Aug 11th 11
Posted by in Prosperity and responsibility
Though this is not really food related, I decided it was time to talk about something that has been bothering me (and many of my readers) for a long time: Low Self-Esteems. While I have been able to overcome mine, it’s sad to watch people wallow in self pity and waste away their lives.
However, low self-confidence isn’t just something that plagues those that think they are failures. It happens every time you compare yourself to someone else. I touched a bit on this a couple of posts ago with my “fad diets” post. In the end people will never be satisfied with how skinny they are. The media will always show them someone “better” looking.
In the end, you shouldn’t diet to get skinnier than someone else, or as skinny as someone, or even just skinny. There is no cap or definition to what “skinny” is. You should instead do things to improve your internal worth rather than your external worth. For instance: don’t lose weight to get skinny, sexy or more athletic. Lose weight to become healthy, less stressed and free to act as you choose.
And when you focus on inner attributes, the outward ones will follow. Oddly enough, when you focus on the outward attributes, like looks, money and popularity, you will be too busy to ever obtain the inward ones.
What is more important to you? Looks or Health? Luxuries or Contentment? “Friends” or Healthy Relationships?
Jul 19th 11
Posted by in Prosperity and responsibility
Processed foods have made quite the negative impact on public health. With high levels of salt causing high blood-pressure, and some preservatives linked with cancer, people are trying to find ways around their conventional diets.
However, not all processed foods are as bad as some would report. You’ll have to remember that a multivitamin falls under the same idea as an instant pizza, it’s just what’s in the two that make the difference. Plenty of companies are seeking to develop safer preservatives, and healthier varieties of processed foods.
Processed foods were developed after WWII as companies found that food that was processed for soldiers was profitable on the consumer market. These foods were easy to store, ship, and convenient to purchase. And they can be loaded with nutrients that consumers wouldn’t be able to get elsewhere. These foods were safe (no need to worry about salmonella or E. coli in pasteurized foods) and easily out-compete fresh foods in price–fresh foods tend to go bad, and so have to be kept in a constant supply.
So don’t bash on processed foods entirely. They bring affordable food to billions of people who would otherwise starve in this harsh world economy. Do be careful about your salt intake, and which preservatives you ingest, but be grateful for this “easy food”.
May 28th 11
Posted by in Good choices., Prosperity and responsibility
While the late, lamented Mr. John Lennon warbled about happiness being a warm gun, for the most of the rest of us happiness may be a full tum. Especially as so many of the people who populate planet earth are underfed and undernourished. Here in the West the norm is to be well fed, yet malnourishment can still take it’s toll when we are mightily troubled with obesity and it’s consequent twin evils of diabetes and heart disease. And those twins have innumerable cousins.
It ain’t Ronald’s fault that we are suffering as a nation. The invention of the “Chicken McNugget” did not presage the downfall of Western Civilization. The “Whopper” did not precipitate the destruction of all that was good and holy in the glorious days of yesteryear. What Southern sharecropper or wandering Okie would not have given his or her false teeth for a burger, fries and shake to distribute to an ill-nourished child who might have done better if a glass of milk an’ cornbread, an’ poke salet had been on hand.
We have grown fat upon the land because we have become wealthy without wisdom. Humble gratitude for what we are blessed with is better than rapacious greed to gain more. Making relevant choices as adults and parents is essential to our own health and that of future generations. Government mandates will not produce happy or healthy people. Being free to make a choice between fatty, artery clogging food and well balanced nourishment is our right. Choosing the right is a more difficult path. What the world needs now is love, sweet love. Then we will make the best choices for ourselves and the children we raise. Out of love and respect for ourselves and others we will choose the good from the bad. I can still remember when I first started in earnest to grow my own food. After hauling in rich composted material to my allotment one bag at a time, after I collected it where the county workers had for some years been dumping leaves cleared off the roads, I grew the tastiest vegetables. Cabbages, Brussel sprouts, carrots, potatoes, fennel, parsnips all had exquisite nuances of flavor. I had reduced my intake of meat and eschewed salt and pepper, and was rewarded with a thousand-fold increase in enjoyment of nature’s bounty.
Instead of our public schools churning out (or leaking out through dropping out) hordes of minds ill and under nourished and thus unable to make wise choices, teachers need to take the initiative to throw out the books about global warming, having two mummies, and Che Guevara’s sainthood. Then they can concentrate on telling it like it really is; like it really, really is. And then those kids can turn out to be better prepared than their own parents were in nurturing the best in the human spirit. Teach them that chicken soup is good for the soul. Nanny states never nourish or nurture. Never forget the Soviet bakers’ shops with the interminable lines of people with gaunt faces; harassed and haggard people without hope waiting in vain as the last lousy loaf was sold.
