Is there hope?

I might just be crazy optimistic. I realize that. But it really seems to me that more people are making The Change. A lot more people.

This stuff is making it big. There's a whole TV show about it now, this crazy idea of actually eating real food. There are fantastic journalists writing books and articles that people are really reading, there are bloggers lining up like crazy to share the things they're learning and doing in their kitchens.

For the first time since the Industrial Revolution, people are starting to question whether the scientists really have any clue what they're talking about, and they're doing it en masse. As shoppers, we're learning that just because the Wheat Thins box tells us they're healthy, or the Oreo package says it's only 100 calories, does NOT actually mean this stuff is okay to be eating. As moms and housewives, we're donning our aprons and wielding rolling pins, baking our breads and muffins from scratch again, after finally figuring out that the pre-made mixes our mothers adopted are actually probably killing us. We're shunning the aluminum cans and learning to make broth, we're insisting that huge corporations like Wal Mart start providing us with organic yogurt and whole grains. And they're doing it.

There have been movements like this before - people trying to tell us that this "modern" way of eating is probably making us very sick, telling us to get back to eating actual food. Remember the "Back-to-the-Landers"? But we've never listened the way we are now. Maybe it's because we have more tools now - we have access to articles online, we have the means to share the knowledge we gain with huge quantities of people easily. People don't have to listen to their doctors regurgitate outdated, incorrect nutritional philosophies anymore if they don't want to.

I'm excited. I think it's cool to be a part of this. It thrills me to see so many people joining forces, using every outlet, to get these ideas out to the general public. To the many bloggers, to the TV chefs, to the journalists willing to shun politically correct "nutritionism" in favor of actual fact - a big Thank You. Little by little you're creating hope that our species could actually survive, that our children might not die of Western Disease.

We're starting to stand up for ourselves - do you see it? Or am I just optimistic crazy?