Another thing I would like to discuss here is this: a lot of the ailments that plague many people are solely because they are eating badly. The food industry is covering up how much salt, sugar and fat they are putting in food, which obviously is a very bad thing. In my own lifetime, as a kid at school, the poor kids were very thin and visibly disadvantaged. Nowadays in the US in particular, the poor kids are incredibly overweight much of the time because of the food they’re eating – MacDonald’s Wendy’s, Burger King etc. are cheap and fast, though expensive environmentally. We are what we eat as the saying goes, and it’s definitely not impossible to eat better. It may seem more expensive to eat healthier foods but the true cost of eating is not what it costs you to buy what you’re eating – the true cost lies in your health. And let us remember that no matter how rich and powerful you are, if your health deteriorates, it is the worst hardship you will ever experience in your life. If you have cancer, your mansion won’t make your life much better – there will remain the fact that you have cancer. If you’re robust and healthy emotionally and physically, you can live in less than ideal circumstances and still feel optimistic about life. We’re damaging ourselves by eating processed foods, which in most cases are harmful to our health.
I read an article recently about an area in South Central LA where they’re trying to create a gardening community there where they can grow the food in the land that’s available, even in the side of the road next to a footpath! Anything that’s got dirt can grow edible food. Yes, the sadness is that we don’t help our children to eat as well as they should. I have a friend that I admire who feeds her son amazing food like fresh fruit, avocadoes and quinoa, and he loves it because he’s grown up on it. He doesn’t eat any bad food at all, and he’s not missing anything! This is the tradgedy – when we eat processed or fast food, we tend to subject our children to it as well – please don’t do this! They don’t have to have their palates altered to this way of eating, nor should they ever. I’ve seen it so often in families, where adults subject their children to their poor eating habits, and I find this incredibly unfair to the innocents who are put into this way with no say. The processed and fast foods they are eating are laced with unhealthy fats, refined sugars, extremely acidic salts and toxic colorings – all things that are extremely unhealthy. It’s as unhealthy as smoking – becoming habit forming and addictive even. There are all sorts of ramifications – here’s just one: if we have more weight on our bodies than we need, it’s going to damage our organs and joints.
I’ll finish this point with something that came to me years ago. When people ask me what my main goal in life is, I answer that it is to die healthy. That’s how it should be, and it’s possible for all of us. If we eat badly, and it’s hard to stop, at least do not bring children into this world eating badly as well. It’s not necessary, and will very deeply harm their future. Our mission as humanity is not to give our children money, to give them mansions and cars and power. It is to make the world better for our children, make them healthier than we are, and just increase their quality, not quantity of life all around.
Don Miguel the Absurd 