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Food Rant

February 24, 2012 by Nancy Lankston Leave a Comment

Read It!

Do you have any idea what you ate today? Really??!

Warning: the TED Talk Video link I share here may open your eyes and blow your mind:
http://youtu.be/rixyrCNVVGA

My opinions about the sorry state of America’s food are well known to all my family and friends. Messed Up American Food is Nancy’s Rant #1A, according to my husband. Well, watch out hubby – Hell, watch out world! This TED Talk really got my Rant bit flipped on high!

Over the past 2 decades, I have done a ton of research on food – I did it in self-defense because both of my kids reacted to “normal” American foods like bread and milk from an early age. I had to learn about reading labels and what all those strange ingredients really are just to keep my kids sane and healthy.

But the new information in this short video about what is being added to our food and our crops in America has me so stirred up, so incensed – so MAD! I may have to open the windows and scream, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!”

I am so mad, I may have to catch the next plane to Washington and show this video to ANYONE and EVERYONE in Congress who I can tie down for 15 minutes. Because I am CONVINCED – the SHIT that is being added to our food is hurting us and will eventually kill us. This additive, preservative and genetically modified madness needs to stop NOW!

It is time to draw the line. I am sick and tired of paying a small fortune to buy organic products just so I can get some food without chemical additives and genetic modifications! The short-sighted stupidity of decision makers in the American food industry absolutely STUNS me. How can this stuff end up in our food and NO ONE in the industry thinks twice about it?? And they don’t feel the need to test these additive and GMO’s??? The last 15+ years has been one big test on the American population – the only problem is, I DO NOT RECALL GIVING ANYONE PERMISSION TO TEST THIS ADDITIVE CRAP ON MY KIDS!!

I am reminded of reading how the elite class in Roman Empire poisoned themselves by wearing lead-based face powder in order to look paler. And now in America, we poison our own kids’ food just to make a bit more profit for Kraft and Coca Cola and Monsanto. WOW!

Please watch the video. Please – you owe it to yourself and your family.
And let me know if you decide to join my rant-fest.

As you watch the video, try to keep in mind that we lowly American consumers are NOT powerless herd animals. We still control which foods we buy and which we avoid, don’t we? And with the power of our pocketbooks, we can change the entire food industry, one purchase at a time.

The Wisdom of Dr M

November 16, 2010 by Nancy Lankston Leave a Comment

 

I want to share an article I originally published two years ago. This piece is dedicated to an amazing healer named Dr. Armando Moreano. Dr. M taught me what true healing is all about…

✧

Years ago I worked for a very wise doctor. He was a petite little man with a hot Latino temper. I learned a whole slew of Spanish cuss words from Dr. M. He’s been dead for more than 15 years, but he’s still one of the most amazing healers I have ever known.

Dr. M grew up in Ecuador; a tiny country in South America that is certainly not known for being at the forefront of medicine. But he learned much about the true essence of healing from watching his physician father treat patients with access to only the most basic equipment and medicines. And even after years of U.S. medical training and experience, he managed to maintain an intuitive sense of how to help his patients heal; simple yet profound treatments were the rule. Nothing very complicated; not much in the way of whiz bang technology; just the basics delivered with love and compassion. His patients adored him – they sensed they were in good hands.

My boss knew all about his patients and their families; he would quiz them about their love lives, their jobs, their mothers – no question was off limits. I sometimes found his questions bizarre and intrusive. I was young and did not yet understand that he asked those questions because he sensed that his patients emotional and spiritual health directly affected their physical health.

I wish Dr. M were still here with us training this generation of doctors. How wonderful to have a doctor who remembers me and asks me about my love life and my family! All those nosey questions that used to embarrass me now seem crucial to quality health care. How can a doctor care for you adequately if she doesn’t know anything about you except a few facts listed in your chart? But that’s another subject entirely.

Dr. M was opinionated and not at all shy about expressing himself. He would go on and on about how preservatives in food were at the root of many health problems; he blamed everything from cancer and diabetes to arthritis and heart disease on artificial chemicals in our food. He liked to deliver his dire pronouncement about American food and health while standing in his office smoking a cigarette and drinking a diet Coke. This made his argument seem especially poignant.

My boss was a great example of the old adage that the most difficult patient for any healer to heal is himself. His father had died suddenly when Dr. M was still young. He never got to say good-bye to his dad and it obviously still grieved him deeply 20 years later. Add to that being caught in the middle of constant arguments between his wife and mother and Dr. M’s smoking made perfect sense. But back then I just thought he was weak for not being able to quit smoking. That was decades before terms such as emotional eating, stress related illness and PTSD became mainstream. Today the research on the link between emotional upset and illness grows every day. And as I try to give up my own chai habit, I realize first hand just how emotionally loaded our food and drug choices can be!

When Dr. M would jump on his bandwagon and lament the sorry state of American food, I would roll my eyes and try to change the subject. I was a know-it-all twenty something, fresh out of college; I really loved my candy and junk food; my boss just seemed like an eccentric old man to me. He actually reminded me of a college chemistry professor I had who would go on and on about the dangers of fluoride in tap water. Now I realize just how wise both of them were…Today, years later I am the one lamenting the sorry state of American food.

Our food has not improved in 20 years. If anything it has gotten worse. The grocery store has aisle after aisle of food, kept “fresh” with preservatives such as BHA, BHT and MSG. Europeans want nothing to do with our mi lk and cheese because we continue to feed our cows bovine growth hormones. How can we give growing school children milk laced with those hormones?!

The ingredients labels on many foods read like a chemistry experiment. It actually is a big chemistry experiment; put preservatives in our food to increase the shelf-life and assure us that all those chemicals are “fine”; they won’t do us any harm. Wait 20 years and see what happens. Sounds a bit like the instructions for instant soup; just add hot water and wait a bit. Only this time the results can be way more serious than soggy noodles!

This crotchety old nurse has gotten a bandwagon of her own and it is called Avoid Artificial Dyes and Preservatives. Twenty years after Dr. M tried to tell me and anyone else who would listen, I am now trying to tell you. My wise old doctor boss was absolutely right – what you eat can either nourish you or kill you; choose wisely. Do not assume that just because they sell it in a grocery store that it is good for you!

Those of you who have known me a while have heard all of this before. My husband calls it Nancy’s rant #1A. And yes, I actually do get red in the face and rant about this on occasion just like my wild Latino boss used to. Dr. M has passed his baton to me. : -)) I rant and I push my opinions about food. And I will continue to rant because your health is worth it.

What You Can Do:
1. READ LABELS; know what is in the food that you feed yourself and your family.
2. AVOID ARTIFICIAL PRESERVATIVES & DYES; Artificial chemicals are NOT food and they CAN hurt you. It may take 20-30 years, but these chemicals can make you sick and even kill you. And watch out for preservatives and dyes in lotions, makeup and hair-care products as well.
3. AVOID FOOD THAT HAS BEEN PROCESSED OR MANIPULATED TO MAKE IT LAST LONGER. Long shelf life does not mean high quality. In general, the more processed a food is, the less nutritious it is. For example, avoid oils that have been refined with chemicals and heat. Buy cold pressed oils instead.
4. BUY THE FRESHEST FOOD YOU CAN AFFORD. Cheap food can cost you your health. It is NOT worth it.

I hope you will take a cue from Dr. M; please protect your body from chemicals that can hurt you.

More Fun with Food

June 23, 2010 by Nancy Lankston 1 Comment

I was feeling quite smug earlier today; I am now allowing myself one chai to drink per day and I’ve actually stuck to it for 3 days so far. Woo Hoo!

But then I made the mistake of grabbing a handful of cashews to eat with my chai, thinking that half my snack should be nutritious and good for me. Kind of like choosing juice to drink with a greasy double cheeseburger and hoping that the good joo joo in the juice cancels out the yuck in the burger.

Anyway, I was feeling quite proud of myself for choosing cashews… until I made the mistake of reading the label on the cashew bag. Some food processor in their INFINITE wisdom added partially hydrogenated soybean oil to my nuts!

I ask you, does it make any sense at all to soak nuts in oil? As if nuts don’t contain enough oil on their own? Were the nuts not SLIPPERY enough, or what??! Of course it doesn’t make sense to dye pickles a neon shade of yellow-green either, but food processors do it all the time. Try finding an au natural pickle at your local grocery store – it’s not easy.

Why, pray tell, would an intelligent human RUIN their nuts by dipping them in partially hydrogenated oil? Is there anyone left in America who has not heard that partially hydrogenated oils are artery clogging, cancer inducing nastiness?! Apparently whomever prepared my cashews for market still has not heard.

I keep expecting the FDA to ban partially hydrogenated oils from all foods, that’s how nasty this stuff is. But here I sit with this partially hydrogenated yuck ON MY NUTS!,

OK, OK – I should probably relax – I’m practically hyperventilating about some ruined nuts. Getting this worked up is probably more detrimental than eating nuts dipped in partially hydrogenated oil… I need to relax and breathe…

Actually, I may have to down a second chai just to calm myself. <vbgrin> Any flimsy excuse to drink more chai.

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