Highlights from Jonathan Otto's interview with Sharon Porter, for the Depression & Anxiety Series. Sharon discusses what's wrong with today's food industry. In light of this, she discusses what people should do in order to protect their health from this corrupt industry.
Sharon Porter
Sharon: Our genetics, our human evolution is a very slow-moving thing. And all of these foreign substances in our food supply is a relatively new thing. And so, our bodies have not adapted. Have not created the defenses to be able to withstand the bombardment of all of these toxins. So, by returning to producing our own food and medicine at home, in our backyards the way our grandparents did, their grandparents, the way generations of humans have lived on this planet for all of humanity up until the last few generations, this is really the only direction I feel that we ought to be moving.
It’s returning to backyard food production, and from another light it could be seen as inevitable. As our peak oil kind of comes to bare, and food becomes unaffordable for many people. If somebody really wants to protect their health, they have to reclaim the source of their food. We cannot be sourcing our food from a financially motivated entity or organization, and trust that that food has been produced with our health in mind.
Now, obviously that’s a gross generalization because there are some very well-meaning individuals, and farmers, and organizations in our food chain. But, at the macro level of centralized food production, where most of the food is produced in a very small area, by very large, multi-million dollar companies, trucked 1500 miles to get to a local grocery store, so it’s this decentralized food grid.
That food is devoid of the nutrients that our body needs to be healthy. It’s full of the toxins that are setting our immune systems on fire. And it has no flavor. Vegetables that are produced in traditional, commercial, agricultural methods, are devoid of flavor. And so, is it any wonder that people really don’t like to eat vegetables? They taste like cardboard. Right?
So, when you look at the obesity, and diabetes epidemic in this country, as well as auto-immune issues, the root of all that is the sugar addiction. Okay, so what is that about?
Well, it is the brilliant scientists that have been hired into the food products industry. They are making a whole career of making processed packaged foods addictive, so that they have a craving attached to them, to make us want to keep eating more and more of these things. And the ingredients that they scientifically put in the food, have nothing to do with nutrition.
It’s the whole system that is profit motivated to have processed packaged foods that are addictive, mostly with the sugar additives so that people will buy more and more of these products. On the other hand, we have the produce section in the grocery store where these vegetables and fruits have practically no flavor at all. No nutrition inside them which is one one in the same. The flavor comes from nutrient density.
Jonathan: The person goes to the grocery store and is weighing the box of pop tarts versus a head of kale. It takes a lot of self-discipline to reach for the kale. Right? I think the way out of this trap is for people to really get back to gardening. Get back to producing our own food so that it has the nutrition. It has the flavor. It’s actually delicious and exciting, the vegetables again. Kind of break the addiction on sugar so that your body can return to a more normal state of physiology.