Two embedded and problematic thought patterns in our collective paradigm I wish to address are the fallacies of separatism and, "If a little is good, more must be better."
Our health is holistic. Too many people think of health as area-specific, as in ," she has cancer of the breast , a weak heart, or arthritis in her knees ". This separation is an illusion . Sure, the specific areas really have manifested a problem but, they are not separate from the body whole. One is sick due to an imbalance in the body and it is inter-connected . The cancer is not only in the breast of an otherwise optimally healthy body and those problematic knees don't belong to someone otherwise in ideal condition . Rather, where a flowing illness has manifested so dramatically, it refuses to be ignored !
This separating seems to be a concept belonging to a paradigm here in the USA . We do it with more than we don't ! Food is an example . If you walk into a grocery store or turn on a TV, you will see it before long. "With added fiber!"," High in Omega 3's ", "Added calcium ", " Enriched wheat", etc. Enriched with what ? How many of us don't even ask but think "that's great !" We do this because the term enriched indicates something was added. This is a problem!
We as a culture have a very hard time letting go of the concept that if something is good more of it is always better. This is very harmful and downright scary from my perspective!
Sure, sometimes more is better but, certainly not always ! This culture reminds me of a young child screaming for more of things needing moderation as well as things that were never healthy to begin with , unaware of the concept of excess until it's severely felt . While the nation ( The U.S.A.) is young when sized up in age along with the rest of the world's countries, It is my opinion the nation has grown out of it's "metaphorical "teen years, is in it's early 20's now, and desperately needs to grow up and smarten up after it's reckless , drug addicted , destructive teen years .
Back to the food, too many people in this country see these labels and think things like " added calcium , calcium's good this must be extra good . "
When discussing separate nutrients like this we are using separatism, the separation of nutrients from the whole foods. We are designed to eat food right off the Earth ! And, it is my belief we are granted color vision to guide us to all of the nutrients for optimal health . Red plants contain things green plants are lacking and vise versa . This is explained by Doctors in the Plant-Based Nutrition Course. So , with our love of variety and aesthetic beauty we are guided and capable of acquiring all needed nutrition without math and analytical thought if we adhere to nature's design .
It's become over-complicated . It makes no sense to do massive amounts of processing to our food ; stripping it of fiber and other nutrients and then adding back nutrients from other sources at times. This makes for inferior food for sure !
This however, is somehow part of the paradigm - part of the collective thought patterns of our society . The separatist thought pattern claims these nutrients are a whole on their own , don't need the larger whole, and thus it matters less where they (the nutrients) come from .
In general, separatism in great measure is against nature's design .
There's another layer to the onion ...
We do it to our home, The Earth ! We essentially break her down , process her , extract things , and then at times try to add back in a version of what we've taken out from another source . Mono-crops are an example. We clear a large plot of land, change it's structure, till, plow , plant one type of crop , this mega crop consists of plants that all need the same nutrients because, its the same plant type so, the soil becomes depleted of these nutrients ( In contrast to the crop rotation method ) and then we humans, after seeing the problem try to add in these depleted nutrients from another source thinking that may fix the problem . But, it creates an artificial version of life which is far inferior to the wholesome and health of the real . We add in manure of all things. We try to fix the problems of the weakened area by spraying poisons,of all things. Poisons, designed with intent to kill the bugs that are attacking the unhealthy plants .
Growing small scale veganic, organic gardens aligned with permaculture techniques in our backyards can be compared to cutting and cooking whole plants ; making salsa , a grain salad , grinding a nut butter. The original structure of the environment like the food is changed but , slightly . The health of the land prevails as, is true with our bodies . In contrast, eating matter that our bodies aren't designed to eat but,can be accused of coping with, including meat , dairy, and eggs as well as, whole foods put through massive amounts of processing. Processing such as converting wheat berries into bleached all- purpose flour which is frequently combined with other processed foods and made into boxed and microwavable packaged meals found in grocery store freezers. This is comparable to what factory farms and mono-crops do to the planet . Eating animal products and highly processed foods destroy and break the integrity of health . They constrict the ability of the systems ( human body and Earth ) to maintain balance, self-heal ,protect, and maintain health.
The layers just keep on because life and the planet, like the human body, are inter-connected . Not only have we hurt ourselves on an individual level by consuming animal products and buying highly processed "foods" , we have also had to harm the land , climate , and environment humongously in order to create these products, that are not in line with the laws of nature . We have had to harm large groups of people - in the process of dominating their native lands, and by ignoring their hunger while directing grain to farmed animals needlessly,a great multitude of ecosystems , the rain forest (sometimes known as the lungs of the planet)
Earth's waters (sometimes known as the blood of the planet) and, now with global warming occurring, one might say Earth's developed a fever !
If we insist on going against nature and eating things that aren't food for humans , thus making ourselves sick we insist on making all these other factors sick as well . The planet like an orange or a human, is not so much made up of separate pieces and systems as it is an inter-connected whole.
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