September/October 2005 Editor's Viewpoint
From the Editor: You are what you eat!

Miriam Knight
The message behind this issue’s focus on food is: our body needs fuel, and it is up to us to make sure that it gets what it needs – and not what it doesn’t. Sounds simple enough, but in a world driven by profit and big business, it is a pretty big challenge to sort among the conflicting messages bombarding us from every side. It is confusing enough when even the "health experts" – both conventional and alternative – contradict eachother and themselves, but then the profit motive kicks in and we are at the mercy of big business. Under protection of the FDA we are being slowly poisoned and robbed of wholesome, balanced nutrition.

Here is a cautionary tale for you, straight from the horse’s mouth. An acquaintance of mine is a diabetic. She was avoiding sugar by using artificial sweetners, and she was in constant pain from crippling arthritis. I sent her some research I had read, linking aspartame and other artificial sweetners to a host of chronic problems, and received the following e-mail a week later:

"Thank you for the information on artificial sweeteners.  I quit drinking diet pop and quit using Splenda the day I got your note. I do not know how I will ever thank you for passing this information on to me.  I am pain free from what I thought was my arthritis hurting me. I do have arthritis but it no longer hurts.  It was the artificial sweeteners causing inflammation in all my joints and back. Also, I take the Coreg for my heart palpitations. I called my Dr. to see if I could take one half the prescription a day, I have not heard back from him. I cannot believe how much better I feel, I thought I was eating right and instead I was slowly killing myself. I can think clearer also, does that make sense?

Thank you again, Betty"

Friends, I urge you to educate yourselves. Read lables – don’t eat anything you can’t pronounce. Buy fresh, buy local. Eat nature’s bounty, not some colored, preserved, pesticide or hormone laden imitation. Your body will love you for it.