just say no to processed foods
in high school, after learning in chemistry that soda eats away the calcium in your bones, i replaced my daily consumption of diet soda with water, and other than occasionally coupling pizza with a fizzy beverage, i stand by that routine to this day. also in high school, i decreased my intake of meats, dabbled in pescatarianism for about 3–4 years in the recent past, and even still eat meat on a very rare occasion. and would you believe that i decried my parents’ purchase of snack cakes and TV dinners, also while in high school? maybe i was wise beyond my years…
granted, college presented a shoestring budget thus a deluge of hot pockets, toaster strudels and ramen packets, so eating well fell way behind in the list of things to do, even being surpassed by drinking and smoking. i only hope my now-off on-and-off relationship with tobacco has already begun the long ascent of reversing the effects. and my liver should be doing better these days since i infrequently imbibe in a frothy cold one anyhow.
after hearing about christina applegate’s recent battle with cancer while knowing the occurrences keep rising with no explanation(s), add that in with the fact that cancer has poked its unwelcome head into my own family, i have a fear of cancer. but i also have a theory behind its existence: i can’t help but wonder if it’s our consumption of the unnatural that causes dysfunction within the human body. and specifically, the processed foods. if i can’t pronounce an ingredient listing of 50 or so unknowns, should i really be ingesting it? probably not.
europeans and asians smoke and drink, but do they have the same cancer numbers as in the US? not to my knowledge, so either i haven’t done enough research (which is entirely plausible), the numbers are hush-hush for whatever reason, or the statistics simply don’t compete with ours. the difference in our cultures from theirs is mainly, and perhaps arguably, diet and exercise.
i wager a guess to say that both europeans and asians are more active than americans, but more importantly, food is still recognizable as such. you get your staples from the tiny corner store, your bread from the bakery made that day, your fromage from the cheese shop, your fruits and veggies from the morning market, and that’s it. well, that used to be it. the scary part, as someone who wishes to someday live outside the US for a certain amount of time, is that our influences are infiltrating the good senses and lifestyles of those abroad. maybe then we will start to see their numbers increase, and hopefully put two and two together. i just hope before it’s not too late to change the outcome of a potential epidemic.
in the meantime, i’m doing what i can to keep myself as healthy as possible. i started jogging (gasp!) every morning or thereabouts and still have my daily bike commute, i leave medicines in the cabinet unless it’s absolutely necesssary, and if the ingredient list is too long or too scientific on a box of “food,” i won’t eat it. and if your great-great-grandma wouldn’t recognize it as food, then it’s probably best to leave it on the shelf at the grocery store as well.