Being Thankful

Today I’m going over things to suggest to several of my clients and as I go over a particular person’s diet am appalled. Not at the parent; not at the child certainly but at the societal problem so many of us face.
How do I tell this mother; this hardworking, overtired, over stressed mom that the diet she has her child on is half the problem? Because the food we eat is paramount to good health and this will lead to much needed help for her beautiful child.

But as a single mom I find I cannot tell her to stop cheap food; I cannot tell her that the junk in poor quality food is half of her child’s issue. And it’s exacerbated by the fact that this person lives in my small hamlet of a town and I see how she lives.  It’s a dilemma that I come across so much in my line of work and one that traditional medicine finds of little importance. Oh they do talk of cholesterol and high blood pressure but do not seem to see or believe the correlation of healthy food and a healthy healed body. But we in the herb world do believe we “Are what we eat”. And so the masses keep scarfing down Mac burgers and Chicken nuggets thinking at least I’m getting protein and vitamins right? Wrong! These food stuffs are so poor of quality that they actually cause disease and illness in the body!

But the real issue is not that the person who needs help is uncaring or uneducated. Most intelligent people know that to eat better we will feel better. But how do you tell a person on a fixed income that they will have to change their spaghetti O’s for organic greens? How do you tell your client that even though she can cook a meal for her brood for ten dollars you want her to double her costs at the dinner table?

It’s a constant battle in my mind how to be strong in my beliefs without insulting the intelligence; the passion of a good parent trying to do what will work for her family. I do try to bring up the idea that if better health becomes the norm in their household that money savings will follow in less visits to the doctor’s clinic and in the long run less money spent on prescriptions and over the counter drugs. But to believe that is to gamble the grocery money on herbs and alternative remedies. And this is a huge leap of faith for so many; especially in this uncertain political and social climate we live in.

So I smile and talk to them of Ph balancing and utilizing social services that are available to fixed income people. I explain about discount store helps for organic and utilizing food co-ops that will find great prices on needed organic items. And I try very hard to remember that these wonderfully hard working; lovely people are doing the very best they can for their families with the resources that they have.

So when you go to the grocery store; notice the next time you see a person at the cash register with a brood of kids checking out and try to remember that their food choices; the discount items and boxed and canned food may be the only way they are keeping their family fed. And be thankful.