Strong statement about fast food and processed food in general

I don't believe in supporting businesses, people or agencies that make money off of killing or harming people. That is one major reason why I am working on reducing my dependence upon oil and plastics, why I don't use chemical cleaning products, and why I do not eat at or take my children to fast food restaurants. Another big reason is that I love my children enough not to poison them with my ignorance. That's right, ignorance--I said it. If you think that it's ok "once in a while" or "isn't all that bad" or "there are actually some healthy things to eat at McDonald's", then you have been fleeced. The vast majority of people in America believe what the FDA tells them, believe what the advertisers tell them, believe that there isn't any significant difference between cows injected with Bovine Growth Hormone and untreated cows, that the only difference between conventional and organic produce is the price, believe that Kellogg's and Lucerne are good, down-to-earth companies that make wholesome foods for our families...and so on. THESE ARE LIES told to consumers to dumb them down and get money out of them--plain and simple. The rates of Diabetes and Cancer are SOARING. Pesticide consumption is now being linked to ADHD and has been a known neurotoxin for years. How are people getting sicker? Gee, I wonder. It couldn't have anything to do with that stuff they consider food, now, could it?

I happen to be rather angry as I'm writing this, as you may be able to tell. My usual posts in this blog are peaceful and positive because I'm usually talking about the food that will indeed save the planet and anyone left after the reckoning we're going to get in the wake of BP's poisoning of our ocean. Today, I'm pissed, because my children's grandparents and extended family keep feeding them fast food, against my wishes, against half a dozen requests to stop, against a doctor's warning that my daughter is highly allergic to soy and must remove it from her diet completely in order to restore her immune system. I thought the doctor's warning would be enough to keep her free of soybean-oil-fried Chicken McNuggets, a seemingly innocuous "kid food" that I believe to be an absolutely horrendous excuse for a meal. I would sooner feed my children worms--at least I would feel that I've protected them from this:

These two paragraphs are taken directly from The Omnivore’s Dilemma: (a book that EVERYONE WHO EATS in this country should read)

“The ingredients listed in the flyer suggest a lot of thought goes into a nugget, that and a lot of corn. Of the thirty-eight ingredients it takes to make a McNugget, I counted thirteen that can be derived from corn: the corn-fed chicken itself; modified cornstarch (to bind the pulverized chicken meat); mono-, tri-, and diglycerides (emulsifiers, which keep the fats and water from separating); dextrose; lecithin (another emulsifier); chicken broth (to restore some of the flavor that processing leeches out); yellow corn flour and more modified cornstarch (for the batter); cornstarch (a filler); vegetable shortening; partially hydrogenated corn oil; and citric acid as a preservative. A couple of other plants take part in the nugget: There's some wheat in the batter, and on any given day the hydrogenated oil could come from soybeans, canola, or cotton rather than corn, depending on the market price and availability.

According to the handout, McNuggets also contain several completely synthetic ingredients, quasi-edible substances that ultimately come not from a corn or soybean field but form a petroleum refinery or chemical plant. These chemicals are what make modern processed food possible, by keeping the organic materials in them from going bad or looking strange after months in the freezer or on the road. Listed first are the "leavening agents": sodium aluminum phosphate, mono-calcium phosphate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, and calcium lactate. These are antioxidants added to keep the various animal and vegetable fats involved in a nugget from turning rancid. Then there are "anti-foaming agents" like dimethylpolysiloxene, added to the cooking oil to keep the starches from binding to air molecules, so as to produce foam during the fry. The problem is evidently grave enough to warrant adding a toxic chemical to the food: According to the Handbook of Food Additives, dimethylpolysiloxene is a suspected carcinogen and an established mutagen, tumorigen, and reproductive effector; it's also flammable. But perhaps the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to "help preserve freshness." According to A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane (i.e. lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food: It can comprise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a nugget. Which is probably just as well, considering that ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause "nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse." Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill.”

This does not even mention the "Autolyzed Yeast Extract" which is a code name for Monosodium Glutamate, responsible for addicting millions of Americans to processed food. MSG is why my kids don't have the resolve to refuse those french fries or McNuggets when offered to them. MSG is why you can't stop eating BBQ potato chips after the first handful. MSG is implicated in obesity, anxiety, nervous disorders, migraines and dozens of other human ailments that drug companies have made millions treating the symptoms of. If you are ready for the truth about MSG, which is in ALL PROCESSED FOOD and in high amounts in fast food, go to this website. For all the other reasons why you should STOP EATING FAST FOOD NOW, watch the movie "Supersize Me" I watched that film with my kids to make sure they fully understand the implications of giving into food cravings. 

The reason why it's NOT OK once in a while (which apparently means once a week to my kids' grandmother), is that it encourages the addiction to the taste of fast food (via the MSG). Also, the message you're sending to your children is that this is acceptable food (which it most certainly is not, and you know it. And you're sending the message with your money that the corporations producing this extremely low quality garbage should keep making more of it, and tricking people into eating more and more. It has to stop somewhere, and where I put my foot down is to refuse to give them a dime. I always carry snacks in the car for my children: apples and almond butter, carrots, raisins, smoothies, berries. I have educated my kids on all the reasons why that crap is NOT REAL FOOD and what it is doing to people: heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cancer, leukemia, immune dysfunction, depression, anxiety and more. Do you understand that just because medication exists to treat these diseases does not excuse the fact that corporations are knowingly producing food that is killing people? 

I am one step away from blowing my top over this issue. I have in the past sent food over to their Grandparents' house to try and ensure that the kids are eating CLEAN, PURE, UNADULTERATED food. But when offered a bowl of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, what kid would turn it down in favor of celery and almond butter? And just because I sent food over there, it never stopped them from going to Dairy Queen or McDonald's. I just found out that my daughter ate at Wendy's yesterday with her aunt and cousins. Did anyone bother to inform them that she is HIGHLY ALLERGIC to soy, which is an ingredient in ALL fast food in one form or another? The assumption was made that Ruby is just a normal kid who eats what normal kids eat. That couldn't be further from the truth. When the kids are with me, they eat at least 60% raw, about 80% vegan, and 90% organic, and the percentage of food they eat that has an ingredient list on the package is probably less than 5%. What are my options here? I am enraged over this issue and it makes me want more than ever to take the kids far away and live in a community with others who understand how crucial it is that we grow our own food, collect our own water and avoid synthetic chemical exposure including pharmaceutical drugs. How can people claim to care about their family and then continue to feed them poison?! How can I continue to tolerate the kids' family influences when I so strongly disagree with their choices? These are my babies, who I took great care to breastfeed and cloth diaper and protect from chemical exposure (including the toxins and heavy metals in vaccines). Have I no say in what they are exposed to when they are not in my care?

Tomorrow I am taking my kids out to an organic farm in Arlington, where we will pick our own strawberries, lettuce, chard and anything else that's ready in the garden. My little garden at home is not producing much, due to its unfortunate location and the lack of sun we've had so far this summer. This is the kind of activity that I feel is far more valuable for children than taking them to beaches and water parks and playgrounds. I have my kids with me only half the week and sometimes it feels like there is so much I want to share with them and not enough time, so I maximize that time by teaching them real world skills and give them valuable knowledge that cuts through the ignorance our society is breeding. They have watched me transform through my raw food diet and they totally understand why I want to protect them from the demise of most Americans--we are too smart to fall prey to that foolishness, and won't be going out like that. 

This may be the strongest statement you will read in this blog, and do with it what you will: WE CANNOT AFFORD TO MESS AROUND ANY MORE. Skippy peanut butter is NOT FOOD. Not only are peanuts bad for us due to naturally-occurring toxins, they are the crop most highly saturated with pesticides, and the process of making peanut butter renders the oils rancid which requires the use of more chemicals. High Fructose corn syrup has been PROVEN to contribute to Diabetes, a disease that 24 MILLION Americans now suffer from (think of how much money is made off of insulin--Big Pharma is not suffering at all!). Hydrogenated oils clog arteries and drive cholesterol through the roof. Our bodies were not made to process this crap. If your body needs protein, eat real nuts that grew on a tree and were not soaked in poison! Sliced bread, hamburger buns, pizza dough, ALSO NOT FOOD. Refined, starchy grain products are the leading cause of Diabetes and give us nothing in terms of nutritional value. Try using lettuce or collard leaves to wrap your sandwich fillings. Smuckers Jam: NOT FOOD. Try real berries, without high fructose corn syrup and pesticides. Hot dogs: DEFINITELY NOT FOOD. Find out why you should avoid foods containing nitrates. If you believe you really need meat, find a good source of organic meat or poultry, and if you balk at the cost of it, then EAT LESS. Not only does eating these foods contribute to aging and disease, it supports industries that are not in the business of keeping people healthy. Why not give your money to people who are doing good in the world? Have you ever thought about that? Every dollar you spend ends up keeping something or someone going forward with their work. Perhaps you should do an experiment one day and track where every dollar you spend is going, and then research whether or not those companies are doing good or harm to the planet. I am driving all the way out to Arlington tomorrow to support people who are growing REAL FOOD in a sustainable manner. People who do that are not getting rich off of it, believe me. They are doing it because they care about the welfare of the planet and the people who will inherit it after everyone else dies of Cancer.  If I can save my kids from their family's ignorance, we will still be around then, creating a whole new world.

Where will YOU be?