Over the past 30 years, we have made changes to our nations' food supply that are greater than any other period in human history. We have moved our country away from traditional food and into a world of factory farmed and factory produced food that is not only harmful to our environment but is killing Americans.

Today, there is very little food in our grocery stores that is real food and that is healthy to eat. People now think that food comes in boxes with hundreds of different ingredients. When eaten, these foods slowly poison people until they develop heart disease, cancer, diabetes, kidney disease, auto-immune system diseases, and many other serious diseases including obesity. This poor quality food is creating enormous health care costs.

Across America is a sea of fast food and restaurant chains that are serving the same meals in a thousand locations. How can they do this? They accomplish this by creating cheap, prepackaged food that contains a toxic mixture of sugar, chemicals and preservatives. The food is nutrient-poor and the meat products are made from animals that have been raised inhumanely and not sustainably. The food is then cooked in harmful disease causing fats such as hydrogenated oil which is high heated and used over and over again.

Our government has allowed for this to happen to our society through legislation.

This might look like a typical healthy breakfast to you (cereal, blueberry muffin, low-fat milk, orange juice, jelly and margarine), but to those of us who have studied nutrition from an alternative healing perspective, this is a nutrient-poor, highly refined and denatured breakfast that consists mainly of simple carbohydrates, refined sugar and bad fats. This breakfast is not healing or health supportive and is the type of toxic meal that can lead to many chronic diseases such as diabetes, arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, obesity and cancer.

This meal was served to my mother this morning while she was being treated as a hospital patient at Good Shepherd Medical Center. My mother, who is a diabetic and kidney dialysis patient, is trying to recover from a gall bladder attack. After serving my mother this high sugar breakfast, the hospital server then asked her if she would like pork or chicken salad for lunch. The hospital then planned to serve my mother a meal containing saturated fat. Saturated fat is a known cause of gall stones. A meal consisting of animal fat and other unhealthy fats could potentially cause another gall bladder attack. What is even more disturbing, is that the hospital staff could not identify the ingredients of the food. 

This food is unhealthy even for a well person to eat. It is also dangerous for people to eat food without knowing what ingredients have been added. This is especially so for people who are sick.

It is not surprising to see this type of food served in hospitals since it is supported by the United States Department of Agriculture and the American Dietetic Association.

Each year millions of people in the United States who suffer from constipation spend millions of dollars on laxatives for relief. They will often continue living with this miserable and sometimes very painful condition for many years. For some, the inability to have regular bowel movements can eventually lead to rectal bleeding, multiple hemorrhoid surgeries, the surgical removal of their colon and even death attributed to a chronic disease caused by toxicity in the body.

As a holistic health counselor one of the most common health problems that I see among my clients is constipation. Accompanying their constipation is often a long list of health symptoms and illnesses such as allergies, arthritis, joint pain, IBS, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, depression and headaches. Some of my clients have reported taking more than 20 medications, at the same time, for their various health problems without realizing that often the side effects of these medications can actually cause their symptoms.

I consider constipation to be a very serious condition that requires immediate attention. The colon is one of the body's main detoxification systems, and if a person is unable to eliminate on a regular basis, this has the potential to lead to many serious chronic diseases which includes cancer.

According to Elson Haas, MD, alternative medical doctor and detox expert, "Many doctors have stated that constipation is one of the main causes of disease and I feel that aging and death may well begin in the colon."

I remember back in the 90's, when I was trying to heal my own body, what an impact it had on me when I read that the colon is one of the most important organs in the body.