I have a choice - so why don't I use it?

This morning I had an early departure, heading for a Nordic conference on Development held in Helsinki these days. On the way to the train I remembered that I forgot to pack my dark chocolate for the road. Then my next thought was: well, do I really need it? I have two eggs, a gluten-free sandwich (with my new obsession: Philadelphia cheese...), and avocado and some water. That will keep me in good shape until the conference coffee somewhere around ten o'clock. Besides, the chocolate I had bought (Marabou) is not "clean" - it contains at least soy lecitin, which most probably is derived from genetically modified soy. So why do I insist buying these products for consumption, although they contain substances that I in principle do not support? The question becomes even more relevant as I think of the long term effect on the child that I am bearing. How do I know that strange substances that are not natural are not affecting my off spring? This should be the most dominant human drives of all, to produce healthy off springs so that the genetic code is passed on into the future. Then I think of my laziness to bring food for lunch lately and instead eating at the university canteen - well aware of all the strange extracts and substances like maltodextrins that hide in the food-like stuff served during lunch. Or the fruits for that matter - we have "fruit week" this week for the personnel at the school. Nice beautiful fruits fill up the teachers room and everybody is indulging - also I am enjoying this extra treat, although I know that there must be pesticide residues on and in them - they are not organic. Why do I do this when I have a choice? Why not just stick to my home-cooked meals, make an extra portion each day and be happy with the organic fruits that we buy for our local veggie dealer? Why isn't that enough?

Well, first because I hate fanaticism (yeah, really - who could have imagined? Me, the sugar busting fanatic number one!). In case of products that I have not found a direct link to health concerns,I just can't stay away all the time. Particularly not when we talk about chocolate....Second, eating habits are very hard to change! Just take the example of Philadelphia above, I have been off dairy products for a considerable amount of time and just recently reintroduced raw milk to my body - after noticing that this was fine I am now also indulging in Phillly-cheese... it is just sooooooo gooooooood, and so is chocolate, did I forget to mention? Third, my lack of planning ahead with any other meal than our dinner is just beyond my capacity right now. In the morning we have oatmeal and eggs in some form and I get the kids to day care, to still remember to pack down my own lunch is just too much, really, come on, I am only human. And so it goes, I have a choice to eat according to my best of knowledges, I even have the capacity to turn raw real food organic ingredients into nutritious food, and I have the motives - but I lack the coordination and the determination. There is long road from principles to practice... but at some point I might be getting there. And in the mean time I just tell myself that I am way better off than during that first pregnancy when I blindly trusted both the state dietary recommendations and the authorities that are supposed to guarantee that the food-like products on our supermarket shelves are indeed: safe.

And then, as I am finalizing this writing, I see a post on Facebook on a new study on the side effects of the most popular herbicide in the world, glyphosate, the most popular herbicide in the world today. The abstracts starts off nicely:   "Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup®, is the most popular herbicide used worldwide. The industry asserts it is minimally toxic to humans, but here we argue otherwise." And the conclusions aren't that hard to understand either: "Consequences are most of the diseases and conditions associated with a Western diet, which include gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. We explain the documented effects of glyphosate and its ability to induce disease, and we show that glyphosate is the “textbook example” of exogenous semiotic entropy: the disruption of homeostasis by environmental toxins."

So what was I saying again about my choices and the future health of my off spring? Maybe I should really start using that choice of mine in a more coordinated and determined way...