We no longer have wellness care. It’s sickness care. 

Our health system doesn’t want you better. What they want you is sick. 

Because sickness allows them to build the system. If you stay sick, you need more doctors, specialists, and medications. You need more treatments, more procedures, and more therapies. 

The US sickness care program is built around profit. And the only way to make profits is to keep you sick. 

So if you’re tired of being sick – YOU have to take back your health. YOU have to create your wellness. HINT: You’ll never do so in the conventional way. 

I’m a health food, wellness care junkie

Back in 1994, my dad died of a massive heart attack. He was 54 years old. 

Two years later, at the age of 54, my mother had a life-threatening stroke. She’s been paying the price ever since. 

That scared me to my core. I moved forward with my own life asking one question: How can I avoid heart disease when I’m 54? And it’s led me down this wild and crazy road. 

I was reminded of that recently when I listened to a podcast featuring New York City’s next mayor, Eric Adams. He’s published a book Healthy At Last: A Plant-Based Approach to Preventing and Reversing Diabetes and Other Chronic Illnesses. 

I’m a documentary/podcast/book junkie when it comes to wellness care. I watch/listen/read them all. If someone recommends something new, I’m all in. And Eric’s story is touching, especially if you’re new to plant-based living yourself. 

After waking up, unable to read his alarm clock, he set out to find answers. When he received a diagnosis and what seemed like a one-path road to failure, he changed. Instead of listening to doctors tell him he was going to have to learn how to live with diabetes, he started researching. Where most people would start looking for advice on how to “live with diabetes,” he went on a quest to find out how to “reverse diabetes.”

And he found the answer. 

Now he’s running for mayor, and telling everyone he can about how:

“Disease isn’t in our DNA. It’s in our dinner.”

Yeah! I love that quote. 

Understanding where we’re at

We live in a quick society. We want it all, and we want it fast. I suppose that comes from Hollywood, where every world problem can be solved in two hours. 

We’ve been led down a path where we have thousands – millions – of products on the grocery store shelves vying for our attention. They make wild promises:

• Natural flavors
• Real fruit juice
• Good for you
• Healthy

Blah, blah, blah. 

You might have heard all of this before, but I challenge you to an experiment. Pick up boxes or bags of products you eat every week. Read the ingredients out loud. Can you pronounce each item? Do you know what they are? 

I’ll use the classic Oreos as an example. 

There’s a saying that “Oreos are vegan.” It circulates throughout the media on occasion. It’s a ploy to make Oreos the most classic cookie of all time. If it’s vegan, it doesn’t matter what diet you’re on, you can eat them for dessert.  

The first warning sign should be that Oreos are processed. I know; most of what’s in the grocery store is processed. But you have to take that into consideration when deciding what to eat. The ingredients are fairly readable. But the more you learn, the more you can start questioning. 

Palm oil – palm oil is one of the cheapest oils in production because it’s grown everywhere. It’s causing large-scale deforestation and destroying habitats for humans and animals alike. Because there’s so much of it and it’s super cheap to make, you’ll find lots of it in food production. It’s not good for you, so why ingest products that use it? 

High fructose corn syrup – Big Food may say high fructose corn syrup is the same as sugar, but they’re wrong. While sugar is never good for the body, there is a difference between cane sugar and high fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup is an industrial food product extracted from corn stalks. It has a different ratio of glucose and fructose, which is processed differently by your body. It’s also grown differently, with high fructose corn syrup having a lot more contaminants allowed by the FDA.  

Artificial flavor – thousands of chemicals are allowed by the FDA to be listed under the category of “natural flavors.” Now think about what must be allowed in a category called “artificial flavors.” If something is labeled artificial flavors, it’s a chemical mixture made from synthetic ingredients in a lab. Can it contain crude oil or coal tar? Sure, why not? 

I dive into just a few of the things found across a vast majority of our food supply for one simple reason: Wellness doesn’t and will never come from the most obvious places. 

When big corporations create “food” that makes you sick, sending you into a medical system where the “medicine” controls sickness but doesn’t make you well, it’s a recipe for disaster. 

Realize that, really let that sink in, and you’ll look for a better way. 

As Eric Adams mentioned above, he decided to make a change and looked for ways to “reverse diabetes” rather than “live with it.” 

What I believe about wellness

I mention food in a lot of my writing because I believe it’s the cornerstone for well being. But it certainly isn’t all. 

To be healthy, you have to have clean energy. And that starts with clean food. 

But you need a clean house – a place without contaminants impacting everything you do. Once you’re dedicated to reading food labels, move to personal care, house cleaning products, and other items for a big wake up call. 

You need a mindset that allows you to question rather than saying “yes” to whatever the BIGGIES dish out. Does this make sense? Is this truly best for me? Where will this lead to if I follow their advice? 

Do you want to create better health in midlife?

I believe it starts with one question … 

What can I do to make ME the best ME I can be?

Don’t listen to the world. They don’t have to live with you. They aren’t you. 

This is all on you. 

Do what’s right for you.