Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

As I said -- "As long as we value doctors and hospitals more than healthy 
food and cooking, we'll keep paying more and more to doctors and hospitals."

paul tradingpost@lobo.net
------------------------------------------

Is Being Healthy a Revolutionary Act?
http://drhyman.com/is-being-healthy-a-revolutionary-act-2959/

REVOLUTIONS BUBBLE OUT OF INJUSTICE.  Social, political, economic, spiritual, 
and physical oppression drives people to rise up against violations of basic 
human rights. Working with Partners in Health this year, after the earthquake 
in Haiti, I learned from Dr. Paul Farmer that health is among the most 
neglected of human rights.

The injustices that violate our health as a human right occur not just in 
impoverished countries like Haiti, but are embedded in 21st century America.  
And we are exporting disease across the globe, where the overweight—now 1.7 
billion large—outnumber the malnourished.

I would argue not only that health is a neglected human right, but that it is 
a right that has been taken from us.

Our health has been hijacked—slowly, quietly and often deliberately over the 
past century.

Our social, political and economic conditions support obesity and disease. 
Habits and the default choices in our society are built into the fabric of 
every segment of our society—families, homes, schools, workplaces, and places 
of worship, our government institutions and health care centers.

Our current food, social, and community environments make it hard for us to 
make healthy choices. In fact, staying healthy has become almost impossible, 
which is why almost three quarters of Americans are overweight and one in two 
Americans have one or more chronic diseases.

If you are healthy today, you are increasingly in the minority. But we can 
get healthy and reclaim our lives and wellbeing.

And if we do that, it won’t just benefit us as individuals, it will have some 
very positive side effects, such as preventing economic collapse, climate 
change, and environmental degradation. It will help re-invigorate our 
families, communities and faith-based organizations. And it will reverse the 
epidemic of obesity and chronic disease weighing on our planet.

No single change will help us take back our health.  It is the hundreds of 
little choices we make every day, a hundred small revolutionary acts we can 
control that will transform our collective health.

It is time to take back our health, by every means available to us.

With that in mind, this week an extraordinary website — 
RevolutionaryAct.com—was launched by an extraordinary woman, Pilar Gerasimo, 
founding editor of Experience Life magazine (circulation: 630,000). The site, 
based on the idea that “Being Healthy Is a Revolutionary Act,” is dedicated 
to sparking and supporting a healthy revolution.

I wanted to share Gerasimo’s 10-point “Manifesto for Thriving in a Mixed Up 
World,” which is featured in the January 2011 issue of Experience Life. The 
manifesto is also available for download at www.RevolutionaryAct.com, which 
includes great Revolutionary Resources, plus a fun, interactive experience 
called “101 Revolutionary Ways to Be Healthy.”

Mother Theresa once said, “There are no great acts, only small acts done with 
great love.” Creating health for you and your loved ones, one small act at a 
time, can help us reclaim the most neglected of human rights: our health.

    If you are healthy today, you are increasingly in the minority. But we 
can get healthy and reclaim our lives and wellbeing.

Being Healthy Is a Revolutionary Act: A Manifesto for Thriving in a Mixed-Up 
World

By Pilar Gerasimo

In case you haven’t noticed, we live in a society where the idea of health 
and fitness is wildly popular, but where actually becoming a truly healthy 
person can be mighty tough to pull off.

There’s a reason so many of us are sick, overweight, depressed and stressed 
out: We’re living in a society that is wired up to make us sick, overweight, 
depressed and stressed out.

We can change this mixed-up reality. We can reclaim our well-being and create 
a better, more blissful world. But it’s going to take some revolutionary 
moxie to make it happen.

This manifesto is a collection of ideas, reality-checks and insights designed 
to help those of us who value our health create and sustain healthy 
change—even in the face of some daunting challenges.

If you’re up for that, way to go, friend—and welcome to the revolutionary 
club!

Here are 10 revolutionary truths that a growing number of us hold to be 
self-evident . . .

1. The way we are living is crazy.

The United States currently produces more obese, chronically ill and depleted 
people than it does vital, fit, resilient ones—and this trend is worsening.

Two out of three U.S. adults is overweight or obese. At any given time, half 
of us are contending with at least one chronic disease. A growing number of 
us are reliant on pharmaceuticals whose side effects and interactions 
undermine our health and quality of life.

Our children, too, are becoming ill and prescription dependent at 
ever-younger ages, and their life spans are being shortened as a result.

Enough already! Our collective lack of vitality has become an oppressive 
source of misery and waste, one that threatens to impede our lives, our 
liberties, and our pursuit of happiness.

We can change this. We must change this—together.

2. There are powerful social, economic and political forces undermining our 
health.

Our culture didn’t get this unhealthy by accident. From the processed-food 
industry to pharmaceuticals, well-funded interests rake in huge amounts of 
money off our unhealthy population. They’ve been doing it for decades, and 
they pay billions of lobbying dollars to make sure they can keep doing it.

These special interests not only manipulate public policy and the media to 
our disadvantage, they conduct huge misinformation and marketing campaigns 
designed to keep us buying into products and behaviors that hurt us.

Their message? That their health-sapping options are wholesome, easy, 
appealing, cool, fun, affordable, delightful indulgences (or absolute 
necessities) that will make us and our lives oh-so-much better.

And we’ve taken the bait. We have been brainwashed into adopting daily 
behaviors and choices that poison our bodies, fog our minds and cost us 
billions in medical bills.

Here’s what those powers-that-be won’t tell you: Buy into what currently 
passes for “normal” in America, and you’re unlikely to stay healthy for long.

3. The time for complicity is over.

Tempting as it may be, we can’t blame this all on a conspiracy of 
health-sapping influences.

Yes, it is true that we’re surrounded by supersized junk foods and sedentary 
pastimes. Yes, we’ve been saddled with misleading labels and 
industry-influenced dietary guidelines. Yes, we’ve been bombarded by 
demoralizing media, manipulative advertising, and downright lousy advice.

But still. We’ve taken a lot of that sitting down.

For too long, we’ve allowed ourselves to be overprescribed, overfed, 
underinformed and overindulged. We’ve been quick to embrace superficial 
solutions and half-baked ideas.

We’ve permitted ourselves to be pandered to in the name of ease, convenience 
and “value”—and we’ve grown passive, expecting effortless cures to come from 
the outside.

Conspiracy theories notwithstanding, the greatest threats to our well-being 
lie in the health-sapping decisions we make every day by default. Because 
healthy choices have been rendered tougher than they ought to be. And 
because—like frogs in hot water—we’ve been willing to tolerate the 
intolerable. Until now.

4. The resistance is alive and well.

Every day, more and more of us are waking up to the realization that no one 
is going to save us but us. We’re getting clear that if we don’t want to get 
sucked into an unhealthy quagmire, we’ve got to start swimming against the 
tide.

So we are learning about our bodies and minds, and doing what it takes to 
keep them strong and well.

We are growing, buying and preparing more whole, nutritious foods and 
avoiding processed junk.

We are moving and sweating and exploring. We are resting and playing and 
connecting.

We are reclaiming control of our healthcare choices. We are dealing with the 
root causes of our health challenges, rather than simply suppressing our 
symptoms.

In short, we are treating our health like the fundamental priority it is.

We are rising up to take back the power for our own well-being. And we are 
discovering just how good that feels.

5. Being healthy is a revolutionary act.

Throwing off the chains of poor health and reclaiming our full vitality is 
both our individual right and our collective responsibility. And there is 
perhaps no more life-transforming choice.

Being strong and healthy in an unhealthy culture makes you part of an 
empowered minority. It gives you freedoms and opportunities that poor health 
and fitness prohibit. It endows you with the energy, clarity and resiliency 
to fully enjoy your life, and to make bigger, more meaningful contributions 
in anything you do.

Choosing a healthy way of life involves making some revolutionary choices, 
and it also has revolutionary results.

Because when you change your health for the better, you change the lives of 
everyone around you for the better, too.

In a very real way, you change your world.

6. This is not about six-pack abs and skinny jeans.

Sure, healthy is sexy and beautiful. A strong, fit body looks as good as it 
feels. But the most valuable rewards of good health and fitness have very 
little to do with rippling muscles or thin thighs.

You’d never know that by looking at conventional media, though.

All those sensationalized headlines, sexy images and instant-results promises 
may get our attention and appeal to our vanity, but they can also make 
getting healthy seem like a self-indulgent undertaking or a trivial, 
out-of-reach fantasy.

Worse, the unrelenting focus on largely unachievable ideals has a way of 
playing to our body-image insecurities.

Those superficial obsessions can also distract us from the deeper, lasting 
motivations that matter more.

So if mass media is messing with your mind or sapping your self-esteem, tune 
out the hype and turn your attention elsewhere. Like the reasons being 
healthy matters to you.

Maybe you have your heart set on six-pack abs and buns of steel; maybe not.

Either way, connecting with your own authentic healthy-life vision and values 
is the best way to start.

7. Inaction is not an option.

The time for passivity is past. Today, nearly every U.S. household is touched 
by obesity or chronic disease. And most often, when one family member’s 
health is compromised, the whole family suffers.

It’s time for that suffering to stop. But simply suppressing symptoms and 
“managing” diseases is not the answer.

As you read this, approximately 75 percent of our healthcare dollars are 
being spent ineffectively on chronic conditions, many of which can only be 
resolved through lifestyle change.

These burdens of chronic illness are simultaneously gutting our economy, our 
communities, and our whole population’s ability to thrive. They’re 
undermining the lives of our children, and the potential of future 
generations.

It’s time to face the reality that unless we’re part of the solution, we’re 
part of problem. And the problem is plenty big already.

None of us can afford to sit this challenge out. None of us deserves to live 
less than the best, healthiest life at our disposal.

So raise your sights. Raise your standards. Restake your claim to a vital 
body and mind. And never, ever back down.

8. The best defense is a good offense.

In the battle for our well-being, the forces of ill health may have won the 
last few rounds. But we’ve got some crazy judo moves they aren’t expecting.

Like giving up on diets and self-denial, and focusing on nourishing our 
bodies instead.

Like giving up on spot reducing and calorie counting and finding feel-good 
ways to get active and fit.

Like investing in healthy foods, stress management and proactive health 
support now—instead of paying gigantic medical bills later.

The healthier and more clear-headed you are, the better your chances of 
fending off the unhealthy influences that besiege you on a daily basis.

The stronger and more resilient you are, the better your chances of 
weathering the challenges that come your way.

And the more of us healthy, happy people there are, the better our shot at 
creating the kind of world in which thriving comes more easily for everyone.

So don’t let your guard down, and don’t let anyone convince you to settle for 
less than full-throttle vitality.

Remain vigilant. Defend your right to be well with unflinching determination 
and all the mojo you can muster.

9. Forget about quick fixes.

No magic diet, powder, pill or elixir is going to solve the problems we’re 
wrestling with now. And forking over cash for quick fixes only lines the 
pockets of the quick-fix hucksters who helped get us into this mess.

So instead of squandering your valuable time and money on miracle cures, 
invest in making healthy life changes for the long haul.

If you’re having trouble with that, know that you are not alone. You are not 
a bad, weak, lazy or doomed person—you’re just up against some tough 
opponents.

If you’re willing and determined, you can defeat them. Handily.

It may require developing new skills, strategies and perspectives.

It might mean connecting with new support systems and role models.

It could mean nursing some healthy indignation and cultivating some 
well-deserved self-compassion.

Almost certainly, it will require connecting with your own deepest sources of 
healthy motivation and stoking them into revolutionary action.

All this takes time and awareness and a willingness to experiment. And 
there’s no better time to start than now.

10. Solutions in the mirror may be closer than they appear.

The scope and scale of our national health crisis is so massive that it may 
seem beyond all hope. But it is not.

In fact, each of us has an important role to play in solving these problems 
for ourselves, and for each other.

Every time one of us starts taking the steps necessary to build and protect 
our health, we rescind our support of the nasty systems that are breaking 
millions of us down.

And if enough of us start treating our own bodies well, we will create new 
norms of vitality and well-being.

If we band together to demand and embrace healthier options—in our grocery 
stores, cafeterias, homes, workplaces, schools, healthcare centers, 
neighborhoods — we can reverse the trends that have been depleting our life 
force for decades.

Most of the trends and public policies responsible for our country’s ill 
health have occurred over the past 40 years—in large part, by design. And 
they can be turned around in a fraction of that time by a swell of 
grass-roots insistence.

So if you can help make that happen, do. Connect with others who share your 
healthy convictions. Then go boldly forth and start thriving—one conscious 
thought, one empowering choice, one revolutionary act at a time.

101 Revolutionary Ways to Be Healthy

Here’s a few to get you started. Find the rest (and share your own) at 
RevolutionaryAct.com.

1. Defy convention. Do the healthy thing, even when it’s challenging, 
inconvenient or considered weird. Take pride in that.

5. Repossess your health. Reclaim responsibility for your well-being; own 
your daily choices; minimize your reliance on the broken sick-care system.

20. Aim for 85%. You don’t have to make 100%-healthy choices all the time. 
It’s what you do most of the time — day in, day out — that counts. The 
healthier you get, the easier and more automatic healthy choices will become.

29. Beware the USDA Food Pyramid. It is a whole lot healthier for Big Ag and 
Big Business than for humans. Fill two-thirds of your plate with an array of 
vegetables, add in some other whole foods you enjoy, and don’t let the rest 
of the Pyramid’s propaganda confuse you.

31. Go easy on the sugar and flour. These two ingredients (combined with 
unhealthy industrial oils) have a starring role in most packaged foods we 
eat. More than any other culprit, they fuel inflammation, obesity, diabetes, 
high cholesterol, heart disease and cancer.

43. Redefine your goals. If you’ve been trying to lose weight and are 
struggling, make it your goal to get superbly healthy, well nourished, fit 
and energetic instead. Don’t be surprised when the excess weight starts 
melting off.

65. Rest up. Rest = recovery, repair and resilience. Exhaustion = illness and 
messed-up metabolism. Prioritize sleep time as the health essential it is.

81. Invest in your health. Money spent proactively on your health delivers 
far better returns than money spent reactively on treating illness and 
disease. When healthy choices seem “too expensive,” consider the long-term 
costs of health-sapping alternatives.

97. Focus on action, not outcomes. Live the life of a healthy person, and the 
results will take care of themselves. Every healthy step is a victory. Every 
day is an opportunity to feel, live and be better than the day before.

Join the Healthy Revolution at RevolutionaryAct.com.