There is a commercial on television in which an actress states that
"I have this one life and this one body." While this statement is used to
sell a medication, it is a truism in itself.

We live in a world that started out with all the basics - fresh green grass,
food that was natural and very organic, and families had to make due and
find ways to keep healthy, happy, and fed. While advancements have taken
place, they have not all been geared to helping each man, woman, and
child to be given the pleasure of knowing that all that they put into their
bodies is clean, fresh, and not produced in a laboratory under a microscope.
The food supply in the United States has always been abundant, but many
mega-corporations needed to find a way to make sure that part of this
abundance was in the form of cash into their bank accounts. Chemicals,
preservatives, and artificial flavors and colors were produced. Following on
this premise, every category of the diet was infiltrated by pseudo products
that might have smelled like food, tasted like food, but were a far reach from
what food is suppose to be. In addition, if you watch or listen to any commercials
in the media, the prescription drug products have exploded and you now are
told that you need a pill to take before you eat, after you eat, and just before you
settle down to sleep because the food that you ate won't let you rest. When you get
up, you are told that you have to take a pill to face the day, take another one just
in case you might contract a dreaded disease, and then in the evening, that yellow
pill in the box will make sure that you are ready to face your life as parent, wife/
husband, or Olympic athlete. We are now finding out that well-known athletes
took pills so that they could do their sport, and teen-agers feel that drugs are
necessary to face peer pressure and even to understand homework. Adults who
should know better, take pills that are a rainbow in themselves and there even has
to be a cabinet in the kitchen just for the pill bottles.

If you look back a bit, before the world was "recreated" by chemical companies,
food was the source of vitamins, minerals and all that was good for you. Vegetables,
fruits, and herbs were the ingredients to health and the good life. But somehow all
this got confused in the laboratories across the world. There had to be a better way,
or in essence, a more profitable way, to eat. Eating was essential no matter the gender,
religion or ethnic background of a person. Food was the one item in the human make-
up that was a stable and would be around for as long as humans were around. So in came
the laboratory workers and you now have aisles in stores filled with cans, bottles, and
boxes with ingredients that you can't pronounce, let alone understand. We stopped
eating by the seasons and we wanted fresh fruit and exotic vegetables all twelve months
of the year. There was need for instant gratification and meals had to be a trip into the
twilight zone, but served in nine courses.

Cancer is more prevalent, illnesses are surpassing the abilities of antibiotics and children
are facing a multitude of ailments that were never heard of in the past. People are dying by
the numbers, but the numbers that get to see another day face quantity of life because the
quality is gone. Food is not food any more. They are chemical formulations and treated
products that kill insects and weeds, but are suppose to keep people healthy and thriving.

Do you see anything wrong with this situation? If you are a parent, then the truth of what
you are eating or serving to your family must become paramount and important once
again. Fast food is becoming a quick trip to heart disease and cancer. Food that looks as
fresh as a picture in a magazine is shining because of pesticides and herbicides.

What is the answer to this new problem that has arisen in the grocery aisles across the
country? One very potent and true way to make your way through the jungle of preservatives
and three letter potent ingredients such as BTH, BTT, etc. is to know your food, where it comes
from, who grew it, and even take a hand at growing it yourself. Farmer markets are virtual
catalogs of fresh ingredients and chemical-free is guaranteed if you do the gardening yourself.
While it may take more time or challenge then you really want to put out, then join with
groups, neighbors, and organizations and then share in the work, and in the joy of the harvest.
Good food is not dead and gone - it is alive and well and just waiting for people to rediscover
its goodness, taste, and health appeal.

If you are tired of being tired, and if the sight of hospitals, nursing facilities, and pictures of
children, adults, and the elderly wasting away and science not being able to keep the tide of
new diseases and maladies at bay, take matters into your own hands. Put on the gloves and
fight back. Gardens can be grown in any area from kitchen windows to twenty acre fields.
Cities are volunteering areas to be taken over by community gardens and there are farm
stores and co-op stores just brimming with vitamins and minerals all courtesy of the sun and
the rain. Even commercial buildings and apartment complexes are heading upward with
roof tops gardens. Think about food, plan your menu and then find the solution to ridding
your mealtime plans of chemically laden and hazardous to your health products. Read
labels and go to libraries for more information. However you tackle this deadly crisis
of altered food, it will be to your benefit and to the benefit of those you love.
Start today and know that all your efforts will be rewarded and that cabinet in the
kitchen with the pill bottles could be put to better use.
Something to think about
©Arleen M. Kaptur
March, 2009