What to eat when you’re broke

It is no secret that the lower someone’s wages are, the harder it will be for them to secure a stable channel of healthy and organic food.

It is also not a secret that these healthy food options are highly unlikely to be available in the neighborhoods where these lower income residents live. The simple fact is that this systemic disequilibrium causes a feedback mechanism which disinhibits lower wage earners from achieving higher wages.

For example, a lower salary family consumes unhealthy food because it is the most immediate and affordable option available to them, members of that family develop health issues they otherwise would not have had they eaten healthy foods, already scarce money has to be put into remedying the ailing health of family members and time has to be taken out from work to look after them (this can both endanger job security and take away promotion opportunities), with less money the family can only get more immediate and affordable foods which perpetuate this vicious cycle.

Until there is a systemic remedy, there needs to be immediate relief. By following these general guidelines, anyone who finds themselves in a food desert or who earns a lower wage, can use these tips to ensure that they are picking the best among their available alternatives.

There are naturally things that are desirable to good health and things to avoid to maintain our health. Because the issue in lower wage households is often a selection of the lesser of two evils, it is important to  first deal with what to avoid.

Pesticides have been shown, time and again, to cause unspeakable harm to living organisms. It is a political sleight of hand that these objects can be described as inhibiting cell growth in flies and other pests (including mammals) and not humans.

Yet at the same time, scientists use these very creatures to trial the effect of drugs on humans. In one case a model organism’s biology is used to assist an understanding of the human physiology and in another the impacts of a substance seemingly are just relegated to the model organism. One of the biggest things we can do is avoid all pesticides because the research is inconsistent and law enforcement on this issue is spotty, but there have been sufficient incidents where these substances have caused great bodily harm in humans and those responsible have continued to be allowed to act with impunity.

Secondly, we must avoid neurotoxins. These are substances that have been found to cause damage to the nervous system which includes our brain, spinal cord, and all our nerves. The effects of damage to this precious system have far reaching effects from mobility to learning development.

These are often some of the most crippling health disasters to befall a lower wage household because it is chronic and therefore a continuous extra “taxation” of the family’s limited resources. Known neurotoxins include aspertame and MSG or monosodium glutamate. Always check your ingredients list to ensure that you are not buying something that contains these ingredients.

Because many of these neurotoxins continue to make it into our food supply, it is important to educate ourselves on the topic. I personally learned by giving ten minutes to a new neurotoxin each day for two weeks after I came home from work. It is so important that you also keep up to date on news of new neurotoxins because every year, new and untested chemicals are being made.

Avoid non-organic meat and dairy. Both of these product categories suffer from an unaccountability in the kinds of chemicals that are contained in the food themselves that do not legally have to make it on the ingredients list because they were consumed by the animal when it was alive.

Animals are known to  be over-vaccinate and the effects of these vaccines are not well known or studied. For similar reasons, the big grains like soy and corn should be avoided because they likely came from organisms that were genetically modified. Just like with all the vaccines pumped into livestock, the effects of genetically modified organisms are extremely shaky.

By following this guideline of things to aovid, you will find a world of cheap, but healthy foods slowly opening. It will also give you the awareness to demand a better selection of the things you know will not cause your family harm.

Source:

http://eatlocalgrown.com/article/12153-what-to-eat-broke.html