Why Live Clean?

Matthew eating pesto

As I was writing this post, sitting on the floor with Matthew. He stood up, using my shoulder and then he let go and stood up on his own for 10 seconds, then sat down. So exciting! Now he and Allan laughing and playing with blocks.

The following is a post that I created for the mmm section of my blog, it can be found in the drop down and is titled Why Live Clean?. It is my reasoning for living clean.

When I wrote this post, Allan and I discussed how God-centric it is and I considered changing it around a bit so as not to offend any of my readers who may not believe in God. However, I decided that I need to stay true to who I am and if I lose readers because of it, so be it. Not that I want to lose any of you as readers… I love you dearly! However, if for some reason you are not keen on the God-focused message that you read below, you can feel free to insert “nature” anywhere that you see “God”, because the message is still the same no matter what you believe… Live clean to respect your body and the Earth.

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Clean living is a lifestyle where you care for your body in a way that pleases and respects God and the Earth that he created for us. At the risk of sounding preachy… God made us in his perfect image and in the Garden of Eden he provided us with the perfect nourishment to care for our perfect bodies inside and out. Unfortunately, soon thereafter sin stepped in and started to mess everything up.

Nowaways we live in a world of imperfect, lab-created, processed food that is aimed at lowering the bottom line and increasing profits for large corporations and is not focused on providing nourishment for our bodies. From the Merrian Webster dictionary, the definition of food is material consisting essentially of protein, carbohydrate, and fat used in the body of an organism to sustain growth, repair, and vital processes and to furnish energy.

Perhaps that is why most Americans complain of low energy and disease… we are not eating real food. The processed food that is consumed does not consist of the essential macronutrients and supplementary substances that our bodies crave, hence the obesity and disease epidemic that our country faces. Most of the ingredients listed on nutrition labels are unpronounceable and cannot be found living in nature. They were not created by God, they are man-made. Do we really think that we can improve upon God’s intended nourishment? With the world’s expanding waistlines and increase in disease, obviously our efforts are not working.

So, what about organic foods, are they worth the hefty price tag? Based on all of the research that I have done, the answer is yes. If you have not yet read this article by Michael Pollan, you should. It will open your eyes to the amount of garbage that organized farming has managed to get into our produce, grains and other seemingly unspoiled whole foods through sick soil, synthetic fertilizers, copious numbers of pesticides, toxic and carcinogenic preservatives, manufactured fungicides, and the list goes on and on. You would be amazed at the things that the FDA allows into the conventional food chain (elements of the lethal injection, confirmed carcinogens, disease generators, etc.). It definitely does not seem like they have the consumer’s health in mind.

And it’s not only food. It extends to the toxic cleaners that we use in our households, the pharmaceuticals that we administer to our children, and the cream that we apply to our faces. All of these products can contain some pretty scary chemicals that I assume God would not want us have near the bodies that he created in his perfect image.

So, what can you do to help your family to avoid the fate of those who follow the Standard American Diet (SAD)… live clean!

Tomorrow’s post will go into more detail about clean eating.