How Healthy Is Your Diet?

“Let food be your medicine.”

Hippocrates 

Local, small farm-raised, traditional sustainable food is medicine for the body and the planet.

Many Americans mistakenly believe they are eating healthy.  Health doesn’t come from a diet of salad and skinless chicken breasts.  It is not about choosing cholesterol-free or buying non-fat milk instead of whole.  It comes from eating real foods, whole foods (food with its natural fat and cholesterol).  Health comes from eating food that is not highly processed or laden with chemicals.  It comes from food produced in a way that is sustainable and does not require depletion of nutrients from our soil or fish from our seas.   Depleting soils of nutrients leaves us with food similarly depleted in antioxidants and minerals.   It is not healthy to eat genetically altered organisms (GMO) or food sprayed with industrial waste, yet 70 percent of supermarket food is both.  Ultimate health requires us to find food that does not require miles of trucking to get it to the table.  Do you really need a tomato in January?

Your food choices impact your body and your planet: 

Land and animal health = human health.

Can You Afford Cheap Food?

Many complain about the high price of organic and sustainable food.   It’s often easier and cheaper to buy factory food from the local supermarket than to buy sustainable, truly natural food.  What’s easier than a Happy Meal at McDonald’s?....  What’s faster than nuking a frozen meal?  Why bother shopping for sustainably-raised, whole foods when you can save money and time with convenient packaged choices and non-organic food?  

Here are some reasons for you to find sustainable, natural food:

Your family’s safety  (think E. coli poisoning and Mad Cow disease)

Prevention of cancer, heart disease, bone loss and Alzheimer’s disease

True nourishment and thus real vitality for you and your family

The normal development (including hormonal) of your children

Your support of humane raised animals

Clean, uncontaminated drinking water

Reduced reliance on petroleum products

A stop to soil destruction

Hidden Costs to Cheap Food

Cheap food comes with hidden costs.  According to Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, over a half million kids have been sickened by E. coli.  Since 1995 there have been 20 outbreaks of a drug-resistant strain of E. coli from conventionally grown spinach and lettuce as well as beef.  Hundreds of Americans became ill and some died.  The tainted run-off from factory feedlots is the suspected cause.  Other effects of factory foods are more subtle.

Research tells us conventionally farmed produce, meat and dairy offer far less disease-fighting nutrients than organically farmed produce.  Recent research shows food has less cancer-fighting ability when conventionally grown than when organic. You also get less vitamin C, iron and bone-building minerals in conventionally grown food.   Perhaps you could save money on vitamin supplements by choosing organic. 

Pesticide residue in conventionally-grown produce is associated with increased risk of cancer, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, infertility and undesirable hormone changes.   Can you afford to increase your risk of such diseases?

The average meal is trucked 1500 miles before consumption.  The petroleum used in conventional farming and ranching equals that burned by the nation’s cars.  Choosing local, sustainable foods not only feeds your local economy, it keeps your air clear and uses less oil.

Feedlot meats and conventional produce require vast quantities of corn, which tends to be genetically modified as well as demanding of large quantities of petroleum products in the form of chemical fertilizers.  Year after year of using farmland this way is destroying our soil – depleting it of topsoil and valuable nutrients.

We sacrifice healthful variety by choosing supermarket food.  According to a study done by the Rural Advancement Fund International, 97 percent of the crops known to the USDA in 1903 are now extinct.  Fewer crops make it is easier and more profitable for large agribusiness.  Unfortunately however, our dwindling variety of food is leading to food sensitivities, allergies and signs of deficiency as we repeatedly consume the same basic things.   One in three children have an allergy, ADHD or autism, conditions associated with overeating the same food repeatedly.  The more food variety we enjoy, the more we are assured of a full compliment of nutrients and freedom from debilitating food reactions.

Where to Find Real Food

Is Whole Foods shopping the answer?  Whole Foods is a large grocery store chain stocking some sustainable and organic items although not everything in a Whole Foods store is organic, nor is it good for you, or the environment. 

Whole Foods brings in food from across the globe, much of it conventional and some GMO.  I do not believe the canola oil used in Whole Foods’ prepared foods, which may contain GMO and is highly processed, is healthful.   Don’t assume any grocery store stocks only real or wholesome food.  Always ask about your choices.  Seek out local sources of sustainable food.

The term natural means very little when it comes to food.  Organic is a better choice but still not always ideal, especially as large agribusiness interests continue to lobby to broaden the definition of organic.  Seek out local, sustainable, small-farmed food from sources you trust.  Keep your eyes open for new sources of real food.  I was just passing through Graton, a small town in Sonoma County, and stopped into a tiny grocery there.  The only meat for purchase was a locally raised grass-fed beef.  You never know when you might run across real food. 

Find a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in your area.  This is a pre-paid service that delivers fresh local farm food from small growers on a regular basis.  By supporting small local growers, you might save a small farmer. According to the USDA, 4.7 million U.S. farms have been lost since 1935.  On the other hand, corporate agribusiness profits doubled since 1990, and you, the taxpayer, support them in the form of government subsidies.

Send a message with your food dollar.  It will save the livelihoods of small farmers, protect our food diversity, lead to humane treatment of animals, save fuel, protect air and water quality, and nourish your family.

Questions for your grocer:

• Where did this food come from?
• Does it contain genetically modified organisms?
• Was it raised with use of petroleum-based fertilizers?
• Do you carry foods that come from local sustainable suppliers?

See my Shopping Guide for sources of sustainable, wholesome, humane, organic, locally-produced foods. 

CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) links to http://www.localharvest.org/csa/   on Shopping Guide

Cholesterol-free will link to an article I will be sending in the next few days