I’m going to warn you, this post may ruffle some feathers.

So if you are easily ruffled about having the status quo stirred up, maybe skip this week’s post and come back next week when we resume regular BodyMessage Monday programming.

In this part of the world it is Remembrance Day today, November 11th. A day that was created to allegedly help us remember what’s important and to pay our respects to those who have fought in the great wars of the past so you and I can be free.

Undoubtedly, today there will be no shortage of tributes, formal and informal, for our fallen sons and daughters, and memories firmly entrenched in the past.

There will be memorial services across North America with no shortage of people who are riddled with guilt, sorrow, shame, apathy, pain and pride, not to mention appreciation.

I am in Canada, so there will be no shortage of people feeling blessed to be Canadian, such a free country ,and home to some of the ‘nicest’ people in the world. (If you’ve ever been traveling, you know exactly what I mean. “Those Canadians are just so nice!”)

Well, my question to you is, how free are you? Really?

Last night, my wife and I had a celebration for our son being asleep somewhere between 8 and 8:30pm, not a big deal for many of you but cause for celebration with regard to our late night 4 year old party animal.

To celebrate, we decided to watch a movie. So, I rustled up some organic popcorn*, which I made by hand, on the stove-top, with organic coconut oil and pure unrefined Himalayan salt. My wife, Sascha, even added Lion’s Mane, an organic medicinal mushroom powder, (those of you who know Sascha will be smiling right now), and cozied up.

*This may sound odd to you in this day and age of Orville Redenbacher’s prepackaged popcorn, which I could have just thrown in the microwave and nuked it, been ready in 2 minutes, without all the fuss and mess… (I’m a good cook, but have a tendency to leave quite a trail behind me.)

We decided on a documentary in alignment with our way of life and how we eat, the 2008 film, FOOD Inc.

If you haven’t seen this film, I think viewing it is possibly one of the most valuable things you could do for yourself, in the spirit of self-care and self-respect.

[Yes, this IS a BodyMessage Monday post… we are getting there.]

With so many people facing problems with digestive and hormone dysfunction (not to mention being overweight), I could not NOT write about this.

The emotional and mental origins of the conditions I normally write about lead to a place of making less-than-optimal choices, this film will definitely tickle some of those origins… which I see as useful.

The film addresses something almost nobody knows about, yet it affects nearly everybody; the food industry, including the politics thereof.

Now I know that my audience is typically better informed than the average bear, but some aren’t, and ignorance is not the answer, so let’s continue…

We North Americans take pride in the options we have and having the freedom to assert our choice upon these options, but is it real?

If I offer you a choice of heads or tails, distracting you from noticing that it is the same coin being offered, is it really a choice?

This post is about our emotional origins of food choices, but it exposes you to the dark underbelly of how you have been duped into thinking that the choices you think you have, may not really be choices at all. It is a deep issue to deal with, truly.

Unless you are vigilant in sourcing where you get your food from and deal directly with local farmers for you sustenance, you are likely being duped at one level or another.

FOOD Inc. takes you behind the scenes of the ‘choices’ you think you are getting at local supermarkets around the continent, and exposes that the choices you think you have actually travel back to basically 1 of just a few sources; or companies rather.

This Gives the ILLUSION of Choice.

So what does this have to do with Remembrance Day and BodyMessage Monday?

Well, here goes nothing…

Not too long ago, I had come across a statistic that the United States has been at war, in one place or another, for the last 100 years, non-stop, without fail. I have noticed our Canadian Forces usually tag along for the ride, don’t they?

Wars are very profitable and afford opportunities for those who win, or the ‘haves’, to really scoop up what the ‘have-nots’ lost during those hard times.

The ‘haves’ in the beef and pork arena, the 4 food industrialist companies that dominate 80-90% of the meat supply found in supermarkets, scoop up struggling farmers with promises of stability and then begin to lobby for support by the government to subsidize programs that allow them to ‘feed the world’.

HELP US FEED THE WORLD!

Sounds great, doesn’t it!

The challenge is the ‘food’ they are feeding the world with is getting further and further away from being food, and has become a science experiment; with the lab mice being you and your family.

So, what is the real cost of this feeding the world if the food makes the world sick?

(It may be worth sharing that I am NOT a vegetarian and a conscious consumer of various sourced animal products.)

Onward.

Furthermore, the subsidies these big multinational companies get create for them low costs, that make is so the average farmer can’t compete.

Get this: according to FOOD Inc., in the corn industry, the subsidized farmers actually sell the multinational’s toxic GMO corn BELOW THE COST OF PRODUCTION to the beef industry (for example) and still turn a profit!

Wow, imagine selling your wares for less than it cost you to make/get it, and turning a profit… amazing!

And it gets even more ridiculous, but I will let FOOD Inc. share that.

You can watch the whole documentary on YouTube for free thanks to somebody who posted it. Watch it by going here.

Back to our reality.

Today, incidence of obesity and damaged gut health is on the rise, and unfortunately it’s the kids of today that are totally getting hosed from what the previous generations allowed to happen. (Including ours)

Our children’s health challenges come as a result of our desire for faster foods, bigger houses, nicer cars and more convenience.

We Have Become Convenience-Junkies.

This way of life has created deep seeded turbulence in our subconscious minds, so out of alignment with how nature works, that it is becoming unsustainable.

If you are one of the ones who can feel this in your own life, you may be experiencing discontent, anxiety, restlessness, relationship dysfunction or something different.

By the way, I’m not saying that the food industry is the culprit in this equation. What I AM saying is the food industry is a symptom of us being disconnected from our natural and real selves. Watch the documentary and pay attention to what comes up for you.

In upcoming BodyMessage Mondays, I’m going back to the regular format, and will be addressing what your body is trying to inform you if you are experiencing issues in your guts.

Chances are, as you resolve the emotional origin of why you are attracted to the kind of foods that impair your gut function, you will begin to crave more foods that heal and support you, and less of the foods that don’t. Without effort.

In fact, if you resolve the beliefs that cause you to have any of the guilt, sorrow, shame, apathy, pain and pride around Remembrance Day, mentioned at the beginning of this post, it is likely that glamourizing war may not make as much sense to you as it once did.

It is time for us to wake up, including you and me, and make better choices.

How?

By resolving the inner conflicts that cause us to re-make our past choices. The rest can be left to unfold.

In closing, and with all due respect to those who gave their lives for what they dearly believed was right, I urge you explore coming from inspiration rather than memory, more often.

Check in with your body to see if the information in this post resonates as useful for you.

Seek out a local farmer to get hormone-free, antibiotic-free and grass-fed/finished meat, if you eat meat. The same goes of veggies.

In closing, I’d like to offer my own Remembrance Day tribute for this year: