Growing your own food is as healthy as it can be. More and more experts talk about the great medicinal advantages of local food consumption, not only from an environmental point of view, but also from a medicinal point of view. In addition, having a garden is therapeutic for the horticulturist. And, in addition to growing lettuce, zucchini or onions, you can also plant medicinal plants.
I've been coordinating the edition for Spain and Latin America of The Ecologist for a few years now. And I have to say that there have been many articles that I have edited and / or corrected and / or translated that have impressed me. Some, even, have almost changed my way of living in some aspects (I imagine the same will happen with some of you, dear readers). One of the texts that most struck me was a work published in issue 5 of the magazine, a monograph dedicated to promoting the virtues of organic food and denouncing the problems caused by the industrial agri-food system.
I speak of Immunity and impunity, signed by doctors Richard A. Cone and Emily Martin. The summary of that text was really visionary. Allergies and immune system disorders are greatly increasing their incidence worldwide, especially among the poorest inhabitants and with less cultural resources of megaurbes. Analysis of the biological and social implications of such an increase suggest that the changes in food production, transport and consumption that take place throughout the planet could be contributing to these immunological disorders. Given the impact that dietary changes may be having on human health, understanding the interaction between the immune system and food has become a prominent and even urgent issue. Our immunity decreases while increasing the legal impunity of large techno-food corporations.
As the consumption of foreign food products increases, certain types of pathologies related to the deflagration of the human immune system grow. One of the best ways to combat this incidence is to return to the consumption of organic, local and seasonal foods. As local as possible. From the garden of the house itself, from the terrace, from anywhere, but that they are nearby foods. But why do we emphasize that they have to be proximity foods?
WHAT THE DOCTOR DOES NOT EXPLAIN TO YOU
Thus, as the authors of the quoted text say, “eating a wide and diverse range of whole, fresh, organic, seasonal, local, foods, instead of refined and processed products, could expand and improve the efficacy in the treatment of immunological disorders . Since including in the diet local animal or vegetable food you can obtain an oral tolerance of maximum effectiveness against the aerial allergens of those same plants and animals ”. And they continue: “The proliferation of highly processed foods parallel to the globalization of the food industry means that many of the foods we eat in the developed world contain fewer and fewer qualities of the local physical environment in which it was produced. Compare the carrots that can be purchased at a local market with their roots and leaves intact, with traces of land from the crop field, to the washed, peeled, chopped and frozen carrots processed by Bird's Eye in a distant factory. ” Although there are people who may not believe it, the fact of not feeding with local products has repercussions on the health of the consumer, not only in the increase of allergies and asthma, since many other diseases have a direct relationship with a sunken immune system.
WHY?
The doctors mentioned: "Until things do not improve, you can see that eating whole foods, preferably unprocessed, as natural as possible and coming from the surroundings where you live, you can significantly relieve immune disorders." Why? Because living beings secrete defenses to defend themselves against the aggressions of the environment in which they live. When we feed ourselves with these beings, who live in the same place or zone as us, we are eating “vaccines” to stand up to the aggressions that we will receive from that same environment: viral, environmental aggressions, of whatever kind… On the contrary, If we feed on processed products and from far away places, they contain "vaccines" secreted by these living beings for ecosystems that are not ours. So, it causes disruptions, confusion ... in our immune system.
In case you have doubts about it, consult the statistics of the longest-lived people on the planet: there are always several links between them, however different their cultures, climates, diets and latitudes are. And one of them is that they have always eaten local, handmade products. After all, our ancestors, for millions of years, always fed on organic, seasonal and local products. Evolution has adapted us to that: not to eat fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy or fish from climates, latitudes and remote areas, and, as if that were not enough, they contain many dangerous chemicals and that, in addition, have remained in cameras losing their vitality and their health. The right choice comes, above all, from common sense. The consumption of local, seasonal and organic foods entails eating food, also, in its optimum state of vitality. Recall the case, recently denounced by The New York Times, of that cod fish in Norway that was sent to China to be filleted and then returned to Norway to be consumed. What can we expect from the nutritional and health point of view of that cod?
Pedro Burruezo / The Ecologist
Healthy Life Association
CONTACT INFORMATION:
http://vidasana.org/
(Image: Courtesy of Healthy Life)
