Words from a Reader

The “Writing Life Stories” e-mails I receive are such treasures. As soon as I see there is one in my inbox, I read it immediately. I look forward to them and never know how they will touch me. They can be interesting, informative, humorous, and/or touching.

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Will the younger generation change our food industry in the United States? We can only hope!

I read a post by Jayne Jaudon Ferrer tonight and I like her subject matter. Her three grown sons have actually made changes in the way Jayne eats. She is amazed that her kids, who were raised on Pop Tarts and sugary cereal, now eat organic foods and buy from people they know instead of shopping from the big name stores. Her thirty-something young men are health conscious.

http://commagoddess.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-return-of-generation-gapin-grocery.html

I related to much of this article, but I don't have children who influence my eating habits. I learned from my mother to eat natural fresh foods, so I cook. Tonight I cooked squash that I will have tomorrow and later this week. 

Rarely do I eat processed foods. I shop the perimeter of the store for the most part, but I do have to purchase coffee. I was happy to read this week that a couple of cups of coffee each day is good for me.

I can't eat red meat now without suffering for it. So, I eat chicken, fish, beans and eggs, lots of eggs. I cook Brussel sprouts and asparagus which I did not eat when I was young.

Sadly the food we grow now is not good because of the depleted minerals in the ground. Every day I learn more about the disaster we have in this country regarding our food. And, I am more thankful that I grew up on a farm with good food every single day.

The only cereal we ate growing up on the farm was grits which we ate with eggs.     

   

Dr. Mark Hyman, The Doctor's Farmacy podcast, is on a crusade to make our government, as well as all of us, aware of how we are killing ourselves with the unhealthy food available to us.

I was shocked to hear him say that we throw away 40 percent of the food we purchase. Imagine bringing in your groceries and throwing forty percent into the garbage. People in other countries do so much better with food waste. In some countries there are machines that change food waste into products that farmers use. They don't have landfills heaped with all the spoiled food we throw out. As you know, food in the landfills create methane gas that helps create the warming of the atmosphere. Climate Change!

When I hear Dr. Hyman talk about what we Americans do that is so harmful to ourselves and our earth, I want to call him and say How can I help? Give me a job!

Perhaps what upsets me most is hearing Dr. Hyman talk about the research he has done and found our own representatives in Congress hamper the FDA and other departments that were designed to protect us, the American taxpayers. 

The big food manufacturers hold our government hostage with their lobbyists. When the manufacturers donate huge sums of money to the politicians, our elected men and women tell FDA they will cut funding if any programs reflect badly on those large corporations. 

Think about the cereal makers. The sugar industry is an example. You won't see any government banning of any sugar products or putting warnings on products with sugar because the sugar industry is so strong and so rich, they buy our representatives off. No matter that children of today are being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes at an alarming rate. 

I hope my readers will listen to the interview with Dr. Hyman by Dr. Peter Attia. It is eye-opening and it makes me angry.

Greed is the cause of most of the illness our country. Greed by people who could make a difference if they truly cared. Ignorance is also the problem. Those in Washington don't bother to read or listen to people like Mark Hyman, M.D., director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine. He is working on that, thank goodness.

If you watch or listen to the interview, please let me know what you think. Leave a comment or send an email: gcbmountaingirl@gmail.com


 
 

4 comments:

  1. I am hoping that the younger generation changes a LOT of things. Things which sadly my generation has been unwilling or unable to change. Rampant consumerism is rife in my culture too, and it benefits a few financially and causes a lot of harm 'further down the feed chain'.

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  2. I feel so fortunate to live in a place where I can buy good nutritious vegetables grown right in the area. I haven't yet listened to that piece, but I will. :-)

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  3. EC, I hope that coming leaders of the world will do all possible to make it a better place. I am cynical lately about the future. I never was before. I think even our younger people are already being brain washed. A young man told me the virtues of GMO and I wonder where he got this information. Dr.Hyman talks about GMO in the interview.

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  4. You are fortunate, DJan, to have access to good nutritious food. In the summer, here in the mountains, I shop at the places that sell locally grown vegetables. There is a cannery near where people go and get help with canning tomatoes, beans, etc. If I had a family to feed, I would give that a try. But in winter, finding fresh that is grown in the United States is not easy.
    It seems that our schools feed all the wrong food to kids. Soft drinks, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, are everywhere. Don't people realize what they are doing when they fill a baby's bottle with cola?
    That happens more often than we would like to think. Almost every product you find on the grocery store shelves has sugar in it. I read labels but at times you have to just settle for the one with the lowest sugar count.

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