Eating Well in the Modern World

For me eating clean, organic foods is not arrogance, not a statement of “look how PC I am”, or “look how well I eat”. It is not arrogance, unless you enjoy paying seven dollars for a pound of chicken - to me that is not fun at all. It's just plain stupidity. In all truth, eating organic is a pain in the ass. I get so tired of having to filter through all the labels, misleading advertisements, advertorials, and food industry hype coming from both camps. I just wish that it was harder for the people who don't care about their health instead of the other way around. Healthy food should be the norm, not the exception, and it says a lot about our culture that it has gone this far backwards.

Yeah, I really relish going all over town burning $3.00 a gallon gas just to find the spelt bread I like. Oh, and then there's the fact that it's $5.00 a loaf. I really like that too. Wait, then it's over there to another health food store to find the organic cilantro, if they have it, and it's not rotten. And then hit the local big grocer on the way home to get the few things they carry that I can eat, (or they were out of at the health food store) because it's a little cheaper. Oh, and now throw in the Wal-Mart factor. They are starting to carry a lot of good, really cheap organic foods, so I stop there even though it raises my guilt - as well as my stress level - but hell it's $4.99 a bottle for organic olive oil, and it tastes better than the $12.99 bottle from the health food store so what's a budget conscious guy like me supposed to do?

I can't even enjoy a simple, occasional meal out any more, because every time I do I feel like crap for days while my body cleans out all the MSG and other toxins contained in almost all aspects of the food supply. Eating well isn't something I can necessarily afford to do, but it is something I know that I cannot afford not to do. The alternative is to be slowly and knowingly poisoned. Which the dude cannot abide. So at the end of the day, I pray. I pray for a day when healthy food is the norm and not the exception. When people who want to eat unhealthy food have to struggle to find bad-for-you-food like I have to search for the good, clean food. A day when consumer watchdog agencies protect the consumer, and not the corporations.

No sir, eating well in today's world is not fun, not fun at all. And navigating the modern food climate can be a nightmare if you don't have a road map. That is the very reason for this blog. To shorten the learning curve and make it easier for people to eat better, and be healthier, without spending a fortune, or the rest of our lives doing it. So I'll shut up now and go back to my eggs, cheese, and apples. See ya -

Ho, Ho, Hum...

Tis the Season for happiness, togetherness, giving, receiving. Well you get the hint, “great tidings of comfort and joy.” But what if happiness isn't the prevailing theme? What if loneliness, sadness, and even depression are what you are feeling?

Not only is that not good for your mental health, it is also harmful to your physical well being. In Lessons From The Miracle Doctors by Jon Barron, he points out that depression can by as hard on your physical body as stress, which we all know can be a killer. “Your body is a product of your thoughts. The cells of your body have receptor sites for the various neuro-hormones you produce. Your immune cells, to use just one example, have receptor sites for each of those hormones. When you are happy, you produce a set of neuro-hormones that are picked up by the cells of your immune system. These particular neuro-hormones tell your immune system to jack up – which it does. In other words, happy thoughts improve your health. However, when you are depressed, the opposite happens. The neuro-hormones your body produces literally shut down your immune system. In effect, negative thoughts can actually kill you.”

Spend this day focusing on happy. Look around you and be grateful for the things you do have, give no energy to those things you don't. If you are alone, go to a soup kitchen and volunteer, if you are sad write a list of five things that make you happy. Go to the video store, read a good book, be grateful for the moment. If you spend enough time and energy focusing on what you are grateful for, the things that bring you down will lose their strength. Spend this day in gratitude, your body will thank you for it.