I have never professed to be a trained scientist in Psychology but I have always been fascinated with the study of the human mind. The observation of human behaviour and why people say and do the things they do has always intrigued me.

I am not surprised these days when I hear about road rage, air rage, drive thru rage, and or any other kind of rage there is out there. Are our lives that stressed that we cannot wait in a long lineup for our morning coffee? You ask yourself if I should bud in the drive thru so I can get to work on time with my jolt of java in hand. Is it human nature to act and think this way? Do we as normal human beings have this in common? Is this a logical characteristic to have?

Our parents have indeed determined our genetics. This genetic make up and the inherited characteristics from one generation to the next, evolution and your own personal developmental history have had a strong influence on your behavioural characteristics. Whether we like it or not you are stuck with yourself. Human behaviour comes from the human brain, your brain. How you choose to carry yourself is ultimately up to you.

I have a personal philosophy that I live by everyday. I write my own horoscope because the write ups in the daily papers are just conjecture. I set goals for myself. I believe that you can create your own destiny, but a bit of fate does make it easier. Your life comes together for a reason at that particular time in ones life. I always strive to do the right thing. I live for today and going forward. I stay positive. I express love and gratitude to those around me and for what I have already received. I respect others and expect the same in return. I enjoy life and have fun whenever possible!

What is your philosophy? That philosophy could provide the very basis for your personal behaviour, and it establishes the value of you as an individual and will clearly affect others around you. We have all had a bond and or an association, or an emotional involvement between a number of people throughout our lives. We have all had different types of relationships and or link between persons. As children, we relied on our parents, family members and teachers to appropriately instill a basis for a suitable moral and ethical value system. It is that value system that gets us through our formidable years to come in the real world called “life”.

I am sure you have all heard the term “dysfunctional family,” is there a correlation to dysfunctional eating? Can we improve our relationship with food by understanding more about how food is grown and produced? Yes, I think so. Developing a more positive connection with food can be the solution to accomplishing and retaining a healthy weight. The study of human genetics can be useful as it can answer questions about human nature, understanding the power and the enigma of food can determine your decisions about what you eat, when to eat and where to eat this foodstuff.

For many people food is a little more than just nourishment. Many people use it to fight stress or ward off the blahs. What is missing is the absolute pleasure and comfort of sitting down with your family and discovering the extraordinary tastes, textures and the real essence of good food. In Italian life and culture food plays an important part. Italians have a strong healthy relationship with food which is exemplified by the “celebratory” nature of the food. All Italian celebrations includefood as nourishment for the body and nourishment for the celebratory spirit. Italian cooking emphasizes using fresh ingredients and wholesome non processed food.

Italians would rather can their own tomatoes instead of buying canned tomatoes with unnatural preservatives. Other preserved Italian foods such as eggplant are preserved using all natural ingredients like salt and vinegar. The Italian diet is basically the “Mediterranean Diet” which is currently being heralded as super healthy by doctors and nutritionists. Quando gli Italiani mangiano, mangiano bene. Translation is when Italians eat; they eat well, for their health of course!

You may ask yourself, how can we improve our relationship with food? The answer to that is the awareness about how our food is grown and produced and how it ultimately ends up on our plates. I enjoy watching the show called “How’d that Get on My Plate?” on the Food Network. This show gives us an inside look at the methods used to plant, nurture, harvest, transport, heat, cool, slice, dice, mix, package and otherwise process raw ingredients in the foods we eat. This program will give you an appreciation of how cutting-edge technology can take simple raw ingredients and transform them into the foods we consume everyday.

I am not a great fan of some processed food out there but knowing how they came to being will help me decide my daily food choices. Research has shown that the average person makes more than two hundred food decisions every day, chances are that you will either choose to eat well or just fill up on junk food. That’s a lot of power when you think about it. Whether choosing certain foods consciously or unconsciously this will ultimately determine your well-being.

We have all heard the term “locally grown” most people think of fruits and vegetables, but local can incorporate so much more. It can also include meat, poultry, eggs, milk cheese, maple syrup, honey and breads. The more effort you make to buying local gives you a closer connection to what you eat and can also mean eating more nutritiously. Local produce is picked at its peak of ripeness and peak nutritional value. So broaden your concept of local food, make a connection with Farmers’ Markets out there. Farmers’ Markets usually run from May to October. Take the kids to a fair or festival in your area and buy some produce while you are there and boost your health while improving your relationship with food.

Check out Foodland Ontario’s website at http://www.foodland.gov.on.ca/ for recipes, availability of vegetables, food facts and about Foodland Ontario, news and events and much more.

Here’s to your health!