Menus/ Nature? Nurture?

Here's this weeks menus.

Homemade Pizza with yogurt crust.

Black Bean Cheese Burgers with the fixins. (Have to use up the rest of the batter).

Greek Zucchini Rotini

Chicken Burritos and Fruit Salad

And of course

Friday Fish with Baked Potatoes and Green Beans

It might not sound like a healthy menu to some, especially if you just say cheese-burgers, pizza, burritos and pasta. As you can see, it really is better than it looks because of the ingredients and the preparation.

Is it nature or nurture? Good question. Is it the environment (nurture) or is it the gene pool (nature) you were born into? My sister and I were talking about this a little bit while texting our weekly check-in with each other and it got me comparing notes on both sides.

It is my opinion that it is both. We are born into a twist of DNA that dictates what color eyes we will have, how tall we will be, and what other physical traits we will exhibit in our lifetime. We live in an environment that can change these things, enhance these things, or have little effect on our physical inheritance.

If the body you developed from birth is bombarded with pollution, it might not be as tall as it would have been, it might not be as strong, it might be prone to asthma or a weakened immune system.

If the water that you consume is filled with pollutants and chemicals, starting from infancy (water used to mix with baby formula powder), the body's make-up might be altered in many ways, from allergies to skin conditions.

It might not be possible (at least for most of us) to avoid the pollution in the air, in the water, or even in our food. Yes I said food. The soil our food is grown in has been watered with polluted water, it has been sprayed with chemicals meant to kill bugs, it has had chemical fertilizers added to it. That same soil grows food to feed the animals that are commercially raised to feed people and those animals are fed improperly using hybrid-type feed to save money and then injected with various types of medications.

This makes those animals unhealthy. Every drive by a dairy farm and observed the cattle standing in knee deep liquid feces caused by their constant diarrhea due to their diet?

The smell is enough to gag those with the strongest stomachs.

It is no surprise then that our bodies have to work a whole lot harder than our ancestors to maintain enough health to carry on with our busy lives and to keep up with the demands of our modern world.

So it is definitely at least partly environment that dictates how healthy we are or are not. Our inheritance from our gene pool can make surviving the environment we inhabit easier or harder to achieve good health and/or to maintain it.

I got hit with a double dose from both sides so I do have to work at this and that is why I put so much time and energy into focusing on these topics.

I hope that sharing what I learn and what I do might help others who are struggling to keep their lab numbers where they want them, the number on the scale in a range they find acceptable, and their general overall feeling-good in check.

Having said all the above, I do hope that you realize that you are not fully to blame if you are experiencing health issues. It is not just your choices. Of course, I encourage you to make good choices where and whenever you can, but I hope to take off some of the shame and some of the blame that those of use who suffer tend to place on ourselves. It's really not all your fault!!

Why did the bullet end up losing his job?

He got fired.