A meal is where “human touch inspires hope” 

A cook’s human touch in a kitchen preparing meals for family and loved ones, starts threads that weave through generations.  Are these meal-threads healthier, stronger, longer or weaker, sicker, quicker?  

Food really is information and meal choices made to match that information to cellular, metabolic and genetic level quickens health.  So here is a choice - choose the one you feel matches cell health and metabolism and will build strong family heredity threads in generations to come:

1. Plate of chocolate sandwich cookies made with trans-fat and real chocolate and 16 ounce soda.

2. Spinach salad with broccoli sprouts, carrot slivers, organic apples, dates with olive oil dressing, served fresh wild salmon and ginger tea.

If you chose (1) we are in real trouble because trans-fat is a reason for clogged arteries and significantly poor heart health outcomes over last half century.  You will see why visually in The Living Lab.

If you chose (2) it’s a match to Heal with a Meal©.  And in The Living Lab you will see why we need olive oil and other healthy oils to heal the cell wall.

Together, we can heal if we support healthier food and cooking choices in our community, family and kitchens.  Never forget that health takes a community as does healthier food availability and use.  We need each other’s support.  And food needs our support.  You see its not what we do to food but what food can do within us that matters. I believe strong community support will pave the way back to less processed foods.

To heal means to give life with direction and purpose.

Meal is a word we need to re-think because it’s on automatic, eat quick, fast, drive through, heal-less, etc. To stimulate a re-think, start with the alphabet…. “My alphabet starts with this letter called yuzz.  It’s the letter I use to spell yuzz a ma tuzz. You will be sort of surprised what there is to be found once you go beyond Z and start poking around ”

In Dr. Seuss fashion, let’s start poking about “meal.” Meal is an alphabetic walk up from H(heal) to I to J to K to L to reach M for meal.  Or “I Just Know Life-saving Meals.”  Unfortunately, look around you - is the food in your kitchen, restaurant or lunch tray lifesaving or lifeless? 

It’s just a walk to learn how to Heal with a Meal©.  And it is one powerful walk.  Life-saving.  Life-giving with direction and purpose.  

Here’s a true story.

Ron was on crutches since 3rd grade because of severe pain walking.  Now 18 he is off to college - still on crutches.  No one found an answer to the pain.  In our clinic, we plotted his genetics, metabolism and symptoms to be sure we did not miss anything…takes hours to do but worth it.  and…there was an answer.  Ron had celiac genes, his metabolism was overflowing with antibodies against wheat and gluten and wheat was a mainstay of his diet.  Gluten.  “Stop the wheat and gluten, Rob…and here is how…” 

A few weeks later, no pain.  Power walking.  Rob took that walk up from H-I-J-K-L-M …now he says with force:  “I just know life-saving meals.”  He is healing with meals each day, re-building muscles and tissue to be healthier, stronger, longer.  Heal with a Meal was his launch pad for success.  Ron launched his own Heal with a Meal© program, kept at it even in the college dining hall, staying on foods matching his genetic-metabolic-cellular health.  Food molecules threaded those molecules of health all the way from his food plate, to gut, to circulation, to cells, to mitochondria, to building up stronger muscle and bone proteins…. His reward: he has his life back, now pain most symptoms gone.  

Going further with a meal, it is food molecules that can create health molecules within us.  And here we are piloting into vast unknowns.  We are test pilots using food as one of our launch pads. We coined the term Molecular Test Pilots© to motivate our clients to test that walk up from H-I-J-K-L to M, piloting their own health, starting with Heal with a Meal©.  

Food is a huge topic with a lot of barriers and habits stored within this word.  Start thinking about your meals.  Ask yourself:

On my breakfast or dinner plate is the food nourishing?  Healing?  Do I get energy from it?  Does my shopping cart match up with rainbow vegetable colors or white bread, white sugar and white potatoes?  

Heal with a Meal©. is meant to challenge our food thoughts, habits and even digestion.  And we will go further to find out what our cell walls, mitochondria and even our genes need to be life-savers for us.

Take and test this walk with me.  I am not a chef.  I am just starting my journey.  But I got rid of the microwave because I want food that has energy in it all the way to its molecules and electrons.  Health is a choice.  

Remember: It’s just a walk to learn how to heal with a meal.  And it is one powerful walk.  Life-saving.  Life-giving with direction and purpose.

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,

Nothing is going to get better. It's not.”  (Dr. Seuss, The Lorax)

So start…caring about your food…a whole awful lot..... 

I CAN, YES I CAN, RECREATE MY I AM

Caring, in the kitchen, I am, I am…

Making great meals, I can, I can

A good cook am I, I am, I am

One that can heal with a meal, I can

There is Power in a meal when it’s fresh not canned

Designing health with a meal, I am, I am

Everything that’s good and nothing that’s canned

A caring cook am I, I am

Making fresh healthy meals I can, I can.

And you can too, oh yes you can!

Oh!  Will you try and throw out those cans?

Why yes you can throw out those cans!

‘Cause a meal you see, makes YOUR “I am”

You, yes you, can create your I am 

And rewrite your story in a kitchen, no cans

So repeat after me to live with elan,

Say “I can, yes I can, recreate MY I am.”

by Ann L. Johnson in the style of Dr. Seuss

Special thanks to ballad artist Mara Tshibaka Cichocki