According to the Urban Dictionary, a tree hugger is:
“An environmentalist or one who believes trees and all living things should not be cut down or harmed. Someone who works to protect the environment from destruction or pollution.”
Historically, I did not pay much attention to tree huggers. My cause has always been curbing obesity and childhood obesity, which I felt had nothing to do with nature or the environment. This naive view has recently changed and I now see “the light.”
The Beginning
This change began to happen after reading an article in my favorite magazine, Men’s Health. The article entitled, 15 Ways to Change the World (and Your Life)…, presents a well researched argument of why we all should consume more organically grown foods.
This subject matter typically would not resonate with me. However, my life is currently in transition. On August 14th, 2010, I will be getting married. My usual selfish thoughts of ME are slowly being replaced with thoughts of WE.
I now think about the children we will hopefully have. I think about how what we do, what we eat, and what we feed our children, will effect their lives and health.
Tree Huggers Journey
Reading the Men’s Health article, sparked a flame that lead to me reading and watching:
- The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan,
- Organic Manifesto by Maria Rodale,
- In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan, and
- Food, Inc. directed by Robert Kenner
These resources shed an even brighter light on to how foods are produced. They also enforced the fears I had about how I was living my life and what my future wife and I would be feeding our family.
Where am I going?
There are still some more books and documentaries that I would like to read and watch, such as:
- Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
- The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite
- Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think
- Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition, and Health, Revised and Expanded Edition (California Studies in Food and Culture)
- Real Food: What to Eat and Why
- The Future of Food
- King Corn (Standard Packaging)
In the meantime, I will begin acting on the knowledge I have gained.
Pseudo Tree Hugger
In the next few years, I will focus on maintaining the health of my family. I can best accomplish this by limiting the amount of “unnatural” foods and drinks we consume. These “unnatural” foods include:
- Non-organic foods
- Genetically modified or engineered foods
- Foods grown with the aid of ionized radiation or sewer sludge
- Foods grown with the aid of pesticides
- Meats raised with antibiotics or growth hormone
Some argue that eating organic foods is better for the environment. That would make my family environmentalists. The Chinyere Family of Tree Huggers. I am not sure the title would fit. However, if I can improve the health of my family and the planet at the same time, then I am all for it.
The Don’t Go Broke Diet
If you have been following me, then you know I am a big fan of inexpensive weight loss. That’s why I wrote the Don’t Go Broke Weight Loss Plan. Organic foods tend to be more expensive than non-organic foods. However, weight loss can still be relatively inexpensive while adding organic foods. To help you in this process I’ll be designing an inexpensive organic weight loss plan. In the meantime read this post: Organic Foods and Where to Find Affordable Prices.
Get a copy of Dr. Kal’s free weight loss plan the Don’t Go Broke Diet. The Don’t Go Broke Diet is your guide to inexpensive and permanent weight loss. The new you is waiting. Get started now!
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In my opinion, I believe that Americans are anti-Tree Huggers. However for the few that are tree-huggers, you got my vote.
Organic and American Progress, are contradictory terms. Organic foods are produced by letting nature take its course. We are in the process of mass producing agriculture to create a newer paradigm in industrial farming so how does eating organic fit in to the equation. If eating organic is really healthy then why isn’t there a lot of funding on this? Organic could be just another cliche term to target a specific market.
With today’s environmental crisis like global warming, tree huggers have much to offer in helping the world live longer. Even us – ordinary people can help in simple ways too.
Thumbs up to this post!
I also saw the Food Inc movie, which had a profound affect on my choices of foods as I lost weight (50 lbs lost and 50 lbs to go). And, while I typically don’t spend money in the grocery stores for organic foods, I buy locally grown food at the farmers markets. Most of that food is organic, even though they have not gone through the FDA approval process to get the Organic label. Much of the food you find at the farmers markets are harvested that same day ( or at least that week), grain fed beef, fresh eggs and dairy, and home made breads, pastries and other yummies
This is how we were intended to eat IMHO.
Thanks for that article. I have to say, the term “tree huggers” always makes me laugh! The truth is, I had no idea what it meant, and for some reason likened it to the phrase “hip huggers” lol!
The first time I heard my daughter use that phrase, I had no idea what she was talking about.
Margie
Margie@homes for sale in salt lake city´s last blog ..How To Apply For A Second Home Mortgage
Tree hugger used to be an insulting name but now I think everyone who is considered a tree hugger is actually respected in the community. And that’s the way it should be in this fragile ecological time.
S