Ellen,
I was very interested in your article entitled "Why We Eat"
and I thought I would also like to share a point of view brought up during a friendship conversation the other night which also could be considered a significant truth in regards to this subject.
Up until our recent history humans roamed the earth and
tilled the earth to earn meals through hunting or planting and
reaping their food supply. Every day offered the challenge of finding food for survival. Thus, for thousands of years we ate whenever food was available and ate well because we were never guaranteed when the next or where meal would appear.
Obviously, over time we humans became more secure as
we learned to assume more control over our "universe"
and grew our own food and later even raised our livestock
to feed our families as needed.
However, in the earlier years mother nature was always a "drought" or storm away and we had to learn to protect our food from other peoples and/or animals regularly leaving us alert and vulnerable to the possibility of losing our food. Even when we learned to store our food for the hard times we experienced loss and hunger.
Thus, our DNA is well programmed with the knowledge that eating when food is available is an essential learned behavior for survival. This information is deeply imbedded.
In countries such as the US we now live in a time of "abundance". Food is everywhere and readily available. For some the DNA information regarding the need for food has become balanced with the knowledge that supply is available and the need for "continual eating" isn't rational nor necessary.
For others, it might be interesting to consider that the DNA information is "stuck" or obsessively cycling and alerting us
at a superconscious level for the need to eat whenever food is available and to eat as much as possible in case the food won't be available next time.
Awareness regarding where we've come from as humans allows us to be more gentle with ourselves by giving us a better understanding about the human condition. This awareness also removes the tendancy to judge others. With this knowledge and awareness we are better equipped to make the choice to transcend the past and override the embedded DNA information with the power of will. This power is available to each of us and may be used to take active control of many physiological challenges.
Terri Collura
Brainmaster Technologies, Inc.
