Holiday Candy Rant

I skipped writing a post about Valentines Day because I’m really not a fan. I might get back into it for Annabelles sake next year when she’s a little older because it’s fun for kids, especially teenagers and their first crushes but for adults I think it’s an over rated marketing scam. I think that says a lot coming from someone who is a bit of a romantic and has always been totally in love with love.

I don’t need my husband to prove his undying love for me on February 14th by buying me gifts, I need him to prove his undying love for me 365 days a year in the details that get lost in life. Making sure the coffee pot is set at night, stopping at the store when we run out of something, rubbing my feet even though they’re stinky, by being a spectacular father, by looking me in the eyes and telling me he loves me, working his butt off to provide for our family and all the other things he does simply because he loves me. Those are the things that take my breath away, not roses and a box of chocolates on Valentines Day.

So with another candy filled holiday around the corner I find myself not being able to help myself.  First it makes me angry. Hysterically angry to be honest. And then it makes me sad because either as a society we just don’t care what that kind of junk does to the human body or even worse we just don’t know. Ignorance is bliss but when it comes to what I put in my body and especially what goes in Annabelles body I chose to make myself very, very informed. The food we eat makes up our cells, our tissues, goes into our blood, helps nourish our brains, in essence, we become what we eat.  It can help keep us healthy or increase the rate of cell mutation that can cause a host of problems, including cancer. And none of the stuff Annabelle got for Valentines day was food. It was chemicals put together by a scientist in a lab somewhere, with ingredients I can’t even pronounce and things that are quite obviously NOT food.

I try to be open minded when we’re out and about, at parties or friends houses and go with the flow because I’m aware of the world I live in and we don’t all have the same priorities or worries about food and that’s ok. Living our whole life around what we can and can’t eat would diminish our quality of life and what’s the fun in that? I’m a firm believer of the 90/10 rule. Eat clean, high quality food 90% of the time and the other 10% of the time don’t even worry about it, just enjoy it. But I can and do make informed decisions about what I put into my body. A 2 year old can not make an informed decision.

Who doesn’t love eating neon pink or bright red food? No one wants the yellow gummy bear, we all want the red ones. I mean come on, it’s a naturally occurring color in our food supply right? Maybe you’ll also enjoy the hyperactivity, carcinogens and possible allergic reactions that come with your neon cupcake. I wonder why they don’t put that on the package?  Red 40 is one of the most talked about food dyes that has been linked to a host of health problems and is still approved by the FDA. Read this so you can make more informed choices next time you see the glow in the dark cupcakes.

Food and nutrition is my ultimate soapbox and it infuriates me beyond belief that we live in a society where the FDA knows our food supply contains things as disgusting as carcinogens and allows the public to be uninformed. They shouldn’t be allowed. period.

I truly do try to be ‘green’ and use as few toxins as possible in my life but to me the big one is, and will probably always be, food. Because I’ve seen the direct impact it has had on my health.

By the time I was 15 I took regular trips to the ER for menstrual cramps so bad I could hardly get out of bed. At 17 I had gallstones. At 18 I began my 8 year journey of trips to the ER for ruptured ovarian cysts and was told I would have trouble conceiving.  On September 12, 2001 I had surgery to removed malignant melanoma from my face. At 21 I had a piece of my cervix removed with pre-cancerous cells and at 24 I had fibromyalgia and at 25 I was told that my chances of ever getting pregnant were slim to none. And then I changed my diet. Now, whenever I veer from what I know I should be eating my body pays for it and the cramps and body aches return. When I eat a clean diet of real food I can conquer the world.

I get a lot of questions about how there are so many people that are so healthy but end up sick all the time. Accurate or not, my belief is that we are born with a strong or weak constitution. Some people with a strong constitution can abuse their bodies for much longer before they pay for it. Those of us with a weaker constitution have to make better choices to be the healthiest we can be and feel our best. Every time I put something in my body I am making a decision about how I want to feel, and feeling sick and tired isn’t my first choice.

Now that I got that off my chest have you thought about your Easter baskets? Easter doesn’t have to be another holiday filled with little packages of brightly colored chemicals and ‘chocolate flavored candy’ (gross). Be sure to check Fox Health News next Wednesday for my tips on how to have a healthy Easter!

This is last years post on healthy Easter tips in case you want to get started early!