If We Are What We Eat...

Pretty soon we may all be mutants!

Oh gosh, I don't know if you all have been keeping up on our nation's food saga lately, but things are crazy!  Monsanto, GMO's, "FrankenFish"... it seems nearly impossible to get food that is simply that.  FOOD.  I wish I could say that I have a ton of free time on my hands, and that I have a bright green thumb, but neither of those two statements are even remotely true.  Seriously.  I kill every plant I touch, and I am currently raising a 13 month old, cloth diapering, working a retail job about 25 hours a week, and running my own portrait photography business, and selling Mary Kay as an independent beauty consultant.

Bottom line- I barely have time to shower or go to the bathroom.

I am not one of those moms that effortlessly does it all.  I'm not very organized, my house is always a disaster, and I'm just flat out tired most of the time from all of my responsibilities.  I simply balk at the idea of turning my entire backyard into a garden, as wonderful as that would be.  My problem here is that it seems like we're just going to be forced into that scenario at some point soon because I just can't stomach the idea of poisoning my daughter (and any future children) with produce laced with roundup. Gross.

I really have nothing super educated to say on this topic.  I'd have to send you to other sources for that, such as 100 Days of Real Food which is where I've been going to educate and inspire myself.  I'm certainly not an expert on all things food, and I can't claim to even make many dinners from scratch.  I simply work too late most nights and haven't just figured out a good crock-pot schedule yet.  BUT-  I do know that I am completely outraged at the state of food in this country.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out the documentary Hungry For Change.  You can watch it instantly on Netflix if you subscribe, and I'm sure you could find it to rent or watch elsewhere online.  Basically the food industry in the US is trying to addict you to everything unnatural and horrible for you.  Do you crave sweets all the time like I do?  Yep, well, it's not just because we have an enormous sweet tooth.  And really the only way to avoid all these additives is to ditch almost all processed foods.

Which is crazy.

It's crazy because I think about that and think to myself- how the heck am I going to have time to make every single meal we eat during the day from scratch.  Just thinking about it makes me almost break out in anxious hives.  Seriously.  I have no idea how to do this!  I love my mom, and she taught me SO much, but preparing meals wasn't one of them.  I'm the oldest of five and my dad works for a major newspaper, so he had crazy hours when we were kids.  I can't imagine trying to prepare three meals from scratch while trying to keep five crazy kids from killing each other.  All this means is that I feel totally lost in this journey and have no clue where to start.

So I signed up for The Fresh 20.  5 dinners worth of recipes and a shopping list that I can just print off?  Yes please!  All the foods are fresh, and in season.  Thank goodness for companies like this that realize some of us are completely clueless.

So now I have one more thing to add to the list of things to work on so E doesn't have to when she gets older.  Oh Lord, there is so much to change, but as long as I try, we will make some progress.  And that's what is really important I think.  Educating yourself.  Trying to change.  Making small steps towards a goal.

But I think the time has also come to get outraged.  Outraged that our government sanctions the slow and steady poisoning of it's people all in the name of money.  If you think our elected officials are not getting kickbacks from the likes of Monsanto, then I think you are going to be very disappointed once you start to do some research.  That's the thing though.  Do some research.  Decide for yourself what you are willing to accept for your family based on cold hard facts, not just the PR propaganda that is all over the place.

Oh man, I'm really starting to go off on a conspiratorial tangent here, but I'm telling you, this stuff is real, and it's so disturbing!

All I'm suggesting is that we all educate ourselves.  Good, healthy, safe food should be the norm, not the exception to the rule.  It also shouldn't cost an arm and a leg.  We shouldn't have to decide between putting gas in the car, or putting safe food on the table.  It's a sad state that we are in, and we need to stand up and demand change.

Because if we really are what we eat, we should be very very concerned.