Dear
Jeff,
I've read a lot recently about soy being bad for you, unless
it's fermented or cooked a very long time. Apparently it has
female-hormone-like things in it that are bad for boys, as
well as slowing your thyroid, and lots of other stuff. It's
possible that we all rushed into eating soy believing it was
a "health food" without learning all we could about
it first. Apparently, Asians ate it sparingly and mostly fermented.
Of course, PR people will fight this.
Soy farmers can still capitalize on the new methods of using
soy for an oil energy substitute, right? Maybe soy will become
too expensive to eat anyway! And now, with all the research
showing that grass-fed meats are actually good for you (of
course, such meat is tricky to find and buy, with our agro-chemical
company dominated food system, unless you can find a local
farmer and have a big freezer) and that our veering to vegetable
oils because they are "healthy" has actually harmed
our health—it's frustrating! We all really do need to
grow more of our own food and support farmers who are trying
to do the right things, even though their prices "look"
more expensive!
Debbie Murphy
Dear Debbie,
Thanks for the letter. You bring up many good points proving
that we all need to be more aware of what foods we eat, how
they are raised or produced and where they come from. We also
need to pay more attention to where the information we are
getting comes from. Growing your own food is a great starting
point, however most of us can't realistically grow everything
we eat. That means purchasing food, and you're right on target
when you say we need to “support farmers who are trying
to do the right things, even though their prices ‘look’
more expensive.” It may look that way on the surface,
but when you look deeper and see how much of the “cheap”
food we consume is supported through governmental subsidies,
how the production methods are changing our environment and
how devoid of many of the nutrients we need to be healthy
they are—they're not cheap at all.
Jeff
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