In Response To

This post was originally a response comment to The-Western-Sister-In-Law. But it got too long, and I figured that if she was confused about my stance on health foods and natural health, so were other people. Read the post Gullible to read her comment and to understand better what I'm talking about.

The point behind this post is that I, personally, will believe just about anything put in front of my nose about natural health, even if all I read is a couple of pages and those pages don't even get into the point of the book. I am gullible when it comes to this stuff. But I am also learning, from my work and from what I'm deciding I want to believe, that moderation in all things also includes this. A lot of people who frequent my work place are very weird about their food intake. There are a few that will stand at the register and talk to the cashiers for 20 minutes or more about how their particular chosen path of natural health (there are many) is better than the rest of them and they can prove it. We (meaning me and another cashier) had one guy tell us that by eating nothing but raw food, he no longer has to shower, except when he gets itchy from all the dead skin. He doesn't stink, and he doesn't get dirty because there is no more oil on his skin to attract dirt. But he did stink (he hadn't showered in 3 weeks), and not having oil on your skin is not healthy. It's there for a reason. I have also had one wax poetic on the virtue of not eating gluten, whether you can digest it or not. And others on the sins of eating sugar in any form, including honey. You get a lot of strange people in there.
While I hope to someday eat nothing but healthy food, and be able to avoid fast food and junk food all together, I'm not expecting it to happen soon. I do believe that there is a lot of crap and chemicals in processed, fast, and junk food that can't be good for you and that is addicting, and I'm starting to see how my body reacts differently to junk food and healthy food, and it surprises me. But I like Whoppers too much to give them up entirely yet, and I hate cooking enough to not be motivated enough to spend all the time in the kitchen that eating healthier calls for. But I also believe very strongly in eating what you want, when you want. If you know that bag of Cheetos isn't going to help your body be healthy in any way (made with real cheese or not), and you still want to eat it, more power to you. Education about this stuff is key. My reason for taking a course in natural health, and my goal of becoming a Master Herbalist, is that I'm hoping that it will benefit me and my little family. I will help those who come to me, or who are open to at least listening to, if not following, what I have learned. I refuse to become one of those people who judges and looks down on people because they "just don't know any better," and forces my ideas and opinions on them unsolicited. Maybe they do, and choose to eat it anyway. I know I do. I love Cheetos. If there is a bag of them, I will eat them. So why should I ever judge those who make the same decisions?
I guess basically I'm on the fence right now. I believe a lot of the stuff I'm taught about the kind of food that is traditionally American, but I'm not ready to give it up yet. We'll see what happens, I suppose. Let's hope that I fall on the side of health, because right now, that's the side I want to be on.