Welcome to Day 18, Amazing Warriors!

We are almost at our halfway point! Yes!! You are well equipped now to make healthier, more sustainable choices and there is more to come! Much more valuable information awaits you in future daily guidance posts including: deciphering food additives, excitotoxins, exploring dairy, how to choose the highest quality meat and fish, best cooking oils, facts about coffee, tools for turning this cleanse into your lifestyle, what ingredients to watch out for in body care, and more! So don't overwhelm yourself. Take it day by day and stay committed to making the best choices in the present. The information on GMOs itself is a lot to contend with. And a very important undertaking. I know it is semi-heartbreaking to read how far the American government has strayed from a true interest in public welfare. But the more you know, the more you can opt out of the existing social and cultural norms and create something new for yourselves and your communities. 

Righteous anger has a healthy and necessary place in ushering forth cultural transformation. It can fuel our impetus in finding new ways to emancipate ourselves and our loved ones from the grip of forces seeking to dominate and destroy.  It’s all a game.  And this beautiful community I am so very grateful to have the opportunity to co-create with has so much collective power.  Let us rise in courage and commitment to break the chains and reclaim our power.  If we side with Nature, we win.  Always.  That’s the greatest force in the Universe.  Let us continue to pray (in our own special way) for our collective healing and the healing of our planet.  I refuse to give up hope, and I hope you do too.

Here are some more ways to avoid GMO’s at the supermarket and when dining out:

·      Eat organic! It may not always be feasible, but strive always towards choosing organic. To be certified organic means that no GMOs are present to the manufacture's/farmer's knowledge. There has indeed been cross contamination of GMOs and natural seeds, and the manufacturer/farmer is self-regulated, but if enough people choose organic, we will collectively break the legs of the Monsanto monster with our consumer choices.   

·      Look for the Non-GMO Verified stamp on packaged goods. According to their website: "The Non-GMO Project is a non-profit organization committed to preserving and building the non-GMO food supply, educating consumers, and providing verified non-GMO choices. We believe that everyone deserves an informed choice about whether or not to consume genetically modified organisms." They actually test samples of the product to make sure no GMOs are present. Nice people they are!!

·      Be wary of anything that says SOY, CORN, COTTON, RAPESEED (aka CANOLA), and SUGAR.  If a label on a packaged food simple says “sugar,” you can almost guarantee that it is a cane sugar and beet sugar compound.  Beets are genetically modified to produce cheap sugar and only need to be labeled "sugar" on a package.

·      Even if it means limiting your intake of dairy (which is good for the planet anyway), never buy conventional dairy products.  Pellets of genetically modified soy and corn are fed to the cows.  And very often, cows are injected with a genetically modified growth hormone called rBGH.  However, just because a label reads “cows not injected with rBGH” doesn’t mean you are safe.  They still fattened them up with GM feed.  Look for grass fed and grass finished dairy – that’s what cows are supposed to eat. Trader Joe's has a New Zealand cheddar cheese that comes from grass fed cows. They have both organic and non-organic. But at least the non-organic cheese is from cows not eating GM grains! So if you can't afford organic, that's an option. Not the ideal, but "better." Which is what we are striving for. Just get a little better as you go along. The ideal would be organic, grass fed and grass finished. We will explore this topic more deeply in a future daily guidance post on dairy.

·      When eating out, order grass fed beef ONLY.  And only organic, preferably pastured poultry and wild seafood. We'll explore what these terms mean in a future post.

·      Download this very valuable tool and refer to it each time you shop until you are well versed in all GM pseudonyms.  Get to know the names of corn, soy and canola derivatives. This guide has a complete list of GM ingredient names: http://www.nongmoshoppingguide.com/

·      Refrain from dairy when eating out.  GMO’s are in the coffee creamer, the cheese in your omelette, and the sour cream on your tacos. Don't do it. 

·      Take your own ketchup and hot sauce to the ball game or the diner.  Heinz is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup! How dare they. Get a bottle at Trader Joe’s. Their organic ketchup is sweetened with organic sugar.  It’s “sugar,” but at least it’s not genetically modified! A little squirt here and there is reasonable. And for the kitchen ninjas out there....make your own ketchup! Try this recipe for a fermented ketchup I've been wanting to make for a while now. Ketchup and fermented in the same sentence?! Whaaaat?! Also, be super wary of conventional hot sauces. Lots of them have extra weird stuff, including clandestine GMOs if you look at the label. So scrutinize condiments labels and find aesthetically pleasing mini dispensers to take with you so you don’t look as crazy as me with mushy Ziplock bags. (Note to self)

·      Ask the server what kind of oil your food will be cooked with.  Can they make your food with pure olive oil, coconut oil or grass fed ghee/butter?  Please?  Most restaurants use the cheapest genetically modified vegetable oils like corn, soybean and canola to keep costs down. Thanks guys.

·      Keep snacks in your car or your backpack.  Don’t wanna be caught hungry in a desolate place where only KFC and 7-11 have edible inedibles to offer you.

·      Say bye-bye to Pepsi and Diet Coke – forever.  That high fructose corn syrup is more lethal than sugar - and made from GM corn.  And until very recently, Pepsi flavored their soda with aborted fetus cells.  Eeww….I mean….eewwwww…….and…Oh my GOD… who would've thunk fetal tissue was so flavorful? And how many babies have been in my belly? The thought of this....eesh....Let's crash this train of thought for good and choose a better alternative.  Like sparkling water. Or kombucha. Or sparkling water mixed with fresh orange juice!  Or champagne!  The fizzy possibilities are endless.

·      Avoid the bread in restaurants unless you know they use real, whole, fresh ingredients or that it's made from a local baker who doesn’t use corn, canola, or soy ingredients. You really don't need that bread anyway. Trust.

·      Watch out for chocolate that isn’t organic.  Soy lecithin is used as an emulsifier. So if the chocolate isn’t organic, that emulsifier is GMO.  Think Subway chocolate chip cookies, Godiva and Snickers.

·      Don’t use the white, pink, blue, or yellow packets of sweeteners at the restaurant for your coffee.  Aspartame is made from the excrement of GM bacteria. I know. Yum. Use the brown packet.  Or forego the sweetener altogether.

·      Never order or buy Hawaiian papaya – genetically modified.  Only Mexican papaya is safe.  

·      From now on, own less but upgrade in every way.  Be a qualitarian versus a quantitarian. Buy only organic cotton balls, q-tips, feminine products and sheets. Make a positive difference through your consumer choices. More than 270,000 farmers in India have committed suicide due to multiple devastating consequences that emerged from the planting of GM cotton. Try and imagine this. Let's be in solidarity with these farmers and refuse to buy a product so damaging to our Earth and Her people.

·      Learn to cook! The more single-ingredient products and farm fresh produce you can get your hands on, the better you are at controlling your GMO intake. Watch YouTube videos on cooking. Get inspired by the Food Network. Healthify one of your family or culture's traditional recipes. Wake up earlier to make lunch/dinner. Freeze meals for future homemade fast food! Experiment with different recipes. Host cooking parties. You must become self-sufficient to even have the option of rejecting today's industrial food system. And you deserve to have dominion over your life and your health! They're not the boss of you!

These are just a few suggestions.  We gotta keep up the detective work and the ninja training!  Please share on our group page if you come up with any other suggestions. 

I read something so poignant once, written by the beautiful Arundhati Roy, that I hope titillates your deepest will to be a vehicle of change and renewal.  It really inspired me in just the moment I needed: “To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.”

My love to you all…..

©Erika Elizondo, H.H.C