Health Yourself

As some of you know (and many of you have heard too many times), in the summer of 2016, I took a multi-month road trip across the states, in which I ate on $4.23/day (as a healthy food challenge) while personally simulating homelessness, while volunteering at homeless shelters, food banks and other nonprofits along the way. What a mouthful. And not an easy dinner party convo, I must say. I camped everywhere or slept in my car, showered with jugs of water, went to the bathroom in the woods more times than I’d like to admit and documented what it was like to live in such a way. The goal was to bring awareness to making healthy, whole food affordable and available to everyone, everywhere across all socioeconomic statuses, and to educate people on how to eat healthfully on such a low-budget. The $4.23 was calculated based on the average amount a person received on food stamps per day. For the full experience and embarrassing videos and such, visit 423aday.com.

I will be posting articles here about health and the environment; however, it won’t be about my travels across the country eating on $4.23/day. This will be about making people aware of how to improve their lives in a multitude of ways, how food affects our brains, how food connects us, how our food choices and overall health relate to how we treat the rest of our life, food injustice and education, how we are all connected as human beings and how we can empower ourselves and others through our choices. Wow, that was a lot of “how’s.”

Taking control, building habits.

Food is a reflection of who we are. I don’t just mean our culture or ethnicity, but how you choose your food—your discipline, your drive to improve yourself—these aspects begin to shape who you are (literally and metaphorically). And I’m not just referring to your size or how much weight you’ve lost or gained, but preventing disease and building longevity. We know what to do but we don’t do it, and this is true in every facet of life. We let other people influence how we eat. We let other people be the reason we don’t improve ourselves. We let ourselves get in the way of improving ourselves.

If we know something will make us better, why wouldn’t we do it?

Eating healthfully, for the most part, isn’t totally a matter of knowing what to eat and not, the grandest piece is just actually implementing what we know to be true. The same is true of exercise. The same is true of how we argue and fight. Should I really say this passive aggressive, smart-aleck comment? We know better, but it feels so good in the moment, both that chocolate chunk brownie and the hurtful/stinging comment.

Our daily, hourly, momentary choices define who we are and what we do. This is daunting, yet it also means we can readily and easily change what we do.

What choices did you make today? What type of person are you building and becoming? We are always in the becoming. You are never at one final destination (Well, until death—I think).

In the healthy food world, there’s a quote that goes something like, “You’re either fighting disease or your feeding it.” I think this goes for both the food choices we make and basically every other life choice. Are you adding to your life with the choice you just made? Are you building up your life? Better yet, are you benefitting anyone else as well? By bettering yourself, improving yourself, you are better able to serve others. How cool is that? Take care of yourself, please, so you can then take care of others.

If you know you need to make a change, if something bothers you daily, if you crave something, it’s gnawing at you, then make that change. Make it happen. No one else is going to. I’m learning this daily and constantly reminding myself to implement what I know to be true.

It’s not just about the food.

Back in 2016, my $4.23/day road trip wasn’t just about food. It never really was. It was about getting uncomfortable, experiencing and understanding others’ lives, building empathy, making myself and others aware of how we can help each other and realizing that we are all in this together—we are all in struggle.

I (and sometimes others too) make fun of the premise of the trip—how millennial, how dreamer-like and maybe “hippie” of me. But, alas, I live in a land where change can happen, where common humanity exists—where we can get along. I don’t think it should be viewed as some absurd, naive mindset. We can come together to make change and rebuild any pieces of our world that may literally or metaphorically be falling apart.

We have to form this protective layer of belief within ourselves in order to move forward. If we get caught up in all that is wrong, what good will it do? You are setting up yourself and the rest of the world for failure otherwise. Yes, learn about and know what is wrong and what needs to change. Listen, research and seek out the truth. But take whatever you discover, and be proactive. Use that to make change.

Even when it gets tough/life stinks.

As I’ve said, this health, food and nutrition stuff isn’t just about being getting fit or losing weight, it’s about empowering yourself, taking control, as this translates into basically every other aspect of life.

And we don’t have to be defined by what we can do right now, but by the actions we take and how we react to what we have been dealt.

I’m not saying we must always be positive, as being falsely positive is likely unhealthy, for you never grapple with your true feelings.  Acknowledge and accept what’s happening—what’s been given to you. Cry if you need to, get angry—but don’t swim and drown in it.  The pain, sadness or anger can propel you to change.

 Something personally challenging for me currently… (though there are far worse things)

I ran a trail half marathon about a month ago and was in the top 10 women (it’s really not very impressive as there weren’t many people running the race), I exercise regularly, I ran an eight mile Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving… and then my body crashed.  I can’t run more than 10 feet without extreme discomfort/pain, mainly in my right knee.  Also, both hips and my left knee are entirely not functioning properly. While walking, if I turn more quickly than a baby sloth, my knee screams. And walking up and down stairs is torture.

My body has been feeling odd for the last year, various parts of me slowly hurting more. Sometimes my body feels like it’s morphed into a state of slowww motion and insane fatigue, forcing me to embarrassingly sit on the side of the road during walks and runs because I’d feel like I was literally about to fall over. (Please see this article to hear more about all the other weird things that happened to my body.)

It comes and goes though. 

Unrelated, but another (comical) body problem: I woke up yesterday morning and couldn’t move my neck to the right side at all without wild pain.  I looked like I was doing a terrible version of the robot.  Is this what aging feels like?  Am I officially “old” at 28?  This can’t be!  One of my coworkers, age 37, said to me: “You are now at the stage where you can actually injure yourself while you sleep.”  We laughed, while likely both secretly crying on the inside. Just kidding. Sort of.

I don’t know about you all, but I am SO not cool with this decline.

But this deterioration in my athletic ability and my ability to live life normally has brought an entire new perspective. I’ve had to make some grand mental leaps, and I’m still working through this mental and physical game. I’ve felt defeated, as it often feels like I’m going backward. I feel weak, but I have to keep moving forward in some way though, strengthening what I can, using new muscles, doing new exercises and trying to repair. I have to be patient and allow this process to unfold. I made a joke recently that my body is in hibernation like a bear during the winter. It needs time to rest and rejuvenate (that’s what bears do during hibernation, right? Spa cave time?). Well, my body is repair mode.

What do you do if things never get better? 

You know what… I had to pause after I typed that question, as I didn’t know what to say. I became despondent.  I think the answer comes down to human connection—bonding with others over each others’ struggles, being in it together.  Community, belonging and love are an absolute necessity.  Seek it out. Seek out others who you know also need that community.  Being connected and in community with others is an enormous determining factor in health and longevity.  I say this while having the default setting of being alone.  It’s what my introvert-leaning brain always wants to do.  But when I actually spend time with others, find common-ground, share stories, tragedies, successes and grief… that’s when I feel most invigorated.  That’s when I feel most connected to this universe in which we live.

While typing this, I was simultaneously (somehow) listening to a speech given by author/endurance athlete/former lawyer/wellness-promotor Rich Roll (he holds many titles). He said, “It’s when things go wrong that you’re presented with a teachable moment, you’re presented with an opportunity, a decision, and the decision you make, that’s what reveals character.”

Eating only local: it's not just about the food.

[Day 10 of Eating Only Local Food Challenge]

So I’ve become a little discouraged lately.

First of all, for those who don’t know, I’m eating only locally grown and sourced food. I’m located in Nashville, Tenn., so I’m permitted to have anything grown/sourced within a 100 mile radius.

Why am I doing this? Most basically: because there’s a bunch of bad stuff in our food. Even in the vegetables and fruit that we think are “healthy” (at least in the nonorganic variety). The main culprit I’ve been researching and discussing is glyphosate (which is basically RoundUp, the commonly used suburban weed killer). It’s an herbicide/chemical being sprayed all over our crops on a mass scale.

I was resistant to going fully organic because I’m cheap and frugal. I thought maybe I was getting a better deal by paying less for non-organic veggies and fruit. That was wrong.

For one, let me note I realize “organic” can be a touchy subject. Many local farms implement organic practices, they just aren’t certified, as it is a wildly costly, continual process to obtain and maintain. Also, perhaps some of the large scale organic certified farms might not actually be sooo organic. But we won’t get into all of that now. And that’s also confusing and frustrating. *sigh* (but somewhat organic is better than not attempting to be organic at all.)

RoundUp or glyphosate was marketed as being safe for humans as we don’t have the same “pathway” that glyphosate attacks in the plants, fungi and bacteria. Ok, this could get confusing. Glyphosate attacks the shikimic pathway in plants, fungi and bacteria which makes them unable to build proteins to continue to live and grow, so essentially they shrivel up and die. Since humans don’t have the shikimic pathway, it had been said we can’t be affected negatively by glyphosate. However, glyphosate attacks us in a different way. In a myriad of ways. It breaks down our gut lining, it penetrates and disrupts the blood brain barrier, the kidney tubules, vascular barrier systems and a whole host of others. Eventually I will explain more of this (and you can research it as well), but for now we’ll hold off.

Back to my becoming discouraged or losing momentum…

I sometimes become entangled with the thought that this food, nutrition, local food movement, all this glyphosate-sprayed crops, chemical-laden-food talk isn’t all that important.  Or I feel silly for thinking about it so much and talking about it, and posting about it on social media. Sometimes, when telling people what I’m doing (eating only local), I see their eyes glaze over.  People who know and love me. They tap out of the conversation. It doesn’t feel important, it doesn’t feel pressing and it maybe even sounds conspiracy theorist-like. The evil non-organic vegetables are out to get us! I get it.

I, too, get sick of reading about this stuff and thinking about it more than I’d like to admit.  Sometimes I just want to throw my hands up, throw up a white flag and scream “I give up!” And by that I mean, I give up because it feels like too grand of an issue to solve (our food system, that is).

When you’re out there living your life, trying to make money, figure out what the heck you’re doing, just trying to make it out the door to a meeting after spilling your french press coffee all over the floor, well, worrying about where your food came from and what herbicides some unknown person sprayed on it just sounds silly and irrelevant.  You don’t have time to consider any of that, you just have time to grab something quickly, grab a bar (or go to the bar) and get moving with your life.

For me, it’s not just about food. It’s about connecting with others, connecting with what it means to be human and to live on earth.  Sometimes it feels like we’ve abandoned what it means to be human. We live in such a fast-paced world, we’re always going, going, going, and we don’t always think about what we’re doing, we don’t always think about the food we’re putting in our body or where it came from.  We don’t think about all the other unnatural things we put on our body and expose our bodies to. We don’t think about what we’re saying to others sometimes, whether we’re looking at each other in the eye, truly listening and being present or whether we’re looking down at the little rectangular screen in front of us. Life is about connecting, it’s about belonging, community, love and being loved, sharing life together and sharing a common human experience. We’re all in this together.

This local food challenge is about how we interact with the earth, how we interact with others, and understanding our place in all of this.  We forget that the earth is a living thing as well. What we do to it and take from it alters its health and vitality and subsequently alters our health and vitality.  We are disconnected from our food, the environment it grows in and how far our food it had to travel to get to us (the money and fuel it required).

This is not about losing weight and getting toned, this is about disease prevention.  It’s about the epidemic of a multitude of diseases increasing exponentially as we add chemicals to our crops and deplete the nutrient load within them.  

I continue to hear of more and more people with a myriad of diseases, cancers and various health issues— multiple sclerosis, breast cancer, depression, ADHD, sleep apnea, hormone issues, alzheimer’s, IBS, heart disease.  Many are people I know and love.

Autism rates were about 1 out of 1000 children in 1995 (glyphosate began being sprayed on a mass scale in 1996), then rates skyrocketed in subsequent years.  Now autism rates are 1 in about 59 children (some studies say 1 in 43). I’m not suggesting glyphosate is solely responsible, but something is clearly amiss.

I could name many more statistics on various disease increases, but we won’t get into that for now.

But it does seem like everyone has their specific sickness, disease or ailment they have to deal with.  I know humans have had diseases and sickness for thousands of years, but incidence has been increasing astronomically.

It’s a broken system.

I think we all have our certain part in building back this connection with our ecosystem and our fellow humans. I’ve chosen to focus on food and nutrition, you might choose to focus on music, teaching or being a lawyer.

This is about our healthcare, the economy, massive increase in diseases, depression, environmental degradation, this is our history, our laws, labor issues, wages.  It’s all connected.

(Am I sounding crazy yet?)

There is something wrong with our society and the way we’ve designed our lives if can’t take time to invest in our health, invest in the health of the earth and invest in community.

We have to reverse what we’re doing, we can’t keep moving forward in the direction we have and we can’t remain stagnant.  We must to bring it back to our roots (root/growing pun totally intended.)

This broken system of thinking and living was created, imposed and perpetuated by humans.  We’ve gotten ourselves into this mess, but that means we have the power to pull ourselves out-- to change what we do and the way we think.

This is a bit of an aside, but think about the amazing things your body does, how it repairs itself (if we allow it to) the amazing things the earth does, how it sustains life and how it sustains ours.  Think about the extraordinary process of breathing. That sounds mundane, but it’s phenomenal. If we truly understood all the mechanisms and processes happening within our body every single second of our lives, we would be astounded at ourselves and everyone else we encounter everyday of our life.  The human body is an intricately designed system--a system of systems. We are profoundly complex. We are profoundly and inexplicably exquisite.

This is why I cannot get enough of biology, nutritional epidemiology and all the environmental sciences.  The more I know, the more I know I don’t know, but the more I want to learn.

I think the more we know and understand our own bodies and the environment we live in, the more likely we are to care for them as best as we possibly can.  The more you know, the more connected you are to your body and to this place we live.

We care more about the people who are close to us, those we know well and love.  Stick with me here, I have a point.

Not to discount people we don’t know, but it’s true. We feel disconnected to the people who die in other countries and areas we aren’t familiar with.  It doesn’t feel as heavy, burdensome or intensely emotional.  We may be sad on some level about these strangers, but it’s different when a close family member or friend passes away or if you find out your mom or brother has cancer. We can know that people are suffering in other areas, but it’s not as real unless it’s right in front of us, or if we actually seek out the story and information.

I think that’s what we have to do with our own health and the health of the earth--and the health of our entire human species.  

I believe if we realized how connected we are as human beings all across the earth, we would be far more kind to each other. If we realized how similar we actually are, we would connect with those from afar and see ourselves within those we may normally consider our enemy or “other.” If we understood the earth more, understood the environment, went out and nature and to what it had to offer, see how it works to sustain our lives and if we could see how we’ve harmed it in various ways, we would be much more likely to take care of it.  

We need to reconnect what it means to be apart of the human race and what it means to be apart of the ecosystem of the earth. As I said, we are all profoundly and exquisitely complex and astounding--every single one of us. Be impressed with yourself and be impressed with others. Get to know those around you--listen. Learn where your food is coming from, the soil it came from and the people who worked hard to make it for you. Know what you’re doing to care for your body. Get to know your environment, get to know this earth and how we can better coexist with this life-giving entity we all live upon.

Too hippie sounding?  Maybe. But that’s okay with me :D

Check out one of my videos for more explanation:

Here’s the 25 minute version video. oops.

Here’s the less than 7 minute version.

References:

https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html

http://www.wvdhhr.org/bph/oehp/hsc/dementia/mortality.htm

https://www.ecowatch.com/15-health-problems-linked-to-monsantos-roundup-1882002128.html

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1383574218300887

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/06/the-weedkiller-in-our-food-is-killing-us

If you suffer from fatigue, skin issues, anxiety, depression, gut issues or have an autoimmune disease, Please Read This.

My body feels like it’s attacking itself. Maybe it is in some way.

This platform was meant for another project I’ll be working on eventually, but today this is what my mind has to offer. I’m trying to work through whatever is going on, and I want others to know that it’s alright and necessary to speak about such things. This has been all I can think about for months, it’s consuming my mind and literally appears to be consuming my body.

I often don’t write about these subjects, as I feel like everybody and their Aunt Susan is posting, tweeting, instagramming, blogging about their struggles, and I don’t want to be another one pouring her woes into the pity pot. Although, I don’t believe all those people are seeking pity. I think some or many are letting others know it’s okay to be flawed and feel broken. Well, I don’t like the word flawed. Rather, it’s okay to admit you’re a human being dealing with human things.

I want people to know that I think it’s possible to at least on some level take control of what is happening to you, or at minimum control how you react, both emotionally and physically depending on the choices you make (concerning nutrition, lifestyle, habits etc).

It often times seems that people write about these types of struggles after they’ve overcome them. Everyone loves a good before and after story or photo. But that’s not what this is. I’m still struggling, I’m still researching, I’m still uncomfortable, embarrassed, in pain and frustrated. I’m still figuring it out.

________________________________________

I’m not dying. At least I don’t think so. I mean, other than that we’re all slowly getting closer to our death each day (a gentle reminder for you). I don’t want to belittle things however.

And I don’t want others to belittle what’s going on with their mind and body either. I don’t want people to hide it. That is one way to have an early retirement from earth. I’m not condoning complaining or wallowing in self-pity, but I am suggesting we be more open, ask questions, get help and above all help ourselves. Be proactive. Do your own research. This is happening to you, you are the one that ultimately cares the most about healing whatever is broken.

Alright, now it’s time for me to feel uncomfortable and explain the things that are seemingly going haywire with my body.

A great many pieces of my body seem to be inflamed. One major issue is my skin. I used to call it eczema, but now I don’t know what to refer to it as. It’s morphed into some uncontrollable, ever-growing monster. Everywhere. Attractive-sounding, eh? It’s troops have slowly been infiltrating. I don’t know what to eat anymore that won’t cause me to break out in more eczema, become uncontrollably itchy, skin bleeding, lesions, dry, cracked, split skin. I don’t like showering as water makes it far worse, especially hot water. I used to love working out and getting sweaty, but the heat and the sweat exponentially exacerbate my skin. I becomes uncontrollably itchy, hives often form everywhere. Washing my hands makes the eczema/sores/scratches on my hands and wrist persist and spread. My skin keeps becoming infected. Infections everywhere. It’s all over my legs, arms, neck and ALL over my back. I don’t know what shampoo to use, what to wash my face with, which deodorant. Should I even use lotion? Coconut oil? I’ve spent so much money and tried SO MANY remedies. Doctors throw steroid pills, shots and creams at me. For one, it doesn’t help any more, but it only makes it worse on the next time around and it doesn’t treat the underlying cause. It wreaks havoc on my immune system, my microbiome. (More on that later…)

I often can’t control my scratching, especially at night or after a sweaty work-out, so I cause myself to bleed almost daily. It feels inescapable at times. I want to rip off my skin. Sometimes, it feels like I have leprosy. I dread going in public when I have red patches, scratches and sores all over me. I work with the public, so I have to be vigilant about wearing certain clothes to cover the areas of my skin.

I feel like eczema/psoriasis and various other skin issues aren’t taken seriously. I get it. Many people may think you just have dry skin. Just throw some lotion on it, for goodness sake! Lotion has never helped me. And it’s not just dry skin. It often looks like some sort of disease, some infection all over my body. I’ve wanted to quit jobs because it’s so embarrassing, stressful and all-consuming.

But this skin stuff isn’t all that’s been happening.

I don’t feel like explaining in detail all that’s going on, and you don’t want to sit through all that. So, for your enjoyment, here’s a bit of a listing….

Eczema, psoriasis, skin infections, major joint pain, torn ligament(s) that won’t heal (or not properly), newly abnormally pronated foot/ankle (maybe related to ligament tear?), hives, itchy eyes, itchy throat, swollen lymph nodes, horrible sleeping patterns, anxiety, depression, panic attacks, unable to lose weight (with some weight gain), intermittent asthma, higher occurrence of sore throat, poor digestion, carpal tunnel, mood swings, fatigue, indifference, lack of drive, poor memory, brain fog. Any cuts, wounds and bruises I get don’t seem to heal as quickly. I feel broken. I feel old. For years I was used to being able to do anything… sprint, jump, run, cartwheel, swing off ropes into river abysses. Today, I found myself having to sit on the side of the road because walking became too much of an effort.

My body seems to be doing a poor job repairing itself.

Something is happening with my joints, or my ligaments or something. It’s not my muscles, something else. I finally went to a physical therapist a two weeks prior to posting this, after over a year of a progression of worsening symptoms and pain. I’m still not sure exactly what’s going on or the cause, but one hip has something wrong, the other has another something wrong, both knees are weak and weird, one with some crunching, my left ankle leans in/pronates abnormally, possibly due to some ligaments I tore last October that never healed properly. My carpal tunnel has been revealing itself again. The PT asked if I had been diagnosed with scoliosis, which I probably should have inquired about a little more. Everything feels weaker.

In one of my favorite movies, One Week, an older fellow selling his motorcycle says to the a 30-year-old, “You never really think you’ll have old bones.” This older man says this not knowing that the younger fellow just found out he has stage four cancer.

My bones feel old. (No, this is not me suggesting I have cancer.)

I’ve prided myself on being able to perform certain athletic feats and physically being a daredevil in the outdoors, but I just haven’t been able to. It’s embarrassing, and I feel like I’ve lost a part of myself.

I don’t tell you all this to seek pity or as an excuse for not doing something. For not running a marathon, for not being as fit anymore, for gaining weight.

There are a multitude of illnesses and injuries that are incomprehensibly worse than anything going on with my body. I realize that, and everyday I am thankful to have the body I have. But that doesn’t mean I don’g get frustrated.

______________________________________________

Many issues I have seem to be autoimmune related.  And I KNOW what you put in your body has a profound impact on whether or not these auto-immune disorders reveal themselves.  You really are what you eat. Why wouldn’t you be? It’s your body’s fuel. Put crap in and eventually you’ll get crap out. I mean, not just that kind of crap, but your body will feel like crap.  Or whatever choice word you would like to insert. What you eat affects your microbiome (your gut bacteria), which influences a grand assortment of things…or basically all things within the body, to some extent.

I think these issues can be healed at least in part, perhaps majorly, by the food I put into my body. There’s obviously an extensive amount of inflammation happening within my body, and the food you eat dictates much of your inflammatory responses (histamines, etc.)

Before I get to the food, let me explain why I believe my microbiome has been compromised.

For the last two years of high-school and intermittently through college, I took an insane amount of some form of antibiotics for acne: doxycylcline, tetracycline and some other words I can’t pronounce. I’ve been on steroids here and there for various infections that wouldn’t go away and for major eczema/psoriasis breakouts all over my body .

All these "medicines” can totally destroy large swaths of GOOD gut bacteria. And we NEED gut bacteria. Bacteria is not the enemy, rather just BAD bacteria.

I’m not hating on modern medicine. Antibiotics have saved massive amounts of lives. Sometimes we must resort to steroids. But I think many of the modern medicines so easily and readily prescribed can also wreak havoc on our bodies’ natural ways of healing and protecting themselves. And I’m not only referring to your basic antibiotics and steroids, but also medicines for hyper and hypothyroidism, rheumatoid arthritis (any kind of arthritis), diabetes, depression, ADHD, blood pressure, multiple sclerosis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s, fibromyalgia, endometriosis and the list goes on forever.

It COMPLETELY makes sense if you think about it. If many of these medicines are compromising your immune system, then why wouldn’t you continue to get worse? There are INSANE amounts of side effects listed for many drugs out there. It’s incomprehensible to me that this issue is not being addressed more. I think it is becoming a little more main stream though, which is encouraging.

I likely have what is broadly referred to as dysbiosis, which basically means I have an imbalance in gut bacteria. This can lead to a whole host of autoimmune responses. Often times they go undiagnosed. I think many people are dealing with many of these symptoms/autoimmune responses, but we’re so used to feeling like crap all the time that we just ignore it and sweep it under the rug as “normal.” So we medicate ourselves with various meds, caffeine and other remedies/drugs to help us feel more comfortable. It’s not okay. We’re not supposed to feel like crap all the time, to be tired, anxious, in pain, depressed.

As for food for me, right now it’s not an issue of choosing between healthy and unhealthy foods. There are large groups of “healthy" food that my body CANNOT handle right now. Like tomatoes, goji berries, beans, any kind of rice, whole grains, cashews, peanuts, so many fruits (It’s the sugar content, and I’ll eventually write about this.) Obviously I can’t have the usual unhealthy things like processed breads, meat and dairy, packaged foods. Gluten is my enemy. Kombucha makes me itchy; so does beer and wine.

I may need to avoid lectins, salicylates, histamines, gluten, and the list goes on. The hope is that this won’t be forever. This can be healed if I choose the right foods, and allow my gut, my microbiome to repair itself.

For many years, I’ve been an overall quite healthy person. I’ve sometimes been known as the annoying healthy eater. I sure do like to eat a lot, but it’s been generally healthful foods. I think that’s what’s been the most upsetting. I haven’t been able to easily figure out what I’m doing wrong.

_______________________________________________

Even if you haven’t used various drugs like antibiotics, steroids, etc, you could still have a grand assortment of issues that could be healed by choosing the right foods. “Let food be thy medicine and thy medicine be food,” said Hippocrates. This dang quote has been repeated WAY too many times in the circles of people I associate with, but it is unbelievably true. Let your food choices dictate how you feel. We are far more in control than we think. (I know there are many diseases/issues that cannot be healed via food alone, of course.)

It really sucks to have to change your diet. It really does. It can feel isolating, limiting, frustrating, extraordinarily difficult and just plain sad. But I think it’s much more sad to take meds for the rest of your life that are actually likely making you far worse, that are breaking down your body’s ability to repair itself. These medicines, these drugs are often effectively destroying our immune system.

I have an incredible amount to say on this subject. My life has been deeply impacted by the “medicines” I’ve chosen to take over the years and the food I’ve put in my body. My mental and emotional state has been compromised because of all these issues, and I actually believe anxiety, stress and depression are side effects to an imbalance of the microbiome (crazy, right?). You know how they say “Go with your gut!,” well that’s because your gut has a heck of a lot of say on how you think and feel.

I’ll eventually be discussing more specifics on all of this. There’s so much to unfold. This is all haphazardly written, but I wanted to get something out there. There are a great many people who are speaking about these issues now. Start doing some research! Feel free to ask me anything.

Cheers.

Mary-Margaret Weatherford

mmweatherford5952@gmail.com

Poverty, Obesity, Food Insecurity and Food Waste

*Preface: This is an excerpt during my time on project in which I ate on $4.23/day as a healthy, whole-food challenge and traveled around the country volunteering at homeless shelters and food banks. I also camped wherever I went and essentially simulated homelessness. This is documenter further on 423aday.com*

Let’s define some terms.

The poverty threshold in America is based upon the number of people in a household. For one person: $11,880; two: $16,020; four: $24,300.  (for more stats visit: http://obamacarefacts.com/federal-poverty-level/)

According to the USDA, food insecurity is “limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.”

Poverty and food insecurity are not necessarily interchangeable.  One can be in poverty, but not necessarily food insecure, and vice versa.

All of the following statistics (unless otherwise specified) are from the 2014 census, as these are the most recent facts I can access.

48.1 million Americans lived in food insecure households, comprised of 32.8 million adults and 15.3 million children.  

14% of households were food insecure, which means about one out of every seven homes are food insecure.  That is an extraordinary amount, you all. One out of seven.  Also, about one out of every 14 or 15 households experience extreme food insecurity.

I noticed many of the states with the highest food insecurity rates also happen to have some of the highest obesity rates. I know correlation doesn’t mean causation.  But it makes me wonder (as others have), if this lack of access to food in general and especially to healthy, whole foods is contributing to obesity.  I know the lack of access to food in general seems contradictory when discussing obesity, but food insecurity, by definition includes not having access to “nutritionally adequate” foods. 

People are overfed and undernourished.  

States with the highest food insecurity in descending order: Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Texas, Ohio, Alabama, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Maine, Oregon and Kansas.

States with the highest rates of obesity in descending order: Arkansas, West Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Oklahoma, Indiana, Ohio, North Dakota, South Carolina.

(Come on, Southern folk.  We can do better than this!)

I also noticed that the races with the highest rates of poverty, blacks and hispanics, also tend to have the highest rates of obesity. 47.8% of blacks and 42.5% of hispanics are obese (just for fun-fact funsies: 32.6% of whites and 10.8% of Asians are obese).  The fact that one in three non-hispanic whites are obese is still astronomical (and evidently we have something to learn from our Asian friends.)

When you don’t have enough food, or enough money in general, you are forced to choose between certain goods and services.  You maybe have to choose between food and electricity, food and a place to live, food and healthcare, or any combination of the aforementioned, as well as clothing, hygiene products, and cleaning supplies for the home.

If you don’t have the proper healthcare or even the proper hygiene products, you are far more susceptible to a multitude of diseases and other negative health aspects.

So what do we do about this?  We should lower the prices of healthy foods, right?  Fruits and vegetables should be more affordable.  What is affordable?  And what about the growers of the food?  What do they get paid?  And no, I don’t just mean the owners of the farms (“farmers”) but the actual hired workers on the farm.  Some of the poorest people in America are often those farming and producing the crops for our families.

This is a separate issue, but people who are suffering from food insecurity or living in poverty might want to consider ruling out certain unnecessary things of life…like cable, video games, etc.  I know, I have no right to say that.  But I live without these luxeries, and I think I’m doing pretty well.  I don’t just mean I lived this way on the road, but in general, when at home.

One aspect we all need to be highly aware of is: food waste.  It is estimated that 40% of all grown, processed and transported food in the United States is never consumed or used. 40 PERCENT. Holy granola, that is an exorbitant amount of food, you all.  Also, overall, about one third of food produced in the world is either lost or wasted. (endfoodwastenow.org).  We can do better than this.  I can do better than this. We have to do better than this.

95% of much of the food we waste goes into the landfill, which in turn leads to the production of methane.  I used to think wasted food didn’t cause much of a problem, as it will just breakdown like it would in a compost pile right?  Wrong.  When I visited the landfill in Salt Lake City, Utah, I learned that each day an additional layer of soil (and maybe other material) is added on top, which keeps odors in and prevents litter from flying about.  But because there is no sunlight or oxygen reaching the food, the waste breaks down anaerobically thereby producing methane, which negatively effects our environment, specifically through global warming (even though some may think thats not a “real thing.”)

Outside of the methane issue, all the water, manpower and other resources to produce that food also completely went to waste.  We all need to be aware of our consumption habits, including that which we dispose of.  

Everything is connected.  Our world is connected.  The things you buy, the food, the goods, the services.  What you throw away, what you consume.  Who grew and picked the food you ate?  How much did they get paid?  Who made that shirt you’re wearing and what are their wages like? 

The past couple of days I haven’t had a car and my bike isn’t functioning well, so I’ve mostly been venturing around on feet.  With this, I made an excuse for myself not to abide by the $4.23/day budget because the only places I could obtain foods were gas stations, small markets and a Walgreens.  I also didn’t have access to my two camp stoves, pots, pans, containers, bowls, plates, etc. as I didn't want to be hauling those around with me everywhere.  Biking/walking to my “hotel” from the Toyota dealership was hilarious enough with the two large bags full of computer and camera equipment, books and a few items of clothing. (I didn't bring enough underwear, but I had plenty of reading material #priorities.)

If you don’t have a car, and you're in an area that doesn't have a real grocery store, it’s going to be extraordinarily difficult to eat healthily on a regular basis.  

I guess I could have biked to Walmart 10 miles away, but then I would have to haul all the groceries back, which might be rather difficult, and walking all the groceries back sure wouldn’t be peachy either.

I don’t really know how to remedy this situation.  I can say that I want to make healthy, whole food available to everyone, everywhere (geographically) to all socioeconomic levels, but this “want” isn't making a change.  But maybe this trip isn't just about making a change.  It’s about bringing awareness (including to myself) about what's going on around us on a daily, even moment-to-moment basis.