Populations that eat a so-called Western-diet-generally defined as a diet consisting of lots of processed foods and meat, lots of added fat and sugar, lots of refined grains, lots of everything except vegetables, fruits, and whole grains-invariably suffer from high rates of the so-called Western diseases: obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Virtually all of the obesity and type 2 diabetes, 80 percent of the cardiovascular disease, and more than a third of all cancers can be linked to this diet. Four of the top ten killers in America are linked to this diet.-Food Rules: An Eater’s Manuel, Michael Pollan (one smart guy)
I held my 7th baby in my arms in the hospital’s lab as they squeezed drops of blood from her tiny foot so her bilrubin levels could be checked for what seemed like the hundredth time. She was just a few days old. Her feet were bruised and sore. Her weight had plummeted from an already pitiful 5 pounds 13 ounces to a terrifying 4 pounds 6 ounces.
I was an emotional wreck.
I looked away from my sweet baby. I couldn’t stand what they were doing to her. My gaze fell upon a man in a wheelchair in the waiting room. He was just about the sorriest sight I had ever seen. The nurses had tried countless times to get an I.V. into his puny arms. They finally wheeled him down to the lab. If I had to bet on it, I would say that the man was probably in his late fifties. But his countenance and his body seemed much older.This man was not in good shape. His body was failing him.
Maybe it was due to the fact that I had just given birth. Maybe it was because I had just undergone my 4th caesarean section. Maybe it was because I hate I.V.’s and no one can ever seem to get them in me until the 6th try. Maybe it was because I hate hospitals and just wanted to go home.
Whatever it was, a wave of grieve flooded over me.
How fragile we are….
That helpless, hopeless man was the very picture of what I did not want for myself or any of my loved ones or anyone at all actually.
Something like pure intelligence was poured into me in those brief minutes.
And I knew. I knew that I had to fight.
Life is full of illness, accident, and death. We will all die, there is no doubt about that.
In my family there is a very recent history of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
Until that moment, seeing that man, I had just kind of chosen not to think about that too much. I had always reasoned that there was very little I could do about it anyway.
But in that moment, I knew that I had been wrong. I had a choice. And I knew that choice was intricately connected with food. I had the choice to do everything in my power to not end up like that man in the wheelchair-or my father, or my grandfathers…
Maybe I still will.
But I am going to go down swinging.
People who get off the Western diet see dramatic improvements in their health. We have good research to suggest that the effects of the Western diet can be rolled back, and relatively quickly. -same book, same smart guy
One Comment
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heathermommy
This so hits on what I am thinking about lately. I know it is sooooo hard for us as humans to make big changes in our lifestyles. As my husband and I deal with the realities of colon cancer in his family and the very real possibility that he and his siblings might have a gene that predisposes them to it I just cannot handle the fact that certain members of his family refuse to see the need to make some changes in their lives.
To wax religious for a bit – when I got my patriarchal blessing I was told several times what a blessing my healthy body was and that I was commanded to take care of it. Think about our wonderful bodies and what a blessing they are. How ungrateful is it, to not take care of it.
I feel like I was spiritually led to give up meat as a family and to learn more about a raw food diet to give my husband the best chance to not face the same fate as his parents.
Interestingly my in laws traditionally ate a Mediterranean type diet before they moved to the US but when they got here they adopted a lot of things from the western diet: more meat, sugar and processed foods, and they gave up olive oil because it was more expensive here. Now they are suffering for it.
