By Thelma Ledford
We have discussed the fact that not everything we put into our mouths is “food!” Our food has been tampered with by industry. It may look like food, taste like food, but will the body accept it like it does real food? It may give us energy, fill our stomachs, and satisfy our taste buds, but does a full stomach mean that we are well-nourished? To help us focus let’s look at the definition of food again: *…”food: nutritive material taken into the body for maintenance of life and the growth and repair of tissues. (nutritive: containing nutrients)” We said that perhaps our grandparents could say that everything they ate was food because they grew it themselves, however, that is not true today. People moved from the farms into the cities and now others are supplying our food. There are fewer food growers and this has created the present state of affairs. When food is grown in large quantities there is more chance for contamination, because more people handle it. Procedures were created to try to solve the problems that have arisen. For example: Milk is collected from many different sources and though most may be honest, there are dishonest people. There is no way to check all of them. Jever wonder how many times milk has to be pasteurized to protect us? Then, since fresh milk does not keep long on the shelf other changes were made. Now, it is separated into particles and entirely rearranged. It is called milk, but is nothing like what we use to get from the cow. Only a few of us are here to remember. If the cow ate bitter weeds we could taste it. Yuk! I really did enjoy good, fresh milk. We moved to the city in first grade, and had to buy it from neighbors, but it was still real milk. Our foods came directly from the source. Excuse me while I reminisce, but this brings back such memories. I sure would enjoy a nice glass of fresh buttermilk, or better yet, clabbered milk. That is what we called it. Yummy! With a piece of homemade cornbread—without sugar, thank you! I have tasted the real and I can tell you, it is better. Most of you will never know the taste of real milk, butter, eggs, and farm grown foods. If you have found a fresh source today, you are blessed! I feel sad when I think that today children will never know some of the things we enjoyed as children. My grandfather grew a large orchard and berry patch. We could eat all we wanted in the summer. We ate peaches, pears, berries, plums, and apples straight from the tree. There was this one big apple tree. We called it a winter apple. The branches touched the ground all around the tree, and the grandchildren spent hours in its branches, eating its fruit. We walked barefoot on the hot sand trying to avoid sand spurs, or goat-head stickers, as we called them. We swung from grapevines, had green grapes fights with our cousins, and were free to be children. We were loved and cherished and knew it. We were a family: aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, and grandparents lived close to us. There was no such thing as generation gap. We were protected by an authority structure, good or bad. We sure were not left to our own devices—not undisciplined. Our parents knew where we were and what we were doing. The food was plain, but wholesome and good, and we had a variety. We could not stop at a local market for a quick-fix when our energy was low. We ate a cold biscuit and a piece of meat, or something from the garden. My sister, June, and I made raw vegetable soup out of tomatoes, onions, water, salt, and pepper. Good! Yes! There was nothing else around to tempt our taste buds. There are too many choices and much confusion about what is good for us today. The pathway to health is harder to follow. There has been a great exchange; not only in food, but in lifestyle and in values. I remember a book called “Silent Spring.” Some of you may remember it. When industry began to introduce “hybridization,” which changes the “metabolism” of the foods, she wrote this book to warn us of the future dangers that we would encounter. I never got to read the book, but she warned us that when these foods were eaten, they would also change the metabolic processes in the body. Why are there so many overweight people? Today, much of our food has been hybridized; the seedless grape is the first one I remember, but now the market is full of them. Industry has tampered with Nature, and life is not the same. God instructed Israel “Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed” (Genesis 19:19). I purchased a watermelon (with seeds) two years ago, and it was the best I’ve had in years. I saved the seeds and last year I grew four melons. The dry weather caused me to lose two of them, but the other two were delicious! It disturbs me to see “seedless” watermelons in the market place, and fear that one day; the seeded one will totally be remove from the stores. If people realized what was happening, and not buy them, but request “seeded” melons, we could stop them. Do you know that a company is trying to monopolize and control the “seed?” I learned it has already happened to soybeans. If you buy theirs, they have control over what you do with them. We should pay attention to what is happening to our food. There is war going on for control of everything, if you haven’t noticed.
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