Poverty can rock or suck. Either way it's not the end.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Too Much Peanut Butter



Poor people usually don't eat right because they have to eat foods that will fill them up without costing a lot.  This week, for instance, I found myself eating a peanut butter sandwich about two or three times a day. ( As a mother, I always save the best food for my children since they still have that keen sense of what their bodies need which unfortunately gets interpreted as "the picky eater."

At any rate, although I've never been overweight, I notice that at certain times the pressure of being poor coupled with a lousy food and drink intake can take it's toll on me.  For me it manifests as a dull lethargic kind of sensation that seems to hide just under the surface of everything I do.   Some may call it the proverbial "bad mood" assuming it's purely a mental condition but for me it's definitely a physical one.

My body becomes bloated, my face feels like it's sagging, and my natural energy level becomes sub-par.  I believe not recognizing that this condition is a combination of stress and lack of healthy sustenance leads may poor to seek mental help and many of them wind up on all sorts of dangerous drugs designed to offset the real problem.  ( The graph at the very bottom of this link shows that the increase in anti-depressant use is highest among the poor.  http://meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st76/stat76.pdf)  

I personally fell into this trap for years blaming my state of mind (and subsequent long lasting poverty) on some mental defect or on the doctors diagnoses of me as "chronically  depressed."  Ironically, no high doses or combinations of these popular drugs ever made me "feel" any better so some years ago now, I finally stopped looking for the answer to my poverty in them.

Too many poor people unfortunately fall into this trap and wind up poisoning their bodies with these prescribed drugs which only serve to keep them numb, unthinking, and docile never realizing that their poverty is a condition of an unequal and unjust societal plague.  ( Let me just mention once here that the pharmaceutical companies who make these drugs are laughing all the way to the bank.)

The fact that natural remedies exist for cleansing your body and mind isn't something the mainstream poor person examines very often but they should because if you are poor it is even more "IMPERATIVE" that you remain alert and in top physical condition.  Everyone can make their own decisions on what that might entail.  I am going to go on a fast starting today.

I'll let you know how it goes.



2 comments:

  1. As for me I am forever grateful for the numbing drugs.. to finally find something that gives me some relief..but my plight and your are different...I can't fast as i am an insulin dependent diabetic....but I wouldn't wanna fast anyway..it's just not my thing.. I have too many other demons to fight... good luck on your fast..As always...XOXOXOXO

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  2. I ended the fast today after two days because I found it was making me depressed and I just can't afford a bad mood right now also I was unable to relax due to my circumstances. I understand the need for "numbing drugs" as everyone needs a buffer these days. If only we could change the reasons they do. That is always the question that I ask, how can we make this a gentler world to live in?

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