You know the maxims. You’ve heard them for years, even repeated them to others. They are the collective truths that get passed down through the generations, changing to match the times, but always carrying a powerful, yet simple message that cuts to the core.
Wisdom quotes can seem so obvious that we fail to follow the advice they offer:
- A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
- Easy does it
- Listen before you speak
- A penny saved is a penny earned
- Fools rush in where angels fear to tread
Maybe you remember a special phrase that “Grandma used to say,” or maybe you bought a poster that illustrates a favorite quote. Benjamin Franklin was fascinated by aphorisms and used them throughout his Poor Richard’s Almanack.
Many now famous quotes from speeches were not new ideas, but unabashedly taken from old sayings. That is why they “hit home” so well. It’s like Abraham Lincoln said, “Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all.”
What is the best health advice you know of?
Can you think of any health-related truths? Some of my own favorites are:
- Use it or lose it
- You are what you eat
- Let your food be your medicine
- I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired
- Just because you’re not sick, it doesn’t mean you are healthy
Waving “Goodbye” to Wisdom
Believe it or not, food did not always come from a supermarket, nor was it grown far from the table. Just a few generations ago, dinner was likely to have been freshly picked on a local farm or from the garden in your own backyard – not shipped in from thousands of miles away. And it certainly would not have been blended with a variety of chemicals and preservatives you could neither recognize nor pronounce. Perhaps the Victory Gardens of World War II were the last vestiges of agricultural sanity seen in the United States on a large scale.
In three brief generations, the job of growing the food you eat has passed from the capable hands of a hardworking farmer or gardener to the sterile laboratories and mineral depleted fields of a handful of corporations that have taken over agribusiness. Their marketing departments draw lovely illustrations of cows blissfully grazing in fields, to make you think that tub of margarine you see on the supermarket shelf is wholesome, natural, and healthy. The truth, though, is the lovely chemical soup in that container has little to do with a cow. It is one of the “most chemically altered” foods we eat.
Consider these notes from Naturally Dangerous: Surprising Facts About Food, Health, and the Environment by Stanford Professor of Chemistry, James P. Collman:
Margarine is said to have been manufactured to fatten turkeys, but some of them died and this practice was abandoned. After adding yellow dye and an artificial flavoring agent, margarine was sold to people as a substitute for butter, especially during the Second World War when butter was not available to the public … Try the following experiment: pace an open tub of margarine in a dark area open to flies. The flies will not touch or eat the margarine; to them it is like plastic: not a natural food. Are you still eating margarine? I have rid my house of this stuff; we now make pie dough from duck fat or lard; both are natural, but more significantly, both contain cis-fats, not trans-fats.
The reality of our situation runs deep. Not only have chemicals and preservatives become significant parts of our diets, the foods themselves are being manipulated genetically to better suit the needs of business. The advertisements, of course, will tell you that advancements in food preservation and food production are going to save the world and make sure no child ever needs to go hungry again. The fact is that malnutrition, disease, and environmental damage – because of these “advancements” – is a real and significant threat to us all.
Stockton Aloe 1 cares for you … naturally
It’s a tagline, for sure, a crafted saying that highlights the Stockton Aloe 1 mission. Our pledge to you, as trite as the tagline may seem, is that we mean, believe, and live what we preach. Our primary goal is not to make money. We aren’t directed by a board of business tycoons, and we don’t have to worry about keeping our shareholders happy – we don’t have any shareholders to please. Income is important, but it should be developed by providing value to the community. The better we do at helping you achieve your goals, the more you help us achieve ours.
At Stockton Aloe 1, we seek health for the sake of health. Not because it is a growing industry, but because it is a principle of Wisdom. Let’s face it, the world is shrinking rapidly, and we are all on this planet together. The days when what happens in China have little effect on your life in the United States are long gone. In the fields of agriculture, food science, and ag-marketing, there are decisions being made and practices being developed, right now, that will have significant impact on your health and your family’s health.
This morning, in the Google+ stream, I posted a link to an article about Monsanto and the monstrosity known as Roundup®.
Right away, I received a comment from a peer. The conversation went like this:
My friend wrote, “You’re wasting your time. You’ll never get through to them.”
I replied, “Well, at least I won’t feel like I watched the ship go down without shouting a warning and grabbing a bucket …”
And he responded, “Yeah, I know. You and me both. The layers of complacency peel away slowly.”
How about you? Are your layers of complacency slowly peeling away? Are you beginning to think it is time to stand up and speak out? Are you tired of drifting along with the tide, allowing the advertisers and corporate cronies to decide what you should eat, drink, think, and feel?
Our stake in the sand has been holding strong for years, but today we are recommitting to it – and we are recommitting to you. We aren’t going to shrink back on the issues. Rather, we are going to become more vocal, and we are going to partner with others who care. You’ve seen us do that recently with Jordan Rubin and his book, Live Beyond Organic. Now is not the time for healthwise companies and individuals to fight for customers and argue over whose method works best – it is time to pull together and sound the alarm. There’s a food fight going on, and we are all in it.
Here’s to your health, to your future, and to a resurgence of Wisdom in this hurting and hurtful world. Together, we can do much more than we could ever do alone.
The Stockton Aloe 1 Blog is launching a series of articles and presentations focused on the digestive system and the basics of health. We will talk about ways of dealing with candida albicans, shingles, candidiasis, leaky gut syndrome, GERD, and other troubles rampant today, but unheard of not too long ago.
Do join us. And, if there is a topic you want to see covered, just let us know.