When I was in my early twenties, it was suddenly no longer safe to eat raw eggs. Scientists had found new information that raw eggs were making us sick with salmonella. If I had questioned this, I may have been told it was because chickens were no longer raised in the backyards of farmers and that they were now raised in CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) - livestock factories. If I had asked, perhaps someone would have told me that CAFO conditions are deplorable and bacteria-laden.
When I was six or seven years old, our milkman stopped coming to our house. I wish I was old enough to question why he disappeared. I was quite certain that I wasn't really the milkman's daughter even though my siblings told me over and over that I was! Maybe I would have been told that the convenience of supermarkets and a 'need' to pasteurize contributed to his disappearance. I wish I had thought to question this when I got older, too. When I was in my early twenties everyone around me was saying it isn't good to drink the fat that is in milk. I wish I asked why the cream and fat were no longer safe to drink and why milk was now sold in choices of 1%, 2% and skim. Maybe I would have been told it has nothing to do with our health and more to do with it being much more lucrative to separate milk into different parts - parts that the body might not be able see as 'food.' Maybe I would have realized if it were, in fact better for us to drink 1%, 2% and skim that God would have had those different milks coming right out of the spigots - otherwise none as udders.
Suddenly in my twenties it was no longer safe to eat raw hamburger. Many who are ten years my senior told me they grew up on raw hamburger. They anxiously waited for their mothers to turn their backs so they could steal a small hunk. I wish I had asked why it was no longer safe to do this; I might have learned that the cows were no longer raised on farms, but instead, again, in CAFOs. I may have learned that cows now stand in their own manure in CAFOs up to at least their ankles, some up to their udders, and are fed corn which causes e. coli in their stomachs.
In my thirties, it was simply no longer safe to eat beef - period. I wish I had questioned why. Was it because cows were no longer raised on farms, they were no longer eating grass in pastures and instead being fed a steady diet of corn - corn that is no longer sprayed with insecticide because the insecticide is now on the INSIDE? In my later thirties I wish I had questioned it again. Would I have learned we were the only country that approved Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) and that other countries didn't approve it because it makes the cows sick?
In my twenties I also wondered, what is this 'canola' oil that everyone is telling me to use. Why is something that I've never heard of suddenly the 'heart-healthy' thing to be eating? I wish I had not trusted those rumors and did my own research - maybe I would have realized it simply wasn't true. I am embarrassed that I never even asked, "What is a Canola?" I knew what the olive in olive oil was and the sunflower in sunflower oil. If only I'd asked, perhaps someone may have told me it is an acronym for - Canadian Oil Low Acid. Maybe I would have learned that it came from a plant that was toxic before it was modified to be 'safe' for human consumption. I may have been told that before it was modified to be 'safe' for human consumption that it was only used for oiling machines.
I wish I had questioned, "What is Lard?" I knew it was a fat and that it came from an animal, but that was about all I knew. I wish I had asked why it was no longer 'healthy' to eat. Maybe I would have heard about a company that invented a product called shortening that was shelf stable for years and that there was a LOT more money to be made with this new product. If only I had asked, maybe someone would have warned me that it might 'shorten' my life.
I am embarrassed and ashamed that I never took a long, hard look at what I was eating. But in my own defense, I wasn't just a Baby Boomer - I was a Supermarket Kid, too. I wish I had questioned on what our Creator had intended my body to run, I might have learned it is supposed to be real food. Real food - it's that plain and simple. Okay, so deciphering what is real food and what is fake/plastic food is another story. By now, most of us have learned that margarine is one molecule away from being plastic. Although I'm still learning about 'plastic' foods every day, I think I am getting it under control!
Sources:
Carole Morison, via Food Inc. - who was brave to stand up for what she believes by showing us the deplorable conditions in which chickens are raised. Thank you Carole and Food inc.!
Robyn O'Brien TedX
Dr. Mark Hyman
