Back To Natural Eating

Do you think we were meant to eat foods that have been transformed from natural to artificial? Food that has been developed and created in a lab? Food that is harvested way before it is ripe and then treated with gas to make it ripen faster? Food that has traveled hundreds or thousands of miles from where it was harvested to get to your local store? Food that is confined in small areas where it hardly has enough space to turn around, let alone walk? Food that is fed grain to fatten it up quicker instead of eating grass and plants like it is designed to eat?

I’m not saying that there is no room for science in agriculture. But I believe that we have gone further than we should have when it comes to processing our food. The food we eat today has less nutritional value as the food we ate 50 years ago. I realize we can produce more food in the same space as we could before, but if it’s not equal or better quality than what we could produce before, is it really worth it?

There’s also the whole natural vs. GMO debate. Who’s right and who’s wrong? I don’t know. What I DO know is that the mega-corporations that own the GMO foods and seeds make it look very suspicious when they will spend millions and even billions of dollars to keep “GMO” off the label of the foods they produce! If it’s safe for us to eat, why not label it?

I don’t know that there has been enough testing on GMO foods to determine if the long term effects on humans is positive or negative. I think that the mega-corporations paid to have their products passed through the USDA and whatever other government agencies control our food safety. It all seems very underhanded and was handled behind closed doors. What don’t they want us to know? ALL I WANT IS TO BE ABLE TO CHOOSE IF I EAT GMO FOOD OR NOT!

Am I anti-farm? NO, DEFINITELY NOT! I live in rural Indiana, there is farmland everywhere I look and A LOT of my family and friends either are or were farmers! I love the family farm! I do not like the ridiculously large industrial farm and I do not like how large corporate farms force the family farm to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into their farms and then the corporate farm changes the rules or cancels the contract with the family farm leaving the farmer in debt that they have no chance of repaying.

I also believe that when we were created and placed on this earth, that we were given everything we needed to survive. We were given the skills to tend the earth, grow our own food and hunt. I understand that there are more people on the earth than there were 2000+ years ago and a lot of things have changed, some good, some bad. As I look at our earth and our society right now, I believe we’ve gone too far in several areas. We’ve gotten away from some of our basic beliefs and standards. For the most part, most Americans have no idea how to sustain themselves! They don’t know how to plant a garden or grow their own food and even if they did, they wouldn’t know what to do with it after it was harvested. They don’t know how to cook with fresh, raw ingredients. They don’t know how to preserve fresh food so they can use it later. Some have no idea how to cook anything that doesn’t come out of a box! You don’t have to have 5 acres or a big back yard to be able to grow your own food! So don’t think you city slickers are exempt from needing to learn some new (old) skills.

Ok, I think I’ve explained how I feel about some of the major issues…maybe a little soapbox rant too. Let’s get down to business.

Does eating natural, locally grown food have any health benefits?

As I said earlier, the jury’s still out on whether GMO food is as good for you as non-GMO. Likewise, there have been hundreds of studies done on whether or not herbicides, pesticides and chemical fertilizers are safe to use in food production. The problem is, whose studies are right? It seems like whoever is conducting the tests always has a reason to sway the results one way or the other. Therefore, it’s hard for me to believe one group over the other. I know certain studies show a link from certain chemicals and cancer, but, if chemicals are used correctly, how much do we really get from eating food it has been used on?

All that being said, my wife Kim was diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2010 at the age of 35. This is a cancer that is usually diagnosed in people 60+ years old. At the time of her diagnosis, she was the healthiest person I knew…and she still is. Kim has been cancer-free for 4 years now (Praise The Lord!) and she has her own health and wellness and coaching business where she helps people in all stages of life get their health under control!

Because of Kim’s diagnosis, we did A TON of research into causes of cancer trying to find a reason for her diagnosis. Kim was, and is, a nurse, so we thought we knew a lot about nutrition and health…well now we know A LOT more! We had no idea how hazardous cleaning chemicals and chemicals in our food could be. Up until she was diagnosed, we had no reason to believe that the everyday household chemicals that are used in homes and businesses weren’t safe to use. We, like millions of other people, just blindly trusted the government agencies that are supposed to regulate these industries. There are some safe, non-toxic cleaning products that I recommend.

Again, Back to the topic!

Yes. Eating locally grown food has health benefits. At the very least, foods that are locally grown have more nutritional value simply because they are harvested when they are ripe not before.

Buying local gives you the chance to meet and get to know the people that are growing the food you eat. You get to know how they grow it, where they grow it and what they use or don’t use in the process.

If the farmer/gardener you get your food from uses more natural growing methods and takes care to replenish the soil with organic material and makes the effort to make sure the soil is healthy, the more nutritious your food will be. The healthier the soil, the healthier the food it will produce.

In my opinion, locally grown food produced using natural growing methods has enormous health benefits. Proper nutrition can prevent many major diseases 60-90% of the time. Heart disease, Cancer and Diabetes are all preventable.