Consumer Intelligence 101

Do you think about food before you eat it? Where did it come from? How was it grown, packaged, produced? How far did it travel to get to your plate? What are the ingredients? These are all important questions that we need to be asking ourselves before digging in. We are creatures of habit, we see food, we purchase food, we eat food. And rightfully so, as it is a very primordial instinct which we've inherited from our ancestors. However, evolution has put a twist on our "killer" instincts bombarding us with so many choices that we cannot decifer "good" from "not so good".

The solution is simple as food pioneer Michael Pollan advises, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." The crucial step here is defining food. It is commonly defined as, Food: "Any substance eaten to provide nutritional support for the body". This includes vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts and seeds, and meats (including eggs, fish, and soy protein). Food does not include General Mills cereals, pop tarts, most packaged breads, inhumanely raised animal products, vegetables and fruits laden with pesticides, alcohol, ice cream, cookies and candy etc. Sadly, there are much more nonfood sources available to purchase than genuine food sources. Why? One major reason being supply and demand. If we do not demand change, poor food sources will continue to be the gold standard. The easiest way to make this change is to change what you purchase at the grocery store, ask employees to stock organic produce, and buy mostly organic, local products.

There are numerous bendfits of eating pesticide free, organic foods, especially produce. The bottom line is, yes, organic is better for you, for the earth and especially for your children. It is the number one way, even more important than exercise, of how to prevent all major diseases including cancer, alzheimer's, autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular disease etc.

Be mindful of what you eat, of where it comes from; start reading ingredients, if there are any listed that you cannot pronounce, if it lists more than 6-10 ingredients, if it's been processed and chemically manufactured for the pleasure of your palate and the seller's pocket, don't buy it. Return to the basics of how our ancestors and our ancestors ancestors ate and even their ancestors ate. If you are concerened with the fact that organic food costs more than conventional foods you should be (in acutality its not that much more a few dollars maybe). But there are a few important points why this is so:
1) It is better for you, and in the United States, food that is healthier for you costs slightly more because the government does not subsidize organic foods, only conventional food producers are granted subsidies
2) There is not enough demand for organic foods; vote with your dollar at the grocery store and we will continue to see change
3) Organic is healthier and in the long run will save you money; conventional eaters tend to have more health problems and spend much more money on health care expenses, hospital visits, and medical procedures for diseases that could be prevented by changing what we feed ourselves
4) Pesticides, herbacides, fungacides, growth hormones are all invisible to the naked eye, but not to our bodies. They actually decrease the nutritional value of foods, get ingested in our bodies and set the stage for health issues down the road, they cannot be "washed off" with water, not to mention the fact that they wreck havoc on the ecosystem and future crops.

I want to leave you on a positive note and that is we have many resources to eat healthy. Organic produce is now showing up in many grocery stores and farmers markets are growing readily. All we have to do is be willing to change our mindset, we need to tweek our primordial instincts and instead of reaching for the pizza and iceberg lettuce smothered in blue cheese, make your own pizza from local, organic fresh ingredients. Oh and use olive oil on your salads, sprinkle on some fresh herbs and sea salt and you'll have a delicious, nutrient dense meal.

~"It has been said that we cannot know or judge a higher level of spirituality than what we ourselves have attained. The wise can understand the foolish because they have emerged from foolishness, but the foolish cannot understand the wise, because foolishness does not come out of wisdom".