There is this barrel in a field. At the bottom of it is a hole where anything thrown into the barrel can leak out. Everyday, people pass by and throw a bit of what they eat into it. Not much – just a little pinch at a time. Even smaller than a pinch most days.
Everything from bread to juices, meats and fruits are tossed into the barrel. Some people throw in bits of washing up liquid and dishwasher tables, air freshners and disinfectants. You know how it is – people see a barrel and they toss stuff in!
Everyday this goes on. People pass by, dropping in their stuff, not really thinking but just dropping it in. Everybody else is doing it so why can’t they? And then the barrel gets full and starts releasing the most awful smell you can imagine. It stinks. The hole where everything was meant to leak out is blocked with some gooey sludge. People can’t figure out how the hole got blocked and people can’t figure out what causes the smell. There’s strange stuff growing out of the barrel, like it’s taken on a life of its own. People think it must have been the last thing added to the barrel that caused it. So they blame that. Then they tip it out, they empty the barrel of everything and start the process all over again.
Our bodies are like that barrel. We fill them every day with food, cleaners, disinfectants, body sprays, shampoos – each containing tiny amounts of toxic ingredients that are no good for us. They are good for profits, but not for us. And our bodies don’t quiet know how to process these toxic ingredients so they sometimes get rid of them or store them somewhere. The same way you throw something into THE DRAWER to which you will one day return to SORT OUT.
Out bodies get little doses of tartrazine or maybe a drop of oil some days. Propylene glycol, high fructose corn syrup, pesticides, chlorine, bleach, ammonia, formaldehyde and a whole host of other bad stuff could be consumed. Just tiny amounts.
One day we get sick or don’t feel well. So we blame the last slice of cheese we ate, the drink last night or our mother in laws’ cooking. In truth, the blame lies with all the toxic ingredients we shoved into our bodies over the last weeks, months and even years. Maybe it’s taken fifty years for our bodies ability to process these toxic ingredients to reach breaking point.
All of a sudden we are like the stinking barrel. We don’t know what to do only to have somebody tip us over and empty us so we we can start all over again under the illusion that the ‘problem’ has been fixed. This usually involves lots of expense, hospitals and discomfort as our bodies attempt to cleanse, reset and reboot. We have arrived at a point where we believe the solution is emptying the barrel rather than what we put into the barrel in the first place.
Our bodies natural state of being is one of health. Given the opportunity, our bodies will work to return to a state of health rather than a state of dis-ease. We don’t really need to do anything most of the time other than not cram ourselves full of toxic substances. And therein lies the problem – we are filling ourselves with so much toxity our bodies are unable to keep up. Even simple things like exercise which moves the blood, muscles, tendons and tissues to release toxins can be a chore.
As kids we’re told not to eat ‘poisonous’ berries. It’s not that one will kill us, we just know that they don’t agree with our bodies, that we are unable to digest them and if we do they will make us ill. Yet when we look at ingredients in food, we continue eating what our bodies were never designed to process. Eating large amounts of those ingredients would make us far sicker than the poisonous berries yet we carry on because everyone else is doing it or ease of use or financial reasons etc.
There is a growing awareness of the manner in which we are causing sickness to ourselves by the way we eat, think and live our lives. Not only has our food been manipulated, processed and packaged to render it harmful to our bodies but cosmetics, cleaners and a whole plethora of consumer goods are delivering tiny doses of toxic chemicals everytime we use them.
No longer are we happy to just accept the word of big business or state bodies that chemicals that are alien to our bodies are ok in small doses – especially when we consume them every single day.
The big challenge for food producers is how to eliminate the pesticides, chemicals and artificial processing of foods to allow for more natural, organic foodstuffs. And at the moment, it is only a tiny, tiny organic movement taking up that challenge.