Today I had the pleasure (not) of going to the DMV to renew my license. I was struck by just how fake the new normal is. Fake hair, fake lashes, fake food. The media and powers that be have done a fabulous job in convincing us that we are not good enough just as we are. They have taught us that we must constantly strive for more, better, faster, newer, whatever. We must always strive to be who and what we are not. And we comply at our own peril while big business profits mightily. This is the matrix made real.
Here is a video to illustrate this process.
While I like this video it misses some key points. One of which is that it is us, those of Afrikan descent and other People of Color around the world who pay the biggest price. We are the ones working in the toxic jobs. We are the ones whose land is being stolen and destroyed. We are the ones who are criminalized and imprisoned providing free labor and another profitable business for big business. We are the ones who are told the loudest that your black and brown skin, kinky hair, facial and body features are wrong and ugly.
Here is another point this video misses. The food we eat plays a huge role too. There is a serious environmental impact of the food choices we make. The big business of meat and dairy production and factory farming as well as processed foods are a part of that consumption process too. And so are the medical and pharmaceutical industries.
And we as Afrikan people are the ones whose health is suffering the most. We have all heard the statistics. Afrikan Americans suffer and die at higher rates of disease. Increasingly our Afrikan brothers and sisters around the world are catching up with us as they too adopt our American ways
This is why eating vegan is so important. It is a key part of stepping off the conveyor belt that is heading us towards disease, disability and death. But it is not enough. To be truly healthy we must do more. My husband and physician Nana Kwaku Opare outlines in his book The Rule Book And User Guide For Healthy Living the following things we must all do.
We Must Breathe Properly.
We Must Drink Water.
We Must Rest, Sleep And Dream.
We Must Eat Wisely, Individualized To Our Body Constitution.
We Must Perform Certain Acts We Call Hygiene.
We Must Not Poison Ourselves.
We Must Move Our Bodies Wisely, Individualized To Our Body Constitution.
We Must Expose Ourselves To The Sun.
We Must Engage In Complementary Relations With Others.
We Must, Through Knowledge Of Self, Respect, Align, And Harmonize Ourselves With The Natural World. We Must Live In The Practice Of Maat.
We Must Connect With Our God Essence And To Our Ancestral Wisdom Through Spiritual Work And Practice.
We Must Be On Our Purpose And Use Our Divinely Gifted Genius In Service To The World.
We Must Participate In The Growing/Raising Of The Children.
We Must Actively Reclaim Our Afrikanity And Culture.
We Must Have A Habitual Practice Of Loving Kindness.
We Must Engage In Right Livelihood.
So, my Afrikan brothers and sisters, I would love to hear your thoughts about this. Please leave me a comment below.
A library of courses to show you how to make delicious healthy meals, deal with your cravings, feel confident about what you are eating, and navigate the non-vegan world you live in.
No denying that proper eating is needed, but vegetarian only? The human body naturally (evolution) has the biochemical machinery to digest proteins of many types, including those from animals – land or sea. Why is this excluded?
Richard,
Thanks for your comment. Eating animal products is the root cause of most of the chronic diseases we suffer from today. Once eliminated these disease can be reversed. Our systems are not designed to eat meat. We may be able to digest them but the process causes harm in many ways. This has been proven many times but the very same Matrix sends us misinformation to be sure we don’t believe it (if we even are exposed to the information). Not to mention the fact that in today’s factory farming food system the animal product deliver a heavy dose of poison in the form of pesticides, hormones, mad cows disease, salmonella, cancer cells and more.
Ama