Michael Pollan's "Food Rules"

This was the latest book I read. It's really short, a VERY quick read indeed. But I really loved this book. I highly recommend it to EVERYONE. Well everyone that EATS, that is (& that would be EVERYONE, would it not?).

So I'm gonna post here his food rules. The book has a page or two of further explanation of each rule, so if anyone wants that on any particular rule just comment & let me know.

First allow me to explain how the book is set up. It is set up in 3 parts. He asks that you adopt AT LEAST ONE (but you can certainly adopt MORE than that) from each section.

His bottom line is this: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." And so the first section of the book deals with the first sentence--it deals with WHAT to eat. The second section of the book deals with the third sentence--WHAT KINDS of foods to eat. And the third section deals with the second sentence--HOW MUCH to eat.

So, without further ado, the FOOD RULES


Part One--What should I eat? (eat food)
1)Eat food (not "edible food-like substances")
2)Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food
3)Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry
4)Avoid food products that contain high fructose corn syrup
5)Avoid foods that have some form of sugar (or sweetener) listed among the top 3 ingredients
6)Avoid food products that contain more than 5 ingredients (he emphasizes not to be too strict on this, it depends on what it is, but you get the idea)
7)Avoid food products that contain ingredients that a 3rd grader cannot pronounce
8)Avoid food products that make health claims
9)Avoid food products with the wordoid "lite" or the terms "low fat" or "nonfat" in their names
10)Avoid foods that are pretending to be something they are not (ie margarine, soy-based mock meats, etc)
11) Avoid foods you see advertised on television
12) Shop the peripheries of the supermarket & stay out of the middle section of the store
13) Eat only foods that will eventually rot
14) Eat foods made from ingredients that you can picture in their raw state or growing in nature
15) Get out of the supermarket whenever you can (ie farmers' markets, health food stores, etc)
16) Buy your snacks at a farmers' market
17) Eat only foods that have been cooked by humans
18) Don't ingest foods made in places where everyone is required to wear a surgical cap
19) If it came from a plant-eat it; if it was made in a plant-don't eat it
20) It's not food if it arrived through the window of your car
21) It's not food if it's called by the same name in every language (think Big Mac, Cheetos, Pringles, etc)

Part Two--what KIND of food should I eat? (mostly plants)
22) Eat mostly plants, especially leaves
23) Treat meat as a flavoring or a special occasion food
24) "Eating what stands on one leg (plants) is better than eating what stands on two legs (fowl), which is better than eating what stands on four legs (cows, pigs, & other mammals). (this is a Chinese proverb & he states he is disappointed that it does not include fish)
25) Eat your colors
26) Drink the spinach water (save water that veggies were cooked in & use in soups or drink it--full of nutrients)
27) Eat animals that have themselves eaten well
28) If you have the space, buy a freezer (stock up on good meats while on sale & buy produce while in season at it's cheapest in bulk & freeze them)
29) Eat like an omnivore
30) Eat well-grown food from healthy soil
31) Eat wild foods when you can
32) Don't overlook the oily little fishies
33) Eat some foods that have been predigested by bacteria or fungi (ie fermented foods & dairy products)
34) Sweeten & salt your food yourself
35) Eat sweet foods as you find them in nature
36) Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk
37) The whiter the bread the sooner you'll be dead
38) Favor the kinds of oils & grains that have traditionally been stone-ground
39) Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself from scratch
40) Be the kind of person who takes supplements--and then skip the supplements
41) Eat more like the French, or the Japanese, or the Italians, or the Greeks
42) Regard non-traditional foods with skepticism
43) Have a glass of wine with dinner

Part Three--HOW should I eat (not too much)
44) Pay more, eat less (ie quality over quantity when it comes to food)
45) ....eat less (calorie restriction in animals slows the aging process & increases their health)
46) Stop eating before you're full
47) Eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored
48) Consult your gut (regarding portion size)
49) Eat slowly
50) The banquet is in the first bite (no other bite will taste as good as the first)
51) Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it
52) Buy smaller plates & glasses
53) Serve a proper portion & don't go back for seconds
54) Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper
55) Eat meals (not snacking &/or grazing all day)
56) Limit your snacks to unprocessed plant foods
57) Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does (don't eat gas station mini-mart food)
58) Do all your eating at a table
59) Try not to eat alone
60) Treat treats as treats
61) Leave something on your plate
62) Plant a vegetable garden if you have space, a window box if you don't
63) Cook
64) Break the rules once in a while

Your Baby Can Read update #4

So little J started the final DVD of this program yesterday. This one he is supposed to view for one month. At that time I am supposed to show them all to him randomly to keep reviewing the material.

I don't recall if I've mentioned in prior blogs, but we are also working on learning Spanish & Dr. Titzer (the guy who created this program) does state that both languages will take longer if they are learning more than one language at once.

So he still watches the DVDs & we review the flashcards. He really enjoys doing the flashcards. But the books still don't work for us. I must say I feel they dropped the ball, so to speak, when it comes to these books. Little J wants to grab them & see them & touch them & I can't allow that because he's going to rip the pages accidentally. In my opinion they should have made them board books (ie hard untearable pages). I don't think I am the only parent having this issue, though probably not ALL parents are having this issue. That's one improvement they certainly need to make in my opinion.

Once this month is finished I am supposed to start going over as many books as I can with little J. I will definitely have to stick with board books for now though. It's also hard because he doesn't like to sit still. From day one my little boy has been a MAJOR WIGGLEWORM. When I was reading "bringing up boys" I couldn't stop laughing because Dr. Dobson says that boys cannot sit still & have a hard time focusing & while I know that's not the case with ALL boys it certainly is the case with little J.

One thing I notice with little J that I wonder if other children his age do: when he sees a box or package or something (anything) that has writing on it he will touch the words with his fingers & really take a good look at them. Sometimes he will point to a word & then look up at me, almost as if he wants me to tell him how to say that word. And so I do.

As for language learning in general I do have a few thoughts myself that I think are pertinent. I, personally, am a visual learner & so is hubby, so there's a good chance little J will be also I suppose. I think this form of learning (YBCR) is THE BEST for a visual learner. I have always been really good with language overall. I have learned a lot of Spanish (though I struggle to have a conversation in Spanish I do understand much of the language, grammar, etc), some German, some French, & a little Italian. These are all latin & germanic languages, which English is a combination of both.

One thing that stands out in my memory of language learning that I think shows how beneficial YBCR just might be: in my senior year of high school I took French. For the first few weeks the teacher wouldn't give us our textbooks. We were not allowed to look at any written French. She would stand before the class & say words in French & tell us what they meant. She would tell us to write the words down however we thought they would look, so that we could remember how to pronounce them. After those first couple of weeks she then handed out our textbooks & stopped speaking them to the class as she had been doing & I was so confused. I couldn't connect how the words looked with how to pronounce them at all. I still struggle with French pronunciation because of this. I could read & write more French than I could actually speak. And so I think even for someone just learning language (like a baby) being able to see words & connect them with the pronunciation of them is very beneficial & will prove to be very helpful in my opinion. At least to a visual learner that is.

I also have an ability with language where I can just glance at a word & know if it is correct or not. I am really good at things like hangman, wheel of fortune, etc because of this. I'm not really sure how I developed this ability. Maybe from learning to read at such a young age, maybe just from reading so much (I am SUCH a book worm), not really sure. The really odd thing is that I also have this ability with Spanish words. I can look at a word & am able to tell you if it's Spanglish or Spanish. I can even do this without being able to tell you WHY.

That's all the reading updates I have for now.......I'm sure I'll have more coming.......

11 month updates

So little J is now 11 months old. Time really does fly & he really does become more & more grown up & independent every day.

He now weighs 23.6 lbs, not far off from last months 24.0 lbs, but is now in the 50-75% & his length is still 30", but he is now in the 50-75% & his head circumference is 19", which puts him in the 90-95%, the highest he's ever been for head circumference.

His eating patterns are still the same basically. He still eats breakfast, lunch, & dinner all followed by a bottle of formula/milk. And in between breakfast & lunch he has a bottle of diluted juice. I had started mixing a small amount of whole milk into his formula. It is recommended at one year of age to switch them to whole milk & I don't think it's a good idea to just switch suddenly, so I've been doing a gradual transition & he's doing really well with it so far, except for the fact that he has a lot of mucous/boogers. And I do mean A LOT. So I started looking into alternatives: rice milk, almond milk, & goat milk were the first to come to mind. Rice milk doesn't have nearly enough fat (fat is still very essential to the development of the brain & nervous system, which develops mostly in the first 2 years of life), almond milk just didn't even come close calorie wise in comparison with whole milk & formula. The goat milk was the closest match. Not only is he doing great on the goat milk, no boogies &/or mucous, but he REALLY likes it as well. I also got him some goat milk kefir & I'm thinking of giving one bottle of this daily. They had a plain one & then a blueberry/pomegranite one, & another one (mango/pineapple/something like that). I got the blueberry pomegranite one & it is sooooo good--I gotta go back & get some more for both of us! Little J REALLY likes that one too. I also got some goat milk yogurt for him as well, since he LOVES yogurt. We haven't tried it yet, but it's from the same company as the kefir so I'm sure it's yummy. I love that they don't add sugar. Goat milk is lower in vitamin B12 & folic acid than cow milk & formula. But I found a liquid supplement that has both together & I can just add drops to his bottles of it.

I was struggling with him not wanting to eat fruits &/or veggies since he's moved to finger foods. And I have finally found an amazing solution & I can't even express in words how happy I am about it. First I brought home some freeze dried bananas from "just tomatoes, etc" brand. There is no other ingredient, JUST banana. He looooved them. Next I brought home strawberry, then mango & pineapple & even peas. He looooves all of them!! Yes, even the peas! There's a few other varieties & I'll be sure to bring some more, but I am so thrilled about this. They are very convenient & great snacks to keep in the diaper bag & they are so healthy & not processed. No added sugar or preservatives or anything. I will definitely be recommending these to other moms needing finger food ideas.

We started buying "overnight" diapers this past month. Every morning his diaper would be totally soaked. His skin was usually quite wet as the diaper couldn't possibly absorb anymore. And sometimes the diaper had leaked & his pjs or bedding were wet too. So his regular diapers are 21 cents (why is there no cents symbol on keyboards anymore????) each & the overnight diapers are around 30 cents each. So they are a little more money, but we only use one each day & it's so much better for his skin. The overnight diapers are amazing, not maxed out on absorbency at all in the morning. I had assumed that as time went on he would possibly start producing more & more urine during the night (as the pattern has seemed to go so far) so we decided to just try this out & it's working great for us so far. I do have to buy them at WalMart (the cheapest price I can find for them), whereas I buy the regular diapers at Costco.

I bought his birthday present already. I had told hubby I wanted to get him one of those toys that they can walk behind & push or also sit on it & ride. He agreed that that would be good for his first birthday. A few weeks ago I was at WalMart & saw one on sale for $25 & I also noticed it was made by Fisher Price. I must admit that little J is very rough when playing with his toys & the Fisher Price toys have held up to his abuse so far, but some other brands have not. So I've gotten to where I prefer to buy Fisher Price brand gear & toys. Hubby has noticed the same thing. So I came home & told hubby about this being on sale & that we could get it really cheap for his birthday. Hubby agreed & a week later or so I went back to WalMart & got it, thankful that the sale hadn't ended yet. It's regular $44 & I've seen others for even more money than that. There are a couple that are cheaper, but they are smaller & not Fisher Price. We don't buy much for little J, he is far from spoiled. We really aren't in a financial position to do so even if we wanted to. I don't think he minds or even notices though, he is happy with what he has & often plays with other objects, like boxes, etc. I did get him a pair of sandals at WalMart. He is very warm-blooded & I remember last summer I couldn't even put socks on him, his feet were all sweaty. And this summer I'm sure he'll be walking at some point, not to mention he already walks in the walker & I don't want him walking barefoot outside, so he needed a pair of shoes. We had bought him his first pair of shoes (size 3) & then my brother in law bought him his second pair of shoes (size 4) just in time as he was outgrowing the ones we bought him. So I got the sandals a little big (size 5) hoping that they will last the whole summer & then in the fall/winter he'll probably have outgrown the pair my brother in law got for him & we'll have to buy another pair then.

A while back my brother had suggested that little J needs a ball to play with. This was after watching a video of little J throwing his rattle on the laminate floor really hard. He loves to throw all his toys on the laminate floor really hard to hear the noise it makes. But I did give him a ball (a raquetball) to play with & he LOVES it, he entertains himself for hours with it & he will also play ball with other people (rolling it & throwing it back & forth), which I think it totally amazing.

Every day he gets a little more independent & a little more grown up. It's exciting & sad at the same time. He's still doing the "your baby can read" program & we still work on Spanish & do Bible studies on a daily basis. I'll be posting a new YBCR update soon also.

That's all the updates I can think of for now.......

Sweet Nothings

In late 2007 I became a bit obsessed with sugar. I mean this in the sense that is probably the opposite of what you are thinking. I became obsessed with getting it out of my diet. I had always been a big carb eater. But in late 2007 I went on the South Beach diet--I had some weight from nursing school that I wanted to lose & was having a hard time getting it off.

The first week or two was really, really tough. I was dizzy, didn't feel well at all. I was actually astonished at my reaction to the lack of sugar in my diet. (for those who aren't nutritionally knowledgable carbs get broken down into glucose in our bodies & affect us just like sugar basically, so you 'could' actually cut sugar out of your diet & not get the results I got if you're still eating lots of carbs) People kept insisting that sugar couldn't do that, it had to be caffeine withdrawals or something like that. But I gave up caffeine back in January of 2003. There was no other explanation than sugar withdrawal.

After the dizziness & feeling sick passed I started noticing how steady my energy level was throughout the day. I REALLY liked this. I began to think it over & I realized that if you ingest something that makes your blood sugar spike up (sugar, carbs, etc) it's also going to end in the blood sugar crashing & bottoming out (what goes up must come down). This is what had been causing my energy level to go up & down so erratically as it had for so many years. I really liked the way I felt on the South Beach diet.

Sometime during this diet my mother in law brought me some info she had on sweeteners. It listed natural sweeteners & how they affected the blood sugar. This was exactly what I was needing to know. Things like maple syrup & honey do cause the blood sugar to spike, even though they are natural. But things like stevia, agave, brown rice syrup, barley malt, & lo han don't. So I then started using those sweeteners. I use all four (have not been able to find lo han for sale anywhere, although it is in my protein shake powder), it just depends on which one I want (based on flavor) for what I'm eating at the time. And there are plenty of things that I just don't sweeten. I've learned to appreciate it's natural taste. This is true especially of drinks like herbal tea (which I used to put a ton of sugar in) & herbal coffee.

As far as stevia goes, I have heard a lot of complaints about it's taste & I have actually tasted some that doesn't taste good. But I remember reading an article somewhere that said it's important to get a really good quality stevia. I was just speed-reading that article, but I do recall it was something about cheaper brands of stevia use all parts of the stevia plant & the better quality brands use only the parts that are sweetest (I cannot recall which part this was though since I was just speed-reading the article).

You may be wondering why I haven't mentioned the big artificial sweeteners: saccharin, aspartame, etc, etc. I refuse to ingest these & I believe they are VERY dangerous chemicals. I don't believe for one second that they are safe at all for us. As a nurse I have seen a HUGE increase in seizure activity in people of all ages, races, etc & in questioning these people I have noticed ONE connection: they all use artificial sweeteners. I know that is not very conclusive evidence, but if you take some time to do some research you will find a ton of bad info on them. I really don't bother because I just don't consume them. (Margarine also falls into this category as far as I'm concerned--just say no to margarine & use some real butter PLEASE)

As a side note: not too long ago there were society norms that appear to have vanished almost overnight. These were norms that said things like "you don't drink soda with breakast", "you don't eat cake for a meal", "you don't eat chocolate in a meal". Sweets & pastries & things of that nature were reserved as a special treat. I think this is a good norm. But somehow it has vanished as I said before. If you take a walk down the cereal aisle it's really really scary. There is chocolate & sugar EVERYWHERE. I was talking with someone recently & they were recounting what they eat throughout the day & were astonished to realize how much sugar they were consuming. It was at every single meal! And this is by no means unusual at all. Even among people like my family, who don't shop at normal grocery stores & consider themselves health-food eaters.

And even if you are proud of yourself for reading labels & not consuming sugar take a closer look. Yet another culprit that is really going to spike your blood sugar (& a huge part of why so many people are diabetic these days) is corn. Corn & corn by-products are in TONS of foods. I have met diabetics who don't understand why they can't get their blood sugar under control when they don't eat any sugar, yet they don't realize they're consuming corn syrup & other corn derivatives at every meal. Corn is very unhealthy for us for a wide variety of reasons--someone recently asked me if there are any health benefits to eating corn & I couldn't think of anything aside from maybe fiber, but you can certainly get fiber elsewhere. Just say no to corn!

There are a lot of people who shrug their shoulders & feel that it's impossible to not eat all this junk. It's been a long time since I've shopped in a regular grocery store, so I can't say how hard it is there. But a lot of regular grocery stores offer healthy brands too. And there are more & more health food stores out there all the time. It's amazing to me how many products you can buy that are sweetened with things like fruit juice & agave & barley malt & rice syrup as opposed to sugar & corn & artificial sweeteners. The same goes for the trans fats (hyrdogenated & partially hydrogenated). I know a lot of people who say they can't stop eating it because it's in everything. Whole Foods market is committed to not selling ANY product that has trans fat in it. It's certainly not in ANYTHING we buy & bring into our home. And of course even if you can't find processed foods without bad ingredients, then why not try rethinking your diet & STOP buying processed foods.....trust me you will benefit from it more than you can imagine.

One last thought. The author Michael Pollan (has written a few really great books on food) has a new book out called "food rules". I plan to get this book at some point when money allows. I saw him interviewed & heard the premise of the book & I love it! Things like "don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food" (his example was yogurt in a tube--is it yogurt? is it toothpaste?); and he said when it comes to unhealthy foods (like cake, pastry, french fries)--go ahead & eat them as long as you make them yourself from scratch. Not only are they healthier that way, but he also feels that because they are extra effort to make that this will limit how often you are willing to make them & that this is really how often we SHOULD be eating those types of foods. I really like this motto. The world is eating french fries on a daily basis, yet we all know it's not healthy & they shouldn't be. If you had to take the time to make them yourself from scratch you would eat them a lot less, though, & this is what's best for your body. I just really liked his ideas & can't wait to read that book.

Rant of the day: remove the cause or teat the symptoms?

Our medical system in this day & age tends to treat symptoms. This is what I always refer to as a band-aid to cover up the root cause.

Everyone is always going on about finding a cure for cancer. This absolutely kills me, I cannot stand it. I think a far better option would be to find the cause & remove it. But of course no one would make any money off of that option.

I have recently experienced on my own with some skin issues finding the cause & removing said cause. This comes after many years of applying band-aids that sometimes do (& most of the time don't) work.

But I notice time & time again as I share my experience & try to help others that all they want to know is what pill to take. This idea of taking a pill (be it medicine or vitamin or herb, etc) & making no other lifestyle changes is so ingrained in people. It's astonishing to me. I love the old saying "if you always do what you've always done you'll always get what you've always got". This saying is soooo true. And if you don't change your lifestyle (diet, activity, etc) then nothing else is going to change.

Are we really this lazy? We can't even be bothered to make some small changes in order to improve the quality of our lives??

Apparently we are this lazy. I can't even begin to tell you how many people want to complain about their symptoms yet they don't want to make changes that would remove those symptoms.

That's all for now, just needed to vent a bit.........

my rant of the day: baby etiquette & etiquette in general

I tend to be very straight forward with people. If I've got something to say I feel like I really HAVE to say it & get it out. Of course I do try really hard to say it politely & to sometimes just bite my tongue no matter how much I don't want to.

And I also analyze (I analyze EVERYTHING in life it seems) to decide if it's really necessary. Is it just my opinion, just my way of doing things, or a fact or serious enough matter to be opening my mouth for.

A lot of people think I'm shy & I guess I am a little bit. I think more-so I'm just so busy analyzing what I'm gonna say (to make sure I'm not offending someone) that it slows me down in a conversation & makes me seem shy. (I do struggle with making small talk, but if you give me a subject I'm knowledgeable on I can talk for hours).

I know someone who always complains that a certain someone always wants to tell them how to drive. And yet the person complaining about it tells everyone else how to drive. Personally, when someone is doing something that bugs me, I make a note to myself to not do that to anyone else. But I guess that's just me.........

So now I'm a mom. And yes, I've been a step-mom for almost 5 years now, but my step-kids have always been older & independent, so when it comes to baby stuff & mothering stuff it doesn't really count. I definitely have always taken my role as a step-mom very seriously. I always have the kids' best interests at heart. I love them very much, care about them & everything that affects them. I try to make sure I set a good example for them & definitely try to not set bad examples for them.

But back to the topic at hand. So now I'm a mom. And suddenly the whole world wants to tell me how to take care of my kid. Now I must admit I had no clue about any of this stuff just a few months ago. But I read a lot of books, listened to what people had to tell me, & then jumped in (as we all do). It's basically a learn-as-you-go thing. And I'm really good at learning from my mistakes, I've had lots of practice with that. So so far I think I've done really well & so does hubby.

I am the type of person who will ask if I need/want advice. Anything else given to me I will listen to & consider & decide what to do with it. And there's been tons of people wanting to give me all sorts of advice since I found out I was pregnant. I always consider the source though--are they Christian, knowledgeable on health, etc?

But then there's people who want to tell me how to do things & INSIST on it as well. This is unbelievable to me. Now for example I know someone who has several kids & she was at my house a few months ago & I observed her putting her littlest one in the car seat not quite right. I was about to correct her, but then I bit my tongue. After all, she has several children & has done this many times. Who am I (new mom & all) to be telling her what to do & how to do it? I struggled with this a bit because it's a safety issue. But again, I am much more concerned about car safety than anyone else I know simply because I've been rear-ended so many times. So I bit my tongue & let her do her thing, wrong or right. I didn't want to be one of those irritating people telling you what to do with your kid.

So it's surprising to me that other people aren't that considerate. There are people who come in my house & insist on what my son can & can't put in his mouth. When I tell them it's ok or vice versa they completely disregard me &/or correct me. I have people who come in my house & want to take him out of his highchair--WHILE HE'S STILL EATING--to hold him. (they even TELL me they're going to, not even ASKING.) And when I (politely) tell them no they get really offended. If it was someone who's never had children I would totally understand actually, but these people are people who have had several children. When we have company over little J gets so excited that his whole nap schedule gets totally off & makes for a difficult day, but I at least do my very best to keep his eating schedule on track or else he won't sleep through the night (he'll wake up hungry in the middle of the night). I am sure any parent knows this & I would expect them to respect that for me, but I guess I expect too much out of people. I also know how clean I keep my floors & that we have a no=shoe policy in our house, & how often I clean all his toys, so I feel comfortable with him putting toys in his mouth that have been on the floor. It's gonna happen when you're not looking anyways, so why cause such an uproar & upset little J over it? I am extremely careful about that sort of thing when I'm not in my own home though.

And besides, if you shelter them from germs they end up with weaker immune systems. I work really hard to not be overprotective, to the point of being criticized that I'm not paying attention to him (although I am totally). He has to learn to be careful or else he'll hurt himself. The earlier he learns this the better in my opinion. As he gets older he'll only be bigger & stronger & do even more adventurous stuff where he could hurt himself even more than he can right now. And he is learning & doing really well now. I think you do your child a HUGE disservice by hovering over them & babying them all the time.

I appreciate so much when people ASK if they can hold him or whatever it is they want to do & I always give an honest answer. If I say yes or I don't care or whatever, it's totally the truth. I don't like to ask people to hold him or feed him or whatever it is, but if they offer I'm usually thrilled. Especially when he's overly tired & cranky & wiggly--I just don't have the patience to hold him when he's like that & I would never ever ask someone to hold him when he's like that, but if they offer I jump all over it gladly.

That's my rant for the day.....I feel better now..

Nutrition advice from the media/govt/etc

This blog post is a bit late, way overdue, I just haven't felt like sitting down to write it until now.

It's amazing to me when you take a closer look at your own knowledge of nutrition. When you really dig around & start doing research you find that what you've been taught is simply what benefits whoever is teaching. Or perhaps the one that is teaching got paid off to teach that.

I've known this info for a few years now, but I've just been sitting back & observing until now. But yeah, I see that sort of stuff go on all the time. It reminds me of a store, any sort of store. If you have something on your hands that you need to (or want to) sell, what do you do? Well of course you advertise it, promote it, put it on sale, tell people why they need it, etc. This is basically the heart of nutrition in our world today.

Let me give a couple of examples, cuz I know some people are gonna be doubting this (just as I was when I first heard the suggestion).

Well there's milk for example. The fat in milk is needed to make butter, ice cream, sour cream, whipping cream, half & half, cream cheese, cheeses, etc. So after all that is made there's a whole lot of milk left over with little to no fat in it. Most people prefer the taste of whole milk though. So they teach you that fat in your milk is BAD for you. They scare you away from whole milk. And of course, problem is solved.

There's all the artificial sweeteners that are sooooo bad for us that they insist on telling us aren't. However when a newer one comes along that they want to promote more they will start to reveal negative things about a previous one to get consumers jumping on the newer one. I often hear people criticizing someone for using a particular artificial sweetener while they're using one (just a different one) too! They're ALL bad, so stop pointing fingers unless you're gonna clean up your own act!!

And then there's the whole GMO issue. When they engineered GMO soy, they started promoting soy BIG TIME. They kept insisting it was soooo good for us. On a side note, soy used to be the food item people turned to when they had food allergies/issues. Now soy is one of the highest allergenic foods--this is because the GMO soy is known to cause allergies. If you buy organic soy you most likely won't have an allergy to it. Organic is the only real way to avoid GMO.

When they engineered GMO corn they found uses for corn in just about everything out there, even non-food items like diapers & tons of others. One of those tons of uses was High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). This sweetener made it's way into TONS of products. They convinced the public that sugar was bad for them--both to promote HFCS as well as promote GMO artificial sweeteners. Later on they were working on a GMO sugar beet. They decided to release it, but how you ask, when they have convinced the public that sugar is evil? Of course they let HFCS take a fall & they divulge that it contains mercury. After scaring the public away from HFCS they then label tons of foods/drinks "made with real sugar"--yeah, GMO sugar! No one ever stops to ask why they waited so long to reveal bad things about a product though--a product that they were making a ton of money off of.

And yes, tons of people fall for this & follow along blindly. Even worse is that unhealthy people generate a TON of money. So the government has no interest in promoting health in all actuality. There is SO MUCH money generated by unhealthy people that you can't even imagine. Aside from the doctor bills, hospital bills, prescription medicine, OTC medicine, there are tons of research companies, American health associations & the like. There is tons of money generated on advertising, weight loss (there's a HUGE amount of money generated right there alone), finding cures for diseases & the like. I know there are others & there are plenty that I'm not even aware of.

The point is to be aware & to beware. Beware of those who come to you in the name of YOUR health & YOUR well-being. Yes, I believe it's important to take care of ourselves & be healthy. I don't try to live LONGER, but I do want to enjoy the time that I have here on earth. I want quality of life, not quantity. I don't want to end up dependent on someone to take care of me, dependent on tons of medicines, etc, etc. When you hear something, ask yourself WHO is saying it & look for possible motives. Look at who is paying for it or who is profiting from it. It's almost always ALL ABOUT THE MONEY.

These evil people who put all these bad & deadly ingredients in our food & cosmetics clearly don't care about our well-being. I am becoming more & more convinced that it is both to help with population control--too many people are living too long & they need to put a stop to that by having a bunch of unhealthy people who ultimately won't live that long--as well as generating money--unhealthiness generates a ton of money in the process of population control.

I could go on & on, but I don't have anymore time to do so. Farewell for now....