A Daily Dose

Supplement.

I write and think a lot about food, nutrition, and food and as a primary medicine but I I decidedly avoid the topic of vitamins.  Vitamins and minerals are, of course, and essential part of our health and vitality; and yes, we should be able to get all the vitamins and minerals we need from our regular diets. I believed this for a very long time. And then, in my late twenties, I had health problems. I was regularly exposed to toxic chemicals in my environmental cleanup work, and previous illnesses had left my immune system weakened. When I finally found a health care practitioner that prescribed vitamins I was dubious. I thought that the vitamin industry was mostly just scamming lazy people that couldn't be bothered to eat right.

Then I started taking targeted vitamins at specific dosages designed to address my deficiencies. And I felt much, much better.  I also started catching less colds and flu bugs and getting over them faster.  The right vitamins have helped fight leg cramps, improved my mood, and gotten me through some big-time cold seasons. Now, I have a daily dose that changes with the seasons and makes me feel noticeably better when I take it regularly. I am grateful for this. Sometimes it's worth testing our own assumptions and paradigms. You never know what your truth might be. 

The FDA's website about vitamins:

http://www.fda.gov/forconsumers/consumerupdates/ucm118079.htm

Like what you are reading?  Then support the Kickstarter for my book Girl Gone Wild- On Being a Woman in the Wilderness.  Thanks!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1731666363/girl-gone-wild-a-guide-to-being-a-woman-outside?ref=city

Photograph Courtesy of:

http://www.medicaly.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/The-benefits-of-vitamins-for-pregnant.jpg

An Apple A Day

Health.

On July 30th, 1965 President Johnson signed Medicare into law.  In doing so he created a national health insurance program for the middle class elderly.  The visionary for the program, Harry S. Truman, became the first enrollee of the program. There is much discussion and debate over the Medicare system, how it is implemented, whether or not it is sustainable, and if it is making any kind of real positive impact.  What is largely lost in the modern Medicare debate is the original purpose and intent of the program in the eyes of its creators.  Truman imagined the program as a way of giving the middle class access to medical care, yes.  But by his own words, and from the viewpoint of the mid-20th century, access to medical care was not primarily for the purpose of receiving treatment, at that time people still considered medical care to be a means of prevention first, then treatment.   I think that it is important to consider the fundamental changes in the American mindset around health, treatment, prescription medications, and prevention that have taken place in the last fifty years before entering into any policy discussion related to the health care system.  The most important things that we can do in terms of our own health are all related to prevention, it is time to turn our thinking with respect to health and how we care for it.

Photograph Courtesy of:

www.aarp.org

Let Them Eat Cake

agroterrorism.

There are a lot of great, albeit traditionally left-winged reasons to eat locally. Eating locally supports small family owned farms and food producers, decreases the carbon footprint of your meals, discourages industrialization of farming practices and therefore the prevalence of pesticides and herbicides, supports your local economy, increases community sustainability, decreases dependence on the migrant workforce and foreign energy sources, and generally results in healthier meals and fresher/tastier food on your table. And we wonder why more conservatives haven’t hopped onto this bandwagon.

But there are a couple of reasons for eating locally that the conservative right can get behind. Eating locally is the best protection against food-related outbreaks of illness and diesease and eating locally is the best way to combat agroterrorism. That’s right, agroterrorism, the malicious use of plant or animal pathogens to cause devastating disease in the food supply.

In 2006 Michael Pollan wrote an article for the New York Times discussing the role of industrialization in the prevalence of food-related outbreaks. While his article was written in the context of a spinach-related E coli outbreak, the recent problems with the peanut industry and the worldwide outbreak of swine flu have brought the issue back into focus. In his article, Pollan argues that the centralization of food processing and distribution centers leads to more frequent and widespread issues of infection and contamination, whereas food grown, processed, and distributed locally decreases the reach of food-related outbreaks and allows for faster and more efficient identification of sources and solutions to food-based illnesses. Pollan further goes on to note that when Tommy Thompson retired from the Department of Health and Human Services in 2004, he said “For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply, because it is so easy to do.” This sentiment was reiterated by the G.AO. in its 2003 Bioterrorism report to Congress, “The high concentration of our livestock industry and the centralized nature of our food-processing industry make them vulnerable to attack.” And they’re right, in 2006 eighty percent of beef in the United States was slaughtered by four companies and seventy-five percent of all precut salads were processed by only two companies. The implications of these numbers when viewed in the context of the spread of disease and our current healthcare crisis is terrifying. And the proof, at least lately, is in the peanut butter.

What this means is that food consciousness is no longer the proprietary holding of the liberal left, but a necessary and immediate change that must be made in the daily lives of ordinary citizens for the protection of public health and safety. Take back your health from the hands of industry, eat locally, and with compassion.


To read Michael Pollans article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/magazine/15wwln_lede.html

For more information on farmers markets, eating locally, and CSA food shares:
http://www.localharvest.org/
http://100milediet.org/
http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/