I was watching the HBO Series, True Blood, the other night when a comment was made by one of the age-old vampires that struck a nerve. The “Queen” vampire was touting on one of her many humans in her “collection,” as if she was speaking of a fine wine. She was offering him, or more so, his blood, to another vampire and said something along the lines of, “You must try this Latvian boy. He tastes how humans used to taste before the industrial age” or something like that. I know I put quotes on that — but really, don’t quote me. Her comment made me wonder how a human today would compare with a human from 200 or more years ago if lab studies were done on blood and tissue for contaminants and environmental pollutants. Or maybe I should just say, if a human was tested for “unnatural ingredients.”
Grand Scale Pollution — the Obvious
So when I started thinking about it, the large-scale environmental pollutants that contaminate the air, earth, and water, came to mind first — such things as manufacturing waste, vehicle and factory emissions, etc., that assault us from the outside in. Meaning, we breathe in the polluted air, swim in contaminated water, and have contact with dirty soil (dirty dirt?). From there, I kept going down the funnel from the larger scale pollutants, to the more intimate personal artificial substances.
Hidden Large-Scale Pollution
Now, let’s consider the large scale pollution that is not so obvious: water and food that is laden with chemicals and waste, which we consume. Run-off from commercial and factory farms (one of the worst offenders), manufacturing facilities, and our streets, put such things as herbicides, oil, gasoline, pesticides, fertilizers, bio-waste (crap, et al) and many chemicals, that only a chemist would fully understand, in our drinking water and food supply. So in short, we eat and drink this horrible stuff — usually, unknowingly. Hey, out-of-sight-out-of-mind, right? To take advantage of a pun opportunity, it is in our mind, well, our brain, more accurately — and body… literally (litter-ally? Sorry. I couldn’t help myself). But let’s move on.
Chemicals In Our Personal Environment
Then there are the contaminants that we, ourselves, choose to add into our personal environments: the lawn fertilizer, the weed killer, the bug spray, the house cleaning products, the laundry detergent… yadda, yadda, yadda. And, FINALLY, the last of the distasteful offenders comes from all the chemicals in our personal products that we use: shampoo, conditioner, body wash, soap, powder, deodorant, facial cleansers, toothpaste, body lotions, make-up, and for many people, a whole SERIES of solutions that they chronologically put on their faces in order to do SOMETHING to their skin (stop acne, stop aging, miraculously transform them into a 20-year-old, etc). But, wait! I forgot, there’s MORE!
The Stuff We Know is Bad and Do It Anyway
What about the hoard of detrimental stuff we choose to put IN our bodies: drugs, tobacco, alcohol, artificial flavors, sweeteners, colors, preservatives… I’ll let you finish this part on your own.
We’re Like Feedlot Cows
To concur with the True Blood vampire queen, humans nowadays are not like how we used to be. We are no longer “organically grown” like our ancestors and have become tainted by the industrial age. We have become a “commercially-grown” lot, chemical-ized like a feedlot cow. And if there were age-old vampires today using wine as an analogy to rate blood, we would be equivalent to that of a cheap boxed wine. Or, as a friend once called it, “chateau de carton.” Can you say, “bad taste?”
It’s Time to Get “Clean”
I leave you with this. Take note of what YOU can do to improve your environment, your health, yourself. Ask yourself what can you change to eliminate or reduce toxins in your surroundings and in your body. Maybe we can “upgrade” our industrialized bodies to a status of, at least, a house chardonnay.
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