Our Frenemy Named Food

Farm Fresh or Grain Fed?

How many people do you know with a food allergy?

How many people do you know who have a digestion problem?

How many people do you know who, for some reason or other, just don't feel right after eating?

For me, this is a curiously high number. I can count on both hands (and then some) friends and family who fall into these categories. Peanut allergies, gluten intolerance, Chron's disease, FODMAP diets - sometimes I seem to be the only person I know who can eat freely. - Oh wait, I have to limit dairy because it irritates my skin and causes acne.

Food in many ways is becoming our enemy, and yet simultaneously it has become our obsession; both feelings stemming from the same root: a plea for recovery. Recovery of health and of a healthful way of cooking that understood the food we consumed and prepared it properly.


We are becoming - or have become? - a community that understands intimately Lera Auerbach's aphorism: "The body doesn't lie. It just doesn't know the truth." Body upon body is doubling over in pain and confusion, seeking renewal and recovery, but what proffered solution is the truth?
.

Are the eggs and chicken free range?

Skeptics, young and old, laugh at Millennials for feverishly cutting gluten from their diets, adding chia seeds to their overnight oats, and instagramming their marbled grass-fed rib-eye steaks. They throw research and statistics in our faces that most people are not as gluten intolerant as they feel ;  that grass-fed beef is tough and flavorless (apparently though they are just bad cooks); and they
hold fast to their packets of one-minute oats that have more sugar than fiber.

And even if the skeptics are right, and all of this does not matter one bit, and it is all just a passing fad, the bottom line still remains: people still feel sick.

Why that is, is a topic of intense debate. Is it the use of pesticides and GMOs? Is it the preservatives? Is it improper preparation? Should we be soaking grains, fermenting cabbage, and culturing butter? IS CUCUMBER A FRUIT?

It often seems these questions will never be answered or agreed upon. Researchers will battle for and against Monsanto who will preach for and against the good of the common American who will defend the merits of moderation... and food fight will take on an entirely different meaning.

And in the midst of all that fighting, are people still feeling ill and not knowing why. And they will try all they can to figure that out. They will eliminate foods; they will eat different, "better" foods; they will make their own bread for a month; they will drink beet kvass and beat their heads against the wall, wondering just what more they can do.

And as they beat their heads, remember that you - Skeptics and Journalists; Baby Boomers, Generation X and angry Millennials; Industries and Insulters - you have no right to laugh at them, undermine them, and tell them their condition is not real. They do not deserve shame and derision for simply trying to improve their health. Their bodies know better, and they crave the truth.

If our bodies cannot function, we cannot experience life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness. We become slaves to industry, to idleness, and, quite frankly, to the toilet.

We live in the United States. Proper nutrition should be our top priority to guaranteeing basic human rights to our citizens. Let's remember that this 4th of July, and make some real progress towards real solutions for making America healthy again. Or perhaps, for the first time.