"The way you eat is inseparable from your core beliefs about being alive. No matter how sophisticated or wise or enlightened you believe you are, how you eat tells all. The world is on your plate. When you begin to understand what prompts you to use food as a way to numb or distract yourself, the process takes you deeper into realms of spirit and to the bright center of your own life. Rather than getting rid of or instantly changing your conflicted relationship with food, Women Food and God is about welcoming what is already here, and contacting the part of yourself that is already whole — divinity itself.” -Geneen Roth

The essence of living organisms is encoded in their DNA. All living things contain this information, which is communicated across generations and across species in a continuous process of evolution and the food chain. Thus, fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, meat, eggs, dairy, herbs, and tea contain information that we introduce to our bodies on a daily basis.

Women, Food & God is not a guide to the information contained in each food choice, but an exploration of how our relationship to food and ultimately, to ourselves, is the lens through which we process that embedded information. No matter how “healthy” our food and drink choices may be, when our conditioning and thought process associated with eating and drinking are not healthy, we will be chronically deprived of the deep nourishment that we need to thrive.

According to Geneen Roth, when we are present and aware, we are able to allow our intuition to influence the process of seeking nourishment. By listening to our bodies, we discover that we already know what we need- how much, how little, when, why, and how- without the help of the $20 billion per year US weight-loss industry that has captivated 108 million Americans with its costly advice.

Roth invites us to rethink our cultural identification with diet culture and orthorexia (obsessive behaviors associated with the pursuit of a healthy diet), offering us the alternative- freedom to trust ourselves and listen to the truth in our own bodies. In doing so, the pursuit of happiness and wholeness becomes possible as it diverges from random numbers on a scale.  

I personally have found that Skinny Me, by Abbé Tea Company is exactly what my body wants and needs. The puerh in this blend gives me just the right amount of energy to start my morning, and the natural melatonin-producing effects of puerh ensure that the trace amounts of caffeine do not affect my sleep. As an alternative to coffee, which I normally load with cream and sugar, the puerh combined with the peppermint, hibiscus, and orange peel doesn’t require any further accoutrements, which eliminates that crashing feeling and craving for another uplift. My body truly loves this tea!