• Tweet
• Pin It

End the junk food habit.

By Alex Bwye

Making healthier choices can save you, and the world

The end of the world will come in a packet of Doritos. No, really. When it comes to the infamous date of December 12th, 2012, many are worried that the Mayans were onto something, especially considering the escalation of the world’s resource problems combined with an increasing population. Food plays such a large role in the energy issue. In this article, we will go into detail on why eating packaged, processed food from who-knows-where is contributing to the energy crisis and to the decline of humanity as a whole.

When you consider a packet of Doritos, it’s easy to think of it as just a simple part of our daily lives. They are at the counter of our favorite deli that we visit on our lunch break, or at a get-together paired with salsa, or offered to us by a friend who thinks nothing of it other than “Yum. Crunchy. Salty. Flavorful.” We see kids eating them as they skateboard past us, we see the used up bags in the gutters, and under the car seats of friends who apologize about the mess in their car.

It’s interesting and important to understand the route that processed foods take before they get to us. First of all, most chips and packaged sweets like cakes are non-organic, meaning that high amounts of pesticides are used in their main ingredients (flour, sugar, corn, etc). Pesticides are needed to keep away insects that are prevalent due to the large amounts of one crop in a specific area.

These non-organic and organic crops are grown with fertilizer as we all know. What most of us don’t know is that fertilizer is made using fossil fuels in order to extract the utilizable nitrogen. All living things need nitrogen in order to survive. Whereas in the past small farms used the manure of cows, chickens and goats, which naturally contains high amounts of nitrogen, today western society is now utilizing the ‘monoculture’ system of farming. Miles and miles and sometimes dozens of square miles are filled with one crop only (usually corn), which gets rotated with soy or some other legume, so as not to completely deplete the soil.

The cows and chickens and goats that used to be on the small farm pre-1950’s are now in their own ‘monocultures,’ or massive lots where they are fed grains (which are acidic) as opposed to their genetic need for grasses (which are alkaline), and are stuffed into the smallest amount of space as possible. Aside from the lack of humanity for the animals, this type of farming increases their stress levels, which in turn makes their muscles and organs more acidic. The eventual consumer then absorbs this acidity upon eating the animal, and his or her body becomes more acidic. This farming practice also increases the chances of disease transmission – hence the fairly modern need for antibiotics and other medications for the animals. These medications are stored in the animals’ fat tissue, and are transferred to the consumer as well. Eating animal flesh and organs was once considered healthy. But today, the animal tissue is much more acidic than in the past and contains many detrimental substances.

Going back to the Doritos: the corn initially used to make the chips could have been grown using manure (which is simply discarded or washed away into the surrounding earth and rivers). Instead, it is made using fossil fuels. (Once fossil fuels are no longer available, all of agriculture as we know it will also be impossible.) The chips are processed from corn as well as a myriad of other ingredients including monosodium glutamate, an exitotoxin that has been linked to rashes, skin problems, depression, migraines, nausea, heart irregularities and seizures. They also contain many other additives that are difficult for the body to process and often get stored in adipose (fat) tissue in order to not affect the sensitive organs of the body. The chips contain acrylamides due to their heated carbohydrate content. Acrylamides are toxic substances linked to cancer and severe kidney disease. So here we have a chip that is made of a plant that is grown using irreplaceable energy, killed during the processing, heated to high temperatures creating toxic substances, mixed with other toxic substances, put in non-biodegradable bags which are also made using finite resources, and then shipped out using energy intensive distribution processes to be eaten by the unsuspecting consumer who eats the toxins and then tosses out the bag that will remain in the environment or in a landfill for many, many years.

It’s interesting and important to understand

It is not just Doritos that are made this way. There are many different ‘snacks’ that we see in our daily lives that use similar recipes. However, there is a way out of this extremely destructive cycle: Rather than consume the packaged foods we see everywhere, we can eat fresh, organic foods that are whole – meaning you can identify what it was as it was growing. For example, steamed brown rice, or a crab, instead of noodles or crab cakes, or organic corn on the cob rather than corn chips. As pole dancers, this nutritional path is a great way to see changes in your body and energy levels as well. Processed, dead food requires much more energy to go through the body and also tends to constipate and contribute to digestive issues. To really make a difference in our lives, as well as support the survival of humans as a species doesn’t take much on our part as individuals. End your support of huge corporations that have no care for the environment, humanity or you. And start supporting organic and preferably local farmers who make much less profit. In doing so, you give yourself a healthier diet, and you allow them to keep doing what they do. It’s a win-win!

Related Posts

• 

  LEGAL CRACK
  LEGAL CRACK