Think One Person CAN’T Make A Difference in What People Are Eating??

    It's a very sad state of affairs when a family living at or below the poverty level has so little money available for food, that they feel left with no other options that to head to MacDonald's to feed their family of four, simply because it's cheaper than to buy fresh vegetables and proteins  (If you haven't seen Food, Inc. please watch it… now!).

    It's also sad, in a different way, when people or families who have the means to eat properly choose not to.

    If you're someone who treats your body like the temple that it is, and, even though you may be on a budget, opts to spend a little more on REAL food compared to stocking up on boxes of bits from Costco, then you're a lot like me.  Even as a broke college student, I chose to not buy as many pairs of shoes or clothing as some of my friends did, in order to allocate more money of my small budget to weekly trips to the grocery stores and farmer's markets.  I've always felt that a healthy body and healthy mind are the very foundation upon which all else is built.

    So, what if you have found a way to eat properly for yourself, but feel that pang of guilt when you think of so many people who would like to eat well, but cannot, as a mere function of socioeconomic status.  Using my example above, when I was at university, I simply didn't have the means to do anything to help those in need via supplying them with any food.  

    Or so I thought.

    Last week, when I did a post about the horrid new product for sale, which is a frozen DiGiorno pizza that comes in the same box as Nestle toll house cookies, one reader, who also happens to be a friend, posted an extraordinary reply, which REALLY gives you, my dear readers, some literal "food for thought"!

    Here's what she had to say:

We all have a little spirit in us that asks us to donate to charities, causes, be more aware of the environment etc.. When we do, we feel amazingly good about ourselves and even a sense of peace. So have you considered that when you buy food, you actually do just that? You either donate or destroy. If you pay a little more for organic food, if you do a little extra effort for the local-farm produce you are making a huge difference by showing your purchasing power and you are on track to paleo living. Can you imagine if we all stopped buying these pizza/cookie mixes? These processing, packaging-focused companies would be forced to make a change. They are only selling to market demand. So, by not showing interest in these things we can make a change. I don't have have financial resources to donate to the charities I would love to support, but I have to buy food. So when I do, I consider that I'm combining these two things. And I'm telling these big corporations who just don't give a damn about what preservatives and toxins they use in the food, or how addictive the outcome can be, leading to obesity (which then can be another profit market for more pills or programs) that I'm not ok with that. 

    Think about that, for those of you who have the funds to eat a proper diet, to make the choice to NOT buy junk… even if you don't make an outright charitable contribution or spend any of your time contributing to a local community garden, the mere act of NOT supporting these awful products can send a message to those companies who are producing them.  The more of us who send this message, the more likely we'll be heard!