The importance of Organic
The trends in our food industry have the following labels created to catch the consumers attention:
USDA Organic; Free
Range; All natural, well you get the picture.
As a wife and mother of three, we lived the hustle and bustle life playing little league, eating chili and hot dogs at the games. Packing up afternoon snacks of Juice boxes and fruit roll ups, colored yogurt’s, good old pre packaged American food. We were busy people, getting it ready to go was fast, easy, and I could cram at least two games a week in plus a scouting adventure, and lets not forget 4-H. Its s go go world out there and eating on the run was a way of life.
Four years ago I began to get sick and I just never got any better. In fact I was getting worse and worse. Test after test, x-ray’s, second opinions, third opinions, specialists and losing a year of my life confirmed again and again a diagnosis of
Fibromyalgia; Moderate Arthritis; Epstein Barr; Chronic Fatigue and other “syndromes” that all seem to be interlinked. And there began my research of how to cope with these diseases that will not kill you but make you miserable and debilitated for the rest of your life. I was only 31 years old.
Eight more months of trying mainstream medication left me bedridden and more disabled than ever. I came to my husband with articles and articles of what is in our food and that eliminating them from my diet may help.
But to do this would require the whole family to be supportive. Our organic adventure began.
This is not a success story that I am cured by eating all organic. I am still sick. And I will always have fibromyalgia. But my symptoms and flares are less. And yes I do feel better. You know that saying: “You are what you eat”. I am no longer MSG, red dye, yellow dye, and nitrites. I am now “earthy” as my husband calls me.
We took our organic diet a step further by becoming modern day homesteaders. Keeping the animals keep me active as they need care and are therapeutic for me in more ways than one. Unable to hold down a “real” job they provide me with the necessary feeling of being productive, and the animals are forgiving on days I feel low and move slower to feed them. We know exactly what they are fed and we know that they are cared for humanely and in the end processed humanely.
So even our meats are hormone free, antibiotic free, free ranging, completely organic to ensure my family is eating optimal nutrition. Our poultry are raised the same way, eating clover and whatever else on the acreage during the day before they are locked up at night so predators wont get them. Our eggs are rich in color and flavor and I doubt we will ever buy eggs in a store again.
We are becoming more and more self sufficient. Eating organic creates a healthier you. My children are healthier. High blood pressure issues are almost non existent. My children that had issues like asthma and chronic bronchitis have not had an episode now in almost two years.
Growing all our own veggies and fruits possible, we can, dehydrate, freeze everything we can from the garden. Even in homesteading you need to make sure your seeds are pure that you grow. We have gone to complete heritage breeds as many vegetable seeds in the supermarkets are super hybrids only good for one growing season and loaded with growth hormones created in a lab. We compost and make our own fertilizer with our animals manure. We don’t buy fertilizer that has been “treated” and thus contaminating our soil that we are growing our food in. There are signs along the road that tell the county “no spray”, so they don’t spray chemicals onto our land.
We have a grinder now so we even grind our own wheat. And my children will attest to nothing being better than homemade cinnamon rolls waiting for them when they come home from school.
Are there days we all want to just dig into that Quarter Pounder and fries? You bet! The last two times we splurged, my oldest actually vomited on the way home as our systems just cannot handle processed foods anymore. My other two complained of stomach issues for a couple of days.
Are there days we all want to just dig into that Quarter Pounder and fries? You bet! The last two times we splurged, my oldest actually vomited on the way home as our systems just cannot handle processed foods anymore. My other two complained of stomach issues for a couple of days.
In the end, a simple organic life is more meaningful, healthier, and to be honest, a whole lot more fun than the hustle and bustle we let behind.
