Food as a Revolutionary Act

As I'm beginning to delve more into finding a life balance and increasing my food literacy I'm finding all sorts of resources online. Two of which that have had a profound influence on me thus far is the Experience Life magazine, produced by my former gym Lifetime Fitness, and the TED site. Now, if you've never been to ted.com before you NEED to check out this site. Its the convergence between technology, entertainment and design and its motto - ideas worth sharing. The TED community provides a forum for thinkers and doers, movers and shakers, and those of us curious enough to sit and listen to a lecture about all that's going on to change the world through different mediums. What could be more awesome than that?

While there are a ton of great things I could highlight from either site, I'm going show the two things that have begun to help me along my way the most, thus far. The first from, Experience Life, is an article entitled: A Manifesto for thriving in a mixed-up world by Pilar Gerasimo. This article takes the motto for the site - Being healthy is a revolutionary act - to the next level and highlights 10 truths which are self-evident concerning the reason we're in the situation we are - poor health - and what we can do about it. This article was truly revolutionary for me and I've printed out the Manifesto and put it up on a wall in my room.

The second is from TED Prize winner, and global food literacy/anti-obesity advocating bad-ass, Jamie Oliver's speech. I've included it herein because it's just that important to read. I'd watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on TV and had been blown away by the work he was doing (and the push-back he was getting from the communities he was trying to work within). This speech stands to show that obesity is not just a problem for children, it's a problem for adults who are equally as illiterate about food and therefore in a position to be as unhealthy. It was a resounding call to action for me but also made me start to look at my community in a different way. It's no surprise that there are a lot of overweight and out of shape people in the US but I was surprised how many people there are - including myself - when I actually started paying attention to the people I encountered on a daily basis.