I observed at one point that we are the ones who have to take responsibility of what we put into our bodies.
We have to understand for ourselves what is (and isn’t) good for us — for our health, our strength, our overall well-being. In other words, we can't leave it up to the disciplines of markets to do this for us. Too much of the time, the goals (and drivers) of markets are not operating as much for our self-interest as it is for theirs. Markets often have an amoral (sometimes, even immoral) quality to them — they will literally sell anything that we are willing to buy (whether it is good for us or not).
American mass-food systems are often complicit in creating (if not driving) markets for things that are quite bad for us. Stores are packed with things (especially at the front and at checkout) that literally are breaking us down and making us unhealthy. And, they are appealing to addictive tendencies we have as human-beings to perpetuate them.
Why would human beings promote systems, structures, ideologies, and lifestyles that work against their own survival?
-- Randy Woodley
There are many other examples of whole industries targeting our bodies which are not asking the question about the health or overall good of its products (or, if they are, they also suppressing negative realities about them). NEWSFLASH: just because you can buy something, doesn't mean it is good for you.
But, we already know this, don't we?
Well, yes, but...we succumb to such forces anyway, too tired to navigate (not to mention discriminate) all the details. Until we have problem...then we get more interested, with surprisingly relative haste.
There is both individual and collective health. And, each inter-relates and impacts the other. So, what we are putting into our bodies, consciously or not, has impacts in both of those dimensions and, accordingly, we need to pay more attention. Yesterday's post regarding changing our minds is pretty insightful and contributes to our sense of how to do so.
Some of the effect of what we put into our bodies is impacted by the realities of our DNA, our up-bringing, our environment, etc…which basically underscores the point. That, in the end, it is up to us to be mindful of what is good for us and do something about it; to know what is bad for us and to live accordingly.
Our bodies are amazing containers that interact with the realities of our existence — they provide a gold-mine of information about enhancing or degrading it. We should both respect and trust them more.
If we, individually, would act from the premise that it is up to us, even at a physical level, collective tides could also shift (in fact, even markets could...at least to some degree). We can no longer afford the laziness of our cultural habit of deferral to someone else to deal with such things, especially the good and bad things that need our focus.
Perhaps what is true in other contexts is literally true in this case — what we put into our bodies IS what we get out of them, because they are the source of our strength, power, and safety.
