You may have read the title with shock, thinking “why WOULD anyone poison themselves?” Or, you may think that I’m now going to launch into a diatribe about the evils of meth and other illegal drugs.
Nope. Neither. Little by little, I am loosening the grip of the 21st century on my body. I celebrate my 50th birthday in a few weeks, and I am in better health than I was 10 or 20 years ago.
Americans are infamous for our awful diets. Some of us eat out three meals a day, seven days a week. Then we wonder why we get sick a lot and why we can’t lose weight. But that’s not what I’m talking about either.
I was as guilty as many other American, with respect to my diet. I have a sweet tooth like a 3-year old. I loved chocolate bars, especially those with caramel. I was not as guilty as some; I’ve never smoked or used any illegal drugs. Never. I used to imbibe alcoholic drinks, and no longer do. It’s not that they are bad; they were just bad for me. But these are not what I’m talking about either.
No, I’ve decided to quit poisoning myself with artificial sweeteners.
This started about a year ago when I enlisted in a fat-burning challenge at work. One of the suggestions for diet improvement was to quit using artificial sweeteners. The person running the challenge actually said that full-sugar pop was not as bad as diet pop! At first, I thought she was nuts, then I tried it. I went without my beloved Diet Coke for a few days. Instead, I drank tea sweetened with Sweet N’ Low. What I found was that I no longer craved candy. I was better in control of what I ate at meals. As a bonus, I also noticed that I no longer got that tired, sleepy feeling in the afternoon. So, instead of having my ritual “Diet Coke and candy bar” in the afternoon, I had a cup of fresh brewed tea, and was very satisfied.
So, I bagged the NutraSweet. Over time, I noticed that my headaches were less frequent. That meant that, not only was I not poisoning myself with the NutraSweet, I was using far less over-the-counter pain relievers. Once in a great while I fell “off the wagon” and had a Diet Coke. It tasted good, but later I paid for it with feeling fatigued and ragged. But, I was still using Sweet N Low, which contains saccharine.
As I’ve gotten further down the road from my 40th birthday, I was noticing that the aches and pains of getting up in the morning were getting worse and worse. Daily exercise helped a lot, but I’ve found an even better helper. A couple of months ago, I started sweetening my morning cup o’ tea with organic sugar, not Sweet N Low. I didn’t notice it, but the aches and pains slowly diminished and disappeared. I didn’t notice they were gone until one day, I decided to use Sweet N Low again, and the next day the aches and pains were back in force. IN ONE DAY. I quit using the pink stuff, and within a few days the aches and pains were just a memory. I decided to donate the rest of the box of Sweet N Low in the cupboard to my local church.
Now, I very rarely need to resort to any of the bottles of pain killers that are in my medicine chest. I don’t need to worry about what they are doing to my stomach or kidneys. I am free from pain, and I’m no longer poisoning myself.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
A good friend sent me a New York Times article that attempted to explain away the anger exhibited by the Tea Party. Using a lot of high-falutin' language, this professor and author basically said the Tea Party is mad because they can't count on the government to be their generous Uncle Sam any more.
This is my response.
I don't buy it. The anger in the Tea Party comes from a couple of sources: the very name reveals one source: Taxed Enough Already. Our government, from the local to the federal, has become a bloated beast that has accumulated more debt than can ever be paid. The only way to pay this debt (which apparently they don't plan to do) is to tax us all at 100 percent, but that would completely destroy the economy. The only way out of this is to default on the debt and start over with a new currency. Tea Party Members see this coming, and they are mourning the loss of the greatest nation the world has ever seen.
Another source of anger is, it didn't have to happen. If the Federal Reserve and our corrupt government officials had maintained the sound fiscal policies (money backed with gold and silver, not fiat currency) set up by our founding fathers, this would not have been possible.
And, it isn't just the destruction of our currency. The government at all levels has gone from being the protector of our rights to the theif of them. Property owners no longer own their property: eminent domain has been used all over the country to strip owners of their rights and take their land, often to give it to insiders for private development. The EPA has been used to strip property owners of their rights to use their land as they see fit. Most Tea Party members know people who have lost land or the use of it to one government level or another.
And, it's not just land and property. We don't have the authority to raise our children as we see fit anymore. The "nanny state" knows that we should not own guns, we should vaccinate our children with whatever big pharma says we should, we can't spank our children or discipline them when they need it. The "nanny state" knows best, and parents who disagree lose their children. Yet still, with all the abuses of the nanny state, children die from accidents or abuse at the hands of caregivers every year. These stories are magnified all over the news to give the nanny state more credence and authority.
So, the extreme anger exhibited by the Tea Party is not that of a jilted lover. It is that of a populace who has seen their freedom, autonomy and authority gradually stripped away year after year, and they are saying "ENOUGH." Most of us would like to see 95% of our federal government eradicated, and taken back down to the limits imposed in the Constitution. Would this be painful? YES. But the direction we are headed in is far worse.
This is my response.
I don't buy it. The anger in the Tea Party comes from a couple of sources: the very name reveals one source: Taxed Enough Already. Our government, from the local to the federal, has become a bloated beast that has accumulated more debt than can ever be paid. The only way to pay this debt (which apparently they don't plan to do) is to tax us all at 100 percent, but that would completely destroy the economy. The only way out of this is to default on the debt and start over with a new currency. Tea Party Members see this coming, and they are mourning the loss of the greatest nation the world has ever seen.
Another source of anger is, it didn't have to happen. If the Federal Reserve and our corrupt government officials had maintained the sound fiscal policies (money backed with gold and silver, not fiat currency) set up by our founding fathers, this would not have been possible.
And, it isn't just the destruction of our currency. The government at all levels has gone from being the protector of our rights to the theif of them. Property owners no longer own their property: eminent domain has been used all over the country to strip owners of their rights and take their land, often to give it to insiders for private development. The EPA has been used to strip property owners of their rights to use their land as they see fit. Most Tea Party members know people who have lost land or the use of it to one government level or another.
And, it's not just land and property. We don't have the authority to raise our children as we see fit anymore. The "nanny state" knows that we should not own guns, we should vaccinate our children with whatever big pharma says we should, we can't spank our children or discipline them when they need it. The "nanny state" knows best, and parents who disagree lose their children. Yet still, with all the abuses of the nanny state, children die from accidents or abuse at the hands of caregivers every year. These stories are magnified all over the news to give the nanny state more credence and authority.
So, the extreme anger exhibited by the Tea Party is not that of a jilted lover. It is that of a populace who has seen their freedom, autonomy and authority gradually stripped away year after year, and they are saying "ENOUGH." Most of us would like to see 95% of our federal government eradicated, and taken back down to the limits imposed in the Constitution. Would this be painful? YES. But the direction we are headed in is far worse.
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