Writing this blog is proving to be very enlightening... and frustrating... and difficult. My aim is to inform women- particularly women of color who would not otherwise have access to this information- about the natural things available to aid us in our pregnancy, childbirth and child rearing. So, of course, we have to talk about ways to take care of ourselves before, during and after pregnancy. This encompasses, not only the food we eat- which is of the utmost importance, but, what we bathe with and put on our skin and hair. Afterall, the best path to good health is NOT what we do once we're sick, but the everyday things we do so that sickness never- or hardly ever- enters the equation in the first place.
With that being said, it ain't easy to live a truly healthy lifestyle when you have little money. Or, when your neighborhood has no real grocery stores, let alone health food stores. For instance, in a particularly poor South Los Angeles neighborhood that I tend to frequent, there is not one major grocery store within a 2 mile radius. Not one. Lots of little corner stores such as one up the street where I bought a mango for breakfast. I opened it... rotten! Completely rotten! Not to mention the fact that there are no alternatives to bleached white bread, outdated bologna or "fruit"-flavored drink. Yes, I said "drink", not juice! Now, if you are a mother of one or more, have no car, are relying on food stamps and/or government cash aid then you may not see anything wrong with filling your baby's bottle with "drink" or sending your 8 year old to school with "Hot Cheeto's" and nitrate-filled bologna sandwich or even buying a bunch of McDonald's $.99 cheeseburgers for dinner because it's what's available and what's affordable. Shoot, my mother gave me plenty of bologna as a kid. But, when we know better, we do better... unless, you never knew better or don't have the means to do better.
So, this particular series of posts will be dedicated to showing women how to nourish ourselves, especially when pregnant and nursing, on a for real budget (not those fake "budgets" like they talk about in magazines which assumes that you have disposable income or a second income).
Let's begin with talking about the facts. Why should we care about our food? It's food ain't it? Why should we care so much about our soaps, lotions and haircare products? It doesn't go in my mouth, it won't harm my baby, right? Well, let's look at some facts, shall we?
Fact: the skin is the largest organ of the body;
Fact: over 70% of what is placed on the skin manages to seep into the body and our bloodstreams;
Fact: women, on average, apply over 5 pounds of lotions and creams to their skin annually;
Fact: there are over 10,500 chemicals used to manufacture cosmetic products;
Fact: many of these ingredients are toxic (poisonous);
Fact: like tobacco, before regulation, no one currently knows the cumulative effect these toxic ingredients have on a person when used for decades;
Fact: some of these toxic ingredients have been directly linked to cancer, birth defects, respiratory problems, liver and kidney disease, and much more;
Fact: recent clinical studies on pregnant women have shown the same toxins at the same levels are in the bloodstreams of the fetuses and enter through the umbilical cord;
Fact: the European Union (EU) has banned over 1,100 toxic ingredients in the manufacture of safe cosmetic products;
Fact: the US has banned 10. (Source: ezinearticles.com)
That's just the stuff we put on our skin. What about the stuff we eat?
Fact: the umbilical not only carries nutrients to your unborn baby, it can also carry toxins and heavy metals from the food we eat and in our bodies;
Fact: "You are what you eat" whatever is in your food, is in you. This includes hormones, antibiotics, chemicals, waste (as in, poop) or whatever!;
Fact: most of the food animals in the United States are no longer raised on farms at all. Instead they come from crowded animal factories, also known as large confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs).
Fact: many of the ingredients used in feed for these animals are not the kind of food the animals are designed by nature to eat.
Fact: dead animal carcasses from these factories can be processed and fed to the live animals, meaning, chickens eat dead chickens, cows eat cow blood, pigs eat dead pigs and so on. This leads to the spread of diseases such as mad cow disease, e. coli and salmonella outbreaks.
Fact: Feed for any food animal can contain cattle manure, swine waste, and poultry litter. Animal waste used for feed is also allowed to contain dirt, rocks, sand, wood, and other such contaminants.
Fact: animals at animal factories often receive antibiotics to promote faster growth and to compensate for crowded, stressful, and unsanitary living conditions. An estimated 13.5 million pounds of antibiotics—the same classes of antibiotics used in human medicine—are routinely added to animal feed or water.
Fact: This has lead to the growing antibiotic resistance in humans, overgrowth and early onset puberty in children and the mutating viruses and bacteria infecting us today.
Fact: Whatever is in the cows you eat is also in the milk.
Ok, we'll stop there. I know this is a LOT of information, but trust me, it's worth it to be informed. My next posts will not be so bleak, but we'll talk solutions and alternatives! In the meantime, please feel free to ask any questions you may want to see mentioned in the blog. And check out the video below! Remember, REAL food goes bad after a while. It gets moldy, starts to stink and decay... just like our bodies when they die. Why doesn't McDonald's or ANY fast food EVER go bad? What is in that stuff???
Be peaceful and Productive, y'all
Earthy Mama
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