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Aaron Wynn
Professor Maya Alapin
English 220
22 November 2015
My Journey to an Organic Lifestyle:
Manifesto Outline
Part 1: My History
I.

I am 20 years old, male, college student. Overall healthy but

II.

have had problems in the past with asthma and chest pains.
Food and nutrition has always been a general interest of mine,
however I never delved deep into the topic. I believed my diet
was balanced. It consisted mostly of processed meats and grains

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but also some fruits and vegetables.

In the last year I began experiencing significant mood swings,
sometimes episodes of profound depression lasting more than 5

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days.
Am I as healthy as I think I am?

Part 2: New Information

I. After watching and discussing the video Why Does Unhealthy
Food Taste So Good? on YouTube, I learned the scientific reasons
why many (including myself) have poor or unbalanced diets from
an evolutionary/scientific standpoint. This type of logic was very
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easy for me to understand.

The introduction from Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that
Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats
provided a plethora of new information. Namely that even

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federally defined healthy diets may not be as healthy as we
are led to believe by the powers that be whom Fallon writes of in
her book. I quickly compared to my own diet to the diet she
described and realized that although it is not the worst, it is far
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from my own standards of healthy.

The film Super Size Me did not provide me new information to
the same extent as the previous two class sources, however it
did serve as a strong reminder that even one or two fast food
meals a week can have significantly negative health impacts.
This film supported the other sources in a way that combined
and accumulated all the information I needed to help me realize
that I was not at all satisfied with the diet I was maintaining.

Part 3: Further Research

I. I found an online blog post by J.D. Moyer explaining how he was
able to get his asthma symptoms under control with simple
lifestyle changes to his diet. He described how some commonly
prescribed asthma medications did not help him and I could
completely relate. I tried raw organic garlic, one of his
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suggestions, and was able to breathe better as a result.

Searching for answers and with a more firmly rooted faith in the
power of food and nutrition, I researched online about the
connections observed and studied between diet and mood. There
is no shortage of information on this topic. One article by Dr.
Mercola stood out to me, which explains the correlations
between beneficial bacteria in our stomachs and digestive

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systems and normal development of brain function and
chemistry. Processed foods impede the production and
sometimes even kill these beneficial bacteria, which does in fact
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affect our brains and emotional regulatory abilities.

The health risks associated with processed foods made eating
organic foods an obvious choice. Once again, the amount of
information online about health benefits of organic food is
overwhelming. I found an article by Jessica Shade on the official
Whole Foods website that does a great job of easily explaining
the benefits of organic fruits and vegetables. What stood out to
me the most is that organic fruits and vegetables are
significantly higher in nutritional content and antioxidants than
their GMO counterparts, a point previously touched on by Fallon.
Learning this new knowledge from these sources helped me to
have a revelation of sorts: that I wanted to reconstruct my diet to
include only organic foods in hopes of reaping positive health
benefits and helping with my depression and asthma.

Part 4: Application
I. I want to share my story and inform the general public about the
great benefits of eating organic, so that they may have positive
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results like I have so far.

In my new lifestyle, I will aim to eat not only a strictly organic
diet but also a balanced diet that includes higher amounts of
vegetables and not as much meat as I have been eating.

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III.

I will encourage whoever is reading/watching to share this

information with their friends and family as well so that the
benefits of an organic diet are at known more widely. I wish I had
really understood the importance of diet sooner in my life, but I
am thankful that I have the knowledge now.

Works Cited
Fallon, Sally, Mary G. Enig, Kim Murray, and Marion Dearth. Nourishing
Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct
Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. Brandywine, MD: NewTrends
Pub., 2001. Print.
Mercola. "How Processed Foods and Sugars Cause Depression." Waking
Times. N.p., 22 July 2015. Web. 25 Nov. 2015.
<http://www.wakingtimes.com/2015/07/22/how-processed-foodsand-sugars-cause-depression/>.
Moyer, J. D. "How I Cured My Asthma With One Simple Lifestyle
Change." Web log post. Jdmoyer.com. J.D. Moyer, 17 July 2010.

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Web. <http://jdmoyer.com/2010/07/17/how-i-cured-my-asthmawith-one-simple-lifestyle-change/>.
Shade, Jessica. "The Nutritional Benefits of Organic Fruits and
Vegetables." Whole Foods Market. N.p., 11 Sept. 2014. Web. 25
Nov. 2015.
Super Size Me. Dir. Morgan Spurlock. Samuel Goldwyn Films, 2004.
DVD.
Why Does Unhealthy Food Taste So Good? YouTube. Thoughty2, 10
May 2014. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=b8fWC1uefCY>.