What you put in your head is much more important than what you put in your stomach.  It is odd that people can be very fastidious about what they eat, but pay little or no attention to what they consume mentally.  An easy illustration of this occurs in homes and lunchrooms around the world as people eat their carefully chosen, dietetically correct meals while they watch cable news. They seek to rid their food of contaminants but do nothing to rid themselves of the televised contaminants like violence, disease, and issues that evoke strong negative emotions.

What you put in your head is much more important than what you put in your stomach!

Just as dieticians have been pointing out that much of our diet is too high in salt, fat and sugar, and is causing a noticeable and alarming decline in health, the diet of news that we are being fed by commercial broadcast media has gotten extremely high in violence, misbehavior, greed, catastrophe and negativity. It is causing a noticeable increase in stress.

The fast food industry in particular, has learned that many people are drawn to food that is high in ingredients that are bad for them. This is also true of commercial news media, particularly television. They are more interested in their ratings and profits than they are in your mental health and well-being. They are only acting according to their nature. They are businesses and they want to do what is profitable.

The only way they will change their habits is if you change yours.

For starters, you can totally eliminate cable news from your mental diet. It is the “fast food” of the news world and as such, is the worst way to be informed. It is packed full of stories that have little or no “nutritional” value to your life. What possible good does it do for you to learn of yet another horrible murder? Cable news is also chock full of talking heads whose main intent is to upset you.  They are constantly searching for that issue which will push your button and keep you tuned in. Fast food and commercial news appeal to consumers worst instincts.

If you must get your news by TV, record it and fast forward through the stories that you don’t want. Better still, read!  Newspapers and web sites allow you to ignore the stories that will be injurious to your mental health.

In general, you may want to avoid any kind of news while you eat. Try some music.

Pay attention to what you feed your head.