Bad Gas

Bad Gas

It happens. We go to the gas station to fill the tank with gas then notice that our car is running rough, the car stalls or quits. We blame the bad gas. We expect our cars to run efficiently and reliably each day. We change the oil and the filters as part of regular maintenance. If we forget our car lets us know with a check engine light. If we ignore the fuel light when it comes on we may run out of gas.  

Our bodies are much the same as our vehicles. If we put bad fuel into our tanks, we get bad gas mileage and poor performance. After repeated fueling with bad gas or the wrong kind of gas, we break down. Fortunately we have first aid, ambulances, and doctors to help tune us up. They do their best to help us limp along until our bodies are repaired and working at maximum performance again.

We must be slow learners, because we go back out and choose the  same bad gas again and again. The problem comes from not loving ourselves enough to believe that we are worth the effort or cost of high quality fuel.

Our warning lights are working efficiently and they warn us when we begin to feel poorly. We often ignore these warnings and continue the same destructive habits. We are not like our cars. We can’t trade the old for the new, we have to maintain and nurture these bodies to keep them in top performance.

It is time to stop patronizing the bad gas stations. 

We are what we eat. When you buy your food, buy the best you can afford. 

When many of us were growing up, fast food was a novelty. It was not an everyday habit. The fast food industry has grown to a multi billion dollar industry. We are addicted to their foods. This is not by accident. It was planned carefully with the help of the food and drug administration.

After World war ll, our GI’s came home talking about how the K rations from the Japanese tasted better than American K rations. Research and development discovered that the Japanese used a type of seaweed in the rations that contained Monosodium Glutamate. MSG. The food industry quickly discovered that MSG was highly addictive, It causes the taste buds to expand which made the food taste better. The problem with MSG is, it causes obesity and creates our cravings. An even worse problem with MSG is that it goes directly through the blood/brain barrier and causes the synapsis to fire uncontrollably until they burn out. MSG literally burns out our brain cells. These do not replenish.

I had to buy a food dictionary to understand what all those long names in the ingredient lists really were. 

Bread is pretty basic. Right? Flour, water, yeast, sugar, and salt. Pick up a loaf of bread and read the ingredients. I’ll bet you can’t even pronounce most of the ingredients. It is a list of flavor enhancers, texture enhancers and fillers combined with more chemicals and synthetic ingredients. Once these products are on the shelf, there are a myriad of preservatives to keep them looking fresh.

Elaine Hollingsworth is a former movie star turned healthy food advocate. She had to move to Australia to tell her story of conspiracy in the sickness industry. In her book, Take Control of you Health, she tells the story of the McMuffin ...

“For years I have used a neat visual aid in my public lectures and classes at Hippocrates, courtesy of those friendly Golden Arches people, whose contributions to the diet of young and old the world over are so well known. It is a McMuffin, given to me by a friend who after purchasing it, had put it in a paper box and forgotten about it for a series of reasons too boring to detail. She knew I would be interested in it because after 13 months hidden away in its paper box she discovered this geriatric muffin to still be in pristine condition. Bugs had shunned it, the shape was unchanged and there was not a trace of mould; nor were there any other signs of what we have come to expect from the breakdown of real food. Today, ten years later, it still looks, feels and smells the same. I allow people to examine this aged example of modern junk food marketing, but have to be watchful that none of them attempts to take a bite; it still looks ‘good enough to eat.”

When I go to the store I always read the labels. I know what most of bad ingredients are. The food industry is smart though, they keep changing the names of these chemicals. MSG is contained in most foods under the names, Glutamic acid, yeast extract, autolyzed yeast, gelatin, textured protein, soy protein, most modified ingredients, anything hydrolyzed, natural flavor, and many, many, more. The link below gives a more detailed list of these sources of MSG.

http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html

The food industry when confronted with this dangerous chemical has stated: We will not remove this from our products, it has been tested and found safe by the food and drug commission.

It then falls to us to make the right choices. The organic small farmers association has recently taken on Monsanto to preserve their right to produce healthy foods. Monsanto is fighting mad. They do not want us to know which foods have GMO’s, Genetically Modified Organism’s, as part of the ingredients. They are afraid that if given the choice, we will choose healthy over modified foods.

This rabbit hole is deep and it is crucial to become informed so that we can make intelligent choices when we choose our foods.

I try and keep a cheat sheet with me when I shop. It contains the fruits and vegetables that are healthy and those that are so pesticide laden that it is a must to buy them organic or not at all. I keep giving it away to people who notice I read labels and are interested in make healthy choices for their families.

The dirty dozen is a list done by ewg.org website. They publish an updated list of the worst and the best vegetables and fruits based on the number of poisons and pesticides each fruit contains.

Our parents and grandparents used whole ingredients and cooked from basic home grown products. We can’t all do that today and it is critical to make choices based on informed knowledge of our foods.

Eat organic when you can, when you are faced with uncertain origins of foods, ask for more information. What is in this? Is it homemade? Does it contain packaged or canned products? Is it organic? Was a microwave used to heat the product? Was it provided by a mass produced food kitchen?

I have been lucky that my body has been telling me for a long time which foods it prefers. When I eat, I pay attention to how I feel in the hours after I eat. Do I feel energetic. Am I alert? Am I satisfied? Cravings are warning lights. Pay attention to how you feel.

I am watching my friends drop dead! It does not have to be this way. 

I ask my fellow classmate, Jackson Andersen to send me a list of the known deaths of friends who attended our High School between 1969 -1972. Tears came to my eyes as I read the names of 60 friends who have died. Some of accidents, some causes not known, others from disease. I wondered how many lives could have been preserved by proper diet and life style changes.

I asked my Doctor/client in Albuquerque why he prescribes drugs instead of educating his patients. He told me, they would rather take a pill than make a life style change.

Is it time to make changes? Our life depends on it!

Do you live to eat?

I eat to Live.

I allow myself to be flexible within in limits.

I would rather use my money choosing a healthy lifestyle, rather than paying for lengthy and costly hospital stays. 

Let’s put the hospitals and the doctors out of business by making the informed healthy choices and treating ourselves to the best fuel available.

We are worth it!