Death By Supermarket (36 page)
Read Death By Supermarket Online
Authors: Nancy Deville
The latest travesty against children has been initiated by schools that are sending humiliated kids home with body mass index score reports euphemistically referred to as “obesity report cards.”
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Instead of stigmatizing overweight kids as outsiders (“the fat one on a diet”), real change can occur by changing your eating habits as a family from factory food to real food—and campaigning in your kids’ schools to rid them of factory food. Then we will make healthy, life-lasting impressions and quality human beings. Of course, you’ll need to purge your kitchen of all factory food and replace it with real food, and you will need to get out your cookbooks, strap on the apron, and prepare meals for your family. But really, getting is healthy is such a fun ride, why not take your kids along with you?
I HOPE THAT READING
this book has helped you understand how real food differs from factory food, as my mantra is to “get educated” about the food, diet, and drug industries. Our lives depend on it, even though that may sound melodramatic. Switching from a diet of factory food to an exclusive diet of real, whole, living food will change your life and allow you to experience who you really are. You’ll start to see a different person emerge, and you’ll discover what it’s like to achieve your genetic gifts, such as is possible in whatever stage of life you’re in.
I’m a real food advocate, but I also advocate eating organic. I’ve been told that suggesting people buy organic, especially “out there” food items like raw milk, is “elitist.” And I couldn’t agree more. It’s shameful that in the richest country in the world you have to be wealthy to afford real food. It’s disgraceful that Hurricane Katrina victims were given military Meals Ready to Eat rations that are so artificial that they can withstand a 1,250-foot drop from a helicopter, temperatures from minus 60 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and have a minimum three-year shelf life. I also cringe when people criticize the 40 million people who rely on food stamps to survive. New York is paving the way for the poverty-stricken recipients of food stamps to be prohibited from buying sodas with their stamps. I’ve heard a lot of hateful remarks about these so-called leeches on society. Well, try living in a food desert your entire life, where your mother put a baby bottle of Coke in your mouth when you were an infant, and tell me that you would make better choices. The poor people in this country deserve the greatest compassion and assistance from those of us who can afford to eat real food.
The only way to lower prices of organic foods—and to pave the way for all fifty states to allow the sale of raw milk—is for those who can afford
organic to buy and consume real, living organic food. When there is enough demand, prices will come down. Then someday we may see real, organically produced food in food banks for the poor on news footage at Christmas and Thanksgiving instead of the noxious stuff they are typically forced to accept as “charity.”
I’ve often heard people complain about the price of real food (including myself). Fifty years ago, Americans spent one-fifth of their disposable incomes on food, with one-fifth of that expense going to eating out. Today Americans spend one-tenth of their disposable incomes on food, with half of that expense going to eating out.
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So it appears that at least some Americans have enough money to buy real food if they wanted to.
The United States spends $147 billion dollars a year on medical expenses related to obesity.
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Even if factory food is currently cheaper than organically grown real food, the health problems we will ultimately suffer from by saving a few pennies now will most certainly be regretted later. In the immortal words of my grandma, Stella, “Saving pennies and spending dollars!” Consuming certified organic foods that are produced in an environmentally responsible way is an immediate expense that provides enduring, positive quality-of-life effects.
Organic foods are whole, non-genetically modified, nonirradiated foods that can (theoretically) be picked, gathered, milked, hunted, or fished from a natural, clean environment and within natural conditions. True organic foods do not contain additives or poisons or synthetic processing residues, and have not been subjected to any types of processing. Therefore, a box of cereal cannot reasonably be called organic. Milk from cows kept in dry lots and fed species-unnatural feed is not organic. Meat from cattle that were fed an unnatural diet cannot be called “grass fed.” You must seek out the true among the counterfeit organic in your daily hunt for sustenance.
Although America missed its opportunity for utopia, and we’re now poised upon a precarious precipice, one of our culture’s greatest attributes is that we love a comeback story. It’s not too late for America to become
the utopia it was meant to be—individual by individual. My hope is that Americans—like the Pilgrims, colonial Americans, and pioneers of the West, and all the awe-inspiring American heroes and heroines—will rebel against the tyranny that’s kept us blinded to the industries that are profiting at the expense of our health, reject the industrialized food diet offered to us by the powerful elite, break out of the bubble that has kept us unnaturally hungry, fat, and sick, and begin to forge new dietary paths by eating real food. This one simple change would allow us to achieve and enjoy our genetic gifts and would drastically reduce the number of patients who are now flocking to obesity clinics, ERs, and shrinks’ offices.
Rejecting the socially acceptable industrialized food diet is challenging. As we discussed earlier, there are many strikes against us; powerful forces, influences, and obstacles assist us in resisting doing what we know we need to do to eat a healthy diet. When it comes to stopping eating all factory food and eating only real food, each one of us must conquer our resistance to change. We have to face off every single day with the resistance that makes us want to succumb to the seductive siren call of the food, diet, and drug industries. We have to fight both our own resistance and these powerful forces as individuals, as families, and as communities. But what else is worth fighting for, if not health and happiness, especially for our children?
It’s the American way.
BOOKS GET WRITTEN FOR
a compilation of reasons: One is influence, and another is inspiration; then there is passion for a subject, but it’s the all-important ingredient of believing you can do it that pulls it all together. My first influence on health and real food was my grandma, Stella Grabowski, a humble Polish immigrant who would be unnerved if she were alive to see her name in print. Without my grandma, I would have likely succumbed to the factory-food fate that I’m now so passionate about helping others avoid. My second huge influence was Heini Baumgartner, the world hitchhiker who swept me off to India and Europe, and who reinforced Grandma’s admonitions to eat real food. But I could have just left it at that if it hadn’t been for John Davis, the best friend I have ever had, the most brilliant strategist, advisor, coach, and partner. I can say with all honesty that this book, and everything I’ve accomplished in my career, has John all over it.
Not to assign grades of importance, because every person who helped me along the way made a difference and was indispensable in my efforts to put this book together, but way at the top is my sister, Nadine Saubers, R.N., who is brilliant and often hilariously insightful, and not lacking in passion when it comes to revealing the truth about the food, diet, and drug industries. Truly, I couldn’t have dealt with the never-ending research necessary if not for her. She is also the mega-creative talent who designed and manages my website, blog, and Facebook pages.
I also want to say thank you to my former agent Gary Heidt, who worked so hard on my behalf, and I hope that I will do justice to his belief in me.
This book would not exist ultimately without the backing of Clint Greenleaf and the entire team at Greenleaf Book Group, specifically Justin Branch, who initially ushered me into the company; Hobbs Allison, my liaison and sounding board; Lari Bishop, whose expertise and talent helped reshape this rewrite; Jay Hodges, who edits brilliantly without nitpicking; Daniela Richardson, for the gorgeous book jacket design; Wendy Swanson, for managing the entire production process and giving me much-needed reprieves; and thanks to editors Patricia Fogarty and Heather Jones. I’ve never had as much fun or felt as inspired and confident working on a book as with the Greenleaf Book Group team.
But I would never have connected with Greenleaf had it not been for Pamela Miles, whose generous introduction paved the way.
I have numerous experts to thank who graciously granted interviews and contributed quotes and otherwise helped me through the process of putting this book together: Christopher K. Germer, Ph.D.; Russell Blaylock, M.D.; Daniel E. Lieberman, Ph.D.; the late David Kritchevsky, Ph.D.; David R. Allen, M.D.; David Zava, Ph.D.; Henry Han, O.M.D.; John Komlos, Ph.D.; John W. Olney, M.D.; Joseph and Brenda Cochran; Kaayla T. Daniel, Ph.D., C.C.N.; Maoshing Ni, Ph.D., L.A.C., D.O.M.; Mark McAfee; Mary Dan Eades, M.D.; Mary Enig, Ph.D.; Michael Eades, M.D.; Mike Katke; Robin Marzi, R.D., M.A.; Ron Schmid, N.D.; Sally Fallon; Samuel Epstein, M.D.; Stephanie Gunning; Uffe Ravnskov, M.D., Ph.D; Vidu Gunaratna; and Tommy O’Malley.
I also can’t forget my Facebook fans who inspired me along the way with their questions, insights, and enthusiasm. In a huge way, this book is for them.
Om Shanti,
Nancy Deville
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