Part 4: Make America Healthy Again: Your Personal Journey Back to Health

By Frosty Wooldridge

Part 4: Your personal journey with help from many who have tread the same path back toward health.

The fact remains, most fast food establishments across America continue adding chemicals, fillers and toxins to their food offerings. No question that their foods taste great, but you become a guinea pig for longterm health consequences.
You might tap into some of the leading health/nutritional coaches out there in America.  Jillian Michaels offers nutritional and exercise plans that provide you with a path toward maximum health.

Vani Hari, better known by her “Food Babe” online persona, knows firsthand how altering one’s eating habits can change a person’s life for the better.

As a young woman, Hari suffered a litany of health conditions. While recovering from the surgery, she studied and examined her eating habits.

After cutting out certain things from her diet, starting with artificial food dyes and processed foods, Hari’s health turned around.

“I went off every single prescription drug. My asthma disappeared, my eczema disappeared, and I started to look like a different person,” she said. ”All the inflammation from my face and under my eyes disappeared. And the people around me who grew up with me couldn’t believe the transformation.”

She began tracking down junk food joints by exposing them:

Chick-fil-A Victory– After writing the piece “Chick-fil-a or Chemical-fil A” in 2011, Chick-fil-a invited Hari to their headquarters to discuss her concerns. After speaking with representatives at their headquarters, Chick-fil-a took her concerns and those shared by the Food Babe Army through facebook posts, calls to the headquarters, and boycotts of Chick-fil-a products; they decided to improve the quality of their food. In 2013, Chick-fil-A responded to the heat to change by announcing they were removing artificial dyes, artificial corn syrup, and TBHQ from their products.  Chick-fil-a also announced a plan to use antibiotic free chickens within the next 5 years – her #1 request to them!  

Subway – In October 2015, Subway committed to eliminating the use of antibiotics in all of their meat in the U.S. – This announcement came following her major petition in conjunction with other petitions launched by other consumer advocacy groups (U.S. PIRG, NRDC, Center for Food Safety, Friends of the Earth and others). All of these petitions received a total of over 250,000 signatures!

She exposed another 10 top junk food companies. What does Hari’s actions mean?  They mean YOU too, can change fast food to healthy foods by your knowledge and where you spend your money.

In this interview, Hari shared the following advice for how others can begin the health and wellness journey she herself underwent years ago.

1. Read the ingredient labels

“You’ve got to understand what you’re eating,” Hari said. “And if there’s an ingredient on there you don’t understand, go look it up. You need to understand what you’re putting in your body.”

She added, “Once you understand that the majority of chemicals that are being put in processed food are there to just improve the bottom line in the food industry and not improve your health. You will make better choices.”

2. Take ‘ownership’ of your food

“Cook at home,” Hari advised, “Take back that ownership of your food. Really understand the items you’re putting into your body.”

3. Seek cleaner alternatives

“It can be hard to ditch favorite foods — but alternatives exist,” she said. “For breakfast cereal, purchase a “natural version” of an existing cereal, one that does not contain refined sugar or artificial ingredients.”

“Buy brands that don’t have the MSG and artificial food dyes,” said Hari.   “And to satisfy a cravings, make french fries at home with safe oils.”

4. Keep things simple

“Just choose real food with one ingredient,” Hari said. ”There are so many swaps available today to go from the very highly processed ingredients to better-for-you brands. I think the food industry has been put on notice that they are no longer going to be allowed to use ingredients they don’t use in other countries. Americans are fed up.”
Americans, she said, “Want the same safer ingredients that these food companies have already figured out how to make.”

5. Shop around

“Go to the local farmer’s market,” Hari said.

Finally, you might choose the “easy way” out of being fat like Ozempic, or Sono Bello, or all the weight watcher organizations that guarantee you a fabulous body.  If you examine most of them, they do not speak about exercise. And again, most of the foods they ship to you are processed in a box, package or plastic envelope.

One young lady got all her fat sucked out of her body, but continued to eat the same way she did to get herself into her obese state.  Within a 18 months, she gained back another 50 pounds because her body could not deal with all the calories and unhealthy foods she fed it.

Hopefully, this series offered you new nutritional understandings and knowledge.  Take charge of your body, your health, and your life.  Make it a healthy, happy and wonderful journey.