Whose Disease Is It?

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Is it my lupus? Is it her breast cancer? Is it his Lou Gehrig’s disease? Is it her learning disability? Is it his autism? Is it his heart attack? Is it her stroke? On the surface, the answer is, “Yes.” No healthy person in their right mind wants to own our disease or disability-quite the opposite. They do their best to rationalize why they are safe, even invincible. We know better. We used to be them.

Who polluted the earth, the water and the air? Who created pesticides and volatile organic compounds? Who created genetically modified food? Who injects animals and fowl with growth hormones and feeds them antibiotics? Who put endocrine disruptors in our soap and clothing? Who created a high stress, sedentary lifestyle that leads to so many diseases? We are all responsible and we are all vulnerable. My disease and your disease are everyone’s disease. The cure is everyone’s business.

Certainly, the task is overwhelming. That’s OK. Each person does not have to do it all. We can make small changes, each and every one of us. We can become aware of how we, as a species, are causing our own extinction and making ourselves sick. The first step to change is always awareness. The next step is to gather information. Then it is time to act.

The Environmental Working Group has two lists: The Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen. You can download a wallet card of the Environmental Working Group Guide to Pesticides here http://www.foodnews.org/walletguide.php. You can reduce your exposure to pesticides by buying organic whenever possible. The Shopper’s Guide will help you determine which fruits and vegetables have the most pesticide residues and so are the most important to buy organic. You can lower your pesticide consumption by nearly four-fifths by avoiding the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables and instead eating the least contaminated produce, according to EWG calculations.”

I can hear some of you thinking, “Well then, I will stop eating fruits and veggies and only eat meat!” The birds and animals that we eat consume the pesticide laden plants. The higher up the food chain you go, the more concentrated the pesticides. And remember, the birds and animals are also given growth hormones and antibiotics. Farmed fish (and a lot of fish are farmed) are also given antibiotics routinely.
Small choices and small changes, one by one, make a big difference.