Many things are the bane of our existence, these days. HFCS is a blanket term for a kind of chemical process that leads foods to be sweet but can consist of many differing degrees of mystery chemicals that have druglike effects on our system, especially when combined with other medication we may already be on, or sensitivities that already exist before exposure to HFCS. Mystery chemicals combine to cause interesting reactions as they stockpile TOXIC consequences for human bodies over years of repeated exposure. Consequences such as tendon fragility, obesity, diabetes, loss of cognitive ability.
Why is it the responsibility of the consumer to become a scientist versed in the cause/effect of chemical/human biology when they are just trying to feed themselves?
If this isn't more reason to seek out local growers and farmer's markets and to stay out of supermarkets, I don't know what is.
Combine how this erosion of your immune system and vitality combines with the erosion provided by our exposure to plastics off-gassing pthalates all around us, and you begin to get a grim picture of what's happening to the world around us.
Pthalates also mimic estrogens, confusing your system with mixed messages. There are connections being made about the affect on unborn male children, that they are being born with smaller reproductive organs. This stuff is being flushed out of our bodies and into our waterways and that is affecting the fish, lots are dying, salmon don't return, and there are reports about how some breeds of fish are feminizing, or having less and less male offspring as well as male fish with smaller reproductive organs, also.
We wear plastic Holey soles sandals on our bare feet. We sit in our hot cars with the plastics offgassing all around us as we clutch a plastic steering wheel. We buy our food in plastic bags that start to disintegrate in our stressed palms as we struggle with the weight of food in it, food wrapped in plastic. We shower behind plastic curtains and the hot water steams up out of plastic tubing into a plastic showerhead that infuses the off gassing particulates in the steam, that hovers in the area of our heads. Then we use plastic shampoo and conditioner bottles that contain ingredients we can't read or understand to wash our hair. Some of those chemicals are as harmful as the pthalates and chemicals in HFCS, but combined with both the pthalates and HFCS toxins, its now a chemical stew that will be dancing with whatever medication you're on.
Years back, when I wrote a paper on the sociological aspects of Ergot, a fungus that caused mass hallucinations in Europe in the middle ages, wreaking havoc on the below stairs serfdom, I saw a phenomena that parallels this one I am writing about today. Here we have a whole culture of people, who are at the mercy of chemical megogiant corporations with their every breath. Who contributes to it, why it is allowed to continue in unspoken silence, why no one shines a light on the elephant in the room boggles my mind.
Like the poor and unfortunate in the Middle Ages in Europe, who were unwittingly at the mercy of a series of events that combined and ensured that the entire population was sent raving out of their minds with every mouthful of bread they consumed, our population today lines up like Zombies in the aisles of Walmart, Zellers, etc, with our baskets full of that which contributes to our failing health. Wether you are buying cleaning or body products scented with parfum/fragrance, snack and refined food products that contain any 'ose's' or HFCS, or using products made from softened plastic that are going to be subjected to extremes of heat and / or petroleum products such as oil from food, these are all part of the elephant no one is talking about.
Don't you think its about time we start talking amongst ourselves and rather than being 'crisis oriented' as in 'The sky is falling', which soon falls on deaf ears, to be 'solution based', and see the glass as half full? How can we do that but by sharing with loved ones this information? It's a small difference, but its better than apathy.
Spiritually, why does our Creator allow this travesty to occur behind the scenes? Why are we held almost immediately accountable for any small infraction of our integrity, yet these megolith consortium of chemical giant industry have nothing holding it back? How come I as an individual must own up to my every responsibility, yet these bazillion dollar ventures are blasting their way into wealth at our expense without consequence? Are they using plastic, hfcs, pthalates themselves?
I've gone from being angry when I go shopping, to being consolational. By that I mean, one glance into a cart and I can tell what is going on in that person's biology and what their immune systems are struggling with. It makes me compassionate that, like the poor with their ergot ridden bread, this person is trying to do their best without the education or facts that would protect them from making these choices.
Sometimes, I'll say something if they look like they might be receptive. Most cashiers have never heard of HFCS, and most customers I've spoken to don't know that parfum/fragrance is a stew of 400+ chemicals to carry scent artificially.
So I keep hammering at this nail, hoping that it touches someone new and someone else starts to go through the process of elimination both on the physical as well as other levels of mourning and loss. Mourning and loss because as children we consumed treats/recieved gifts innocently. We didn't have to worry about what was in it or what it was made from.
There is a resentment attached to going grocery shopping on the merit that you're fortunate enough to even have money to spend on groceries, but now you have to look at the overall supermarket, suss out if they are laid out ethically, which means has their cleaning supplies far away from food stuffs, especially baby or pet foods. Resentment attached to shopping taking hours when it took minutes before one had to read and understand complex ingredient labelling.
I might mention that organic bananas are comparative in price but have a huge difference in exceptional taste versus pulp and from a nutritional standpoint as well, for instance, speaking to the person from a peer to peer standpoint, speaking 'up' to their intellect, rather than down my nose at the poor ignorant sap. Less resistance and more acceptance when approaches are honouring.
There is a zen to acceptance, but I think that I will pass on 'accepting' the status quo. It didn't work when my ancestors were buying their daily bread, and it don't work for me now. I will say something about what we are up against, every platform of opportunity I get. I invite you to do the same. Collect a few articles that are easy to read to shoot to folks who seem interested or receptive in your sphere of associations, we can use social media for our benefit to widen our friend's and loved one's knowledge.
On to the zen of doing something about it, even if all it is, is my whiny blog. Because I love you. Period.
Get the book 'Slow Death by Rubber Duck' if you want to learn more from an enjoyable and easy read.
