When Did it Become So Hard to Feed Your Family and Friends??

[SPhoenix]

I swear to god, something is just WRONG with our food these days. Even when you try so hard to eat organic and you make your stuff at home, there is still something terribly WRONG.

I could go on ad nauseum about this, but... when it get to be so bloody HARD to feed family and friends?

School picnic, making food to take to it. We have:

Gluten allergy
Soy allergy (try putting this together with number 1!)
Garlic allergy
Egg allergy
Nut allergy
Dairy allergy
Diabetic kid


The best part of it all? Guess what's from OUR house alone... gluten intolerance, soy allergy, diabetic kid.

But it gets better. I have to get two different kinds of bread. The kid NEEDS the carbs to get her high enough that I can give her a dose of insulin at the TODDLER DOSES that she's on still thanks to a partially still functional pancreas... but my husband has type 2, so he CAN'T have the carbs...

Everywhere I turn it's something that I can't make or can't do or have to make differently for each of them...



And while we're on the topic of "something just ain't right", why are our childrens' immune systems failing? Type 1 diabetes is an immune system malfunction, and it has reached almost the same epidemic proportions as type 2. There were FIFTY NEW CASES the month my daughter was diagnosed! FIFTY IN A MONTH! When I was a kid, there was 1 guy in the whole STATE we lived in--and he was a huge deal because someone thought he was shooting up illicit drugs and he got arrested and blah blah.

Now it's almost commonplace!

Of course, there are so many other issues, too... autism, allergies, hyperactive kids (maybe over-diagnosed, but still concerning)...

It's like... I just want to be able to feed my friends and family without it being a huge production of figuring carbs, researching replacement ingredients, blah blah blah.


*walks away mumbling and ripping her hair out*

[Kahlenda]

Re: When Did it Become So Hard to Feed Your Family and Friends??

i have one idea of why they are getting more common place,

unnatural selection.

its no longer about the healthist or the strongest male getting to mate, people that would normally have died or been seriously ill in the past, are no longer (thanks to meds) they can live an (almost) normal life and are as equally as attractive to potential mates as the healthier people, so the "defective" genes are being passed on more

[Lilium of the Valley]

Re: When Did it Become So Hard to Feed Your Family and Friends??

I don't want to sound like Mrs. Organic here...but I also think it has something to do with all the chemicals and hormones (and other crap) that is in our food...our water...our everything!!
The stuff we feed the animals, we kill and eat....the pesticides we spray our plants with (and animals for that matter)....the stuff that is added to our drinking water.....i could rant on and on about this.
It just isn't necessary and it just can't be healthy IMO. I'm not saying it is the only thing causing these problems, but I do not believe it's making things better, nor helping!!

[Tylluan Penry]

Re: When Did it Become So Hard to Feed Your Family and Friends??

Coeliac disease has been recognised since ancient Greece. It's nothing new. I suspect a lot of people had it years ago but simply didn't realise and were labelled either sickly or 'fussy eaters.' Diabetes - the criteria for diagnosis is getting lower - which means the net takes in more and more people. Allergies - well, some are 'true' allergies in that they will just about kill you, others are intolerances which are a little more forgiving.

Now something I've realised is that the closer we get to unprocessed food, the better it is for us. Certain things like Gluten are still a problem, but generally speaking, stay away from anything processed as much as you can. I mean once you start looking at labels you start to notice things - such as why do frozen chips contain gluten? They're bloody potatoes for heaven's sake. Who thought adding wheat flour to that was a good idea?

The more I go around food aisles in the supermarket, the more I realise you could probably throw most of it in the bin without actually harming anyone.

I don't think a lot of today's food is actually doing us much good at all. Sometimes it does us harm. Look at the preservatives in most of it - if I make a loaf of bread I expect it to be fresh for 24 hours and after that it's toasted. But if I buy bread it's easily got quite a long sell-by date.

I know that doesn't really answer the OP's question, but I think the food industry has a lot to answer for...

[Ophidia]

Re: When Did it Become So Hard to Feed Your Family and Friends??

My husband & I were born 3 years apart - he's 1970, I'm '73. Neither one of us came from the age of hand sanitizers, sanitizing wipes, etc. We were both immunized for everything available at the time - mumps, measles, rubella, tetanus, diptheria, polio. We both received substandard healthcare as kids - mine because my parents were broke, him because his parents were paranoid. Neither one of us remember any real 'special needs' kids (no milk, no peanuts, etc.) from our schools other than the ones who were actually Special Ed kids.

I came from a rather neglectful household. It was dirty, dusty and cluttered. I played outside in the dirt. I ate dirt & bugs. Our pets were outdoor/indoor pets. I got to play with tools and chemicals, I caught chicken pox the old fashioned way, both my parents smoked, we ate a lot of processed foods because my dad was rarely home & my mother only cooked full meals when he was. When my mother did cook, though, it was a wide variety of food. I was allowed to eat anything & everything my parents ate, and did so with gusto - meats, veggies, seafood, wild game. I got taken everywhere as a kid - my mother spend a lot of time out of the house herself. She oversaw apartment complexes & if she had to clean up a vacant apartment, she'd drag me along. I now work in a casino that hosts about 10,000 international tourists on any given sold-out night, and another thousand employees. We're a smoking property, and I have seen some disgusting things happen in the public restrooms.

I have seasonal allergies that have gotten easier to manage as I've gotten older. I rarely if ever, get sick, like cold/flu sick. Usually when I'm 'sick' it's because of something physical, like my back or heart. Doesn't matter whether I get a flu shot or not - I never catch the flu. So my immune system isn't seriously over-reacting, and it works when it needs to.

My husband, on the other hand, came from a showcase quality home. His mother was a stay-at-home mom, you could (and still can) eat off her floor, she was & is still a germaphobe. She's 'allergic' to any strongly-scented product, whether or not it contains proteins that cause allergic reactions. They had a relatively limited diet when he was a kid and he was a picky eater that was catered to. He had very limited exposure to other people - just school & his folks. He caught chicken pox as an adult, and he's had it twice so far (the beginning of the school year gives me anxieties because I'm terrified I'm going to bring it home to him from work). He's stayed reclusive as an adult, with limited time spent in public.

He's got irritable bowel, latex allergies (including 'latex fruit sensitivity' that keeps getting worse), he's developed a garlic allergy, he's even allergic to titanium. And he gets sick all the freaking time. He even picks up weird tropical diseases that I bring home from work. His immune system is always over-reacting, but fails when he needs it to.

I think it's all about exposure. How many kids today seriously get outside time? I know here in Vegas, even in good weather, I rarely if ever see kids outside. I spent a good portion of every day outside. Sometimes, during vacations, my mother would kick me out of the house & lock the door behind me. Most kids are managed now - they have set routines, go to a few specific places & then back home. They don't get to dig up their yards any more. People either have 100% outdoor pets or crated 100% indoor pets. And everywhere you go, everything is antibacterial or sanitizing. An immune system can't normalize or self-regulate if it isn't given anything challenging, so the first time it encounters something new, it over-reacts.

[DanieMarie]

Re: When Did it Become So Hard to Feed Your Family and Friends??

I can relate. I'm either DEATHLY or noticeably (depending on the variety) allergic to legumes (peanuts, beans, peas, soy, lentils, chickpeas, etc), and there are even some kind of legumes (guar, carob) that hide in a ton of foods. One of my best friends has a severe gluten allergy. Planning meals around both of us can get frustrating, because a most gluten free products here have pea flour, soy flour, carob, and/or guar in them. Another friend is a vegetarian, and between the 3 of us, it can be a fun party :/

- - - Updated - - -

I don't want to sound like Mrs. Organic here...but I also think it has something to do with all the chemicals and hormones (and other crap) that is in our food...our water...our everything!!
The stuff we feed the animals, we kill and eat....the pesticides we spray our plants with (and animals for that matter)....the stuff that is added to our drinking water.....i could rant on and on about this.
It just isn't necessary and it just can't be healthy IMO. I'm not saying it is the only thing causing these problems, but I do not believe it's making things better, nor helping!!

You're actually not far off most research. There are a couple of popular ideas around allergies at the moment. The first is that our environments are too sterile. We get too many antibacterial products, and too many antibiotics, which can mess with our immune systems. The other is that all the crap we consume causes immune problems. #1 is more popular, but #2 hasn't been ruled out. For all we know, it could be a combination of the two.

#1 would definitely explain my case. I contracted a staph infection in the hospital when I was born, and had to be given antibiotics within the first few days of my life. Apparently since your immune system isn't developed fully at that time, it can cause a lot of problems.

[Maria de Luna]

Re: When Did it Become So Hard to Feed Your Family and Friends??

You're actually not far off most research. There are a couple of popular ideas around allergies at the moment. The first is that our environments are too sterile. We get too many antibacterial products, and too many antibiotics, which can mess with our immune systems. The other is that all the crap we consume causes immune problems. #1 is more popular, but #2 hasn't been ruled out. For all we know, it could be a combination of the two.

I personally think it is a combination of the two. The way food is processed and the things that are added to it have become so "creative" that certain food additives dont need to be listed since they don't count as food.... and antibacterials are becomeing more and more psychoticly strong... I would also blame how many of these products are used. Most cleaners are supposed to be rinsed off and many people just spray them on and leave them there...

I also believe that people have gotten stupider about how they care for themselves and their children. It is like we have forgotten that being outside is actually good for them, and many children do not ever go outside. people want to bring tiny newborn infants into hospitals to see uncle sicky who has staph, or strep, or goodness knows whathis roomate has, but the kid is gonna be fine, sure, it doesn't have an immune system to make it fine, but it needs to see uncle sicky... Then at daycare everyone elses kid gets this crap, and no one thinks that there is a reason... all of this stuff adds up and our kids get less and less functional genes. Were probably killing off al of the helpful bacteria with the sanitizers, and stretching whats left with the junk thats hidden in food. But thats my opinion, as a not-scientist, my claims should be taken with a chunk of rocksalt...

[Heka]

Re: When Did it Become So Hard to Feed Your Family and Friends??

i have one idea of why they are getting more common place,

unnatural selection.

its no longer about the healthist or the strongest male getting to mate, people that would normally have died or been seriously ill in the past, are no longer (thanks to meds) they can live an (almost) normal life and are as equally as attractive to potential mates as the healthier people, so the "defective" genes are being passed on more

While I agree with everyone else on the sterility of our new enviroments etc (I mean for fucksake, just let your kid eat dirt!), THIS. While I don't want my friend/mother/husband to die from cancer or whatever, the point remains that these people are clearly not supposed to live as long as the rest of us. Kids with leukemia are not supposed to reproduce. It is as simple as that. People with some manner of 'defect' are not supposed to reproduce. Hence 'Survival of the fittest.' Now it's survival of everyone. That ain't that way nature intended it... Shit is going to go wrong passing all those defunct genes on for ever.


I mean honestly, if we let all cancer patients die, cancer would be cured in no time. (No offence to anyone with serious cancer stories of course)

[thalassa]

Re: When Did it Become So Hard to Feed Your Family and Friends??

I mean honestly, if we let all cancer patients die, cancer would be cured in no time. (No offence to anyone with serious cancer stories of course)

Not really. First off, cancer has been around forever...second of all, while cancer can be genetically linked (meaning you have a greater chance of developing cancer, not that you *are* going to get it), it is generally a somatic cell mutation that causes the rapid cell divisions that become cancer. And...there's a good chance that many of those mutations are highly influenced by environmental conditions.

Also...there is a benefit to letting those people live (from an evolutionary standpoint)...increased genetic variability. Just because something seems "bad" now, doesn't mean it always is. Look at sickle cell anemia--it looks like a pretty shitty condition which should have disappeared from the gene pool by now...but in a malaria infested climate, inheriting one sickle cell gene (meaning half your blood will sickle) leads to better survivability of malaria.

[Kahlenda]

Re: When Did it Become So Hard to Feed Your Family and Friends??

Thats true thal, cancer can be caused from a veirety of things, and genes arent "soo" much to play in it. and the sickle cell thing can be correct to, but there also people that have natural ammunities to malaria or are better protected against this, if you think over a few millenia that small amunity through the couse of natural selection with out drugs and meds would lead to only the people with the strongest amunity against malaria reproducing and eventually a "malaria immune" race. i think thats one of the reasons cancer is so prevelant today aswell, because we've stopped ourselves having the ability to "evolve" as it were.

And i know is a horrible idea to contempt and in all reality if we did practise the above idea my mother wunt have been born and so i wouldnt exist. but i still feel there is some scientific validity to it.

P.S.

And i think another problem with it all is, is that humans in gerneral shouldnt live as long as we are, modern medical science has extended the human life span to almost double

[SPhoenix]

Re: When Did it Become So Hard to Feed Your Family and Friends??

While I agree with everyone else on the sterility of our new enviroments etc (I mean for fucksake, just let your kid eat dirt!), THIS. While I don't want my friend/mother/husband to die from cancer or whatever, the point remains that these people are clearly not supposed to live as long as the rest of us. Kids with leukemia are not supposed to reproduce. It is as simple as that. People with some manner of 'defect' are not supposed to reproduce. Hence 'Survival of the fittest.' Now it's survival of everyone. That ain't that way nature intended it... Shit is going to go wrong passing all those defunct genes on for ever.


I mean honestly, if we let all cancer patients die, cancer would be cured in no time. (No offence to anyone with serious cancer stories of course)

You just told me in my own thread, "Don't let your kid reproduce and you should just let her die."

Well, a very hearty up yours, too.

For real? Kahlenda said it, sure, but he kept it succinct and not quite so... blatant.

"Hi, my daughter has type 1 diabetes." "Oh, hello there. I think defective people should all just die already. Your pesky little twit wasn't supposed to live THIS long."

Uh. Wow. Okay.

By the way, untreated type 1 diabetes = death.

So thank you very much for that. You're entitled to your opinion, but maybe directly saying it straight to the face of a person whose child would die without lifelong medical intervention is something you'll want to skip next time. Saying it to someone who's autistic, AND has a child with diabetes is understandably not going to be taken well.

I found Kahlenda's attitude offensive, but I find yours egregiously so.

- - - Updated - - -

Anyway, on a subject brought up earlier, that of seasonal allergies, I have them as well. This year I decided to try to treat them instead of just slogging through it. I tried zyrtek, which didn't help all that much, though it was a definite improvement. Then I tried Claritin. It worked like a charm except for this incredible, major headache. :sick:

Back to the drawingboard... or back to slogging through it... hmmm. Decisions, decisions...

[Kahlenda]

Re: When Did it Become So Hard to Feed Your Family and Friends??

I found Kahlenda's attitude offensive,.

SP im sorry i offended you, i didnt mean to, and i cirtainly didnt mean people shouldnt procreate, hell if that was a real law i would be here neither would my mum and the rest of my family from my gran downwards.

its just an opinion that is scientifically sound to me. so once again im sorry for causing you offense.

[DanieMarie]

Re: When Did it Become So Hard to Feed Your Family and Friends??

I still have my hopes high that a treatment will be found for food allergies someday. I'd never go eat a peanut, but it would be nice to not have to be so careful. I HATE grocery shopping. Germany is set up to do it every few days...sizes are small, so you have to go to the store fairly regularly. It's the effing bane of my existence, because I can't get in and out of a store in less than 45 minutes. I don't have time for that more than once a week.

- - - Updated - - -

As for the whole survival of the fittest stuff, sorry, but that's total crap. Current research indicates that allergies actually evolved as a natural defence mechanism. There was an interesting study a while back that indicated that our early ancestors suffered through a sort of plague that killed off most people, and many of the survivors likely had overactive immune systems because of it. While allergies can be deadly, they are around BECAUSE of natural selection, not DESPITE it.

[SPhoenix]

Re: When Did it Become So Hard to Feed Your Family and Friends??

SP im sorry i offended you, i didnt mean to, and i cirtainly didnt mean people shouldnt procreate, hell if that was a real law i would be here neither would my mum and the rest of my family from my gran downwards.

its just an opinion that is scientifically sound to me. so once again im sorry for causing you offense.

Yours came off as a more musing post... a sort of generalized, "this was my thought" and just a social faux pas. I decided not to say anything because it didn't come off as directly disgusted with "those people".

Heka's post, though, honestly, comes off as, "No offense to you broken, defunct, defective people, but just die already, jeez."

Which is beyond a social faux pas of bringing up something at the wrong time. It's openly unkind, and she knew it or she wouldn't have added in the "I know my post is offensive, but I hope you don't notice" disclaimer at the end.

EDIT: And to make matters worse, she didn't even bother to acknowledge that she was directly talking about my "defunct gene" child with the life-or-death condition. She didn't want to offend family of cancer patients, but it didn't seem she was too worried about offending me in her hopes that my child would "just die already" of the deadly malady that diabetes would be without lifelong medical intervention.

[B. de Corbin]

Re: When Did it Become So Hard to Feed Your Family and Friends??

Calm down, Sweety.

Have a cookie.