Cost and Realism of Living Healthy
It comes to your health, you’re either gonna pay for it on the front end of your life or on the back end because it’s gonna lead to bankruptcy. Living healthy is expensive. Full stop.
I am not going to be one of those people who tries to pretend it isn’t. I’m also not going to act as if it’s always realistic for your lifestyle because it’s not.
The reality is, though, being ill will cost you doctor visits to multiple specialists, chemo treatments, your energy, and more.
Sacrifices needed in lifestyle for health
You’ll have to make sacrifices whether it’s maybe to your fashion budget, what kind of car you’re driving, vacations, whatever the downgrade may be to afford a healthier lifestyle. The only downgrade that you’re not gonna make is the quality of your food and your water.
You need to do those things in order to live longer. Now, I know some people will think, but, Maren, YOLO. And I understand that. But to what end can you use that as an excuse for not living well? The reason why living healthy and having that kind of lifestyle is so expensive is quite frankly because of the agencies that be.
Like I’ve mentioned multiple times in previous episodes, you’re not profitable if you’re healthy.
A sick patient is a lifelong patient, which is also why they’re targeting our children specifically. Years years of profit are on the horizon for all of those three letter agencies when it comes to their kids, and it starts at birth.
If you haven’t watched the 2 podcast episodes with Tucker Carlson and his guest, Robert F. Kennedy, on one episode, and then in another one, doctor Casey Means and her brother, Callie Means, I highly recommend you do. (Links)
But in this episode, I’ll try to sum up hours and hours of their talking to a few talking points. I also have my own episodes with doctors and specialists that I have interviewed.
I recommend you check them out on my website under the health and wellness podcast tab, including interviews with Dr. Jeff Barkey, Dr. Shannon Kroner, and DR. Rachel Marinowski.
The Importance of Informed Consent – with Jeff Barke, M.D.
The Importance of Informed Consent – with Jeff Barke, M.D.
The Importance of Informed Consent – with Jeff Barke, M.D.
Conflicting Dietary Approaches
The fitness and health industry is very confusing. On one side, you have people who claim the only way to be healthy is by going completely plant based, vegan, yada yada yada. I even went this route while not completely vegan. Let’s be real.
But I started growing our own sprouts in our kitchen because I was learning so much about the health benefits of it. And then on the other side of the coin, you have the people who have healed themselves by going completely carnivore, like my Australian friend, Bradley Marshall.
Make sure you check out that podcast episode too. It’s fantastic. He completely healed his eczema by going on the carnivore diet.
So if both sets of people, the vegans and the carnivores, if they’re doing so well, how can we possibly say that one is better than the other? We all have unique DNA makeup, and the nutrients found in food is going to affect us differently.
And if you think about it, 1000s of years ago, how did people survive? They lived off the land. And whatever that temperate may have been, where they lived, it’s different all over the globe.
People were exposed to different types of fruits, grains, meats, and more. Think about someone in a cold climate. They’re not exactly consuming a ton of grains. Right? But rather meat and fish.
At the end of the day, whether you choose to go vegan or carnivore or a mix of both like me, the only way you’re truly gonna reap the benefits of living a healthy life is by avoiding ultra processed foods.
- Did you know 70% of the FDA’s budget comes from pharmaceutical companies?
- Did you also know that 70% of the calories that our children are consuming these days are coming from ultra processed foods made in factories?
- We have a 79% increase of early onset cancer diagnosis right now in ages 18 to 49. We have 80,000 synthetic toxins in our food, water, air, personal products that didn’t exist a 100 years ago.
- There are now over 70 vaccines in our children’s schedule, and we only had a fraction of those 50 years ago.
The Hidden Costs of Modern Health
The state of our health and food system is alarming, to say the least. Did you know that a staggering 70% of the FDA’s budget comes from pharmaceutical companies?
This raises serious questions about potential conflicts of interest in our regulatory bodies. Even more concerning is that 70% of the calories our children consume today come from ultra-processed foods made in factories.
These statistics paint a grim picture of our current health landscape.
The consequences of these trends are becoming increasingly apparent. We’re seeing a 79% increase in early-onset cancer diagnoses among 18 to 49-year-olds.
Our environment is filled with an estimated 80,000 synthetic toxins in our food, water, air, and personal products – toxins that didn’t exist a century ago.
Meanwhile, the number of vaccines in our children’s schedule has skyrocketed to over 70, compared to just a fraction of that number 50 years ago.
These facts should serve as a wake-up call. It’s crucial that we become more aware of what we’re putting into our bodies and how our health systems operate.
By educating ourselves and making informed choices, we can take steps towards a healthier future for ourselves and our children.
- The influence of pharmaceutical companies on the FDA
- The prevalence of ultra-processed foods in children’s diets
- The rise in early-onset cancer diagnoses
- The increase in synthetic toxins in our environment
- The dramatic increase in childhood vaccinations
We are inside 93.5% of the day, to which I am grateful to be a golf professional because that doesn’t apply to me. But I’m also exposed to what? Herbicides and pesticides, so choose your poison.
Our bodies are being bombarded daily as they rebuild billions of our cells day after day with these toxins. Is it any wonder why we’re sick? Let me connect the dots for you.
According to the FDA’s website and mission statement, they are responsible for, quote,
“protecting the public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, and medical devices, and by ensuring the safety of our nation’s food supply, cosmetic, and products that emit radiation. The FDA is also responsible for advancing the public health by helping to speed innovation that make medical products more effective, safer, and more affordable, and by helping the public get the accurate, science based information they need to use medical products and foods to maintain and improve their health.”
So let me get this straight.
The FDA is the one giving the green light and allowing this garbage to be in our food, in our cosmetics, the lotions, the deodorants, all these things that we’re applying to our skin every day.
And they’re also getting subsidized by the pharmaceutical companies who want us sick, but yet they then try to claim they’re protecting us? Yeah. Okay, bro. Sure. Good story.
Shopping and Food Choices
So how do we, knowing what we know, and not having the wool pulled over our eyes by these three letter agencies, how do we do better for ourselves and our family?
The first is by shopping local. There are 9,000 farmers markets in our country. I can think of 3 in my regional area here in Palm Beach County. It’s the freshest food and the least toxic for you.
Fresh food has the most nutrients. As your food travels thousands of miles from a factory to your supermarket, it is losing nutrients by the hour. Before it even gets into your home and on your plate, it’s become deficient.
Not to mention, in order for these foods to maintain that fresh look, the farmers have to spray tons of chemicals and waxes on them.
Now if you don’t have access to a farmer’s market, then I’d recommend getting organic.
And if that is not financially in your budget, go for frozen vegetables and frozen fruit. Frozen food is picked right away. The food is mature, and it has the most potent nutrients, and then they fast freeze it.
This is also a great way for you to prevent food waste too. How many times do you purchase produce from the store and it grows mold, it goes rotten, or you cook too much of it.
And then if you’re like me and you don’t like leftovers, it’s sitting in your fridge until the next garbage day, and then you just you throw it out.
Reading Food Labels
The next piece when it comes to food is reading your labels, which I know can be very, very overwhelming. But the one I really need you to look for that I’m gonna speak on today, because there are a couple of them that you need to look for, but this is sneaking in to literally everything, is sugar.
Importance of avoiding high fructose corn syrup
And I’m not referring to the natural sugar you find in fruit, which oddly enough is the one people always focus on even in pregnancy. You know how many times people would look at me like I had 5 heads when I told them that I ate a banana every single day in pregnancy on top of my other fruit. Like, eating a banana, nonnegotiable for me.
And the proof is in the pudding with my oldest daughter who borderline scares me with her smarts. No joke. I truly believe that enhancing a child’s gray matter starts in the womb, but that’s for another podcast episode.
Long of the short, eat your bananas, pregnant mamas. Okay. Back to the sugar, aka fructose corn syrup. Fructose was designed to be addictive.
Food industry using tobacco tactics
Did you know they brought the makers of nicotine over to the food industry? Yes.
They did. In the 1980s, tobacco giants Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds, they acquired the major food companies, Kraft, General Foods, and Nabisco.
This allowed tobacco firms to dominate an oligopoly, America’s food supply, and therefore, reap 1,000,000,000 in sales from the popular brands that you know and, quite frankly, quasi love to a certain extent, like Oreo cookies and Kraft mac and cheese and Lunchables.
These hyperpalatable foods do not leave the body satiated like proteins and natural fruits and veggies. In fact, they do the opposite. The more fructose we eat, the hungrier we are. Think about the bears up in Maine eating those blueberries in the late summer and early fall.
They eat and eat and eat because they’re trying to put on fat for the winter.
But the bears don’t get satisfied, and instead, they actually get more aggressive. Scientists know this information, and they’ve used it against us with the food industry. I mean, it even goes down to the marketing of these products.
They make the boxes bright and colorful, and then they put them at the eye level of children who are sitting in the shopping carts with their mom and dad.
Kids see them. They want them. And quite frankly, a lot of times, parents supply it. Either, a, they don’t wanna argue with the child, or, b, they just don’t know any better.
Sugar addiction and marketing strategies aimed at children
And then a sugar addict is born. It is also used to weaponize those who are on food stamps and using WIC cards. Think about it. When you have to feed your family of 5 or 6 or more and you’re on a set budget, you’re gonna go for the cheaper and more addictive food.
When it comes down to feeding your family and putting food on your table or opting out of addictive food and getting less for your money, ergo essentially having your family starve, no parent is going to choose the latter option.
The high fructose food, therefore, is gonna make them sick and then, once again, reliant on the system to make them feel better.
It is a never ending customer who is depending on the government for help. And because they depend on them for help, it is a check, a win in the voting system for said government.
There is a method to this madness. And this fructose is practically in everything now. No joke. And our children are consuming it at alarming rates, which is leading to type 2 diabetes going through the roof, especially for children.
Literally half the country, ketchup, salad dressings, cereal, And scarily enough, it’s even in baby formula. I told you, they attack them as soon as they can, right as they come out.
And it can even find its way into a food that looks like what would be a healthy food, which is why it is so important to read your labels and avoid sugar whenever possible.
And the last topic that I will touch on today is the importance of walking.
Benefits of Walking and Physical Activity
I know I mentioned how being healthy is expensive, but if there’s one thing that is free and good for you, it is walking. We have become such a sedentary nation, especially our children.
We spend hours per day sitting at a desk at work, not to mention the time we spend driving to and from work.
Our children are sitting at desks at school, then they come home and they plop in front of the TV or have a tablet in front of them. If you have the opportunity in your workplace to have a walking desk, do it.
I’m fortunate enough that I am on my feet all dang day teaching golf. But I really encourage you, if you are indoors, make this a priority. And especially if you work from home, you have no excuse, homie.
Go buy it now on Amazon. A study was done on people who had a treadmill under their desk for 2 weeks. They used it for 2 and a half hours per day.
And like anything, it’s like when I would run my fitness groups, I would tell my clients, start with 5 minutes and see how you feel. Typically, when you do something for 5 minutes and your endorphins start going, like, you forget that you’re doing it.
And next thing you know, you look at the clock and you’re like, oh, wow. I just did that workout for 30, 45 minutes, an hour. So these people, they lost 2.6 pounds of fat and put on 2.2 pounds of lean muscle just by using it for 2 and a half hours per day for 2 weeks.
So I encourage you to try this. But if you can’t make that happen for whatever reason, then make it a priority to go on a family walk around the neighborhood after dinner.
Just 15 minutes can make an improvement to your digestion, therefore, your sleep that night, which then will result in a better recovery.
Involving your children in sports is beneficial to their overall health
I also cannot encourage you enough to get your children involved with sports. Now I’m not saying they need to be on some elite travel soccer baseball team.
I have my own thoughts and opinions on that. But get them involved with an individual sport that they can do for a lifetime. Creating a healthy habit that they can take with them into their eighties.
Golf, tennis, swimming, martial arts, it’ll make them healthier, and it’ll teach them so many more life skills than some Roblox game. And because I am so adamant about this entire topic, you know I’ll continue to shed light on it.
It is the single most important issue we face as a nation. We cannot be a weak nation. We must be strong. Our children deserve to live a healthy future.
If you wanna continue this conversation with me, I’m more than open to it. I would love to chat with you.
