I'm trying to give solutions, not cause you a headache, cause you to obsess, or cause you to spend more of your hard earned money.
/endrant
No, you are not. In Truth and Charity, I am confronting you. You are overly obsessed with food and the things that are going into your body and you are trying to convince us of the same.
Gluttony: According to the Baltimore Catechism, gluttony involves more than just eating too much. It also involves being overly concerned with our food--complaining because it's not what we want or what we think is "healthy". Obesity falls under this category of course but so does anorexia. Worrying about how many hormones are in our milk or how many pesticides are on our potatoes, in my opinion, is really treading closely here.
We should be more concerned with our souls getting to heaven than with our bodies living on this earth. Of course, I don't mean we should neglect our bodies. On the contrary, that too would be sinful. We are only asked to do the best we can and be responsible. God requires us to make reasonable choices.
If you are eating corn, rice, soybeans, etc. chances are your are eating genetically modified food. So what can you do about it? Quit eating these things or quit thinking about it. Does it really matter anyway?
As for the early puberty in girls....clearly weight is a factor. I was looking at girls yesterday at the elementary school where my 6 y/o daughter has cheerleader practice. They are huge. Why? Because AT LEAST 4 days a week they are eating crap from fast food places. The local Catholic school does not have a hot cafeteria and the children eat from Pizza Hut, Burger King, Subway, and McDonald's. This is promoted upon registration. A few kids pack lunch but most just order out.
Also, chemicals in clothing, plastics, and cleaning products are known to be causing early puberty.
Also, study after study after study links social family roles to early puberty in girls. Girls who have no father at home are KNOWN to go into puberty early. Other stress factors at home are also indicated.
Also, the entire water system is filled with estrogen from birth control pills, antibiotics from the pills we take regularly for infection, and God knows what else from the medications old people pee out in the toilet. My mother takes 3 meds for her anxiety and/or depression, 2 meds for "pain", something to help her sleep and a blood pressure pill. Are we supposed to all boil our water now before we drink it???
Look, I don't mean to offend, but this is obsessive. Is our environment affecting our lives and health? Yes. But we can only do so much.
80% of the world's population lives BELOW the poverty line. BELOW.
If you look at the U.S., 77% of families whose household actually makes more than 60K a year are TWO INCOME FAMILIES. One income families fall between 30K and 50K a year, with about 15% falling below 20K. I can ASSURE you these people are NOT looking for places to by hormone free milk. They are picking up checks at the WIC office.
We live in a technological age. 95% of Americans shop at the supermarket. Very few people know how to grow their own food, can, or bake from scratch. This includes lots of modern Catholics. Our family is just trying to survive.
In case you don't get it yet--we make less than 50K a year.
15% of that income goes to pay our health insurance premiums. 30% goes to pay our mortgage and property taxes (we are lucky). Currently, 12% of our income goes to food.
Almost 50% of our income goes just to pay for 2 things--a roof over our heads and visits to see the Dr. We struggle and the LAST thing I'm going to do is spend twice as much on milk, meat, and vegetables because I'm overly concerned that my tomatoes have pesticides on them and I might develop allergies.
Wanna know what really causes allergies and diseases??? Our inadequate immune systems. We are so concerned these days about what we eat, who we are exposed to, and how clean our kitchen counters are that our bodies can build natural immunity to common bacteria--BECAUSE we AREN'T EXPOSED anymore.
Now, MY rant is over...sorry all.