The 2 things that you must do to live are the 2 things that are slowly killing you.
Eating and Breathing.
People are dropping dead. All around me. At younger ages than ever before. I’m not kidding. I have had 2 friends, one in her 30’s, one in her 40’s die from cancer in the past 2 years. I’ve had 2 uncle’s die in the past 2 years. Another good friend, also in his 40’s, died of a heart attack out of nowhere. Several friends we have from the pawnshop have also died. This is all in the past 2 years. It is so sad.
Cancer. Heart attacks. Auto-immune Diseases. It is everywhere. I don’t think I am the only one noticing.
People are paying attention. We want our health back. We want clean food back. The gig is up. We are on to the system. The food industry seems to be focused on one thing, and it is not our health. Most of the folks in charge of feeding us are looking out for their pocketbooks, not our health. I don’t think I’m alone.
According to www.marketplace.org Processed foods make up 70% of the U.S. diet.
According to nationofchange.org and natural society 80% of processed foods in U.S. are banned in other nations.
According to nongmoproject.org 80% of the foods available at the grocery store contain GMO’s (genetically modified ingredients).
I am one of many who wants to reclaim my health. Reclaim my food. Reclaim my future.
Everyone I know is on some sort of “Diet.” Most of them are not trying to lose weight. They are just trying to NOT DIE before they turn 45. They want health. They want to feel good. They want to be active. They want to be old some day. They chose life!
The food sold at grocery stores today can be a dangerous business. I would argue that most of it is unhealthy. Even the so-called “health foods” can be questionable.
- Were these eggs truly laid by free-range chickens?
- How is “free-range” defined?
- Were the chickens just kept in cages big enough to qualify as “free-range” and fed corn every day?
- Is the milk homogenized?
- Is it pasteurized?
- Is this Genetically Modified?
- What is BHT & why is it in my food?
I am not confident that the food sold at groceries is good for me. I am pretty confident that most of it is bad for me. I am also pretty confident that if I ate everything sold on grocery store shelves that it would hurt me.
Our great-grandparents ate food. Real food. Most of it they raised themselves. It can even be argued that they lived better and longer than most folks do today. 3 Generations ago 70 or 80 year olds lived. They gardened, they took care of animals, they farmed, they had lives. Today most 70 or 80 year olds do not have what I would consider a quality life. They are simply surviving – not thriving. Many of them are in assisted living situations, some are weak and very sick. This is not the life I want when I am old.
If I am blessed with a long life, I want to still be “living” when I am 80. I don’t want to be “surviving” in a nursing home somewhere.
Around here, our philosophy on food is simple. Our goal is to eat real food, the way God made it. MOST of what we eat is the real thing. Not ALL – just MOST. We aren’t perfect, neither are our diets. We try to avoid eating the fake stuff. It is HARD.
I have been on a personal journey over the past 10 years (give or take) to uncover the deceptiveness of our food industry & learn to tell the good from the bad. I am no where near the end of this crazy path. I have come very far & still have quite a ways to go. However, I am moving in the right direction.
A great documentary to watch if you want to learn more about America’s food industry is FOOD, Inc.. I have seen it a couple of times & it is very insightful, eye-opening and exposing.
We have decided, for our family, we want to do the best we can with what we have. We want to be knowledgeable about food so we can make educated decisions. We want to know the truth about our food. Then we can chose wisely on most occasions & blow it when we feel so inclined. AND I do feel so inclined…… to eat Doughnuts and Frito’s and Chick-fil-A every once in a while.
One of my chief detective moves to decide if something is “real food” or not is to ask myself: 100 years ago was this food?
Most of the processed, frozen, bagged, packaged food-like substances sold at stores can be eliminated by this one test.
100 years ago most Americans lived on farms and grew food. Many items we consider “food” did not exist then.
- Pringles (never seen it)
- Pop tarts (what?)
- Fruit Roll ups (ewww)
- Doritos (Why orange?)
- Cheez-it (again with the orange?)
- Pizza Rolls (gross)
- Fuit Loops
- Hot Dogs (don’t get me started)
- Velveta (orange again)
- Twinkies (seriously?)
If it didn’t exist 100 years ago – It’s probably not real food.
Now, here’s some foods that stand the test of time:
- Eggs
- Fruit
- Vegetables
- Steak
- Chicken
- Bread
- Rice
- Nuts
- Beans
- Milk
You are probably getting the picture.
Even if you make small changes, your body will thank you. Living in America, it is difficult to make the transition to a “real food” diet. It goes against what is all around us. The “Standard American Diet” (SAD) is full of processed foods and rarely questioned. If you are just beginning on your journey to reclaim your food….. welcome! It is worth the work. It is worth the expense.
I read somewhere you can either pay for good food or you can pay the Doctor. I think there’s some truth in that. Our health has definitely improved since we have changed the way we eat. I have 4 kids so I have spent my share of time in doctor offices in the past 16 years. I would rather pay the fruit market.
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Love,
CJ
