This Nutritional Toxin Will Surprise You – with Marc David

It’s hard to avoid the seemingly endless amount of toxins that we’re exposed to via the air, water, our food, cosmetics, in the workplace, household items, and so much more. For sure, it’s a great strategy to try to clean up the toxins in your world as best you can.

What many people tend to miss when it comes to detoxification are the toxins we self generate – meaning emotional toxins that can pollute our mind and ultimately drain the body. In this video from #IPEtv, Marc David, founder of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, reveals a potent mental/emotional toxin that’s well worth letting go of. Learn how to empower yourself and your metabolism with some clear advice when it comes to food, body and life.

Here is a transcript of this week’s video:

Hi, I’m Marc David, Founder of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating.

Today’s topic: This Nutritional Toxin Will Surprise You

One of the great nutritional challenges these days is learning to manage all the information we hear about various toxic foods, toxins in those foods, toxins in the air, the water, and in the vast majority of our household and beauty care products. It seems like there’s a lot to worry about, doesn’t it?

So I’m certainly aware of this as I’m bringing to the forefront yet another nutritional toxin that might surprise you.

This toxin can impact us in some very powerful ways. It actually interferes with higher critical thinking. It stops creativity. It limits our intellectual bandwidth and understanding. And it has a strong influence on our eating behaviors, and can even impact our behavior towards others.

The nutritional toxin I’m talking about is this: Judgment.

Specifically, I’m referring to how many of us intensely judge the nutritional beliefs and dietary practices of others – be they friends, family, strangers, or nutrition experts and thought leaders.

Because I am in and around the nutrition universe in so many different ways for so many years, I have a wonderful opportunity to see nutritional judgment in action every day.

Essentially, nutritional judgment looks and sounds like this:

• I’m not going to listen to a single thing that expert says. She eats meat.
• I’m not going to listen to a single thing that expert says. He’s a vegan.
• That person doesn’t have an M.D. or Ph.D., so how can they know anything about nutrition or health?
• He’s eating sugar. I thought he was into good nutrition. I can never trust anything he ever says again about food or health.
• Look at her – she could definitely stand to lose some weight. How dare she talk about nutrition and health?
• Look at her. She’s old. How could she say anything nutritionally useful to a younger person?
• Oh my God. He’s sick. He has cancer. Or he has an autoimmune condition. How could he possibly know anything about health and healing? I will no longer listen to him.
• That person advocates eating more fat. How can anyone say that? He knows nothing.
• He advocates eating less fat. How can anyone say that? He knows nothing.
• That person’s into Paleo. Clearly, paleo is just a fad. I’m not going to listen to anything that community has to say.
• She’s eating cooked food. 100% raw is the way to go. Obviously she’s inferior and cannot take the higher nutritional road.
• That expert said one thing that I don’t like. Therefore, nothing they say has value.

I think you get the message, my friends.

The list goes on and on.

In nutrition as in life, when we use our judgments to stop all conversation, then we have dramatically limited our possibilities to learn, grow, evolve, and be exposed to information that might actually be important for us.

When we’re in judgment, it’s easy to feel right, righteous, and we truly believe that we have the moral and intellectual high ground. But can you recall any time in life where you held some very strong and powerful and immutable beliefs about the way things were – and then eventually those unchangeable beliefs indeed changed – and for the better?

That’s what life does.

Humans are fast losing the fine art and science of listening with an open heart and an open mind. I think we become too quick to write other people off for all different kinds of reasons. We could write someone off because they’re homeless, poor, black, white, Asian, old, young, fat, skinny, beautiful, rich, smart, opinionated, diseased, because there are male, female, or how they do sexuality or religion – and the list is endless.

If your approach to nutrition doesn’t have consciousness in it, then consider it deficient.

Consider it imbalanced and inadequate. Consider it a little too toxic.
Judgment serves no one, especially the one doing the judging.

It stops exploration. It stops discovery. It stops possibility. It stops the questioning process. Someone can tell you 100 stupid and insane things, and then say one thing that changes your life. I know, I’ve had this happen.

So here’s my suggestion to overcome this nutritional toxin:

Notice where you’re closed-minded when it comes to health and nutrition.
Notice where you’re quick to judge others.
Notice where you write people off quickly, without truly first seeing the gift that they have to offer.
Notice where you judge people about what they eat.
Notice where you judge people about what they believe about eating or teach about eating.
For extra credit, notice where you judge your own self around on this.

And then, do your best to remove this nutritional toxin from your life.

This doesn’t mean you don’t have a strong position about what you believe in.
It doesn’t mean that you can’t get angry or passionate about foods and substances in our food chain that are clearly harming people.

It simply means that we open our mind more in some of the places where it’s artificially closed. The result will be a smarter brain, a greater sense of community, more discovery, and an open heart.

All of which make us a heck of a lot healthier and way more interesting as human beings.

I hope this was helpful, my friends.

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