April Fool’s Day and the Joke of Modern Health

by Vin Miller

The Joke of Modern Health In the spirit of April Fool’s Day, I’m going to discuss a serious topic that many of us wish was just a joke, but really isn’t.

The majority of today’s mainstream health knowledge is filled with misinformation, contradiction, and even intentional deception. This has a significant impact on our health, and at times, it’s so unbelievable that it really could seem like an awful joke.

It took me a long time to realize that most common knowledge is often incorrect, particularly in regards to health. If it weren’t for my critical nature and my tendency to persistently seek truth, I may have never realized it, and some people never do. Coming to this realization and having the confidence to question common knowledge is one of the most important things you can do for your health.

Once Upon a Time

For millions of years, humans had no choice but to live according to the guidance of nature. This meant eating whole foods in their natural form, living and sleeping according to the daily cycle of the sun, getting plenty of exercise from hunting animals and gathering plants, and getting plenty of sunlight.

Despite the fact that our bodies have evolved to depend on these habits, we take them for granted and neglect them in favor of indulgence, excitement and convenience. As such, we’ve almost completely lost touch with our natural origin.

A Complete Reversal

Not only have we lost touch with nature, but we nearly live in complete contradiction to it.

Most of the foods we eat barely resemble anything that comes directly from the earth or an animal. In fact, some of them have more resemblance to plastic! Many of us stay inside most of the day, stay awake through much of the night, sleep away a major portion of daylight, and rarely engage in physical activity.

By embracing this artificial and convenience driven style of living, we’ve become more disconnected from nature than ever and it’s quite evident based on the poor state of health that plagues modern society.

What Went Wrong?

Convenience can only be beneficial to a certain point before it becomes a limitation that causes problems. The ability to recognize this can easily be impaired by external influence, and in modern society, money has more influence than just about anything.

Unfortunately, the large corporations of the food and pharmaceutical industries are not interested in promoting a truly healthy lifestyle because it would be much less profitable than what they’re doing now. With the influence that these companies have on politics and media, they’re able to pull us away from the intuition and wisdom that’s been accumulated through millions of years of evolving with nature. The artificial and convenience driven lifestyle that we live today is a tremendous source of profit for these companies, and health problems that result from this lifestyle are even more profitable!

Can it Really Be?

Although you may find it hard to believe and accept such ill intent, the people running these corporations know exactly what they’re doing. I also found it hard to believe that these companies could have such blatant disregard for something as precious as human life, but after seeing examples of it time and time again, it eventually became undeniable.

After all, if the world was full of people with good intentions, we’d have much less need for military, police and prisons. Besides, many of the people behind the deceptive marketing and lobbying actually do have good intentions, but are faced with the difficult compromise of contradicting their values in order to support their families.

This is why it’s so important to take more responsibility for your own health and to question information that doesn’t seem sensible. Here are a few questions to ponder that will hopefully clarify this need.

Processed Food

Processed foods are excellent for business because they’re cheap to produce and have a long shelf life. However, these characteristics typically spell disaster for your health.

Do you think food manufacturers are willing to give up this incredible money making opportunity because it’s a risk to your health? Absolutely not! In fact, they do everything in their power to make you think that their processed foods are healthy. If you don’t believe me, pay closer attention to food labeling next time you’re in a supermarket.

Conventional Farming

Because farming is a slow and laborious process, it makes for an awful business model. However, with the use of toxic chemicals such as pesticides, fertilizers, synthetic hormones and antibiotics, farming can be much more efficient and profitable. Many crops are even genetically altered to better tolerate these chemicals.

Not only does this allow business minded farmers to make more money with less effort, but it also creates additional opportunities for chemical manufacturers. Do you think they want you to know that their chemically and genetically altered foods pose a significant threat to your health?

If your not convinced, then maybe you should ask yourself if you really want a company like Monsanto to be involved with the production of your food. Not only were they a major producer of the outlawed toxins Agent Orange and DDT, but they’re also responsible for much of the country’s PCB pollution, are the leading force behind pesticides and genetically modified food, and have significant political influence. In fact, Tom Vilsack, the current head of the USDA, is frequently regarded as one of Monsanto’s political allies.

Prescription Medication

When the unhealthy influences of modern society finally make us sick, our doctors prescribe us medicine to hide the symptoms. Regardless of a doctor’s intentions, their actions are often a result of the thousands of hours they spent in medical school learning what drugs are used to treat which symptoms. It’s no coincidence that medical schools receive significant funding from drug companies.

Do you think these drug companies want doctors telling patients that they won’t need medication if they simply eliminate the unhealthy habits that destroyed their health in the first place? Absolutely not! They’d rather have people think that their drugs save lives. While prescription medications do have value and definitely save lives, the extent to which they’re being used today is frightening.

The Punch Line

While advances in science have made it easier for us to avoid life threatening sickness, diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes have become much more prominent. In fact, these debilitating and life threatening diseases were extremely rare just a century ago. We’re literally killing ourselves, but with the deceptive influence of big industry, it’s unfortunately not as obvious as it should be.

Despite the amazing amount of intelligence that has brought us to where we are today, it’s a shame that greed has steered it in such a counterproductive direction. Perhaps we’ll eventually regain the appreciation for nature that it deserves, but for now, I can’t help wishing that this is all nothing more than a bad joke.

Either way, nature will always prevail, and we’ll either live well by embracing it or die from ignoring it.

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