We all have our political passions…that one issue that energizes us to stand up, speak up, vote, boycott, and be willing to loose friends to defend our beliefs and convince others to join the cause.

When simple words become political issues, emotions replace reason: abortion, free health care, big government, gun control, gay marriage, immigration, nuclear warfare, strip mining, taxes, vaccines, war and more. No matter how logical a compromise might sound,  you can’t meet on middle ground when you feel the need to stand firm atop the moral high ground.

But as debate rhetoric clogs up the airwaves with polarized opinions and undeniable statistics of senseless deaths, such as the fact that there were 30,000 gun-related deaths last year, it’s alarming that we turn a blind eye to the  1.1 million people that died from heart disease and cancer. And with 26 million American’s living with diabetes, it’s time to acknowledge that the drive-thrus kill far more people than drive-bys. Bad food kills good people.

Millions of people are dying from curable disease. And if 75%of all chronic disease is preventable, why are we so focused on racing for the cure, and raising money to pay for drugs and treatments that don’t actually cure anything? The TRUTH is that we don’t have to get sick in the first place.

It’s estimated that only 2-3% of all cancers can be attributed to genes. And even then, mutant genes must be activated. Gene expression is usually triggered by environmental factors. In our bodies, the external world becomes internal with every bite of food we ingest.

What we eat creates our health. Every meal, every day, we become what we eat. And while many people might look at cost as a prohibitive factor to eating organic, high quality whole foods, the true cost of cheap, bad food is evident in the $3 trillion dollars spent on health care each year.

Every time we open a package of processed food, unwrap a “value meal” from a cheap restaurant, or “treat” ourselves with unnaturally colored and flavored, trans-fat and cholesterol-laden ingredients grown in fertilized soil and treated with pesticides designed to KILL the animals that threaten the profitable and genetically modified crop, we not only poison ourselves, we MISS OUT on the abundance of antioxidants, phytochemicals and enzymes divinely provided to support life, and protect us from the external poisons, natural and unnatural, that are inevitable.

You won’t die from eating a donut. Or a pop tart.  Or a greasy pizza. Or drinking a soda pop. Eating a serving of bacon, chicken or beef–or cookies, candy or cheese-in-a-can– is no less healthy than say, 1 cigarette.

But my grandpa lived to be 90 as a heavy smoker. It was my grandma who died of cancer at 33 years of age. You never know how much is too much for you until it’s too late.

But one thing is for sure. Bad food kills even good people at some point. Food is the problem. But good news. Food is the solution. Real food. Watch Ron Finley’s amazing efforts to transform South Central, California.

Colleen