Should the FDA stand for Fraudulant Devilish Acts?

Sometimes when I hear myself talking to clients or am prepping for a workshop, I feel like a hybrid of Debbie Downer and a conspiracy theorist. You see, we are all actresses in a really bad science fiction thriller called SAD (the Standard American Diet). More and more, people are realizing how scary processed food is but when you first start to uncover the truth, it can be terrifying and paralyzing.

See Exhibit A here

The news about mercury in high-fructose corn syrup is familiar to me. But for how long the FDA knew about this and did nothing shocks my humanitarian soul. With a solid background in food politics, I should know by now what you can get away with when you are well-connected.

Food companies and the industrial agriculture system get away with more than murder. They also get paid quite nicely for inhumane animal treatment, polluting our environment, weakening international economies and being the main driver in the average American’s decreasing quantity and quality of life.

But I hate focusing on the negative. It gets you no where. So I’m going to focus on what I can control: buying local and organic, writing to my legislators and calling food companies about my displeasure with them (yes, I’ve done it before and will do it again.) And of course, continue educating my clients and workshop participants on how to be smart and savvy foodies.

Now this is where I start to sound like a Public Service Announcement (and not one sponsored by the USDA or the FDA): You can change the ending to this movie. We have control over our health. When we make healthy food, exercise and stress management choices, we don’t have to go down with the ship (and even if it’s sinking, you’ll have the stamina and strength to swim to shore).

What break-out role can you have to give your part, and those you care about in this movie a happy ending? If your not sure where to start, I strongly suggest reading anything by Micheal Pollan. Omnivore’s Dilemma or In Defense of Food are awesome books. He’s also a contributor to the New York Times. Or pick one food in your pantry. Take the ingredient list and find out what your eating. I’d love to hear about your discoveries.

So for all of those who love happy endings, it’s show time!

J.C.S Loses 10 Pounds and Gains a Life

Working with Ali at Pyour Nutrition helped me with much more than just my diet. In addition to helping me eat for chronic stomach problems, I realized that reforming my diet and losing weight was about so much more than just food, portions and calories– as was overeating. Health and happiness are about much more than being thin, but about nourishing both your body and your life. Once you learn how to do these things, your weight doesn’t matter as much anymore, although this is when you actually begin to lose weight easily.

Even though I lost those pesky extra ten pounds– which was my initial and foremost goals– it now seems like the least important benefit of the program. Through the program I gradually learned not just how to gradually add healthiness into my life, but also happiness. I realized how necessary happiness is to healthiness and weight loss—this seems so obvious to me now after working with Ali, but never did before in my many previous years of dieting. ~ J.C.S, Philadelphia