The older I get, the less trusting I am in general. Like, all through my twenties and into my early thirties, I felt pretty sure that the government genuinely had our best interests at heart — why wouldn’t they want the best for all citizens?! They themselves are citizens, after all — and that their recommendations could be trusted.

Ha! Things are a bit different now.

There are a number of conspiracy theories that I find believable, now, which most of you would probably laugh at because “science,” but really, isn’t “believing the science” just as much a matter of faith as religion? I’ve never seen an atom or been to outer space. I wasn’t there at the dawn of life on earth. I’m just taking The Scientists’ word for it.

But one of these theories in particular, I’ve been dwelling on a lot in recent months, and I have become increasingly convinced of its truth. The theory is: people, especially poor people, are being actively, deliberately poisoned via our food supply.

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I remember some time ago hearing about someone who believed that popular, mainstram nutritional recommendations were BS. That all of the “eat fruits and vegetables!”, “fresh produce is the best thing for you!” advice, which is drilled into our heads from infancy, was propaganda and lies. That the “Food Pyramid” / “MyPlate” stuff, which encourages eating mostly vegetables and fruits, was an evil government scheme to make people unhealthy.

Hearing about this person’s outlandish conspiracy theory, I laughed. “That’s ridiculous,” I thought. “That’s crazy! Everyone knows fruits and veg are the best foods for your health. The Science says so.”

But a seed had been planted in my mind, and I couldn’t forget about it.

As you guys know, for a while now I’ve been researching and reconsidering the whole vaccine issue, and have concluded that the antivax position is more compelling than I originally thought. That’s a different story though. I bring it up because, in researching vaccines, I learned about “Big Pharma” and the fact that they are the ones funding most of these “studies” that have pro-vaccine findings. How chronic health conditions from our food and drugs lead to people’s further dependence on Big Pharma for more drugs. It’s all for proft. I learned how the billionaires benefit from us being sickly.

And at the same time, as new parents, my husband I began paying more attention to the national grocery recall alerts, in order to stay apprised of what was safe to buy for our kids. Every day, another recall, another contaminated item on the shelves.

Most of it, fresh fruits and vegetables.

Apparently regulating the cleanliness of the farms that grow our food supply is just not that important to the folks in charge… or, could it be that are they doing this on purpose?

Because here’s the other thing about produce. Unless you shell out for organic, which is easily more than twice the price (and can you really trust that little “organic” label, anyway?), so prohibitively expensive for poor people… you’re inevitably ingesting all kinds of toxic pesticides. And you can’t just wash them off, no matter how long you scrub or soak, or with what cleaning materials. (“However much you’re doing,” a former farm employee told my husband, “it’s not enough.”)

I’ve been reading a lot about these pesticides and their effects. Everything from cancer and thyroid disease to early onset of puberty in girls — which is in itself linked to myriad physical and mental health issues.

Early puberty (which I addressed in this post) is a huge problem and it’s getting worse. I read that in the days of early humans, girls didn’t menstruate until like 18-19. More recently in history, it was 14-15. Nowadays, it’s like 11, creeping ever lower.

And it’s because of our food.

Which was so enlightening for me to learn, because as a religious person I always wondered why God would design girls so that they attained physical maturity years before psychological/emotional maturity. I know not to question God’s design, but that seems like a questionable choice.

But then I leaned: He didn’t!! This screwed-up arrangement, which damages our health and our society in a number of ways, is a result of our gross toxic diet.

And even those of us who eat obsessively healthy, shelling out for organic everything, can’t avoid these effects entirely, because these toxins are everywhere. They’re in our environment. They’re in our bodies. Flame retardants in breastmilk. Microplastics in the placenta. It’s true. We’re so cooked, y’all.

And where do we find most of these harmful pesticides, but on fresh produce: the very food that Big Government keeps pushing us to consume more of.

And here’s further evidence that this war is being waged against poor people specifically. WIC, the program that provides food for low-income pregnant women and little kids, provides mostly what kind of foods?: fruits and vegetables. Also, non-organic, low-fat and fat-free dairy — some of the absolute worst food for you, hormonally, full of bovine sex hormones. This is what the government wants you to eat. (The packet WIC gives you specifically reads “Do not buy organic.”) Also, they give you a metric ton of dry cereal, like a boatload of dry cereal, which we all know is highly processed and straight trash for your health, just one big blood sugar spike in a box. Oh, and don’t get me started on the jarred baby foods!

Not saying the government is obligated to give us organic groceries or anything! That would be entitled and absurd, and is not what I believe at all! I’m just pointing out that this is what they are encouraging, in the nutrition counseling that they offer to these poor young families; these are the only kinds of foods that are available to low-income people; WIC is concrete evidence of that.

It’s only rich folks who can afford organic. What are poor folks to do? Growing and raising your own food seems like the only option, if you want to feed your family safely — but who can afford all that land and livestock, not to mention organic feed for said livestock? Answer: only rich people. Poor folks can’t win. There’s no way around it. Literally, it’s be poisoned, or starve. This is probably why poor folks have lower life expectancy.

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So yeah, I no longer think that one person’s claims were so crazy or ridiculous. I don’t think it’s true that “fruits and vegetables are unhealthy,” per se — as a vegetarian who loves vegetables and fruit, I know how good it feels to include a lot of them in one’s diet, and surely they provide a lot of micronutrients! — but in America, for most of us, they are toxic and a major health hazard, because of all the contaminants.

The government knows this perfectly well, and probably has all along, yet they continue to let poorly-regulated, contaminated, toxin-laden produce onto the grocery store shelves — and to pressure us, especially the poorest among us, to buy them.

I’m don’t even identify as a “crunchy mom.” I vaccinate, I take Tylenol, I wear Bath & Body Works, and all of my babies were born in a hospital. But imo it’s become painfully obvious that we, the lower classes, are being poisoned by the big food and drug corporations, and we’re pretty powerless to do anything about it.