Sorry Cartman

"Goddamn Hippies!!"

It's finally become too much to ignore.  I've always known this time would come... the moment when I could no longer continue pushing away the truth.

That moment, the straw on the camel's back, occurred while reading the forward in The China Study.  THE FORWARD!  I'm 22% into it and am so disgusted with American food culture I could punch an eagle ("told you she's a terrorist").

Ignorance is bliss... until you're dying of cancer because your country thinks it can call pizza a fucking vegetable and feed it to children who don't know any better than "pizza is delicious and broccoli smells like daddy's farts".

That's just the most recent issue that's floating on the surface; it's deep down in the bowels of our society that the food issues get really fucked.

I'm not going to go into too many details and try and convert you into believing what I am finding or anything, but a few points that might help you along:

We can't walk around blindly accepting what we learned in our government funded schools, what the restaurants want us to see on TV, what the cattle farmers want us to believe, etc.  The science is out there and it's up to us to learn the truth.

If you've been sitting on the fence because you feel overwhelmed (like I was), a good rule of thumb would be to ask yourself, "could a neanderthal eat this?".  (I'm totally getting a patent on bracelets that say that and put WWJD out of business!)  If a neanderthal couldn't eat it, neither can you.  Our hominid bodies weren't made to process the synthesized food-like substances that we're putting in them, and that's why we're dying of heart disease and cancer.

The next level, when you get past the processed garbage into the whole foods that we need, keep in mind that neanderthal was a gatherer first and a hunter second.  There weren't three "square meals" set in front of him by his loving wifey each day, complete with a "serving" of meat, veggies, carbs/starch, and dessert.  Most of the time, he was out and about munching on berries and nuts he found on  plants he came across.

A good place to start your research is with the easily accessible documentaries and books out there on this stuff.  Food, Inc. is a popular one that will get you interested in what you're putting into your mouth hole.  Books like In Defense of Food and The China Study are helpful, but there's so much more out there too; don't just mindlessly follow what these people say either; dig around for yourself and make informed decisions, lest we end up right where we started.

What I'm reading in The China Study is that nutrition (more specifically, veganism) is the cure to cancer, basically.  Sounds crazy, but it's true.  Put down the prime rib and pick up a bean salad and see how you feel.  My Pilates instructor told us all about her battle with breast cancer that had spread to her lymph nodes (I think that's stage 4?) and subsequent illness from the treatment of breast cancer.  She cured herself of Osteopenia with only the information in that book (zero drugs) and continues to be cancer free.

When she told her doctor that she didn't want the drugs he was prescribing, that she would work on her nutrition and see where that got her, he laughed in her face.  When she accomplished her goals (in six months) and had the blood tests to prove it, she went back and shut him up pretty quick... which just goes to show that this country has not one clue the damage done by incorrect ideas we hold about health and nutrition.

After all of that motivation, I know this isn't going to be easy.  I grew up on animals and their delicious by-products just like everyone else.  I fucking LOVE cheese, woahmigad CHEESE!, fucking love it! When in doubt, MOAR CHEEEEEEESE!!!!  ...but I love not suffering with chronic disease more.  My sinuses are fucked; my skin hates me; my lady parts are overloaded with hormones; my bowels are easily upset, and that's just the beginning... I'm only 24!  ...but I'm not putting the right fuel in my engine.  Instead of the gasoline and oil it requires, I'm dumping crayons and WD-40 in there.

I'm not going to be burning my bras and talking to trees, but I'm not going to let anyone laughing at me or my choices stop me from living a better life.

Until next time...