The Choices We Make
In Peru there is a large hydroelectric project between Peru and Brazil to build a dam on the Inambari river that will generate 2000 megawatts of electricity for an economically starved people. Both countries desperately need "clean" methods of producing the power that will build their economies and power the future. Both countries have been looking for a solution for years. At the same time, any dam creates the same issues. It was true with the Nile, true with the Euphrates and true with the Missouri rivers. It requires destruction of dozens of miles to allow for the reservoir of water that forms above the dam. It removes the silt and life-giving minerals that feed the ecosystem below the dam. What's uniquely true about the Inambari project is that it will wipe out not just 60 villages and displace their residents, but it will destroy a large chunk of forest which is an essential producer of oxygen and absorber of carbon dioxide. If the roots of the trees are left in the ground instead of removed, then the decay of submerged tree roots will result in massive amounts of carbon dioxide and methane being released.
So what is the answer? Even in our own lives we spend each day trying to balance healthy with necessity. We want to eat healthy, exercise, take a walk and prevent future illness... but we have to do it under our company's time schedule, under pressure and stress and giving time to our families at the same time. So often I tell a client sitting in front of me that they need to eat greens, but how do they do that at work where they are grading papers through their lunch hour to keep up? People can't afford to buy organic food, they have just enough money for basic food. The cheapest foods are carbohydrates and processed foods, making them more economical. But they are truly the most destructive nutritional force for our health.
We talk about how much healthier fish is, but the villagers that are currently eating fish from the Inambari are consuming massive amounts of mercury being spilled into the river by desperately poor miners using mercury to separate out gold from the soil of the riverbank that they are carving up with front-end loaders so they can sell the gold and feed their families.
Economy or environment? Health or responsibilities of work and family? It's the most difficult choices we have to make. So what do we do?
First, schedule time into your day for the most important factors in your health. Whether it is time to go for a walk, do yoga, get massage, make healthy food or simply read a book. Don't explain it, just do it. Once it's part of your daily schedule you will do it. If you wait each day for the right time, it won't happen.
Next, take a group of minimum nutritional products that will ensure you have greens in your system when you don't have time for greens in your diet, as well as all the core vitamins, minerals, enzymes and essential fats. Then your diet becomes more variable and more forgiving. My favorite core group is: Catalyn, SP Green Food (or if you tend to have liver congestion or allergies, Cruciferous Complete), Trace Minerals B12, fish oil and Vitanox. We even have at the clinic the General Health packets which are small pre-dose packets to take twice a day of all of these things. If you skip meals, you can't skip on protein, so you have to add protein shakes which are easy and quick. Our Whey Pro Complete is organic, healthy and quick.
But perhaps the most important thing is to create balance in our lives. You can't have the perfect diet, you can't avoid exposure to chemicals, toxins, heavy metals or stress. So the solution is to pick and choose your battles, eat everything in moderation and offset the negative impact of things with detoxification. For more information, just ask us!
Is the Inambari Dam the future of Peru and Brazil? Yes, but what kind of future depends on how the impact is minimized, managed and choices made that offset the loss to the displaced people and the ecosystem. It's all about the choices that we make.