Once upon a time our lives were spent doing the physical labor necessary for providing food for our family. Each spring seeds were planted, grown, then harvested in the fall. They were canned or preserved to provide nourishment for the winter and spring. Life was about food. Grinding grain, kneading the dough to make bread, milking the cows and churning butter. Hours were spent tending a fire under a pot or in a stove, stirring the nourishing foods. Food was eaten for life, we didn’t live to eat.
Today it’s all reversed. We live to eat. We don’t eat to live. Food is necessary to provide the raw materials the body requires to repair, rebuild, and to enable function. Yet what is commonly eaten are foods devoid of these raw materials. What function does donuts and coffee provide? If we spend more than a few minutes in the kitchen, we’re complaining. We skip meals, eat out, eat pre-packaged-nutrient-devoid foods, and spend the rest of the time sitting in front of the TV or computer. We are no longer physically active in the fields. We compensate by walking in the evening or working out at the gym. But is it the same?
We work our brains, while our bodies become flabby. Then when our brains feel foggy, we head for the anti-depressants. Worse yet, those of us who prefer to eat real food – like it used to be – out of the garden, are the health nuts. We’re the freaks. All food at one time (and for thousands of years) was organic. Everyone ate organic. Now it’s reversed. You’re weird if you eat organic. If you prefer to spend time in the kitchen making your own whole wheat bread, you’re dubbed a hippie. What happened?
Even when we eat well, we no longer have the healthy soil to provide the minerals as in days of old. Our top soil which used to average between 12-16 inches is now down to less than 6 inches. It takes hundreds of years to rebuild one inch of topsoil. Our lands are shrinking at a rate of almost 37,000 square miles a year because of the erosion of our soils. As a result, we are increasingly becoming overfed, but malnourished. When vegetables are grown in the same place year after year, the soil is stripped of its vital nutrients, producing plants weaker and weaker in minerals. Chemical fertilizers further denature the soil and even sterilize it. When we “health food nuts” desire organic vegetables, which are grown in soils that are composted to enhance the nutritional content, we are denigrated.
Having said all that about vegetables is discouraging. However, eating pre-packaged foods is even more dispiriting. Next time you take a bite of food, ask yourself “does this food contain the raw materials needed to build a healthy body, or is it just plain empty calories?”
© 2009 Holly A. Carling, O.M.D., L.Ac., Ph.D.
