Well, it's been a while and I fear the initial blogging thrill is gone. I do believe in this practice and will try harder. I promise.

So, the topic today is our evolution (or de-evolution) from our childhood diets. At IIN, the presenter was Paul Pitchford, one of the leading thinkers and practitioners in food-based healing methods. He made a small comment about the fact that the food we eat today is in no way related to the food available in the pre-technological era, around 1940 and earlier. It's funny that people think of terms like organic, free-range and local as new-fangled, untested ideas. But they were actually the way humans have eaten for millions of years. There was no need to label or certify anything as organic before 1950, because everything WAS organic. No other options. But now people who've been going to the grocery store and buying the same items - meat, poultry, dairy, produce, packaged goods - are
taking home items that are almost completely un-related. Toxic fruits and vegetables, flesh from tortured animals, and dairy products from animals whose antibiotic and hormone levels would kill any human. And yet, we say OK. Although the organic movement is gaining momentum, it is certainly not the norm. It's a shame that food fit for eating is now this premium, elitist, trendy item.

I grew up on an interesting diet. Being from Haiti, the cuisine is influenced by many factors: the bounty of the Caribbean, the intense cooking methods and spices of the slave from Africa, as well as some French influence from colonization. This made for a nice variety of mostly healthful foods, a tendency toward home-cooked foods and away from processing, and even pride in creating delicious, well-balanced meals. But even that same meal of rice and beans, chicken with onion sauce, plantain bananas and watercress can no longer be counted on for its nutritional qualities. The rice has been stripped and polished of any nutrients, the beans have bee sprayed, then doused with additives so keep it fresh for a ridiculously long time, the chicken... (unimaginable). You get the idea?

I cannot help but wonder how we have allowed this to happen.