Tuesday, September 18, 2007

A Soapbox Moment


If you have spent more than about 30 seconds reading my blog, you know that procuring *clean* food is one of my top priorities. Moreover, I also endeavor to be eternally vigilant in rooting out the secrets of fake "food" products Evildoers (no, Evil is not too strong a word to use here) sell to an unsuspecting public.

I call it "Blue Food."

Blue Food is the stuff that exists solely for the purpose of making the commercial "food" industry more money and resembles NOTHING found in nature.

I call it that because BLUE has become the universally recognized color for artificially flavored RASPBERRY anything. Need I remind you... Raspberries are RED.

There is even green ketchup... also purple if you prefer... and a whole synthetically produced rainbow of colors of "food" marketed to us, but especially our kids. They don't care what it might do to your body, or that of your growing child, only that they can produce something so *fun* and different that your kiddo will BEG you to buy it.

The newest abomination that falls into this category I noticed in a commercial on Nickelodeon and is, in my estimation, the most unnatural combination of unhealthy substances I have seen marketed to children since strawberry flavored methamphetamine...

Fizzix - Fizzy Yogurt Snack by Yoplait.

We have now entered the age of CARBONATED YOGURT, PEOPLE!!!

Is there a shortage of fizzy, tooth-rotting, gut-inflating swill on the market in the form of soda?

Have we become so bored, overstimulated and irrational we now expect our FOOD to entertain us?

I implore you. It is long past time to say "HELL, NO!" to modern chemistry being sneaked into our food supply simply because we have been lulled into a false sense of security that "well, if they sell it to us, it must be safe, right?" Wake up, folks. As long as somebody gets to make mind-bogglingly HUGE amounts of money on the American Public's addiction to convenient, cheap, "pretty" food AND, as a result, someone else gets to make even MORE money on prescriptions and procedures in the "fight" against the new epidemics of obesity, cancer, anxiety, depression, ADD/ADHD, heart disease... just a second... I'm getting winded here...

Seriously. The list goes on and on of preventable diseases caused or contributed to by Blue Food.

The real capper, though, is Genetically Modified ingredients. You know what your genes do, right? They tell your body what's supposed to go where. How things work. How stuff needs to behave as it applies to making your body function properly... right?

Okay. Now, what do you suppose happens when you introduce a tomato that was given a certain gene of a FISH to make it stay fresh longer in the store?

Don't know?

Neither do the people shoving GMO food into everything from your Doritos, to your ketchup, to your microwaveable TV dinner.

They're everywhere, People, and they matter.

Here's a link to a list showing where some of them are hiding. It's kind of an old list, but don't think its age means a new one would be shorter.

Life is chemistry. You are a whole swirling cocktail of chemicals that make your body work. What do you think happens when you start throwing in a whole mess of substances that your system, and the Earth, were never EVER designed to deal with?

Problems. Big problems. Like health epidemics. Like chemical-resistant strains of pests. Like real foods becoming so expensive and scarce that many people who care about that sort of thing have to make actual choices between spending four dollars for an organically grown tomato or two whole cans of Chef Boyardee.

That's just wrong.

Take control of your health out of the hands of people who don't care about you, or your family, or the planet. Don't eat it if you can't pronounce every single ingredient or read a label and think to yourself, "hmmmm... I wonder what that is?" KNOW WHAT YOU'RE EATING!

OH! And as if more nutrition, better health and supporting more responsible farming practices isn't good enough... REAL FOOD TASTES BETTER! That alone is a great reason to abandon Blue Food for good!

Okay. I'm stepping off my soapbox now.

If you'll excuse me, I feel strangely compelled to go hug my cows.

Peas, out.

6 comments:

Wendy said...

Here, here, sister!

I recently signed a petition because the manufacture of cow lactation hormones wants to keep companies from labeling their milk as hormone free!

And the 'food' that scared me the most was Kool-Aid that made our mouths tingle (not sure who brought that to the party. We tossed it pretty quickly.)

Although, I have to admit, I still like pop-rocks occasionally. But, only with a big can of coke to wash em down. :)

If I can find the email (and website) that I sent out about the hormones, I'll forward it on to you.

Wendy said...

Oh, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is a good one (their website has great recipes too.)

Wendy said...

I guess I can just add the site here, so others can go to it if they want...

http://ga3.org/campaign/rBGH/

(Sorry about hogging all the comment space!)

Anonymous said...

AMEN! Good preaching! LOL
Seriously, this is how I feel sometimes. I want to stand up and shout at the top of my lungs when I'm at certain social events. "STOP! DO YOU REALIZE THAT WHAT YOU ARE EATING IS POISONOUS?! THE GOVERNMENT AND FOOD INDUSTRY MAY NOT CARE FOR YOU, BUT I DO! YOU ARE MY FRIENDS! Please stop and read the label. Do you know what that word means? Go look it up in the dictionary and find out before you ingest it!"
Anytime my kids ask for junk food at parties or when with friends I remind them to read the label. Since I've done my best to educate them on what those words in the ingredient list mean, I allow them to decide if they actually WANT that in their bodies. I'd say the majority of the time they make wise decisions to avoid the junk. Although the peer pressure to eat the hot dogs, candy, etc sometimes outweighs their knowledge. :) It is cool, though when I hear them telling their friends, "Do you know what that does to your body?", or "Did you know flouride is a poison?" when their friends spend the night.

So, although many still don't know. I think the truth is spreading! We can teach our kids the truth.

I agree. Real, raw food tastes 1000 times better anyway!!!

Keep preaching.

Anonymous said...

BTW, Thanks Wendy for the info!

I've also included a post on my blog about the dangers of soy milk, which many falsely believe to be milk from heaven. I encourage anyone I can that drinks soy milk to find out the truth first! (www.xcelonline.com/Eph456)

Pop-rocks? Especially with a can of soda!? Double -UGH!

Angelina said...

Hey, we have the same soap box!!

I'm right there with you. On all the points. Oh, except for my kid's diet. But you know all about that. I do what I can.

GMO's are EVIL.
Blue food is both offensive and EVIL.

I'll go hug my hens while you go hug your cows.

That's a soapbox none of us can afford to get off of, by the way.