So good to see your powerful talents applied to this subject, Sharon. Recently, because my sister has cancer, I have been reading about how our health is so profoundly affected by our technologically controlled environment. As much as 80% of cancer is a result of poor dietary and lifestyle habits. Our diet has been depleted by prepared foods where the nutrients have been removed, and substituted with empty calories in the form of super sweet high fructose corn syrup, depleted fiberless flours, and toxic fats. The food we eat actually creates a nutrient deficit, so that most people in our culture are actually malnurished, but overweight. We spend our days in front of electronic information screens or in high stress work places. Rarely walking a mile, rarely moving at all.
Thanks to modern medical miracles, our lifespan has been extended. But the concept of a healthy older person does not exist in our culture. As we age, our society expects that we will contract one disease after another--becoming a burden on the working members of society.
But what if we use our back yard to grow a few pesticide-free vegetables, some antioxidant packed berries, a few fruit trees (Im looking for persimmons this year). Throw out the microwave (and say goodbye to foods that glycate our proteins and wrinkle our skin, and instead learn to cook from scratch. Intensive gardening is perfect exercise, not need for membership at the local gym.
Ive noticed among the 100+ year olds around here in rural Alabama, they are farmers, they eat what they grow. They are lean, strong and standing tall. And they almost always have a smile on their face or even a laugh at something that secretly amuses them.
