The Politics of Food

Food is the fuel your life runs on.  The food choices you make influence everything you think, say, feel and do.  Most of us have a sense of healthy food choices; we used to call them the basics.  Fruits, nuts, seeds, vegetables, whole grains, meat, fish and eggs cover the real foods that will nourish you well.

If you want to eat healthy food, generally you cannot eat what is offered in mainstream grocery stores and fast food outlets around the globe.  Other than what may be available in the organic sections, you need to find your own sources of good food, grow your own, join food cooperatives and eat non-chemically grown food and only consume animals raised with respect and are hormone/pesticide/chemical fertilizer free.  After all if you believe that you are what you eat, then it is simply imperative for optimum performance that you consume optimal food and water.

The truth is that once you admit that you want better health, you must be honest with yourself about what you are doing now and what you can do differently.  If you don’t want to know how sabotaged and compromised your food has become, then skip this section.  In our complicated society today, it’s what you don’t know that will undermine your success.  Simple and healthy food must be part of your plan for success.  It is more fun to cook with two people or more so consider forming your own healthy food posse.  If you can master a great burrito, filled with healthy protein and veggies and an avocado and salsa you can eat that every day and know that you are nourishing your body.  You can mix up 10 different types of burritos and be well fed.  The more creative you are and the more effort you put into what you feed your body, the more energy and clarity you will experience.  Just don’t complicate the cooking process, simple meals are good for you and as you create a routine for yourself you can work into more creative cooking if you desire.

What you eat and why you eat are equally important.  Carrying too much weight for your body frame does affect efficiencies of your structural strength, internal organ systems and how your mind works.  It is important for you to understand your relationship with food.  You don’t live to eat, you eat to live. Food is meant to be the fuel you run on, the nourishment that each cell of your body requires to deliver a productive and healthy life.  Fitness in terms of being able to walk comfortably and fast if necessary and have an active lifestyle are far more important measuring sticks of your health than the number you may see on your scales.  Consider the addictive nature of dyes, chemicals and trans-fats which lead to emotional addictions to foods, which presents a whole new challenge to changing your diet.  The entire phenomena of a multi trillion dollar business in the diet industry is hugely assisted by people’s emotional under-nourishment.  When a person starts to feel more connected, better understood and more in touch with their own feelings they start to eat less and make better healthy food choices.

Sadly, today’s food no longer has the same quality as in your grandparent’s day.  With the commercialization and globalization of food and farming, nutrition has suffered greatly and processed foods dominate the shelves.  Eighty percent of the food on the supermarket shelves didn’t exist 100 years ago. Conventional food for the masses is now grown in denatured soil that does not support healthy microbes and soil fauna.  Chemical fertilizers and pesticides are used annually in large quantities.  Many of the foods are GMO’s (genetically modified organisms), and growing them is dependent upon large inputs of chemicals. GMO foods are banned in 38 countries worldwide indicating that there are health and safety concerns with consumption of GMOs.  Further, garlic is bleached, fruits are sprayed & waxed, herbs and spices and beef are irradiated and injected with dyes and shelf stabilizers.  These are a few of many contradictions in food integrity.  Fake food is a $50 billion business.  A honey smuggling ring in the U.S. is mixing and cutting fructose corn syrup with honey and is worth $80 million annually.  You can’t tell real food from fake food because labels don’t always indicate the actual ingredients.

Sugar has been touted by the medical profession today to be one of the most addictive substances contributing to a long list of diseases. Sidney Mintz, wrote ‘Sweetness and Power’ in 1995 which has proven to be an authority on the history and addictive nature of sugar.  Sugar causes pleasure with a price that can be paid immediately, while overconsumption over time equals long-term nutritive or medical consequences.   Sugar influences the same region of the brain known as the “reward center” as does nicotine, cocaine, heroin and alcohol. Sugar has been refined from its original form to heighten its rush and concentrate its effects.  The more we consume sugar, the less dopamine we produce naturally in the brain and the result is that we need more of the drug to get the same pleasurable response.  You might think this transformation happens only because sugars and sweets taste good.  The truth is that sugar took over our diets because the first taste, especially for children, is a kind of intoxication and the kindling of a lifelong craving.  Sugar and high-fructose corn syrup are the primary causes of obesity, diabetes and insulin resistance, and are a dietary trigger for many other diseases as well.

One 12-ounce can of pop contains 50 grams (13 teaspoons) of added sugar.  The small fruit flavored yogurt (that people have been convinced is a healthy choice) has 26 grams of sugar (often fructose from corn source).  Other high sugar foods are salad dressings with 3 grams of sugar in 1 tablespoon of dressing and most frozen convenience foods, such as TV dinners and pizzas also have high fructose corn syrup content.  According to the USDA National Nutrient Database, one slice of commercially prepared white bread has 1.4 grams of sugar, though most people don’t consider bread to be a sweet food purchase.  One cup of canned fruit can contain up to 44 grams of sugar, twice the amount found in a cup of whole, fresh fruit.  Juice is one of the biggest sources of sugar in the American diet, especially among children.  Coca Cola may have 140 calories and 40 grams of sugar (10 teaspoons) but the same amount of apple juice has 165 calories and 39 grams of sugar (9.8 teaspoons).  It is always better to choose the whole fruit.  Often parents choose commercial granola bars as a supposed healthy option to candy bars. The truth is the amounts of added sugar are very similar to the amounts found in some candy bars.  Condiments and sauces are often high sources of sugar, for example 1 tablespoon of ketchup has 3 grams of sugar.  Coffee creamers are made mostly of sugar in the form of high fructose corn syrup.  The roots of the modern discussion on sugar and disease can be traced back to the early 1670s, which coincided with the first flow of sugar into England from its Caribbean colonies.  A vital skill for you to practice is reading labels.  The carbohydrate count on the label tells you the sugar content plus the simple carbohydrates that are transformed into sugar when consumed per serving.   If the words on the label are not foods you recognize but are chemicals and additives and dyes, don’t buy it. The part of your body most affected by high sugar intake is your gut.  Keep in mind that 70% of your immune system lives in your gut, called your second brain. One of the reasons why your gut has so much influence on your health is due to the 100 trillion healthy bacteria–about three pounds worth–that line your intestinal tract. This is an extremely complex living system that aggressively protects your body from outside offenders.   Many recent studies agree that sugar can promote the growth of bad bacteria in the gut, which destroy the good bacteria in the gut.  This can easily manifest itself as an autoimmune response, ranging from allergies to skin conditions to severe colitis and leaky gut syndrome.  There is now evidence suggesting depression is a result of your body’s response to swelling in the gut due to damage to healthy bacteria.  Artificial sweeteners are considered more detrimental to health than sugar.   All artificial sweeteners can detrimentally influence the microbiota (your gut’s bacteria). This loss of good bacteria can lead to glucose intolerance, which can lead to diabetes.

One can’t talk about food without talking about Monsanto, the originator of the genetically modified food you eat and the largest supplier of pesticides to the world.  Today Monsanto is known as Pharmacia LLC and they represent the largest corporation in the world controlling food production, agriculture, chemical use and pharmaceuticals. Monsanto currently has about 4,000 U.S. patents and over 7,000 patents worldwide, including plants, chemicals, processes and machines.  Worldwide, 282 million acres are planted in Monsanto’s GM crops, up from only 3 million in 1996, according to Food and Water Watch.  One hundred and fifty one million acres in the U.S. are planted in Monsanto’s crops.  Of great concern for us all is the fact that Monsanto owns 1,676 seed patents and provide 95% of plantable seeds to local farmers that are not fertile.  Therefore you would have to buy new seed every year.  They also control 75% of the world’s pesticide formulations.  Seven companies now control 71 percent of the world’s commercial seed market.

Steven M. Druker, a public interest attorney and the Executive Director of the Alliance for Bio-Integrity, initiated a lawsuit in 1998 that forced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to divulge its files on genetically engineered foods.   He’s recently published a book on the lawsuit (2015).  In his book, called ‘Altered Genes, Twisted Truth: How the Venture to Genetically Engineer Our Food Has Subverted Science, Corrupted Government, and Systematically Deceived the Public’ he summarizes his journey.

While more than 38 countries around the world have completely banned the import or growth of genetically modified foods, people in America are just now demanding the labeling of genetically modified food products.  

There is criminality behind selling food that is contaminated with chemicals and plastics. When you take this situation seriously and inform yourself adequately, you hopefully will see how governments should be held accountable for approving and distributing toxic food.

Discover the fun and flavor of good food in your life; have fun with variety and color and feed yourself as you might love yourself.  The power to transform your life is greatly supported by the food you eat and the water you drink.  Truly, it is that simple.  Your taste buds will adjust as you eliminate the addictive foods that are toxic for your health and eventually you will not be able to go back.  The sweet taste of an organic strawberry or blueberry, the rich flavors of garden vegetables and the discovery of grains, nuts and beans that fill your body with energy will become the new you.

Food Democracy Now is a grassroots community dedicated to building a sustainable food system that protects our natural environment, sustains farmers and nourishes families.   “Our food system is fundamentally broken. A few companies dominate the market, prioritizing profits over people and our planet. Government policies put the interests of corporate agribusiness over the livelihoods of farm families. Farm workers (often migrant workers) toil in unsafe conditions for minimal wages. School children lack access to healthy foods–as do millions of Americans living in poverty. From rising childhood and adult obesity to issues of food safety, air and water pollution, worker’s rights and global warming, our current food system is presently unsustainable, and not looking promising for the future.”

‘Food Democracy Now’ members have a different vision. “We know we can build a food system that gives our communities equal access to healthy food, and respects the dignity of the farmers who produce it. We believe in re-creating regional food systems, supporting the growth of humane, natural and organic farms, and protecting the environment. We value our children’s health, worker’s rights, conservation, and animal welfare over corporate profits. And we believe that working together, we can make this vision a reality in our lifetimes.”

It is time for a Paradigm Shift in how Youth think about food. How food is grown, processed, shipped and packaged, contributes to poverty, hunger, obesity, diabetes, cancer, deforestation, water pollution and soil erosion around the world.  When people make informed choices they choose healthy food, support healthy environments and make the connection between healthy food, healthy planet, healthy people.  No matter how unfair it may be that you have inherited a damaged planet, unhealthy food and bad politics, there is much promise in each individual choice you make for a better life.