By Randall Gray

For over the last 20 years I have noticed the foods I eat are getting to taste less and less as it should. I”'ve quit eating anything from a can, fast food restaurants (a.k.a. McDonald”'s, Burger King or any one of the sort), any food that is microwaveable or pre-made.

While growing up, over 90 percent of the foods we ate were not pre-made, frozen or stuffed with so many ingredients that when you try to pronounce them, it seems like you”'re just trying to say some glorified word for a particle that you would rather use to adhere wallpaper to the wall. What ever happened to the ingredients on the package stating “fruit or vegetable, salt or sugar, vinegar or water? Have we wanted to preserve so much of our bodies that we have to add these chemicals to our foods? With all these different preservatives in our foods and the rise of all the different health issues we have now, isn”'t there a connection between the two? Years ago kids were not on medication for ADHD; it didn”'t exist! What are these chemicals doing to us, our bodies and our society?

Let”'s look at what has changed from 1940 to now. You very rarely heard of anyone getting E-coli poisoning. Restaurants actually slapped the burger patties together and threw them on the grill. French fries were made from potatoes that came out of the ground””peeled, sliced, and deep fried. Salads were made from a fresh head of lettuce with dressings that were made from everything that was not loaded with processed anything.

Now to what we have today…over 98 percent of all fast food restaurants have their food brought into the restaurant that has been pre-made in some factory, with additives, preservative and fillers that help enhance the food”'s taste. Yes, that”'s right! Additives to help enhance the food”'s taste!

When was the last time you went into McDonald”'s, Burger King or Taco Bell and actually watched the so-called “cooks,” cook your food? For me, the last time I went into Burger King I watched the “cook” take a frozen, pre-made and cooked hamburger patty out of the freezer, place it on a frozen bun with a slice of orange; wrap it up in a wrapper, pop that burger in the nuker and Waaa Laaa! A freshly Nuked Cheese Burger.

In such a fast paced society as we are, we really don”'t pay that much attention to what just happened. After all, the microwave is not a new appliance any more. Almost every household has one, it”'s an everyday appliance just as your refrigerator and dishwasher. After realizing that my food was actually frozen and then microwaved right in front of me, the person had the audacity to claim that it was “Fresh.” Yeah right, fresh – blah!

So without knowing all the ingredients that are put into our food today, how much of our food is actually healthy? Remember hearing about the lady that tried to sue McDonald”'s because she was fat? Do you think the flavor enhancers that are in the food ever had anything to do with that?

Not only with this whole aspect of our food being genetically “enhanced.” There has been a huge growth within the medical field as well. The pharmaceutical companies are also on the rise to help the doctors push all sorts of pills on you to compensate for all the extra additives that are put into our food.

In some aspects I feel this is one of the reasons why I am in the profession I am in. Don”'t get me wrong, I love to cook. And I mean I love to cook food, real food. There is so much that corporate america has failed to notice. At what price do we stop cutting out the meat and replace it with some by-product? How much stock do you have invested in your customers? If your customers have stock invested in you – how much do you have invested in them?

I am an artist and I love to paint. There is nothing that I find more gratifying than to see a blank canvas that cries out for talent and color. I invest a great deal of myself and time into every thing and everything I paint. Being the person I am, I have realized that all these corporate fast food chains don”'t give a damn about me. All I am is a dollar sign and they want every last dime I own by offering me a dollar menu. Well thank you corporate food chains for offering the bottom of your barrel to me – and here is my last dollar.

Corporate chains taste just as bad as they sound. For quite some time now I have decided my health is too important to me. Eating right and eating the right foods are really essential to your body. Stop and think about all the canned soups you buy in the store, frozen meals, pre-made meals, processed foods and the food by-products that we as people consume daily. How much of that food actually has chemicals and fillers in it that make you think that because of the taste, what you are eating is suppose to be good for you and your body. Who would eat fibers of plastic for the taste or nutritional value? Most people do because corporate America wants you to believe it”'s good. Yeah, it tastes good with all the other additives you add to it. But what nutritional value is your body gaining from it?

It”'s about time we start educating ourselves on the foods we are eating. Along with everything else I have been researching, I have found other reasons why I should be changing the way I and everyone else eats. For those of you who don”'t know, my son and his girlfriend had a baby girl just after the first of the month in October. This baby was doomed from the very beginning. She was born with a cancerous brain tumor which took up most of her head mass, her heart was horizontal with fluid around it. While this baby was still a fetus, doctors had performed a few tests. With one of these tests, the DNA strand showed two missing rungs and there was also an added rung on the strand at the bottom of DNA strand.

With my research I have found in an article from Dr. Julian Whitaker – The Lowdown On Asparame/NutraSweet, states “FDA rescinded its initial approval because of studies showing that it caused seizures and brain tumors…”Â With all the foods we as individuals like to digest, artificial sweeteners have been known to be very hazardous to our health. On top of that, “in l981 gave aspartame the stamp of approval. In doing so, this bureaucracy overrode the 3-0 decision of a Public Board of Inquiry.”Â So with that in mind”¦it doesn”'t matter what the FDA says, the Public Board of Inquiry can over rule what is healthy for us – and it doesn”'t matter how quickly it will kill us.

With all the chemicals that are put into foods we digest, if there was a warning label on these products, such as they do with cigarettes, wouldn”'t society as a whole then have a clearer mind to make the clear choice whether they would like to indulge in the food item they are about to digest?

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