RJK Jr—"Health Warning Labels” on Processed Foods- Ounce of Prevention…Pound of Cure

Breaking with the pack may be exactly what we should be doing. Saying "no" to the dominant culture that is trapping us in destructive ways of living might be the most life-serving thing we can do.

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ? Frances Moore Lappe

?

Back in the Day…

…Way Back in 1971 – I read France’s Diet for a Small Planet

It confirmed for me that what we were eating was killing us

?

….grew up in a World Class Culture of Food

As sophisticated palate due to the diversity of foods we were exposed to from the earliest age

?

My neighborhood friends ?were going home to a dinner of hot dogs and beans

?

..our mother never worked

….so each day a good portion of it was preparing the evening meal that was let’s just say an “extensive” and multi coursed event

Every day at 5:30 we assembled

The question always on the tip of our tongues

What delicacies did she make for desert?

?

Holidays with the extended clan were even more elaborate

You must remember

…these are people that aren’t drinking any type of adult beverages

We grew up in homes where there was no wine or hard stuff

….more a cultural thing than some religious restriction

?

The “Food” was front and center – the Main Events

It was also the topic of extensive conversation

..even while we were eating the food

….everyone discussed just how good each nuance was

Yes – it was just that good

First thing out of everyone’s mouth each morning

Mom—what are you making for tonight

Still better call up my Tete and ask her to make some Shefha (Meat Pies)

...she'd make at least eighty --some time even more -- all top shelf quality

?

We were grandly feasting 365-- 24/7

…at least three helping of anything

…to not engage in this activity was an insult

?

While the quality was exceptionally

…it was a rich diet of too much fat and sugar

…don’t get me wrong – we enjoyed every minute

?

Most of the clan were overweight, which carried no stigma

Most died of heart disease but that came into their nineties

They basically in processing these tons of food wore their bodies out

Yet the quality and diversity of what they ate contributed to their longevity

?

So, on one side we had the Table of our Ethnic Ancestors

?

…on the other side as we would say

- American Food – low end for sure

…as time progressed – everything was super-sized

…..along with that the percentage of fat people grew each year as the difference was

…. this ultra processed food had little of the nutrition of my Ethnic Table

……the incident of heart disease grew but also a soar Cancer Epidemic

?

After reading Frances’s book

…I knew that my Wellness Path was somewhere in the middle of these two extremes

?

…Simple Basic Food – raw and unprocessed

?

….not in the industrial portions of my family – portion control

I remember explaining this to my grandmother – “Are You Crazy?”

?

…some type of vegetable and fruit at every meal

….supplements -nutrition-meditation

?

…. Skin Care

…Yes- even back in 1971—our Vitamin E Capsules are the reason that almost fifty years later – we have few to any wrinkles

Tai Chi- Yoga – Chinese Herbal Medicine -Ayurvedic Healing

?…Yes even back in 1971 – this received so much criticism – “freakish”

?

Things have a way of working themselves out

….in 1974 at college

?– I took a course – Science for Human Survival

This hooked me up with an entire tribe of folks from Cambridge that were (like me) the beginning of the “Counter Food Culture”

?

The point of my long rant here

?

Just like RJK jr this made me aberrant to the mainstream

..outside the prevailing mainstream thought

As far as I’m concerned Bobby jr came thirty years late to the party

?

People were opened minded

?…it was a “cool” things to be your own person back in the day

?

Girls thought I was really hip –as I was not like their drunken boring boyfriends

Did not have time for all that

–I was focused on my own path of self-discovery

?

Fifty plus years later my philosophy has not changed

…within relative terms – I look exactly the same

…actually more in shape and healthy than back then in the 1970’s

?

I’m a quiet "proud" anti-vaxxer

– not that I ever talk about this with anyone

- pure poison to healthy bodies that have a vigorous immune system.

Unlike RJK jr -- this is what works for me and maybe not for everyone

I believe in being a Great Team Player

- Wore the ridiculous Mask - Shut My Mouth - was a good role model

…yet I was the ultra radical especially in Massachusetts were I spent much of my time

…less than ten thousand people in my age group are part of this distinctive cohort --

?

As you can see this Wellness Path is kind of a lonely place

…one that brings suspicion

….judgement but at the same time – huge curiosity

?

Especially when you’re this old chronologically

…yet your health age is twenty to thirty years younger

People get this immediately

My kids love to show me off – like some prize Ribbon Wining Farm Animal

?

Most people are never going to invest the discipline into doing this

Its work that in time becomes just your lifestyle

?

So ,the next best step is to in bold terms put this information on the food products that are shortening their lives

It won’t work for everyone, but I have a thought to those who are self-aware

…the bright red disclosure label tell you about the various impacts that eating these processed food

….will spark more than a few Goggle Searches

?

I was in Europe for several weeks this Fall

…their food regulations are much more strict

..the quality of their food vastly better than in America

A local that came back from Greece raves about the Quality of the Food

?

The critical element is repetitively pumping out this information

Flood the Zone so that people put one and one together

…along with that healthy alternatives that also taste great

?

American Society has been taken over by

?Big Food, Pharma- Curriculum

- Arms Manufacturers

- Alcohol- Tobacco

-Luxury-Entertainment?

?

This has produced a society

?

Much Too Violent

Much Too Materialistic

Much Too Fat

?

More Unhealthy

More Mentally Unwell

Less Cognitively Astute

– we’re becoming so limited that we welcome AI to save us from ourselves ?

?

Year after year America has a declining Life Expectancy Rate

…like a Third World Nation

?

Back to Frances ….

…I’ve written a dozen and half books

..these are my three favorite Wellness Book

..totally Cutting Edge -- a generation before their time

.

I followed Frances’s lead my lifestyle, research and writing

?

…You got to find the Exit Ramp

..You got to Go Off Road

?

Break from the conformity which has been the downward spiral of our collective mediocrity

?

Every item that goes in my mouth

…I read the ingredients

Being a wise consumer of what I am committed to eat and not eat

?

Such independence in our current world is a revolutionary act

?

What’s wonderful here

…is that it’s never too late to start Your Improvement

….even the smallest improvement in your wellness behavior impacts you

?

In the midst of our Current Massive Social Revolution

Big Food

….is yet another of the sacred cows that needs to be forensically autopsied

?

Knowledge is Power

So--- what do we have to be afraid of here?

?

Let’s listen all the facts

You’re in charge and can make the right decisions

The mere action of placing these Health Warning Labels will totally up end the Big Food Industry to a new more responsible standard

?

Bobby jr is not some radical freak

..but a contemporary of mine

..we are the product of better times in collective Wellness Practices in America

Boomers have shaped the America Culture and in our elderhood maybe our final act is to get everything back on track

?

An Ounce of Prevention is A Pound of Cure

…. It is as simple as the next item you put in your mouth to eat

?

Yes –its really just that simple

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?