Basically, my mom raised us on a diet of death. She didn’t know, of course, that the food industry was controlled by a few large corporations, or that the FDA was completely controlled by the same interests. I remember doing a micro-documentary a few years ago connecting all the power players in D.C. who were in charge of SNAP (food stamps), to Pepsi-Frito Lay, Coke, Nestle and 7-Eleven. My mom, who raised me in the 80s and early 90s, didn’t have the Internet, endless amount of food documentaries, or even the organic boom that has given us healthier options in our grocery stores.
As a parent today, I do have those tools. I have seen those documentaries, and as a father, having this information has transformed teaching my children about food into another responsibility.
Anyone willing to give 10 minutes of research into our food will quickly learn that Monsanto, in cooperation with our government, is pretty much destroying humanity.
Ravaging our farmlands, suing our family farms with frivolous lawsuits, and mutating our seeds into a crime against nature, thus affecting people, bees, and even neighboring crops who aren’t even using their products.
Kids today are exposed to GMO food in almost everything they consume. The fish we eat, even caught wild, may have come across GMO food. It’s not just the likely candidates like soda, chips and salty snacks; the GMOs are in the ingredients for our breads, cereals, meats, rice, teas, soups, and thousands of other individual meals.
Why does this matter? It matters to me because I want to raise my children to think, and I truly feel that giving them GMO products and other damaging foods can potentially harm them. Like I said, I am not a nutritionist, but common sense tells me that if humans practice unnatural habits like swallowing pesticide, over-consuming processed foods, and living off of the bi-products of other animals, it’s probably not going to be good for your body. You probably aren’t going to be running at 100%. I don’t know the long-term effects, but when I see the government going out of its way to allow large corporations to expose us to all kinds of chemicals and engineered food products, I know it can’t be good for my kids. Knowing what I do about the government’s involvement in the economy, I am scared to even consider how ignorant I am about its involvement in our food.
In my household, we’ve done our best to get back to the basics. Literally starting from scratch, forgetting about what we are supposed to eat during certain times of the day, and just totally mixing it up. In all that we do when it comes to food, my wife and I try to always offer up fruit and vegetables throughout the day.
This morning, for example, my kids and I blended up some frozen bananas and strawberries for breakfast. Yesterday it was salmon and salad. I know this goes against General Mills’ marketing, but, you know what, I feel better than ever. And I feel great knowing that my kids are giving their bodies the carbs and calories they were designed for.
Everyone reading this goes against the grain in many ways (no pun intended), and I know this is just one more thing that will make us the odd balls out, but it may indeed be the most important action we take.
My children regularly snack on carrots with Himalayan pink salt, or dip their cucumbers in apple cider vinegar, so it’s not as if we are just sitting around grazing on grass. The foods we eat are still great, and we include a wide variety of choices to complement our taste buds.
Letting go of the American diet was just one more act of liberty that we thought beneficial for our children, and I believe they will benefit greatly by learning how to truly eat. Because in today’s environment, I don’t even know if much of what we eat can be called food anymore.
– Daniel Ameduri aka The Dissident Dad
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