by Sean Croxton
Where do babies come from?
Ever since the books I read as a child led me to believe that I was delivered into this world dangling from the beak of a stork, I’ve been fascinated by that critical question. The idea of soaring through the sky wrapped in a tiny blanket to descend upon the outstretched arms of my jubilant mother and father on cloud nine left an indelible impression on my young mind. Made with love. Delivered by bird.
At some point, the birds and the bees took over for the stork. Exactly why sex and reproduction always had something to do with winged creatures still has me stumped. But eventually, the metaphors passed and the miracle of life turned real. There was no flying this time, just a whole lot of swimming. One lucky sperm penetrates a single egg, a union begetting new life on the horizon.
Conception to delivery was a complicated journey. Cells divided and differentiated; mitosis, meiosis, the stuff I learned in eighth grade science class and still don’t fully understand. It’s no wonder they made up that stork story. Reproduction can be rocket science.
Just a handful of generations ago, it was a cultural science. The wisdom of procreation passed like a baton from the elders to their young. This wisdom was based not on research, but on practical knowledge and experience. They knew the foods to consume for optimal breeding. Mothers- and fathers-to-be were prepared for mating by way of specific nutrient-rich diets prior to conception. Babies were breastfed for as long two years. Maybe more. And to ensure that mother’s body was strong enough for her next pregnancy, she waited 3-4 years before conceiving again.
Reproduction did not begin in the womb. It began in the soil. From the rich earth sprung crops teeming with nutrition. Naturally, animals consumed the crops. Humans consumed the crops and animals. The upward movement of those nutrients essential for life gave rise to generations of healthy babies, who would one day become men and women possessing great strength and immunity to the diseases of civilization. The baton was theirs to pass.
The baton has been dropped.
The soils are depleted. The crops carry chemicals. The animals are sick. The people are sicker. In just three generations, many thousands of years of genetic wealth have been squandered. Momentum is grinding to a halt.
To say that we have lost our way is an understatement. From the advent of processed food and toxic chemicals spawned a new breed of human, one that turned a blind eye to tradition and common sense. The idea that unhealthy parents can produce healthy babies quickly crept into collective thought. Primitive ways became primitive as better living through science intervened.
Today, prenatal vitamins have superseded pre-conception diets, as if a tablet can replace the numerous body building enzymes, minerals, essential fats, and cofactors needed to produce offspring of a similar quality to generations past. Just the idea of consuming fish eggs, organ meats, and fermented foods in the name of one’s lineage doesn’t cut it anymore. Instead, we build our bodies (and those of our descendants) with sugary cereals, hormone-ridden animals, rancid vegetable oils, 200 pounds of sugar per year, and a Diet Coke to boot.
Am I the only one who realizes that sick kids make sick adults and that sick adults make sick kids?
This isn’t that hard.
Modern diseases and conditions are in fact modern. The native people Weston A. Price visited and studied in the 1930 and 40s knew nothing of ADHD or autism. Despite no floss or toothbrushes, their young (and old) were free of cavities and had no need for braces. Most cultures did not have a word for cancer and all were free of heart disease despite diets of raw whole milk, fatty meats, egg yolks, and butter.
Fast-forward to present day, a strange place where fat-free is in vogue while breastfeeding is out. Somehow we surmised that a can of pasteurized powder can provide the same nutritional and immunological benefits of mother’s milk. We run scared from ImmunoDeficiency Syndromes, while setting up our young to Acquire deficient immune systems. Backwards, I say.
Breastfeeding is inconvenient. Warming up infant formula mixed with fluoridated water in a bottle manufactured with BPA isn’t. Wow…
Parents no longer space their children, popping out babies back-to-back. Mother’s malnourished body may have made it through the first, but the second and third took their toll. The turn her health took for the worst after baby number 2 was really no mystery, just ignorance of a basic principle of procreation. And despite being only a year apart, the fact that her first child will enjoy more superior health than the next is no more than the manifestation of Second Sibling Syndrome. The first child robbed Mom’s nutrient stores blind, leaving only crumbs for his siblings. If only Mom and Dad weren’t in such a hurry, her depleted body unfit for fit offspring.
This is where babies come from.
And how we love to point the finger. Our current state of infirmity would have nothing to do with us.
The drug companies made us sick. They prey upon us with drugs that would be useless were it not for our foolishness. They offer relief from the symptoms most of us are too lazy to fix on our own volition through diet and lifestyle modification, proper rest, and stress reduction. The basics can be so demanding.
No, the vaccines are guilty. Never mind that we’d rather give birth by Caesarian than inoculate our babies with the trillions of immune-enhancing bacteria lining the birth canal. The immune system is there to protect us from the very diseases we are vaccinated against in the first place. If we start our children off with compromised immune systems, aren’t we partly at fault?
This is inexcusable. We need to spend less time looking for someone or something to blame and spend more time looking in the mirror. Sick people don’t make healthy babies. It’s not a difficult concept to grasp. The choices we make today will have a genetic impact on not only our children, but our great-grandchildren. I can only imagine the impending health catastrophe lurking just three generations down our collective family trees.
We’re encouraged to respect life. Yet at the same time, our centrism lends disrespect to the lower life forms that build us and disregard for the lives we build. Unfortunately, the solutions are likely too primitive for such sophisticated beings. An ancestral awakening has never been more critical.
Wake up, people.
The stork’s not coming.
Sean
Author, The Dark Side of Fat Loss
