A few days ago I saw an article that really got me fired up. Apparently, the government now wants to label people who take care of their health as having a mental disorder. They’ve even come up with a scientific sounding diagnosis, Orthorexia nervosa. It seems that if you are overly concerned with the pureness of your food, and how it affects your health, you might be crazy. While I do believe that anything taken to obsessive limits could be damaging for your mental health, this just reeks of corruptness.
Let’s go ahead and unpack this theory. What is pure food? In my mind, pure is anything that is grown without the use of harmful chemicals, and not altered in any way. The use of pesticides would therefore make something “impure.” Genetic modification (GMO’s) would also take away the pure label. This is why in order for something to be labeled “organic” it cannot be grown with the use of pesticides, nor be genetically modified. Foods chock full of preservatives are definitely not pure-sorry fast food!
I think we can all agree that chemicals, pesticides, and preservatives are not good for your health. I honestly didn’t think about this stuff much in my younger days, but now with a family to look after, I do worry about what we are putting into our bodies on a daily basis. I have even been on the fence about GMO’s, but the fact is, we don’t know what the outcome of all this genetic modification is-we are currently the guinea pigs! Our children are test subjects. And now, the powers that be want to label healthy eating as a mental disorder?
I think most people know that Monsanto is the leader of the GMO movement. They are paving the way with genetically modified produce. Straight from their laboratory to your kitchen table. It is funny to me that a chemical company is even allowed to mess with our food. (In case you didn’t know, Monsanto is the company responsible for bringing the world Agent Orange and RoundUp.) Of course, they now label themselves as a “sustainable agricultural company.” I don’t know about you, but I don’t trust a company whose products have caused respiratory illness and cancer handling my food. Especially since at the time Agent Orange was being used, it was touted as safe. Now, years later, millions are dealing with the fallout. Will history repeat itself with GMO’s?
The problem, of course, is that Monsanto is a GIANT! With President Obama signing the Monsanto Protection Act , they are basically above the law. The federal courts have no power over them, even if it is later found that genetically modifying our food comes with some gnarly consequences. All the money they need at their disposal with no repercussions-what could possible go wrong? Of course they don’t want people to wise up and jump off their bandwagon. They have too much to lose!
This past summer, I took my children to the tomato festival in town. There were all sorts of fun tomato and salsa tasting contests, and we went around from booth to booth participating in them all. We got over to the big Monsanto booth, where they were also holding a taste test. We got in line, and right as I was about to taste my first tomato, one of their workers stopped me and said I couldn’t participate…because I was pregnant. This did not make sense to me at all-tomatoes are good for you, right? None of the other booths had a problem with me tasting their produce. So I started questioning why I couldn’t, and they had to call their manager or person in charge over, who explained to me that their legal team advised them against allowing pregnant women to taste their tomatoes. HUGE red flag! I still don’t have an answer as to what exactly they are afraid of. And how come I couldn’t taste their Frankenstein tomatoes there but I can buy them in the grocery store????
We live in a free country, founded on individual liberty. The government shouldn’t be able to tell anyone how to live or how to raise their family. And because of this, they are trying to marginalize and stigmatize those that don’t buy into their propaganda by labeling them as having a mental disorder. Before you start thinking that I’m way off base here and that isn’t what is going on-consider this: It isn’t the first time in history that those that go against the status quo have been called crazy.
In the Victorian Era, “women could find themselves labelled insane and locked up in madhouses for a range of conditions – from postnatal depression to alcoholism or senile dementia, and even for social transgressions such as infidelity (‘moral insanity’).” (source) Even more recently, in the early 20th century (between 1910 and 1920) many suffragettes were jailed, locked up, beaten, force fed-all because they wanted the right to vote. They dared to go against those in control and the norm for those days that said that women were second class citizens. Women speaking their mind was considered a mental disorder! Women weren’t allowed to have opinions-or at least not express them publicly. All of you women bloggers, all of you women sharing your opinions with the world on a daily basis via social media, should be so thankful for what these women went through. It’s because of them we all aren’t sitting in a mental hospital right now. Because they weren’t afraid to take a stand against something they knew was wrong!
Without them standing up to the GIANTS of their day, it wouldn’t matter if we thought Christian Gray is sexy or sinful, or if vaccines are necessary or evil, or if yoga pants are comfortable or too revealing. It wouldn’t matter because we wouldn’t be allowed to have opinions. Now they are trying to take away our right to make sure our families are healthy, or at least belittle those that make choices against what they say is safe and right. (This could also be applied to the vaccine controversy, but I’m not going to go there!) If you’re interested, you might also want to check out this article about how the mental health industry creates disease.
I would like to hear what you think. Do you think choosing only pure and healthy food for your family should be considered a mental disorder? Let me know your opinion in the comments.
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