This Ain't the Garden of Eden, Folks!

So, you might be asking, "Well, doesn't natural health mean we shouldn't have to do all this stuff to be healthy?"  Okay, well, maybe if we were still living in Eden.  But we're not.

Our soil is depleted of nutrients required to grow healthy plants for food and then our produce is sprayed with chemicals and poisons (to kill weeds and bugs), picked before it's ripe, shipped thousands of miles to the consumer, warehoused and sprayed with waxes to make it look pretty.  Livestock raised for food eat this same depleted food, usually not the type they were born to eat, and raised in conditions that are not only not natural, but create unhealthy animals which are then given drugs to ward off or treat disease.  There's also all the stuff that's sold as food, but can only be most kindly referred to as food- like substances because it's made up of chemicals and some things that started out as food but have been chemically altered to make them act differently (and therefore act differently in our bodies).  Have you checked the ingredients in a nacho cheese Dorito, lately?  There's nothing "real" in it; even the corn is genetically modified and the oil chemically altered through hydrogenation.  And then we eat this stuff and expect to be healhy?  Our food is not natural anymore.

Our air and water are polluted, and chemicals are everywhere: in our clothes, our homes, our cookware, the packaging our food comes in, the products we clean our homes and clothes and bodies with.  And don't even get me started on the hair and make-up products we use.  Oh, and then there's the radiation and electromagnetic fields we're constantly exposed to, the artificial lights at hours that interfere with our natural sleep cycles, and on and on.

Our bodies are trying to cope with more and more environmental stressors while being fed with nutritionally-deficient food.  How could that equation possibly work to our advantage?!

I really can't keep from snickering every time someone is discussing a possible nutritional deficiency they have and then says, "Well, what foods contain that vitamin/mineral?  I prefer to get my nutrients from foods rather than supplements."  And this is usually from someone who totally lives on processed foods and fast-food restaurant fare.  Oh, sure, they might cook most nights, but the ingredients primarily come out of a can or a box.  You can't eat enough of those foods to correct a nutritional deficiency and if you try, you'll be as big as a house and still under-nourished.

And let's please be realistic about those "Nutritional Facts" on the side of the box.  Yes, enriched white flour boasts significant amounts of certain nutrients -- because they stripped out everything of value and then added back in some cheap forms of vitamins and nutrients.  There's no way our bodies absorb and metabolize those "nutrients" in the same way they do when it comes in its whole food form.  There are lots of forms of every vitamin and mineral out there and they are NOT all equal.

So, unless you can find a plot of land free of all that pollution and organically grow your own food and shun all the modern conveniences you've been raised to appreciate, YES, actually, you DO have to do some stuff to help your body cope and still be healthy despite the unhealthy environment  you live in.

Of course, the more things you do to give your body real foods and limit your exposure to all the yucky stuff, the less extra things you'll have to do to feel great.  But if you're not feeling totally healthy and energetic, chances are you didn't get this way overnight and it's not going to be fixed overnight.  Obviously, the more healthy changes you make, the healthier you'll be.

So, where do you start and what should you do first?  Well, keep reading.  You're in the right place!