Today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to revoke net neutrality. What exactly is that? It’s freedom to decide what you see on the internet, without having to pay for basic or premium packaging. Net neutrality basically means that your internet service provider doesn’t filter the content flow of what you see online.
But the FCC voted against net neutrality, giving service providers the option to offer up the Internet’s very own EZ Pass lanes. You pay more, you get faster access. It’s a bad idea, as it can cripple freedom of information, entrepreneurship, connectivity and so much more.
As might be expected, net neutrality is a liberty that Americans and people around the world hold dear. Recent polls show that 80% of us want net neutrality and do not want it repealed.To take away that liberty strikes most as un-American.
According to AdWeek, “Without net neutrality, service providers like Verizon, Comcast and AT&T could either block certain websites or charge consumers to access content, granting companies the ability to basically outbid each other for access to the internet. By nixing the net neutrality rules, the FCC will no longer police high-speed internet delivery like a utility. Instead, these service providers can create “fast lanes” for companies that pay money to deliver content faster.”
Companies and consumers rose up to protest today’s FCC decision. The United States until today stood with Canada, South America and Europe—true to net neutrality. But with the FCC vote today, we have been placed in a category with Russia and China.
80% of Americans are against this decision by the FCC. That’s a massive percentage of us united on something during such a politically divisive time.
This isn’t only about #NetNeutrality. This is about democracy. When 80% of Americans don’t want something, and the government does it anyway, that is a direct violation of the will of the people. It erodes faith in government as an institution worth engaging in or even defending.
And yes, the internet brings us trolls, bullying and defamatory behavior that is abusive.
But it also brings us information that advertising-backed programming on mainstream media doesn’t. Access to more information.
And this is personal to me, as my TEDx talk has been translated into dozens of languages, reaching families around the world, families battling cancer, severe food allergies, farmers coping with massive financial stress as Monsanto’s operating system takes over. We’ve used the internet to campaign on so many issues close to our hearts.
Freedom should not be silenced or bundled into pay per view and premium packages.
So, once again, rise up. Contact your Senators and Congressmen. Before this can be adopted, it first has to appear in the Federal Register.
The risk is that information is broken up into content packages that we have to pay for like cable: basic to premium.
Let your reps know that you have to #DoSomething to save #NetNeutrality. Let them know that recent polls show that 80% of us want net neutrality and do not want it repealed. That’s incredible bipartisan support.
A life threatening allergic reaction to food sends someone to the emergency room in the United States once every three minutes. On November 24th, 2016, it was Oakley Debbs. He’d visited the ER multiple times for his asthma, but it was his nut allergy that sent him there where he died in his dad’s arms last year at the age of 11.
Too many of us are unfamiliar with the symptoms and signs of an allergic reaction until it happens to us or to one of our children. We can not repeat this information enough. We’ve had so many families say, “If I’d only known….”
Today, one in ten children struggle with asthma, and one in four are affected by allergies. The incidence of allergy has increased significantly over the past two decades, and allergy to peanuts has more than quadrupled from 1997 to 2010. Approximately 30 million children – more than 1/3 of our kids – are affected by one of these four new childhood epidemics. This is not something we can just accept.
More importantly, the deaths have to stop. The most important thing is to know the symptoms, understand the condition and always be ready to administer epinephrine.
An official statistic held that allergies affect some 7 million Americans, including about 6 percent of children below the age of three. That information came courtesy of U.S. Food and Drug Administration Deputy Commissioner Lester M. Crawford, J., D.V.M., Ph.D., speaking before the Consumer Federation of America on April 22, 2002. But that data is now over ten years old.
Today, it is now estimated that up to 15 million Americans have food allergies, 1 in every 13 children. That’s roughly two in every classroom. In the case of Oakley Debbs, he had food allergies while his twin sister did not. He also loved to wear red running shoes, so his parents started the Red Sneaker Foundation to honor his life and help spread the word about food allergies. We need all hands on deck, as the task in front of us is enormous.
The Centers for Disease Control issued a report in 2008 that said that there has been a 265% increase in the rate of hospitalizations related to food allergic reactions over the prior ten year period. Epipen, which has secured a monopoly in the space with over 90% market share, is now a $1.3 billion brand.
This begs explanation
An allergy is basically an overreaction by your immune system to a protein that it perceives as a threat—for example, the proteins in particular types of food, the dust mite protein, or pollen. For people without allergies, these proteins are harmless. But if you’ve got an allergy, your immune system sees these proteins as dangerous invaders.
To drive the invader out, your immune system mobilizes all its resources: mucous, to flush out the intruder; vomiting, to force it out; diarrhea, to expel it quickly. Such conditions may make you feel sick, but they’re actually evidence of your body’s attempts to get well.
A key aspect of the immune response is known as inflammation, characterized by one or more of four classic symptoms: redness, heat, swelling, and pain. Inflammation doesn’t occur only in allergic reactions; it flares up whenever your body feels threatened, in response to a bruise, cut, bacteria, or virus as well as to otherwise harmless pollen, dust, or food. Scientists now believe that much of our immune system is found in our digestive tracts, where many of these inflammatory reactions occur in the form of stomachaches, cramping, nausea, bloating, and vomiting.
Ironically, the immune system’s inflammatory reaction—meant to heal and protect the body—often causes more problems than the initial “invader” in the cases when allergic reactions become life-threatening.
Common Symptoms of Food Allergy: Immediate Reactions
rash or hives
nausea
vomiting
stomach pain
diarrhea
itchy skin
eczema
shortness of breath
chest pain
swelling of the airways to the lungs
anaphylaxis
Food Allergies and Food Sensitivity: Our Immune System Overreacts Again
At first glance, the distinction between “allergies” and “sensitivity” may seem like a meaningless word game. But understanding the relationship between these two conditions is crucial to grasping the true nature of the allergy epidemic—and to seeing how even the supposedly healthy foods in our kitchens may be harmful to our health.
As we’ve seen, allergies are an overreaction of our immune system, a kind of exaggerated response to a perceived danger. When a child comes in contact with these proteins (peanut, egg, wheat, etc.) her immune system “recognizes” the protein as dangerous, just as it would have seen the danger in the bacterium that causes pneumonia or the virus that causes mumps. In response, her immune system creates special “fighter” proteins called antibodies designed to identify and neutralize the “invader.”
These fighter proteins are known as immunoglobulin E, or IgE for short. When they’re released into the bloodstream, their purpose is to “seek and destroy” the invader, which they do by creating one or more of the classic food allergy symptoms, such as the hives, or the diarrhea with which other children respond, or, in more extreme cases, the anaphylactic shock that can kill a child within minutes.
The classic IgE response occurs within minutes or even seconds, because IgE proteins are some of the most aggressive antibodies we know. That immediate IgE response is the defining characteristic of an allergic reaction.
Food sensitivities start out in a similar way. If a “sensitive” child is exposed to a protein that his system perceives as a threat, he’ll manufacture another type of fighter protein, known as Immunglobulin G, or IgG. Although IgE and IgG antibodies play similar roles, they produce somewhat different—though often overlapping—symptoms.
A crucial difference between the two, though, is their reaction time. The less aggressive IgG antibodies typically produce a delayed response that might not appear for hours or even days after the child has consumed the offending food.
So even though food sensitivities and food allergies both produce painful, inflammatory, and potentially dangerous responses, this delayed reaction time has led many doctors to give food sensitivities second-class status. Partly that’s because they don’t present an immediate and obvious threat to children’s lives: only the IgE proteins trigger anaphylactic shock, for example, and in that sense, only the IgE proteins can kill (though the IgG reaction can have serious long-term consequences). I also think that traditional doctors tend to downplay the importance of nutrition, frequently dismissing the idea that such symptoms as earache, eczema, crankiness, brain fog, and sleep problems might be related to a child’s diet.
However, an article in The Lancet, Britain’s most respected medical journal, casts another light on the subject. The article referred to doctors who use elimination diets—diets that begin with a very limited, “safe” array of food choices and then add potentially problematic foods back into the diet, one by one.
When you take a break from eating that problem food, however, and then add it back into your diet, you see how powerful its effects are and how responsible it may be for a seemingly unrelated problem. Foods that you thought were safe for you turn out to be highly problematic, indicating the presence of a previous undiagnosed food sensitivity. As a result, the authors of the Lancet article conclude that the prevalence of food sensitivity (referred to in the article as “food intolerance”) has been seriously underestimated.
Certainly, food allergies are far more dramatic. Whenever you read about a kid who died within minutes of eating at a fast-food joint or after breathing in the peanut dust from a friend’s candy wrapper, that’s an “IgE-mediated” food allergy. They’re fast, they can be deadly.
But doctors should be looking at delayed reactions, too, the “IgG-mediated” responses to food sensitivities. And some doctors do look seriously at both. Most conventional doctors, though, tend to focus on IgE immediate reactions. I think there are lots of reasons why they should view the two types of reactions as part of a larger, single problem.
First, both reactions have the same ultimate cause: the immune system’s overreaction to apparently harmless food. According to internationally acclaimed author and physician Kenneth Bock, M.D., there’s also quite a bit of overlap between IgE and IgG symptoms. Both can contribute to inflammatory responses in multiple body systems.
True, the delayed IgG reactions are less likely to cause hives and are more likely to produce a host of apparently vague symptoms, such as headache, brain fog, sleep problems, joint pain, fatigue, and muscle aches. But both the immediate and the delayed responses are immune system problems triggered by a supposedly “harmless” food.
Conventional doctors’ tendency to separate “IgE-mediated” food allergies and “IgG-mediated” food sensitivities into two separate problems has the effect of minimizing the allergy epidemic. Remember, IgE allergies, IgG sensitivities, and asthma—three similar ways that our immune systems can overreact—are all on the rise. It makes sense to find a doctor who is willing to address all three as symptoms of a greater underlying issue.
Common Symptoms of Food Sensitivity: Delayed Reactions
fatigue
gastrointestinal problems, including bloating and gas
itchy skin and skin rashes like eczema
brain fog
muscle or joint aches
headache
sleeplessness and sleep disorders
chronic rhinitis (runny nose), congestion, and post-nasal drip
Five Take-Aways:
1. Even if your kids can’t talk, their skin speaks volumes! Did you know that the skin is a person’s largest organ? Even when your kid is too young to tell you how he feels or too used to her symptoms to identify them (when kids hurt all the time, they don’t know they hurt!), you can often read your child’s condition in his or her skin.
Does your kid have eczema? Does he get rashes around the mouth, especially after he eats a certain food or swallows a certain beverage? Rashes around the knees, elbows, or armpits? Does he have “allergic shiners”—that is, dark circles under the eyes?
These are all inflammatory reactions, signs that the body is trying to rid itself of what it perceives as “toxic invader.” In your child’s case, that “toxic invader” might be an apparently harmless food, to which your kid is either allergic or “sensitive.” Keeping that invader away from your kid may bring relief from symptoms—and it may clear up other problems, such as brain fog, crankiness, sleep problems, inattention, acne, and mood swings.
2. Look below. Your kids’ bowel movements, not to be too delicate here, also speak volumes. Runny poops are a sign that a person isn’t properly digesting his food. And indeed, as we got the allergens out of some children’s diets, poops tend to firm up.
3. Chronic ear infections are often a sign of dairy allergies. In some cases, milk may have ill effects like eczema, upset stomachs or chronic ear infections for children who are allergic or sensitive to it.
4. Find a doctor who is willing to work with you, test for both IgE and IgG allergies and sensitivities and to address the important role that elimination diets can play in managing allergic symptoms like eczema, ear infections and chronic mucous.
5. More research is needed. Food allergies are impacting a growing number of Americans. It is impacting everything from how schools feed children to what snacks airlines choose to carry on planes. Napster co-founder, Sean Parker, recently donated $24 million to Stanford to conduct research to get to the bottom of this condition, what is triggering it and how to cure it.
6. Find a friend. Find an ally to help you get safe snacks in the classroom or meet with your Congressman to discuss this epidemic. The landscape of childhood is changing. It is changing families and changing the food industry. None of us can do everything, but all of us can do something.
Always discuss individual health inquiries and medical issues with a qualified personal physician and/or specialist.
In honor of Oakley, many of us changed our profile picture on Facebook and across social media in memory of Oakley. Please don’t hesitate to join us and use the image below.
This morning, I received a call from the Cheerios team at General Mills. I was very grateful for their direct and sincere approach to the concern from the food allergy community that a box of Multi Grain Cheerios apparently contained their new Peanut Butter and Chocolate cereal.
A lot had been circulating on social media, and it was good to hear directly from them.
I learned that one variety of the cereal is produced in a facility in Cedar Rapids (when you look at the box top and see the number across the top, it is preceded by “CR” which stands for their Cedar Rapids plant) and that the other is produced in a separate facility in another state. Needless to say, the concern on all sides runs deep as to how this could have happened.
They are asking for anyone who has experienced a reaction or received a box of Multi Grain Cheerios that does not contain multi grain cereal but something else to please contact their consumer relations team at 800-248-7310.
In their notes below, they are continuing to investigate. Since they have only heard from one consumer, they are considering it an isolated incident, until others contact them.
From the Cheerios team:
Food safety is our top priority.
This is an isolated incident, we only heard from one consumer and we are continuing to investigate.
The box of Multigrain Cheerios cereal was packed months before we started producing Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios.
We do not make or package Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios in the facility that this box of Multigrain Cheerios was packaged.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios is not even produced and packaged in the same state as the box of Multigrain Cheerios.
For our Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios, we are adding the peanut butter at a separate facility within our supply chain.
If consumers have any questions about any General Mills products, please contact our consumer relations team at 800-248-7310.
Again, if you have experienced anything unusual, please contact their consumer relations team at 800-248-7310.
Images of the box top and number that they would need are attached below. If you can also please provide your location and the store from which you purchased the box of cereal, it would be enormously helpful.
Many have no idea that only 1% of our farmland in the U.S. is organic. Given that over 80% of households now purchase organic, that number is shockingly low. Companies like Kashi have established a third party certification program to help farmers convert conventional land to organic land. It’s a brilliant idea. More are needed. The funding for organic farms hasn’t been there, because the Farm Bill, the piece of legislation that determines financial support for U.S. farmers, heavily favors commodities—corn and soy, the foundation of our junk food system.
It’s been fascinating to watch this play out over the last several years. As Big Food increasingly buys into the organic food movement, the supply chain has barely budged. This is not sustainable. We are importing organic ingredients, rather than building out our supply chain here. Stuck at 1%, sectors in the organic industry are now suggesting that hydroponic “farms” by labeled “organic.” These “farms” are plastic containers and towers that don’t rely on inputs like sunshine and soil, but rather are regulated by technology, water systems and require nutrient inputs to account for their soilless nature. It’s not a bad idea, as it also requires far less water. But is it organic? That’s the question that is up for debate. And it’s a big one.
Thankfully, this isn’t just a conversation between lobbyists in DC, the dairy industry or parents around kitchen tables.
Congressman Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) has joined the growing bipartisan effort to increase funding for the USDA Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI). As a co-sponsor of the Organic Agriculture Research Act (HR 2436) Rep. LaMalfa joins fellow Agriculture Committee member, Congressman John Faso (R-NY), California Congressman David Valadao (R-CA), and 50 other Members of Congress who have signed on to support the bill.
HR2436 was sponsored originally by Reps. Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Dan Newhouse (R-WA), and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA). The bill seeks to renew the OREI program and increase its funding to $50 million per year.
“California agriculture adds more than $47 billion a year to our state’s economy, responsible for over half of all the fruits, nuts, and vegetables grown in the country,” said LaMalfa. “As markets and consumer demands change, it’s important we provide our farmers and ranchers with the tools they need to keep up and remain competitive. The OREI program does just that, and I’m proud to support this legislation.”
Sales of organic products continue to grow by double digits (23% growth in 2016, USDA Organic Production Survey). Yet, U.S. organic production is growing at a relatively slower pace. American farms are not keeping up with consumer demand, and we are increasingly turning to imported organic products. This is a lost opportunity for our farmers, our communities, and our country. Federal investment in organic research has been stagnant for nearly a decade. Congressman LaMalfa and the bill’s other co-sponsors are leading Congress to help American farmers meet the challenges of organic farming systems and highly competitive global markets.
Organic farms and businesses have proven to be a strong engine of jobs and economic health throughout the U.S. and California’s 1st District is no exception. Congressman LaMalfa has 234 certified organic operations in his district according to the Organic Trade Association.
“We are grateful to Congressman LaMalfa for taking the time to hear directly from farmers about the importance of increased investment in organic research,” said Brise Tencer, Executive Director at OFRF. “It is encouraging to see this level of bipartisan support for a bill that will help America’s organic farmers succeed.”
The Organic Agriculture Research Act is endorsed by the Organic Farming Research Foundation, the California Farm Bureau Federation, California Certified Organic Farmers, and the Organic Trade Association.
Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) is a non-profit foundation that works to foster the improvement and widespread adoption of organic farming systems. OFRF cultivates organic research, education, and federal policies that bring more farmers and acreage into organic production. Please visit their site to learn more.
This week, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes from friends whose work I admire. These will be on our table, as I love to keep it festive, fun and light.
Diet is no longer one size fits all either—with the rates of diabetes, food allergies, food sensitivities and more, along with friends and family members who are vegan, I’ve learned to offer something for everyone.
I’ve also watched hosts get totally bogged down in the prep and spoil their own holidays never coming up for air. Keep in mind that your guests are coming to nourish their hearts as much as they are coming to nourish their bellies!
So these recipes are from friends and partners, some I’ve known for almost a decade. You will impress your guests, keep it fresh and also have fun. What could be better!
This Simple Grapefruit Avocado Salad is from my amazing friend, Lisa, at 100 Days of Real Food. Enjoy!
Toss together the spinach, grapefruit, avocado and red onion.
In a small jar or another container with a tight-fitting lid, shake together the oil, juice, honey, salt and pepper just until the dressing is emulsified. Toss with the salad mix until evenly coated and serve.
Over 77 percent of students have been bullied verbally, mentally, and physically. Each day about 160,000 students miss school because of bullying or because of their fear of being bullied. The sad fact is that every 7 minutes a child is bullied on the playground, according to NoBullying.com.
“Bullying and prejudice in our public life sets a national tone, provides permission for cruelty and bigotry, and compromises the moral education of children,” said George W. Bush in a speech on Thursday.
With social media, online bullying makes the issue even more aggressive and worse with the anonymity in can provide. And as the number of children with conditions like food allergies continues to rise, these conditions are now weapons for bullies.
Most of us can remember a time in our lives when we were bullied. The year for me that was the absolute worst was the 6th grade. My teeth stuck out in every direction, and it gave classmates the weapon they needed. When I saw it happen in a 7th grade PE class to a girl named Michelle, I remember losing every ounce of fear and moving in to tell the other girls to stop it. It is the first time I remember being truly fearless. Years afterward, when my mother would bump into her mother, her mother would still speak about it. Her mother also shared that the 7th grade girl went on to be a revolutionary author in the tech world.
As a mother of four, I’ve seen it too many times to count. When things got really bad during the middle school years, we took it to the school principal, and they did not want to acknowledge that they had a problem. Even as administrators, they didn’t want to stick their necks out.
Sadly, they are not alone, as this anti-bullying PSA from Burger King conveys.
I have never once shared anything Burger King on these pages, but this issue transcends food politics. If we are going to tackle any of the challenges facing our country, it has to be together.
The irony in sharing this is not lost on me. In the early years of my work, an advertising agency that handled Burger King’s account was challenged because of the friendship I had with one of the agency’s founders. That friend went on to leave the agency and speak the truth.
Each time one of us has the courage to stand up for someone else, to speak the truth, it inspires others to do the same. Courage is contagious, and if Burger King can do the right thing here, they have the ability to do it in other places, too.
I’ve helped and we’ve seen many multinational food companies embrace the changing dietary needs of the 21st century consumer. They can obviously do it, too, as this so clearly demonstrates.
So please take a moment to watch this. Bullying is toxic. Please share it with your kids, so that we can #BeStrong together.
With high school kids sitting the SAT and applying to colleges, we’ve been having a lot of conversations about ways to boost brain power. What we eat defines every cell in our body. It’s our input for everything, including our brains.
This article from the Nutritional Magnesium Association touches on yet another reason why it is so important to get adequate levels of magnesium. As I’ve shared before, our favorite brand that the kids love is Natural Vitality’s Natural Calm which can easily mixed into a berry spritzer, warm water or a smoothie.
This article shines another light on just how important this mineral is and why you may want to speak with your doctor about incorporating it into your daily routine.
Mice given extra doses of a new magnesium compound had better working memory, long-term memory and greater learning ability.
Before you go popping heavy doses of magnesium, however, know that much more testing is needed. Though rodent brains work similarly to ours, animal studies do not always predict what will happen in humans.
“If MgT is shown to be safe and effective in humans, these results may have a significant impact on public health,” said Guosong Liu, director of the Center for Learning and Memory at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.
Magnesium is an essential element found in some fruits, spinach, and other dark leafy greens. It is known to be important for the immune system. Consume less than 400 milligrams a day and you may be at greater risk for allergies, asthma and heart disease.
The element was shown brain-boosting abilities in earlier studies using cultured brain cells. But the new compound — magnesium-L-threonate (MgT) — was tested in animals and found to be effective.
“We found that elevation of brain magnesium led to significant enhancement of spatial and associative memory in both young and aged rats,” Liu said.
In young and aged rats, MgT increased plasticity among synapses, the connections among neurons, and boosted the density of synapses in the hippocampus, a critical brain region for learning and memory.
“Half the population of the industrialized countries has a magnesium deficit, which increases with aging,” Liu said. “If normal or even higher levels of magnesium can be maintained, we may be able to significantly slow age-related loss of cognitive function and perhaps prevent or treat diseases that affect cognitive function.”
The research is detailed in the Jan. 28 issue of the journal “Neuron”. Funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health, the National Basic Research Program of China and other institutions.
Again, the brand that we love is Natural Vitality’s Natural Calm which can easily mixed into a berry spritzer, warm water or a smoothie.
In Real Life is a social experiment that shows what happens when online bullying is taken offline.
Many of us working for food transparency and justice have lived with online bullying for decades.
There are some in the food industry who are notorious for using the tobacco industry’s playbook: shoot the messenger and harass those who question the status quo. I’ve lived this for over a decade.
Online bullying allows people to say things anonymously, as shared in this email I received.
So when Monica Lewinsky launched a campaign to bring awareness to online bullying, it hit home.
She lived it before it had a name. For her to turn that into this powerful lesson, to advocate for those to whom it is happening, to prevent further abuse and ultimately to help prevent suicide, is the most profound strength and love there is. In the words of Benjamin Disraeli, “Courage is fire, bullying is smoke.”
#ClickWithCompassion #BeStrong and please share this powerful message.
Guest Article by the founder of Pangea Organics, Joshua Onysko.
“Something to chew on when you think about health care….” is how the post began from the founder of Pangea Organics, Joshua Onysko. He’s a friend who has been advocating for and designing healthy products his entire life. As I read on, I realized his words had to be shared. So here is the post:
“Kellogg’s spent $32 million last year in advertising Pop Tarts alone. Coca-Cola spent $269 million advertising its flagship product (Coca-Cola). Pepsi spent $150 million just to advertise the brightly colored sugar-water that is Gatorade. It’s the sugar water for people who do sports. These are numbers that Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health, highlighted in a lecture at New York University on Thursday night. “Think about what that money could do for education, for social welfare,” Nestle implored. “But that money is spent getting people to buy sugar.”
Americans spend roughly $3 trillion on healthcare annually, about 40% of that spending is used to treat illnesses related to sugar consumption, I’ll do some math for you…that’s over $3k a person a year to treat sugar issues. That’s just sugar.
Less than one half of one percent of all agricultural subsidies went to production of fruits and vegetables in 2017.
Despite the fact that fruits and vegetables are the only foods that experts encourage us to eat with abandon, all fruits, vegetables, and nuts are considered “specialty crops” by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Less than 5% of land planted with food goes to growing fruits and vegetables. More than 50 percent goes to growing soybeans and corn, to feed animals and refine into sugar.
Can’t candy coat this…this is simply f*cked up.
Last year over $72 billion was spent on ADHD drugs. Do you see where I’m heading? If I was a parent I would be burning sugar fields in protest. Taking ADHD drugs and consuming sugar is like taking the poison an the antidote in the same pill.
So that’s sugar. Americans also spend a cool $100 billion on tobacco, the industry spends $8.5 billion on advertising and up until a few years ago we were actually subsidizing tobacco farmers. What does all this puffing cost tax payers? We spend $300 billion a year treating tobacco related illness. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Drug and alcohol addiction costs Americans a cool Trillion dollars a year. We could give every person over 18 a check for $4000. The alcohol industry spends $2 billion a year in advertising. Cheers!
In short 72% of our annual healthcare spending is spent treating poor lifestyle choices. Let that sink in.
Our nation has so many systemic issues, so so many. Our political system has mastered the art of distracting and dividing us from the real issues. We need to realize that we can only get from where we are now, to where we need to be by working together and educating ourselves on real issues we are facing every day.
Headlines have been incredibly hard lately. It can feel like we are in a perpetual state of trauma—from hurricanes to shootings, tragic news stories continue to hit. It impacts all of us, and it also impacts our kids.
Three of my four children are in high school this year. They see the news, the sensational and shocking headlines, firsthand, too, when they log on to their computers or phone for school, work or play.
Yesterday, they came home talking about the mass shootings in Las Vegas, having discussed it both in their classrooms and with their friends.
So what’s a parent to do during times like these?
I asked myself that many times yesterday, wishing there was some kind of book or guide. It is a different childhood then the one we knew. Gone are the days when parents would turn off the 10 o’clock news when kids walked into their bedrooms. There isn’t a ‘how-to,’ so here is a list of 7 things I have learned to do to build resilience when times are hard.
Put on your oxygen mask first. When we fly, the flight attendants tell us to put on our oxygen masks first, before helping others or assisting a child. This is so important as parents. Make time to breathe. You don’t have to have an immediate response to everything all at once. Give yourself permission to pause.
Breathe. The kids know that when they start to stress, and I can see their chests heaving with short breaths, I will tell them to take a deep breath all the way down to their toes. We breathe in together down to our toes, then we breathe it all out, blowing out any of the jumpy, nervous, sad energy. We usually repeat it about four times. It slows your breathing down, and I have found it helps the kids so much.
Food Matters. Sugar jacks us up, and it spins us out. It takes us way up, then brings us crashing down. And while it may seem like a fix during times like these (I did for years), the lows take you lower. So do what you can to make sure that you eat healthy fats, protein and get fruits and veggies into you. So many of us want to dive into the ice cream. That won’t fix anything and make you feel awful later. Think about how you will feel AFTER you eat certain foods. Keep that vision.
Dump the devices. When I am very overwhelmed, I get outside. I run, hike, something outside, to remind myself that despite how horrific a headline or day might be, the world keeps revolving around its axis, the sun shines and plants grow. Sometimes, that simple rhythm is all you need to be reminded to breathe.
Exercise. It doesn’t have to be a cross fit program, a hard core yoga class or anything that structured. Sometimes, it is walking around the block. Move your body to clear your head.
Supplement Support: My go to advisor on this is Dr. Frank Lipman, my podcast partner, Ashley Koff, MD, and our pediatrician. Build a dream team. Vitamin D, magnesium, turmeric, krill oil and organic greens are my go-to. I throw them into a smoothie in the morning to ensure that I get them in, like brushing my teeth to start my day. Vitamin D is called the sunshine vitamin. My friends over at Garden of Life offer it in so many forms. Magnesium is great for anxiety, stress, digestion, and more. My friends at Natural Vitality are the pros. And the greens, well, Garden of Life has those, too, in just about every form and flavor.
Music. For as long as I can remember, there has been a soundtrack associated with different stages and occasions in my life. Those melodies are still food for the soul.
Our kids need us to protect them, but they also need to learn resilience, too. When we model resilience during hard times, we are reminding them that feelings are as valid as their strength and ability to deal with them.
They are inheriting a world that they didn’t create. The headlines remind us of that every day. We can serve as reminders that we have the opportunity to pivot, to take our stories back, to create a brighter tomorrow.
Because while we can’t change the beginning of our stories, we can definitely change the end.
