A New Declaration of Independence

On July 4, U.S. Independence Day, we celebrate our nation’s independence from colonial rule. Our liberation from forces that sought to exploit us and keep us down to enhance their own wealth and power.

As we look at our nation today, we see too many people suffering and dying from preventable conditions like heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes.

We see family members weeping at the bedsides of loved ones who have succumbed to the lie that there was nothing they could have done.

We see widows and widowers raising young children whose only memory of mommy or daddy will be the photos on the mantel.

We see obese, diabetic children getting most of their calories from soda, chips, and fast food drive-throughs.

We see a national farm policy that makes the unhealthiest food cheap and the healthiest food prohibitively expensive for the vulnerable poor.

We see a medical establishment vigorously denying the power of nutrition to end these epidemics while advocating furiously for research into costly, risky, and invasive drugs and procedures.

We see an environment degraded by industrial farming, and rural communities exploited, impoverished, and ultimately abandoned once the living soil has been killed.

And we see the connecting link among all these problems: The Standard American Diet, presented to us as normal and good by the billions of marketing dollars spent by industries who, like a colonial oppressor, benefit from our ignorance and illness. These industries, who are so good at marketing we don’t even realize what they’re doing. They are so good at laundering their marketing through government policy, media reporting, academic institutions, and non-profit fundraising, we mistake it for scientific truth.

We need a new Declaration of Independence.

As a society, we have given up our autonomy and our self-interests to forces that enhance their wealth at the expense of our health.

We see too many people dependent on (addicted to) processed foods engineered to cause cravings.

We see too many people dependent on dangerous synthetic drugs to regulate their cholesterol, lower their blood pressure, and keep their blood sugar from spiking or plummeting.

We see too many people dependent on surgery, radiation, and chemo-poisoning to cut out or shrink tumors that did not need grow.

We see too many farmers dependent on government subsidies and regulations that require them to grow feed for factory-farmed animals.

We see too many patients dependent on their nutritionally ignorant doctors’ dismissal of healthy eating as the single most powerful strategy to reverse and prevent most diseases.

We see too many elderly people dependent on a woefully underfunded health care system to treat the diseases and conditions that have developed as a result of decades of poor nutrition.

We see too many politicians dependent on funds raised from industries whose interests are directly opposed to those of their constituents.

We see too many journalists dependent on “done-for-you” press releases written by the marketing departments of junk food makers.

We see too many media outlets and publishers dependent on corporate ad revenue suppressing the truth about nutrition and health.

We see too many health-related non-profits and professional organizations dependent on corporate handouts pretending that expensive and ineffective screenings, drugs, and surgeries are better uses of our resources than education about and access to healthy food.

How do we declare independence from the mind control of junk food makers and the medical establishment, along with the government, media, and fundraising entities in their pockets?

Regaining Our Independence

Each of us can regain our own independence by saying “no” to the Standard American Diet (SAD) and saying “yes” to NAKED eating, (the New Authentic Kind and Enlightened Diet).

By eliminating fake food fragments and factory-farmed meat, eggs, and dairy from our diets, and instead eating what human bodies are designed to thrive on: whole, plant-based foods.

We can regain our independence by becoming critical consumers of media stories and claims about health.

We can regain our independence by learning how to “follow the money” behind the marketing that passes for science.

We can regain our independence by becoming, not intolerant zealots, but shining beacons of good health and vitality that others are drawn to. (Remember the famous restaurant scene in When Harry Met Sally? We want people to look at us and say, “I want what she’s having”!)

We can regain our independence by discovering how to shop for and prepare healthy meals. (Check out the recipes in this website for lots of information and inspiration.)

We can regain our independence by hosting Naked Food gatherings and potlucks, and sharing our skills and information with loved ones, friends, and neighbors.

We can regain our independence from giant health-destroying corporations by supporting our local farmers and growing our own fruits and vegetables, even on a tiny scale.

And most of all, we can regain our independence by remembering that we are in charge of our own destinies. That we do not have to float in the mainstream doldrums, but can use our muscles to swim to the shores of vibrant health.

And that we have a responsibility to our families and ourselves to maintain our independence and promote well-being in our homes, our communities, and our planet.

The New Declaration of Independence
(with apologies to Thomas Jefferson)

We, therefore, the Citizens of the World,
appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world
for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name,
and by Authority of the good People of this Planet,
solemnly publish and declare,
That we are, and of Right ought to be
Free and Independent people;
Absolved from all Allegiance
to the Corporate Interests that pursue their wealth
at the expense of our health,
and that all economic connection between us and these
Corporate Interests, is and ought to be totally dissolved;
and that as Free and Independent People,
we have full Power to levy Health, conclude Vitality,
contract Alliances with Life-promoting Plants,
establish Commerce with Farms, Restaurants, Stores,
and Corporations that Promote Human Health,
Animal Welfare, and Planetary Sustainability,
and to do all other Acts and Things
which Independent People may of right do.
And for the support of this Declaration,
with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence,
we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Good Health,
and our sacred Connection to All Beings on this Planet.