Wellness means favoring organic produce
A couple of weeks ago I was in a grocery store looking at the fruit that many other customers were putting in their baskets. I had recently heard from my teachers of Ayurveda that any food that comes from far away (as in, it’s not locally grown) needs to have some sort of preservative to keep it fresh. that’s why we should eat local, organic food. I knew this, but I had chosen, like the rest of our culture, to intentionally look away and forget that anything was wrong with the food I consumed if it was offered to me by a grocery store or food company. But something really shocked me about what I heard in my Ayurveda class and what I saw on the labels of the produce: it was covered in “food grade wax.”
The small print on every single box of apples, every crate of oranges, and every bag of lemons said this. I looked at several in succession, shocked that they were all treated with wax and/or some chemical I can’t even pronounce. And shocked that society lets this happen. The Federal Department of Agriculture is okay with this. The government is okay with us consuming wax.
Wax. Wax!
I made it to the small organic section and finally found a bag of apples that didn’t say it had any weird stuff on it.
Why are people fine with this? I am not fine with it. But it feels like I am a whiner — the only concerned citizen at the grocery store reading the ingredients and chemicals that I might be ingesting. Apparently, people think their bodies and health are so insignificant that they can just eat whatever is in front of them and they’ll stay healthy. No one seems concerned about preservatives used to keep any food fresh longer than it naturally should be. Canned food, packaged food, and exotic fruits are all inventions of our time that invade our bodies with really unhealthy shit.
You might argue that the solution to world hunger is this invention called preservatives, and we are so lucky to be able to ingest poison so that more of us can have full tummies. But I argue that we are malnourished. If we aren’t eating fresh, toxin-free foods, then does it matter that we aren’t hungry? If we just get illnesses all our lives because of toxins clogging our system, this doesn’t matter?
You might also argue that the wax and chemicals on an orange, for instance, don’t affect the actual part of the fruit you’re going to eat because it’s on the skin. Sure, sure. You mean the same way that putting chemical-infused cosmetics doesn’t have any effect on our internal organs?
I feel confused. Like, what is actually happening? Why are all these people eating food-grade wax? Do they know about it, do they care about it, and would they want to know if they don’t? I feel so bad for them. But maybe they don’t really care, and maybe I shouldn’t worry.
But then I start to worry even more because if they don’t care, then this means humanity is on a really bad cycle. I don’t even understand.
If people are just ignoring all the unhealthy stuff because they don’t have the money to buy organic food, I have sympathy but it makes me really mad. This means that our society is totally fine with the poor consuming food-grade wax, and they’ve created this weird reality where people are supposed to be grateful for apples that are old but covered in preservatives. And the poor suffer more, get sick more often, and then they can’t afford healthcare.
I know, I know — this is an obvious cycle. It’s known.
But I just wish the masses would boycott the companies that are pouring wax into our bodies.
The moral here is that we have to be vigilant. We have to pay attention to what’s going into our bodies. It’s important, right? Our bodies matter. Maybe the food available to us makes it really hard to be healthy. But you can’t go wrong by attending a local farmer’s market or shopping organic. Being just a little more mindful is all that is needed.
If you liked this post, find my other writing about wellness and Ayurveda here.
