Food as Medicine
Ultra-processed food has been weaponized against America. Food—real, whole food the way nature produced it—is the original medicine.
Food is one of those things I’ve taken for granted. I eat to live. I don’t eat for enjoyment much. I just assumed this disease has taken away my appetite like it has taken away so much of my physical sensation. At the start of the year I was almost twenty pounds (9 kg) underweight.
But I recently took a crash course in what can rightly be called our national health crisis.
The American healthcare system no longer serves the interests of the people.
Ultra-processed food has been weaponized against America.
Last month, Senator Ron Johnson and Robert F Kennedy, Jr. conducted a roundtable in Washington, D.C., in which doctors, nutritional experts, and researchers convened to discuss our flawed American health & nutrition system and to implore the assistance of government healthcare policy staffers.
Some key points of the 4-hour roundtable:
The current healthcare system benefits from chronic illness. There is currently no incentive to change this.
Panelists agreed that metabolic (cell-level) dysfunction is affected by toxins rather than genetics.
Metabolic dysfunction is also a contributing factor in mental health. Chemical imbalance, stress, and trauma alone are insufficient to explain what doctors are seeing. However, trauma and stress also feed into metabolic dysfunction, creating a spiral of decline.
Europeans, on average, have a 5-6 year longer life expectancy than Americans.
The FDA doesn’t evaluate food additives—the food companies do. The reason is that the FDA doesn’t have the resources to do the necessary studies.
The FDA has approved about 10,000 food additives through an “innocent until proven guilty” philosophy. By contrast, Europe takes a “guilty until proven innocent” approach and has only approved 400 additives.
American brands that sell food in other countries don’t include all the same additives outside of the U.S. For example, McDonald’s fries in America have 11 ingredients. In the UK there are only 3, and salt is optional.
The Food Pyramid was invented by the cigarette companies who bought up food manufacturing companies in the 1980s after the Surgeon General announced that smoking was unhealthy.
Ultra-processed American food has been engineered to be addictive, leading people to eat as many as 800 additional calories per day on average.
Most Americans have been too harmed to break free of the system of pain, disease, and obesity without systemic intervention.
I recommend the entire panel, however there is a 14-minute highlights version available. Or, you can take a look at some of my favorite speakers:
Dr. Casey Means - Metabolic dysfunction
Dr. Chris Palmer - Mental health
Vani Hari - American food in America vs other countries
Courtney Swan - GMOs
Alex Clark - How the system is affecting the rising generation
Taking Steps to Get Out of Chronic Health Issues
What struck me is the statement that I heard at least twice during the roundtable—that most Americans, in their current condition, are too ill or weak or addicted to do something without outside help.
I can relate to that.
However, I still believe it is possible to implement change in such small increments that something can be done—speaking as someone partially disabled by toxins. And, for myself, I’m starting with breakfast.
Rather than jumping straight into eggs and bacon (both of which I love, but not as breakfast), I decided to go with good, whole grains. So, this week I ordered organic oatmeal. The list of ingredients is purely non-GMO grains, seeds, and fruits with minimal processing.
For the first time in a long time, I was actually looking forward to eating! In fact, the oatmeal arrived yesterday and I got to try some this morning. It confirmed what I had suspected.
For once, my stomach didn’t feel heavy, cramped, and numb. It felt light.
Unlike many Americans, processed foods have never really appealed to me. I eat them for convenience. But I don’t really have an appetite for them.
I owe much gratitude to my macros coach, who recently helped me introduce more proteins into my diet. I tried to choose foods that sounded appealing to me—nuts, whole milk, cheese, organic protein powder, avocados. All healthy fats and proteins—assuming no unhealthy additives.
With this foundation, I feel prepared to begin replacing other unhealthy parts of my diet with better alternatives. The only thing that hurts is how expensive it is.
As panelist, Courtney Swan, commented—Americans are being forced to pay more to not eat poisoned food.
Based on my experience, if you are eating ultra-processed foods and don’t feel that unhealthy, you may not be aware of how different you would feel if you switched off of them.
I keep thinking of Japanese cuisine. I look at the foods my Japanese friends eat and I’m envious. Fresh fish, eggs, mushrooms, rice, vegetables. It’s considered good for your health to eat seasonal foods in their native season, and that makes complete sense to me.
I also come from a line of farmers. It’s a dream of mine to have my own garden and grow my own food and herbs.
What is your dream when it comes to food and nutrition? Are your habits supporting your dreams? What is one thing you could change?
One other thing I learned from my coach—just because you are adopting a healthier lifestyle doesn’t mean you have to give up all the foods you love. We often equate healthy eating to dieting, but it’s not the same. It’s about being smart about what and how much you eat.
For example, one unexpected benefit of this panel is that I have a recommendation for a healthy, organic chocolate to try—Hu Kitchen, founded by panelist Jason Karp. Dark chocolate is one of my few cravings, but just one square usually meets my needs.
To fix our broken healthcare and food production systems will require top-down change, but there are some things we—as ordinary people—can do to help:
Write to government leaders
Sign a petition for food companies to change (Kellogg’s example)
Shop to support farmers and food companies that are organic & non-GMO
Spread the word and encourage others to do the same
According to panelists, just a 5% drop in sales is enough to get food companies’ attention.
Food—real, whole food the way nature produced it—is the original medicine. You deserve to feel good about what you consume and put on. Even one small change can affect how you feel in your body. I hope you make that choice.
With love,
Ordinary Girl
Detox - Weeks 4 & 5
Just a quick word for those who are curious.
Week 4 was a break from chelation. I started missing the mood boost from the Vitamin C about halfway through the week.
I’m one who doesn’t believe in relying on supplements or substances long-term, but I noticed a difference. it made things difficult. I’m really hoping, once I get a lot more of these toxins out of my body, that it will be easier to feel positive. Besides toxic metals, I now know I’ve had toxic food additives in me, too.
I also noticed some odd heart palpitations. Checking in with my body, I feel—and would not be surprised to know—that some of the metals in my bloodstream have gotten into my heart tissue.
Week 5 has been good so far. Chelation doesn’t feel so intense as it did at first. My blood flow seems to concentrate on certain areas of my body while the EDTA works though me. Last night it was my chest and ribs.
I don't know if I mentioned it, but be careful about dehydration if you try chelation yourself.
My right side is uncurling. I’m slowly activating more of my core and back muscles, but I can’t contract them consistently or always at will. For now my fascia is still doing a lot of work. But my sister noted that she can tell I’m using more arm muscles. That made my day!