So I'm sure this title sounds horrible right? Well it is, anytime someone or something is poisoned its usually a horrible death. It usually is not instant, but a long slow process. Well that's what most of you are doing to your bodies! You are poisoning your bodies with this crap you call food. Sure its not going to happen right away. It will probably take a lifetime. But in the end its going to be a long slow death. Not to mention a decreased quality of life on the way to dying. You might have any number of these problems; cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, depression, impotence, arthritis, osteoporosis, and the list goes on! Why are these all a problem in our society? Well its because we have become dependant on science and convenience, thereby becoming lazy as hell. A lack of education and people who just don't care because they don't know better. You might know how to read but can you read a nutrition/ingredient label? If you wanted to read an ingredient label on your cleaners there is not one in most cases! NO! (thats another blog post) Just look at the epidemic levels of health problems in the world and most of all in the United States. We are as a whole one FAT, UNHEALTHY nation. The government is not a good source for info and the damn FDA is a huge joke. They are wrapped around the finger of giant corporations and do what "they" want them to. In the end, it comes down to money, money, money, he who has the most is the strongest. These drug/chemical companies have no interest in your health and well being! They just want more money in their pockets. So what can you do about it?
OK to start with you can begin to educate yourself! Oh damn I just said that you must do something for yourself! OH NO CAN YOU MUSTER THE COURAGE TO DO THAT?????? Well you can slowly kill yourself or you can do something about it. For the most part this information is not readily available to everyone. I have started seeing a slow and steady change in the past year though. More of this "radical" healthy type stuff is getting into the mainstream media. But at the same time there is more and sometimes violent opposition to it. Shows with Doctors giving sometimes bad advice and down right wrong information. So called "Myth Busting" of "Natural Cures" that stuff really makes me mad! To the average person who just believes what is thrown in front of them, this is REAL information. They believe it because its a doctor telling them and they trust them! Well doctors are taught a certain way and that's what they are bound to teach and practice by law. So they might have your best interests at heart but if you are healthy they don't make money. And down the line it goes, the big food, agriculture, and drug companies don't make money. And if they don't make money the stupid government doesn't get their share either! So how do you educate yourself?
LEARN TO COOK!!!!
The best way is to take small steps, don't jump right in or it wont "stick". Begin to understand what you eat and how to read a label. Then understand what that label means, what are the items listed and what do they do. Once you learn how to do that you will realize that alot of it is not food! You need to slowly shift away from the processed foods with unreadable ingredients. You have to eat naturally, the way God intended not the way man decides. Eat whole foods because that is what your body knows how to use. When its processed it is missing parts and usually they are the most beneficial parts. Your body then craves those missing parts and it causes you to eat more and more. The ingredient labels should have very few items or only one item! It shouldn't be fortified because that is not good for you either! If you eat a balanced diet of whole and minimally processed foods you will get your vitamins and minerals. Now here is something else alot of you say you don't like the taste! Well maybe that's true to start with, most likely it is because you have a false sense of what a certain food tastes like. Were you raised on artificial flavors and products? Well now you associate those fake flavors to be the taste of that particular food. The real food item will not taste the same!! So what you must do is clean your palette of this garbage!!!
LEARN TO COOK!
Once you have learned what is real and fake start eliminating the FAKE crap from your life. It doesn't have to be organic but it has to be all natural and minimally processed. Try new things and discover how they taste. Eat CLEAN and learn to like it, you will acquire the taste for new things as you try them. You will understand how and why it is healthy for you and what it does for your body. That is why you start with research! You don't have to start all at once either just pick an item or 2 a week maybe. You will realize that as you start ridding your mouth of the trash that new flavors start to appear! The wonderful flavor complexity's of real food start to come through. They will not be masked by artificial flavorings and chemical preservatives. The true flavor will be there and the nutrition! Once you have become "Clean" you will see how bad and truly disgusting fake processed food tastes! And you will appreciate how real food tastes. I noticed that when I did this years ago I was able to taste the chemicals and artificial flavors in almost all "poison foods". They just tasted wrong and sometimes actually made me physically sick after eating them! So now whats next?
LEARN TO COOK NEW AND DIFFERENT THINGS!
ORGANIC!!! All i can say about the flavor difference of Organic is that it is PURE! Now i understand that organic is more expensive! What you have to do is spend your money in the best way possible. Clean up the dirtiest areas, the ones most rife with chemicals. (fertilizer's, hormones, antibiotics etc) My belief is that these are dairy, meat, and grains. So much of this stuff is becoming so affordable now, but you have to look for it. Most big stores have a line of house brand organics that are similar if not cheaper than name brand non organic products. Where I live Meijer is a great example, they have a huge line of house brand organics that are amazing in quality. They are as good but much cheaper than the name brand organics and superior to the name brand conventional foods. I bet you will find that if your eating sensibly and healthy with organics that you will lose weight! Yes lose weight without doing anything but eating healthy! If you eat proper amounts of calories with balanced nutrition your body will self regulate. You will slowly hit your ideal weight, if you must gain or lose it will happen.
Now What?
LEARN TO COOK!!! Ok ok you might say after I have screamed it between paragraphs! Because you are dealing with whole/minimally processed foods you have to know how to cook them! You cant just open a package and "nuke it" and then proclaim that dinner is served! (microwaves are the devil but that's a different blog post!) You must know how to cook things. And more importantly cook them for maximum nutrient content. Pretty much it comes down to don't overcook things! Make cooking fun, get the kids involved or your significant other. Try new foods and ways of preparing them. Eat in season because those are the nutrients your body needs at that time of year. Buy local if you can and get to know where your food comes from. Meet the farmers and learn of their practices! Let me tell you that as you start this journey you will become amazed and more self aware. You will become a better you! YOU will not be so selfish, and will help spread the word to other people. Why? Because you have seen a difference in your life! You are healthier, your ailments and disease have gone away and you are whole! Yes it can happen! Proper nutrition is the CURE!!!!!
a great website for finding local food
http://localharvest.org/
