Told ya so
17 May
For those of you who don’t know, I have a day job. I’m the founder of an organization called Mindful Living NJ, and I do a lot of the same work over there that I do here. Attempt to educate and empower people to make healthy, holistic choices.
For a while, I was blogging only as “Mindful Girl.” A like-minded, yet understated version of The Wellness Bitch, Mindful Girl attempts to change minds with information, reason, and compassion. I’m her. And she’s me.
The Wellness Bitch was born of my innate need to scream in people’s faces. Because as good as I’ve gotten at sublimating my rage, it still lurks deep within my petite, inconspicuous exterior.
Mindful Girl doesn’t scream. She nudges. She intimates. She chants. She cheers. The Wellness Bitch, as you know, takes no prisoners.
So, I have mixed feelings when I see the mainstream media reporting on “news” that those of us in the know have been discussing for years. When my college roommate and lil bitch Linnea posted this article from MSNBC.com on her Facebook status today– “Pesticides in kids linked to ADHD” –I chuckled.
Mindful Girl jumps up and down, cheering that our message will finally make it onto the desktop of Average Joe. Wellness Bitch, on the otherhand, snorts at the fact that MSNBC.com reports this as if it’s “just in.” A more accurate headline to this article would be “My Editor Finally Let Me Write This Story About The Connection Between Pesticides and ADHD Because Our Medical Advisory Board Approved the Study.”
Kudos to health writer JoNel Allecia for doing her part to educate the public. But her first sentence suggests she’s still unsure or answering to someone. “Exposure to pesticides used on common kid-friendly foods — including frozen blueberries, fresh strawberries and celery — appears to boost the chances that children will be diagnosed with ADHD,” she writes. (Emphasis is mine.) Really? We can’t just use the verb “boosts?” We have to soften it with “appears?” What’s the point of backing your story up with a scientific study if the credibility it lends doesn’t even allow you to use a nice active, direct verb? Jesus Christ, people! Grow a pair of balls!
It’s clear that even educated folks still have a little ways to go. I nthe article, one mom is quoted as saying she’d been feeding her child organic strawberries for a while, knowing that they’re on the “dirty dozen” list. But she hadn’t given frozen strawberries “a second thought.”
Mindful Girl would smile and make a mental note to add frozen fruits to my lists when explaining which conventional fruits and veggies are the most toxic.
The Wellness Bitch would say, “Think people! Think!!!!!”
Since my two personas attract two different audiences (with some overlap), I will likely continue to straddle both worlds. One leg in the peaceful realm of Mindful Girl “making connections that make a difference.” And the other kicking you in the face in an effort to wake you the fuck up.
Chuckling is a good response to the MSNBC article. But until caring people like you and myself can reach as many people as MSNBC, I guess we can be thankful that the simple truths about health and healing will continue to come out to the masses, however slowly.
Touche!
I love it when you call me your lil bitch! I teach a college class using Pollan’s “Omnivore’s Dilemma,” and every semester, I send 30 new ANGRY converts out into the world. Each time I use this book in my classes (and some well placed documentaries like Future of Food), 60 pairs of eyes come into focus, jaws hit the floor, and there are incredulous cries of people saying, “How can they get away with poisoning us?” Damn, I should bring The Wellness Bitch up to the Boston area as a guest speaker next fall!
Sign me up. I love ‘em when they’re angry and ripe.
Go for it. I’m drawn in already!