OK. This is getting ridiculous! I just started this blog and I haven't made a damn post! I have a complex about doing things perfectly, which of course, keeps me from doing things at all. So I say, ENOUGH ALREADY!
Even if I don't know what
this is exactly, if this isn't a specific type of blog, who cares? It's going to be imperfect, and fun, and a mishmash of all things me. Today, I talk about fear and perfection, tomorrow, my new favorite food, or some cool graffiti I saw, or a boy I like, or a radiation cloud heading across the Pacific to California. Speaking of which...
I consider myself to be more health-conscious than most people. I exercise, drink green tea, eat a balanced, organic diet avoiding preservatives, artificial sweeteners and the like, but radiation... I don't know a thing about. Should I be more worried about the waves from my microwave or cell phone than this giant cloud? I really have no idea. A friend told me to eat miso and seaweed while the cloud's overhead, I suppose so it will combat the free radicals, or whatnot. I'm talking out of my ass at this point. I just hope that we all don't get horrible cancer later in life from this. It's so possible. My parents' generation ate trans fats because they "didn't know better", and my grandparents' smoked cigarettes because "they didn't know better"... Isn't it inevitable that we don't know better?
I try to be healthy, I really do, but keeping on top of all the new information is exhausting. It's especially hard because I don't trust the FDA to do its job. Their only job is to protect us, and they just can't do it. Obviously there are still a ton of questionable and proven to be harmful chemicals and additives in our food supply. I don't know if the agency's just corrupt, being bribed by big companies to ignore health concerns, or if there's too much red tape to get anything done, but I fear it's the former. I fear the worst because I don't trust the government.
I am paranoid, it's true, but not without reason. Ten years ago, when I was 13 years old, my Mom was diagnosed with a brain tumor in her frontal lobe. I'm so incredibly thankful she's alive and well today, because many people who went through the same aren't so lucky. Yes, she has her deficits; problems with communication (especially over the phone), organization, motivation, and doing math/word problems, but with all in consideration, she really lucked out. I'm not sure what could have caused this tumor to grow in her brain, and whether it started when she was young or grew rapidly, but I've become very health conscious and wary because of it.
When my Mom was in her 20's she worked as a hospital nurse, often working late or overnight shifts, before coming home to her young daughter (myself). During that time she drank a lot of coffee and (diet) soda to stay alert and awake, and I'm afraid that the common sweetener in her beverages of choice, Aspartame, has been linked to Cancer.
Here is an excerpt from the article: " New Study - Low Doses Of Aspartame Cause Cancer" by From Dr. Betty Martini. The study was done by Irving J Selikoff at New York's Mt Sinai School of Medicine;
"His research was conducted for 36 months using 1,800 rats. It forced the conclusion that aspartame is a multipotential carcinogen. Cancers aspartame produced included leukemia, lymphoma, kidney, and cranial peripheral nerves among others. Only the rats fed aspartame got malignant brain tumors."
It makes me
sick that Aspartame is still in our food supply, when there's proven evidence that it's harmful to humans. Many "sugar-free" products contain aspartame: soda, candy, snacks, yogurt, cereals, ice creams, ice pops, etc. etc. My biggest concern personally is the lack of non-Aspartame chewing gum, because it's so hard to find! I don't chew gum often, but I do need it for airplanes, and it's nice to have fresh, minty breath in a pinch. I use the original Altoids in the red tin, because they are naturally flavored and sweetened, and gum from Whole Foods, like Glee or Spy gum. It's the same price, if not a little cheaper actually, just lacks the variety in flavor.
It takes a bit of planning, but it's not so hard. I've really gotten used to it by now. When I go into most stores, I know right away that I have to be choosey, that most items aren't food to me, they are what Michael Pollan calls "food-like substances". They look like food, smell like food, but your body knows the difference. Treat your body well and it will treat you well in return!
