventive chemo right away.
Oh, and I could also take out my ovaries.
I asked, "What are my chances?"
"Fifty-fifty."
There I am, barely 40 years old,
thinking of all the things I still wanted
to do, all the places
I still wanted to see.
And all of a sudden,
it didn't feel like I had much time.
What would you do?
Would you speed up?
Or would you slow down?
I chose to slow down.
I chose to learn what my body needed,
so I could challenge the verdict
that I'd been given.
I wanted to change the impact
of my family history,
so it didn't have to become my destiny.
I left my job, I went back to school,
and I started on a journey to
conquer cancer.
But what does it actually take
for us to take charge of our health?
The question I'm asked all the time is:
What shall I eat?
We have so much information,
yet too little wisdom about
how to take better care of ourselves,
and we're left confused,
doubting ourselves,
looking for the next solution,
a new diet, or the one guru
that'll be the answer.
But what if I told you
that the answer is not out there?
It's in here.
We're living in a world where
we're constantly connected with everything
and everyone around us,
but we're disconnected from ourselves.
Can you even remember
when was the last time you had a good chat
but with your own body?
The kind of chat where you ask,
"How are you? What do you need?"
Our bodies know what that is,
and we can learn how to listen.
But what we have to do is start by asking
why we eat.
Food is our most basic nutrient
to get us through the day.
But in our daily, busy lives,
where time is the new currency,
we end up making choices
based on convenience,
availability, and taste.
We eat to silence our hunger
and entertain our taste buds.
We like options and we like them fast.
As a result, food has become
something like a consumer product.
Something we use.
Mindlessly buy, and then throw away.
But even though we're trying to keep up
with life, using technology to work harder
function faster, and produce smarter,
are we truly thriving here?
Or are we just basically surviving?
We humans are so resilient.
We know how to survive.
We've been able to starve and then binge,
for thousands of years, we have learned
how to survive.
But grazing a nature-supply of snacks
is not the same as the junk we find
at the hallways of our offices.
And ending the day
with a big bowl of food
in front of the TV is not how our bodies
were designed to exist,
and it's making us sick.
It's making us sick.
The challenge I see every day,
working with people,
is that we feed ourselves
without a relationship to why
we eat.
Because we've lost the connection,
not only with ourselves, but also
with our food, and where it comes from.
We focus on calories,
instead of how food makes us feel,
and we eat based on cravings and desires,
instead of what our bodies truly need.
And to perform at today's speed,
we end up with fast meals and no time
to cook, and our relationship with food
has become not only confusing,
but also damaging.
We find ourselves in supermarkets,
surrounded by colorful boxes, saying
"natural," "healthy," "nutritious",
and we're trying to figure out
what we're eating based on percentages
of fat, fiber, sugar, carbs, protein,
and whatever else has been added.
When really what we're looking for
inside of all of these boxes is real food.
Real food to satisfy more
than just our taste buds.
Part of the problem is that these days,
more and more of our food is coming from
a plant like this
than a plant like this.
Is that really progress?
If we keep doing this,
what will the future of our food
look like?
Food has been our medicine for centuries.
But today, pills are our medicine,
and food - our pleasure.
But even though our lifestyle
and technology is so advanced today,
the human body hasn't changed.
The human body hasn't changed.
We still need real food.
You can think of it this way:
food is our tool for crafting our daily
well-being, and our medicine
tor taking charge of our future health.
But,
food is also a relationship of nourishment
and nurture.
It's an emotional relationship
that reflects our human need for love,
care, and feeling safe.
Nourishment is something deeply intimate
for every single one of us.
It's our first connection with food.
Being held while being fed.
Nothing, nothing will ever replace
that feeling again,
even if we try.
As emotional beings, and thankfully,
we still are, we're in constant
relationship with ourselves
and our environment,
to find comfort and avoid pain.
And even though we're completely mindless
about it, it's constantly happening
behind the scenes.
We long for connection.
But that's something we feel inside,
not something we can measure
by how many friends we have on Facebook.
And we may search the internet
to find the answers for our health
and our happiness,
but we need to search inside, instead.
To heal and thrive, we need to reconnect
with food as our nourishment.
Because eating is a felt sense
of experience.
It's a connection we have with ourselves,
and how food makes us feel.
There's this place I used to go to get
this fruit tart.
It was a special fruit tart,
because I remembered it
from when I was a kid,
back home in Denmark.
And I would go, and I would sit down
with my fruit tart and my cup of tea,
and I would be ready to enjoy.
But I always ended up disappointed.
I couldn't understand why.
But then one day I realized
it was missing
a very essential ingredient.
It was missing my mom.
Because I always
used to share it with her.
Our food stories live inside all of us.
Stories that come alive when smelling,
or seeing something, triggers a desire,
and all of a sudden, we think of Grandma.
Can you connect with one right now?
Just try for a moment
to take a deep breath,
and a long exhale.
And just notice what it feels like
in your body when I say, "food."
Maybe imagine your favorite food,
and notice in your body
how does that make you feel?
Maybe it's connected to a story,
a time when you felt loved, or safe,
or comfort.
Or maybe a time when you shared food
with friends, bonded over a good meal,
or celebrated a happy event
with your family.
Because food is also
a social relationship that reflects our
human need for community,
connection, and contribution.
It's even an ecological relationship
that represents what we believe in,
what matters to us,
and the footprint we leave behind.
We really need to get back in touch
with our food. Literally.
It's no wonder that diets fail us
all the time.
They're missing the most
essential ingredient -
the human ingredient.
Us feeling nourished.
So how do we find our way back,
or rather, how do we find our way forward?
We need to learn to pause and listen more.
Our bodies, just like nature,
know how to heal.
You can think of a broken bone.
The doctor may be the one
who puts it in its right place,
and the cast keeps it there,
but the bone heals itself.
The bone is doing the healing.
Our bodies are amazing.
We're living inside these vessels
of super intelligence
that already know how to exist,
even if we don't.
It knows when to breathe, how to walk,
how to sit down, and just like nature,
it knows how to recover and restore,
and keep coming back
for more the next day,
and we're completely mindless about it.
Most of the time, we're not even grateful.
Isn't it time that we become a team
with our own bodies? Really.
A team with our own bodies.
There's this organic farmer in Denmark
who explains the process
of growing organic blueberries by
introducing all the helpers
that are making the process possible.
They're all critters and creatures from
nature, that he's enlisted to do
what they already do.
The bees are pollinating the crop,
the birds are eating the bugs,
and seaweed from the ocean is fertilizing
the soil by adding good bacteria
and creating minerals.
He's taking existing conditions
and creating better ones
by listening to nature.
For example, he's installed bird houses
on every single poll around the crop
to make sure that the birds
are on hand to eat the bugs.
This is an example of how everything
in our universe is based on relationships.
Everything is interaction, so are we,
so are you.
We're all part of nature
not separate from.
And we can reconnect with nature,
with ourselves, and each other,
even if we live in an urban environment,
by changing our relationship with food.
I think it's the only sustainable
way forward.
Because if we use technology to make
choices for us, and listen less and less
to our own bodies, who will we become?
Who will we become?
A client came to me,
and he wanted to feel amazing,
but he had a hard time
because his body was tired,
he couldn't lose weight,
and he had injuries that wouldn't heal.
And he couldn't understand why,
because he was eating exactly
what his app was telling him to eat.
So I told him to take a couple weeks off
from his app.
Ehh, he was a little reluctant.
I also told him to eat more plant-based
food, and even some of his heritage foods
that he knew since he was a kid -
which was rice and beans,
making both him and his body feel
more nourished.
But the app did not allow him to eat that.
But he agreed.
A couple of weeks later, he comes back.
He's feeling better, he's starting to
lose weight, he has more energy, and his
injuries are even starting to heal.
Miracle.
It turned out that his app had been
telling him to eat 120 grams of protein,
animal protein, per day.
That is about twice as much
as the average daily recommended need.
But even though
he thought that was a lot of protein
it never occurred to him
to listen to his own body
instead of the app.
So when it comes to what makes us happy
and healthy,
is technology progress,
or is it a loss?
I think it depends on how
mindful we are about it.
Because, even though we are living
in this world today,
the human body hasn't changed,
and neither has the human heart.
We still need real food,
and the human connection,
and a nourishing relationship
with ourselves to be happy and healthy.
Consider my farmer friend, Steve.
He was given four years to live
after cancer treatment.
So he decided he wanted to learn
how to farm, with the time he had left.
These days, he's farming all day long,
he loves moving his hands
through the soil, and eating the food
right out of the ground.
He's happy, he's farming all day long
instead of sitting in corporate offices
in NYC.
Now you may wonder how long he has left
to do what he loves.
We don't know.
Because the four years he was given
started eight years ago.
Yeah.
Now you may wonder about me,
am I going to get cancer?
I don't know.
But if I do, I will have no regret
that I chose the path
of taking care of me.
That I chose to live in awareness,
instead of in fear.
That I chose to be a team
with my own body, and have a nourishing
relationship with everything
that feeds me.
I say it's time that we reclaim
our relationship with food.
We're being connected means with
our own bodies.
With our own bodies.
Because self-care is our best health care.
Food is our best medicine,
and nourishment is so much more than
just nutrition.
So let's grow our food, share our meals,
feed our bodies and nurture our souls.
Because we're all still human beings,
and there is no app for that.
Thank you.