Old wisdom for modern problems
Words from the past
These days, so many children (and parents) suffer from poor quality food, a problem our great-great grandparents would be shocked to know now plagues my students.
When students have behavior or health problems, changing their food always works. When parents are too tired or stressed to make changes, despite knowing the children are suffering, I can see that the parents themselves are suffering.
One cannot say everyone has allergies. Allergies are “unusual reactions to materials that are benign and cause no trouble in others.” If all my students, neighbors, and friends have issues with many modern foods, it can no longer be blamed on “allergies,” something is clearly wrong with the food itself.
In the modern era, when corporate advertisers rule the airways, I find solace, inspiration, and guidance from writers such as Eliza Acton.
It is worth hunting down heirloom and organic foods from small farms. If you have doubts, search on the Internet for “dialysis near me” in the big city near your home. It is well-known in science that pesticides, fungicides, and antiviral sprays poison the crops and the animals who eat them, including us.
When modern media has new things for us to fear, check back in time to see what was happening. Mark Twain had words for us!
Common items that cause problems include corn (in odd formats such as vitamin C and food additives), wheat, rice (arsenic, etc), peanuts (massive mold problems now, proteins not withstanding), additives in packaged foods, additives in basics such as salt and herbs, and juice.
EWG is a good starting point. Yes, media hate them.
May I whine a little? In the US, I cannot eat wheat, even organic wheat. But when I eat Dresdner Backhaus stollen for Christmas, I am fine. Even in huge quantities. But their shipping to the US is not reliable now. Yes, I am already thinking of Christmas stollen.
I see how even in Mark Twain's day they were selling cheap US cottonseed oil as Italian olive oil, shipping it to Italy for packaging to hide its origin. And the whole industry knew, but not the consumer. Now we add cellulose (aka wood pulp) to shredded cheese to keep it from clumping. Oh, and sawdust is cheaper than cheese. That reason too. Modern food is industrial and all sorts of things are done to make it seem like good food while using the cheapest ingredients possible. Or to make it shelf stable. I want my food to be digestible, not stable, and don't want to eat something that might harm my gut microbiome. I also don't want to eat emulsifiers (surfactants). I can shake my oil and vinegar just fine. And if I do want to mix things, I can just use an egg yolk. It is tastier.