Immunity Week 2 - REAL FOOD
Hi Peeps...
How did week 1 go? Did you remember to track your thoughts? Are you thinking more positively?
One trick I use is to set my alarm for every hour or two. When it goes off I journal what my thoughts were. When you are trying to make a big change it takes practice before it becomes natural.
Keep at it.
Week 2 It seems obvious... but REAL food is crucial for our immune system.
Agreeing on what REAL food is can be a problem, so this might be hard for some. Why do you think food is such a personal, and divisive issue? Something to think about for sure. Some say talking about food is harder than talking about religion. As you might imagine...I like talking about it all!
This is a huge topic. I will include lots of links for you to dive in deeper if you wish and just try to touch on a few main points.
My Real Food hero and inspiration is the author Michael Pollan. His book "The Omnivore’s Dilemma" was a road map for GOODONYA. I also highly suggest watching his Netflix Series: Cooked. His common-sense approach to food resonates with me. He thinks our knowledge of food science today is equivalent to where the medical profession was in the 1800's; and I have to agree. Food studies are flawed and often are done with ulterior motives. Whenever someone sends me a food study, "proving" something, the first thing I look for is who funded the study. I can't tell you how often I get a Facebook post or article mailed to me showing that coconut is the devil.
It's a coconut! It literally is the definition of nature. It has healthy fats, water with electrolytes, and grows wild on trees. The problem is once something becomes trendy Americans go kooky over it and eat coconut 10x/day. Nature is the very definition of balance. It is my firm belief that a balance of natural foods is a wonderful path to follow when choosing a "diet".
Food has never been more abundant on earth as it is now. We used to have to work for it, hunt for it and now you can eat at Staples or the gas station. We have hit our bottom in the US. We are overweight, yet malnourished at the same time. Industrial agriculture, factory farming, GMOs and processed food have been our downfall. But I fully believe with a few changes we can make massive improvements to our individual diets, and help the environment at the same time.
WHAT DIET IS THE BEST?
When we follow a dogmatic diet blindly, that is a recipe for disaster. Brands can purposely trick us, or mislead us with their marketing on the front of the package. We have also focused too much on the white nutritional panel, and do not understand the actual ingredients. So not only do we put food in our bodies that we do not understand, we haven't even looked to see what it is.
When you stop and think about that... I think you will find that as incredible as I do.
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE INGREDIENTS!
There are some valid reasons people avoid certain foods. Some are even life and death. I have celiac and need to be GF. Then there are lifestyle choices. And all of it is ok, the only thing I want to bring to your attention regarding diets is: if you choose to follow a diet created by others, dive into the ingredients of each and everything you put in your body. If you blindly follow the vegan diet, you could consume a lot of GMO soy/corn/canola. Three of the most toxic substances on the planet. If you vibe with Paleo and eat a high meat diet, you could consume factory-farmed meat, another toxic choice. Factory farmed animals also eat GMO feed, so it's a two for one.
My feeling is... eat what YOUR body tells you to eat. What works for you might not work for others. And one hundred million %...... pay attention to ingredients.
Now.. onto my favorite topic.......we have to address GMOs.
For some reason, people get really up in arms about this issue. It has turned into a left/right issue, yet another that divides our country. Proponents of GMO farming use words like progress, more crop yield, solving world hunger..... and those sure sound great.
GMOs started to show up in our food supply in 1996, and we have 24 years of data showing the above is not true.
- It’s estimated that 1/5 kids in Washington DC go hungry every night, and 90% of the world's GMO crops are grown right here in the USA.
- It’s been proven organic farms produce more food per acre that GMO farms. And when you do not even consider GMOs real food....... well you get it. We win that battle hands down.
- GMO Farms are killing the topsoil, creating runoff that also pollutes our waterways and ruining our microbiome.
Grafting trees, breeding animals, and hybridizing seeds has been happening in farming and nature for thousands and thousands of years. GMOs were created by the largest chemical companies in history and have been in our food supply since 1996.
William of Orange fought Spain in the 1500's and won Dutch independence. At that time the Dutch were mainly carrot farmers and grew white, purple, and red carrots. A few hundred years later a carrot was developed with high amounts of beta carotene - welcome the first orange carrot. 🥕
They dedicated it to William.
Have you been to Holland? They take the color orange to a new level. And it's not even a color in their flag. Here is a photo of the Dutch Field Hockey Team, who I played against for 12 years and only managed to tie them one time.
How the Dutch went from carrot farmers to one of the best field hockey teams in the world.....
I do not know!
"A GMO, or genetically modified organism, is a plant, animal, microorganism or other organisms whose genetic makeup has been modified in a laboratory using genetic engineering or transgenic technology. This creates combinations of plant, animal, bacterial, and virus genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods." (like the orange carrot)
Did you hear about the salmon and tomato? To make the tomato resistant to frost they were able to insert salmon genes into the DNA of the tomato.
But mostly what they are used for is to make crops resistant to pests. The plant itself creates the pesticide. That's right... and then we eat it!
Or they are able to engineer traits of the plant to resist the pesticides that are dumped on them. So we eat their branded food called "Round-Up Ready Corn"
These alterations do not exist in nature.
21 countries have banned or restricted Round-Up.
It's estimated that 90% of the food on the shelf that isn't organic or non-GMO Verified contains a GMO ingredient, sub ingredient, processing aid, or the animal has been fed GMOs.
I am sure the FDA wouldn't allow these on the shelf if they weren't safe right?
From the Institute of Responsible Technology:
- The FDA does not fund studies to make sure they are safe. Most of the research used to claim that GMOs are safe has been performed by the biotechnology companies themselves.
- According to a 2015 statement signed by 300 scientists, physicians, and scholars, the claim of scientific consensus on GMOs frequently repeated in the media is "an artificial construct that has been falsely perpetuated."
- To date, there have been no epidemiological studies investigating the potential effects of GMO food on human health. The only feeding study done with humans showed that GMOs survived inside the stomach of the people eating GMO food. No follow-up studies were done. We do not want our food to survive inside our stomachs. We want to digest and absorb and eliminate. If we do not eliminate it could lead to autoimmune conditions. 27 million people in the USA have an autoimmune disease.
"....risk factors to autoimmune conditions include environmental triggers, such as viruses, bacteria, and perhaps nutritional factors"
Ya think..... 70-80% of our immune systems are located IN our digestive system! If we put unnatural food that has had their DNA altered with viruses and bacteria in our digestive system it stands to reason we might develop issues! I have autoimmune so this really pisses me off!
As if we don’t get enough politics….Food Politics are real!
- 2012 in CA we voted against labeling our food if it contained GMOs. We voted against information!
- More than $45 million was spent to convince the public that if Prop 37 passed our grocery bill would increase. Who paid for the ads to convince us: Monsanto ($8.1 million), DuPont ($5.4 million), PepsiCo ($2.14 million), Dow ($2 million), BASF Plant Science ($2 million), Syngenta ($2 million)
and Bayer ($2 million). - 64 other countries require GMOs to be labeled.
Ok, I know. It's a lot. But this is serious stuff if you want to take back your immune system.
- Check out this LIST OF HIGH-RISK GMO INGREDIENTS
- See if for one week you can eliminate GMOs from your diet.
- Watch this film. The World According to Monsanto. It's what started it all for me.
One bummer is... 99.99% of the restaurants in the world have them. Almost all of the staff and owners do not even realize it, and would not be able to answer your question if something contained a GMO. This has been my passion since 2012. I've worked with the leaders in the USA on the issue. Supporting the making of films, showing films in our local theater, and creating a restaurant without them. BUT...I eat them, they are unavoidable if you travel and eat out.
So the lesson here is to learn as much as you can and control all the instances where you can avoid them.
I am not a crazy conspiracy person, but I do not trust chemical companies to make our food. There are too many examples of how these companies lie, put our health at risk, and make billions doing it.
Have you seen the Netflix documentary, THE DEVIL WE KNOW? This is the story of how DuPont covered up the dangers of Teflon. It's nothing short of evil and murder. And you are probably cooking on it!
OTHER INFO...
FUN FACT:
There are 32000 genes in a carrot. All plants have about 20% more genes than humans.
DID YOU KNOW?
GOODONYA is 100% Non-GMO. It’s been a massive, dedicated effort and something I am very proud of. ☺️
HYDRATE:
And don't forget that for the entire month of July we are doing 10% off HYDRATE online.
Just use EQUALITY at checkout and you are GOOD to go! If you'd like to pick it up in the restaurant that would be awesome. Just let me know after you order and I will refund you the $5 shipping charge.
OUTDOOR DINING:
We are open for outdoor dining and have 11 tables. The city is allowing GOODONYA to create a wooden deck over 4 parking spots. We are looking for wood or building materials to be donated. Or cash to help make this dream a reality for our community.
DONATE HERE!
Check out this video of me babbling on about REAL FOOD.