You Are a Science Experiment (Part 1)
 |
| Institute for Responsible Technology |
When my son was born ten years ago, I felt like I lost my equilibrium. Sure, I could take care of myself, but to entrust me with the health and safety of someone else was just reckless. Whose idea was this? Oh wait, not mine!
I once dragged my husband and new bundle of joy to an expo where all of these companies were marketing to helpless parents and people who just wander around collecting bags of swag and 'Made in China' tchochkes. During this event, which included weirdly entertaining crawling baby races, I met a consultant from Melaleuca. Suddenly, I was aware that everything in my house was toxic.
For a new mother who was on a brief maternity leave from a full time job, who was formula feeding and using disposable diapers, this was not helpful. I had enough guilt wrapped in hormones to choke an elephant. In other words, I was stretched thin, overtired and ready to be 'indoctrinated'.
I went cold turkey, dumping the skull and cross bone bottles and turning to more natural solutions for housekeeping. The hubs criteria? It had to work. And most of the stuff really did. It smelled different, and required a little extra scrubbing, but it worked and I didn't get migraines in the process.
But, alas, I still had to work and socialize and mother, and over time, I lost track of the good stuff. It started small - we'd run out of something and the hubs would replace it with something awful but effective that he scored at the hardware store. And since he cleans the bathrooms more than I do, I would have a hard time complaining. I mean, I WOULD complain, but he'd tune me out. I would open windows and cough in a not too subtle way to point out the damage he was doing to our lungs.
Seven years ago our daughter was born. It was three years before she slept through the night and in that time frame she managed to be a carrier of all diseases, big and small.
[Just a little backstory/sidebar: in the twenty three years I have known my beloved, he has NEVER been sicker than the past seven years. He didn't even have a 'man cold' for the first five years. There was the occasional sinus infection and yes, a nasty concussion, but otherwise, he was invincible.]
Last year, however, was the kicker for our family. My daughter has Celiac Disease. And so does her brother. There's no way to dance around it. They have auto-immune diseases that will impact them for the rest of their lives.
Now, I'm not just afraid of my cleaning products. I'm afraid of food. I wander through the supermarket and I want to tell the people shopping in the middle aisles of the store to save themselves while they still can. My kids will never shop there again.
In the midst of getting my crash course in Gluten Free food, I found a lot of sites and FB pages that offered tons of helpful information and resources. But, many of them added another layer of anxiety. GMOs. Genetically Modified Organisms. Ick. It sounds a lot less 'food from the future' when you just say the initials, like KFC. That doesn't sound like toxic chicken flavored shit, does it? That's the beauty of marketing.
If you thought that all you had to do was stick to the fresh stuff, think again. The outer edges of your supermarket are potentially just as bad as the inside. Your milk is tainted, your veggies are modified, your rice...how do you like a little arsenic with your mercury filled fish? Welcome to the new age.
If you have the time, go read the book Wheat Belly. It's written by a cardiologist who shines the light on the American epidemic of obesity, but from a statistical, scientific, fact-based perspective. Ever since this nation made fat the devil, and ushered us all down the corridor of whole grains, we've gotten fatter (specifically around the waist band) and sicker. Way, way sicker. Even people who eat seemingly healthy diets and exercise regularly. Sick, sick, sick.
So, you have to ask yourself, what the flock? What is happening? Does anyone know about this? I can only scream so loud.
Last week, I got the opportunity to sign on to review the movie Genetic Roulette. I have been watching a lot of TED Talks these days, and reading a lot of things about the bad, bad ways of corporate powerhouses who have weaseled their way into the regulation side of the food and drug administration.
Here's the skinny: genetically modified food is BAD. You can believe whatever you want if it helps you sleep at night, but unless you get this, you're crazy. It's BAD. B--A--D. This very riveting documentary is 1.5 half hours of continuous proof that genetically modified crops kill. They kill insects, like they were intended. They kill the livestock that eats the crops. They kill the people that eat the crops or the livestock that eats the crops. Maybe not instantly but rather incrementally -- slowly, and painfully, making you wish you were dead.
I leave you with that sunny image, and this trailer for today. Tomorrow, there is much, much more.