One of man’s deep rooted fears is the fear of starvation. This fear derives from the fact that we were hunter gatherers once and had to search for and hunt down our food. Food was not a guarantee for us and we were like other animals.
Over time we learned to cultivate and stock food and then trade the surplus till we finally have dedicated food related industries today. In spite of this, in today’s world, the fear of starvation has reached irrational heights. The 1990’s, according to the WHO, was the decade when more human beings died of diseases such as diabetes and heart diseases related to overeating as against the number that died due to under nourishment.
Most of us cannot imagine a day without 3 full meals and some without 4 or 5. Our organs toil day and night to digest and process this overload of food that we shove down our throats. The sedentary lifestyle that most of us adopt means that the energy produced by the processing of these foods does not get utilized efficiently and ends up as toxins and unprocessed food that the body ejects. We spend billions every year stuffing ourselves with these fatty and rich foods and billions trying to work off the excess that we accumulate in gymnasiums, spas and health clubs. Then there are the billions that we spend on cosmetics to try and hide our obesity and the billions we spend on medication and treating our ailing organs. The waste that we produce goes into drinking water supplies and kills millions of other life forms besides ourselves.
At the same time there are said to be 36 million deaths or more every year from hunger and starvation mostly among children and in the developing countries. Instead of alternatively fattening ourselves and then trying to slim ourselves on an ongoing basis, shouldn't we be looking at how we can look to make life sustainable for these vast numbers of people? The easiest way is to become sustainable ourselves and not send money to the first NGO you see or government welfare fund. Our actions are not only not focusing on this, we are also contaminating the soil and water that many of the poor rely on for their sustenance. Our support for big industries enable them to take away their land and their produce. The big industries support large scale farming and the use of harmful pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides that promise a quick return in the short term and a prolonged and painful death in the long term.
At the same time there are said to be 36 million deaths or more every year from hunger and starvation mostly among children and in the developing countries. Instead of alternatively fattening ourselves and then trying to slim ourselves on an ongoing basis, shouldn't we be looking at how we can look to make life sustainable for these vast numbers of people? The easiest way is to become sustainable ourselves and not send money to the first NGO you see or government welfare fund. Our actions are not only not focusing on this, we are also contaminating the soil and water that many of the poor rely on for their sustenance. Our support for big industries enable them to take away their land and their produce. The big industries support large scale farming and the use of harmful pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides that promise a quick return in the short term and a prolonged and painful death in the long term.
The human body can quite easily survive for a few days with only water in an adverse situation. Also research has shown that you can prolong life span by reducing the amount of food intake.Why can’t we just consciously cut down the amount of food we eat and give our bodies and life itself a better chance?
Sluggish and sedentary lifestyles without efficiently burning up the food we eat results in our brains becoming sluggish. I guess that explains the billions we spend on technology trying to see if we can do things with a little less effort. Are we not putting our bodies and minds gradually to sleep – a permanent sleep?
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