Control What You Can: A Three-Step Revolution
From world politics, to the race for General AI, to climate change, to the iron-fist socioeconomic rule of the billionaire class–we are living in a time when we feel very little control over our lives. It doesn’t matter where your views on things land–you feel powerless. So why not control what you can? There certainly is an argument that we have been conditioned to sit in our cubicles, eat processed foods, become sick, and die. Sounds like it’s time for a personal revolution! Here’s a three-step process toward being more in control of your life:
Exercise is number one. You have the opportunity to move and get stronger. No one can stop you. In fact, take a break from reading this and do 25 squats to a chair–you’re on your way. Nothing is more effective in prolonging your life than exercise. It is also the most effective antidepressant available. We challenge you to move every day for a week–literally do anything. Just move–and see how you feel. You’re in control. The system wants you sitting down in one place and not moving all day–that is what we’ve been trained to do–to accept our stationary life in our little cubicles. Exercise is a revolutionary act.
Secondly, you can control what you eat. Try going a week with just eating things that don’t have a list of ingredients–just real food found in nature. This is another revolutionary act–because it eliminates industrial starches from your diet. Industrial starches like maltodextrin are well-known for their high glycemic index–which is many times more harmful than pure sugar. These starches are in all processed foods. They serve as “fillers” to cheaply make processed foods cheaper to make and more profitable to sell. Why are they so cheap? Because they are heavily subsidized by the government. It is also well-known that they are a leading cause of Type 2 Diabetes. You may be asking yourself, “Wait–you mean the government is going out of its way to make the most unhealthy foods cheaper? It sounds like they are poisoning our food and selling it to us cheap!” Yes. That’s exactly what we’re saying. Smoking, for instance, has been thoroughly proven to be the most deadly risk behaviors in existence. Smoking kills 8 million people per year. Dietary causes (including heavy ultra-processed foods) is responsible for 11 million deaths per year. Time to revolt!
Thirdly, we can inform ourselves about politicians and their relationships to lobbying groups that support, for instance, subsidizing industrial starches that are basically poison to our bodies. There are reliable websites that track the relationships between politicians and lobbying groups. OpenSecrets.org provides detailed information on political donations, lobbying expenditures, and connections between politicians and special interest groups. In 2024 in the US, for example, US farmers received over $5 billion in subsidies for corn and soybeans. Most of this money goes to creating sweeteners, oils, and fillers that end up in processed food that make us sick.
By implementing these three steps, you go a long way toward taking back control over key aspects of your health and wellbeing. So, give them a try and share them with your friends and family. It may just add to a ripple effect that helps change the world for the better.
Until next time
Scott and Lennart