Breakdowns to Breakthroughs in Food

I could cry. Everyday I could cry. When my sons mouth flares up from an allergy what I see is the symptom of possible invisible stomach ulcers forming (which is what happens when the stomach is repeatedly barraged with allergens) and then possible cancer. I fear a warning of death. I am in anguish. Of course I don't react like it. I look him in the eye and tell him we are going to figure it out, and it's going to stop and he is going to get healthy.

But inside I am crying. I am riddled with guilt. What was it this time? I am screaming with rage at the food system. I am imagining the incarceration of greedy food and chemical corporation executives. For the sake of all the others, I want to grab the school lunch workers, the grocery store managers, the camp organizers and my own family members and shake them and yell, "Wake Up! Learn about is in our food! Don't serve that junk to our children! Don't eat that junk! Don't die from your food!"
I feel like I am rock climbing up a sheer cliff with no harness and no end in sight.And when I take my son for another check up and, despite our highly managed diet, discover more allergies, I feel like I am falling. It is a total breakdown in my commitment to healthy children. I love my son so much I can't put words to the love. I will do anything.

The more I research the more I find out the enormity of the situation. It is not just multiple allergies that has me so upset. I can handle making food before we go to parties and saying no to the ice cream truck and birthday cake.
It's the probable, almost certain future I see, one of sickness and a country resigned that this "just is the way it is". I see the reality of Congress recently vetoing the bill to have GMO foods labeled(ARRRGHHH!) and Americans continuing to go blind to the toxins in our foods and the rise in cancer. The probable, almost certain future of more drugs manufactured to feed to millions of children with symptoms from the chemicals genetically engineered into our foods. The probable, almost certain future of the continued rise of autism, allergies, and cancer.

I have a choice though, in what I see. I am human and I will have my times of rage and fear. If I don't I won't be authentic. But I don't empower my sons, myself or my community by stewing in stress.

So I am choosing. This week I created the possibility of being adventurous,love and generosity....what can I create coming from that? What kind of future do I see now?

I choose to be inspired by my sons patience and willingness to drink green goopey drinks. I choose to see the inspiration in the other countries of the world, like Europe, where they have banned food dyes, GMO's and chemicals like sodium benzoate. The food companies make Skittles and processed foods without those additives for them. They have done it. We can too.
I see adventures in eating whole foods, organic and mostly vegetarian. I see beautiful red,orange and yellow fruits and vegetables and homemade fruit bars and crunchy organic kale snacks. I see adventures in cooking with my healthy son!
I see a future where people come together with love and stand for Real Food, where we appeal to lawmaker's love of people and children...where generosity of spirit triumphs over greed.
That is a future that will have me crying tears of joy.

And I am the person to create that future....to cause a breakthrough from a breakdown. So I promise, everyday to take an action to create that....and when I experience the fear and rage I will get it out and then take an action from adventure, love and generosity.
Thank you dear friends for whatever you can do to speak up and tell our government that we stand for Real Food,and we come from love.
Thank you.

Zen Honeycutt

Freedom Food

Today as we prepare to go to 4th of July gathering and stuff our faces, I face a new set of perils I never saw before a few months ago.

The food that will be laid out before us could slowly kill my son...and our family.
This is horrific. Why even write this? Why get panicked and alarmist?
Why not just shut up and enjoy the party and eat the corn chips?

I will enjoy the party, I might even shut up about the food and be gracious.
But I will not eat the corn chips. Neither will my family.

No more corn chips, corn tortillas, popcorn, corn bread or corn on the cob unless it is organic. Oh geez, come on...you might think I am a hippie nutter, neurotic and probably a hypochondriac.

Think what you will. Eat what you will. But know that 80% of the corn is grown from seeds from the largest pesticide company in the world and those seeds are Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's)with pesticides injected into the DNA with the intention of blowing up the stomachs of the insects that eat the corn and killing them. That's less pesticides that they have to spray on the corn, they argue.

What does that do to our stomachs?
Over time, the pesticides cause corrosion of our stomach lining. Couple with the high amounts of acidic foods we eat (highly processed, meats, dairy, junk food etc), soon our stomach have tiny holes in them, a symptom called Leaky Gut, and food escapes. When the food escapes the body thinks it a foreign invader and attacks it. From then on, when ever we ingest that food the body thinks it's an allergen and we develope rashes, stomach aches, headaches, skin irritations, and eventually stomach ulcers and colon problems which lead to cancer.

Life threatening allergies are up 265%. Cancer rates are now 4X higher in our country than others. 1 in 2 men are expected to get cancer and 1 in 3 women. Look around you in your family. Those numbers include our families.
And NO OTHER country in the world allows GMO's except the USA.
They inspire me. We CAN have Freedom in our Food, but first we have to see that we don't.

The fact is, that we are eating food everyday that is GMO and we are not only not informed but we don't have other choices. If we have a limited budget for food, or travel and eat at restaurants, if we shop at a Stop and Shop or chain Stater Brothers etc...most of these stores are the only source of food for miles and do not offer organic, non GMO alternatives. People take what they can get and they don't want to hear bad things about their food. I don't blame them. But it's going to keep going like this unless we DO hear, we DO learn and we DO speak up.

The only way to have Freedom in our FOOD is to fight for it. To speak up for it. To demand it.
All you have to do is ask.
Just take a step and demand from your Congress and Representatives that the people are heard. Say No to GMO's and YES to Real Food on the 4th of July.
"It's the most patriotic thing you can do." - Robyn O'Brien, author of "The Unhealthy Truth."

Here is a link to California Senate and Reps. Please google your states and take a few minutes today to stand for your country.

http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/cgi-bin/newseek.cgi?site=congressmerge&state=ca

Zen Honeycutt

One Inspiring Mom Takes on Foreign Invaders in our Food

I am weeping tears of relatedness, inspiration, disbelief, sadness and frustration. I am watching Robyn O'Brien's Ted talk on California's Right to Know.
After her baby's allergic reaction, she learned that a food allergy is the body responding to food as a foreign invader. So she asked "Is there something foreign in our food?". Her talk answers this question.
Watch the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rixyrCNVVGA
Pass it on.
Share it with everyone.
It is "the most patriotic thing we can do".

The facts are that between 1997 and 2002, just 5 years, peanut allergies have increased by 2X.
Our food is genetically modified with synthetic proteins that our bodies see as foreign invaders.
We get allergic reactions, sickness and cancer.
We have the highest cancer rates in the world. 1-2 men are expected to get cancer. 1-3 women are expected to get cancer. 90% of breast cancer is from environmental causes. Only 1% is genetic.
If you move here from another country you increase your chance of getting cancer by 4X.
Companies spend 60% of their profits on health care.
There has been a 265% increase in the rate of ER hospitalization by doctors (not parents) of children with severe allergy reactions to FOOD.
FOOD!
Food that is on the shelves of our grocery stores, that the FDA said is safe, that our government says is safe even though the rest of the world says no.

The food we eat is NOT allowed in Europe and other countries. And this big food companies change the formulas so that they can sell there.
If they do that for them, why not do it for us? Because we allow it.


Robyn did not just ask a good question and find the answers...she shared the answers and took action to make a difference. I am so inspired into action, more action to have USA food, and our children, be safe.
One person can make a difference!
Eat organic, whole foods as much as possible.
Be relentless about not supporting toxic food.
Contact the White House now.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

And take action in your home:
http://www.robynobrien.com/do-onething.html

Thank you for reading and for being an active American in healthy food for all.
Zen Honeycutt
P.S. I am completing my book about a boy who takes on his allergies. Finding her talk just put the fire in my belly to get it published ASAP!!!!

My New "Buzz"

I watched " Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead " on Netflix two days ago. It is a remarkable documentary of a very wealthy and very overweight and very unhealthy, ie: rashy Australian man Joe Cross who travels cross country in the USA whilst partaking a 60 day juice fast and interviewing Americans about health.
He is charming, unassuming, and really not preachy at all. He offers help to one nearly 500 pound trucker with the same rash disease he has, and later in the movie this man takes him up on his offer. In 10 days the trucker looses 30 pounds, completely healthily ( with doc checkups) in 30 days; 90 pounds and in 60 days the scale we were left at, was at 202 pounds less. He converts neighbors, family members and friends all from just gently sharing his experience. His brother has a 56,000 dollar heart attack and takes 471 dollars worth of medication a month and finally surrenders to his younger brother's new way of life and tries it, loosing 47 pounds. It is truly touching to see the brothers connect over health, choosing a future together of empowerment and responsibility for their lives. Actually, they are choosing not only health, but each other, family and their love for each other. It is moving.

The most impressive part of the film besides the weight loss, glow of skin, confidence and happiness the Reboot Juicers experience, is the way the film explains with cartoons and narration, the effect that Micro nutrients ( from raw vegetables and fruits) have on cells. They literally heal cells. Macro nutrients, meats, processed foods etc, weaken the cells and make us more susceptible to disease, cancer illness and allergies. Even having known a friend who reduced his prostate cancer cell rate 40% by eating 90% raw for 60 days, I still didn't really understand the importance of fruits and veges for everyone. Now I get that they are a direct source of the sun's energy, our life source. I couldn't wait to go out and get a juicer.

That night, I told my husband about the movie and he surprised me by saying he would try a fast. I love his commitment to our family. The next day, after I went out and bought an Omega 8006 juicer from Mother's ( has a 15 year warranty, that is an extraordinary appliance!) I came home thrilled to assemble and juice up my big bunches of kale, celery, spinach and bags of granny apples, lemons, and cucumbers. It was easy to do and when I drank the juice it was like drinking a cool crisp garden. I felt sprightly and fresh.
When I went out with the children for a potluck dinner, I left my husband a big glass of juice in the refrigerator and came home to see him half way through "Fat,Sick and Nearly Dead" and raving about the juice. I was delighted.

Yesterday and today I have been so excited to wake up and make a new concoction, I have added beets, oranges (sans peel), eliminated the celery and lemon that the kids don't like, and added berries via blender. The kids help push the veges and fruits into the juicer, delighting at the crunch crunch crunch of the turning auger and their power in choice to contribute to being healthy.We call the beet one Super Hero Juice.
I feel a healthy energetic buzz after drinking these juices. I feel empowered in creating a future with zero doctors visits, zero medications, just health, energy, adventures and a long life of love and laughter.

I am so grateful to Joe Cross and his production crew, to Alex from Mother's market for telling all the nitty gritty details about juicing and making the transition to vegan, ( he suggests taking Brewer's Yeast powder in the juice, which has the complete amino acid chain which we miss out on if we don't have meat, and B Complex which without we will feel cranky, irritable, tired and head-achy, like PMS )and I am so grateful to my husband for once again being supportive of a new adventure in health.
Anytime I have cravings now, I juice up some Super Hero Juice, not to loose weight, but to feed my cells, care for my body, and get that BUZZ of being healthy, vital and alive!

Zen Honeycutt