I’ve noticed that many of the nutritional posts floating around Facebook, Twitter (and the internet in general) seem to be based on creating fear in the readers.
“5 Foods to Never Eat For a Flat Stomach”
“5 Negative High Protein Diet Effects”
“Top 10 Worst GMO Foods for Your GMO Foods List”
“4 Major Health Risks of Drinking Soda”
“Is Your Food Killing You? Super Foods to the Rescue!”
Now, are some of these worth reading? Sure. Are all of these worth reading on the same day during your lunch break? I’m going to say no.
The reason I became a health coach was to educate people about the best ways to become a healthier human being. Teaching people the best ways to boost their immune systems, adopt healthy lifestyle habits and to focus on filling their plates with pure unadulterated nutrients, has always been my mission. So I feel that bombarding my readers with negative headline after negative headline, is not the best way for me to go about getting my message to the masses. It’s like only reading the crime log or obituaries when you read you daily news. You start to feel that everyone around you is a criminal or dropping like flies. Fear and negativity breeds more fear and negativity, so that eventually you just sort of check out of the game. You throw up your hands and say, “What’s the point?! Everything is bad for me, so I might as well just be eating Cheetos and drinking Mountain Dew with a Red Bull chaser!”. I have heard and read variations on this statement many times in the past few months. Sadly, it has become a common thought pattern.
I know that at some point I have been guilty of spreading some of these articles and memes on my own blog and Facebook pages, for that I am sorry. I have tried very hard to make it my goal to only write and or post positive, yet informative articles for the last few months. When I consider sharing a post, I ask myself a couple questions before I do.
-Is this sending a positive message?
-Is this going to add confusion to an already confusing topic?
-Is this really helping, or spreading fear?
-Do I agree with everything in this article, or just one point?
-Would I say this to a client or loved one?
-Will this turn someone off to the idea of getting healthy?
If I can’t give a solid yes or no answer to any of these questions, I don’t post it.
Also, it’s really, super, duper important to try my hardest to make sure that what I am posting is factual and not just opinion (unless I make it clear that it is in fact just my personal opinion). If I am passing my opinion off as fact, not so great.
My promise to you, dear readers, is to try not be one more voice contributing to the mass confusion in the world of nutrition. I also promise to keep my posts as clear and as positive as possible.
Eat fresh, frozen or preserved produce as often as possible, drink lots of water, sleep as much as you can and exercise lots! Xoxo