I feel like the greatest American mystery of our time is "health".

And the topic is all encompassing. In fact, completely irrelevant products to health are marketed with a visual appeal to support health. Explain to me how a calendar is healthy? Just because it is printed on recycled paper and is "eco-friendly" does not convey "health" to me. Is it printed with organic vegetable ink, too? Can you lick the pages when you're finished? Okay, now I'm just being snarky, but 'health' is one of the biggest buzz words floating around these days.

Consumerism in American Culture feels as though there is a fight going on between labels of "healthy", "natural", "organic" and "let me buy this cheaper off of Temu, Shein or AliExpress." There is something not healthy about buying direct from China to me, but that's a post for another day, sadly I digress.

If a packaged "organic" grocery item has more than 5 ingredients on something that should be a one or two ingredient list, I'm still not buying it. Sure, I understand the ingredients in it are all organic. I feel that is better than the alternatives, but at what point is that actually "healthy" for you? Take organic cookies for instance. When you have 20 ingredients all using organic this and that, at the end of the day it is still a cookie, I think? Just because it uses organic cane sugar, doesn't mean it isn't still loaded with sugar.

Why is a mainstream question, "What diet do you follow?" And people reply with, Keto, or plant-based, or a hundred other variations of the same thing... If you have allergies to wheat, staying gluten free is important to your health. If you do not have an allergy, carbs are not the enemy. It's the chemicals, the processing and the additives that are found in most pre-packaged foods that line the aisles in US groceries.

I never buy foods labeled "Sugar Free" or "Fat Free" because those are all code words for artificial and chemicals. If it's not real, you shouldn't consume it. Artificial food colorings, additives and flavorings are all unnecessary and sadly packaged to look "healthy".

If we believe health is wealth, and time is money, then we have to start caring enough to take the time to cook real foods in our kitchens again. The "I don't have time" excuse is one of the greatest lies we convince ourselves of each day. If your health is a priority, quit taking the cheap or easy way out. A processed bar, shake or pre-packaged, "just add water and enjoy" anything is not healthy. You may lose weight, I will not dispute that, and being obese is not healthy either--so I understand the crossroads here--but your health is worth more than 90 seconds in the microwave and a meal on the run.

Just because a person is "skinny" also doesn't mean they are "healthy". I know plenty of "skinny" people who eat so poorly that they think the gym will fix it. "I'll just down another energy drink, skip this meal, workout for an hour, and then have alcohol and junk for dinner." You may laugh, but thousands of people follow someone who is an "intermittent faster" and believes they can eat an entire family-sized pizza for lunch and call themselves healthy because they have 'abs'. Every athlete will tell you, there is nothing you can do in the gym that substitutes the results good nutrition brings.

Be active, but not at the expense of your fuel supply. Our food consumption is the answer to our energy levels in a day. If you feel you need the mid-day energy drink to make it through, re-evaluate your diet. If you load up with sugary and artificial sweeteners in your morning, you will most certainly crash come 3 pm. Your mental alertness and ability to focus clearly on a task is also directly related to your diet. The fuel supply powers the rest of the body to function at its best.

Be active. Eat real foods. Drink water. Take whole-food based supplements when needed. Live your best life. And while I'm at it, don't buy crap off Temu, Shein and AliExpress because its cheaper. The mentality that is attracted to those kind of deals is also attracted to the artificial-shortcut-diet versions of 'health'. When it comes to your health, it is always worth the investment.