I am disgusted, mortified and baffled!

So I was sitting at my computer - actually writing an article about meal planning. (ha-ha!) You will see the irony in a second!

I decided to take a little lunch break myself and scroll Facebook. As I was enjoying my fresh grilled chicken salad...

this picture came across in my news feed...

I had to do a double take because I had no idea what I was actually looking at.

What is it you ask? 

...Yeah, no idea, I'm guessing it's pork? Some white bread, and some tater tots.

In my head I thought...

Are we really, seriously trying to pass this off as food??!

Why does this matter to me so much? It has a personal connection with me.

My 93 year old Grandmother has had some health issues recently - considering her age - she is doing pretty well!  =)

However, she was placed in a rehabilitation center to get assistance with her recovery process.

This is a picture my Aunt took while visiting her mother (my Grandmother) at the rehabilitation center.

I was so disgusted. Mortified. Baffled...This was what they served her for lunch.    

"WHAT!? SERIOUSLY?!"

This particular medical community serves this stuff -- I'm calling it stuff because it isn't food -- for lunch...

I will not name the facility as I want to just get a point across without publicly bashing said company. 

So with that being said....I want everyone to ponder these questions...

How can a person, who has health issues be expected to thrive or get any better when fed this type of meal?

How could a healthy person stay healthy and fit with this type of meal day in and day out?

Do you think the body can repair itself properly with foods like this picture?

Do you think the brain can stay sharp by consuming such foods?

Where are the foods that have nutritional value to it so that the body may heal itself?

Is a salad or a bowl of fruit so much to ask for?

Shouldn't we be feeding our body and mind foods that will give us a quality filled life? 

My Grandmother gagged down three bites and pushed it away. 

This image is partly WHY people are sick, tired and over weight--the other part is from lack of movement and activity.

We are served and eat food-like substances and not real food, with real nutrition.  Nutrition is what the body wants. Nutrition is what the body needs. 

Nutrition is what makes our bodies thrive and our brains work properly. 

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food!

Add exercise to healthy food choices and you are golden! You will thrive and have a quality filled life!

Health care costs are so high because we feed ourselves items that are in this picture above. Combine that with lack of physical activity and you are a ticking time bomb.  

The body can only handle so much abuse before it screams "ENOUGH!" and then you find yourself at the Doctors or in the ER.

We get sick. We go to the doctor's. We get a pill. We feel mostly "ok". Rinse. Repeat.

There is no money in healthy people. There is no money in dead people. But mostly alive people is where the money making is at!  

I know that sounds harsh...but think about it.

So you will become sick by consuming these food-like substances and then be kept "mostly alive" with prescriptions...and the cycle continues...and continues....and 5 years down the road what started off as 1 pill has now multiplied to 10-12 prescriptions.

Did you know in 2011, 4.2 BILLION prescriptions were written out. BILLION!

In 2012, 46% of the adult population in America take prescription drugs. The average American person takes 13 prescriptions per year.  In 2013 that number went to 70%!

Nearly 70 percent of Americans are on at least one prescription drug, and more than half take two, Mayo Clinic and Olmsted Medical Center researchers say.

Antibiotics, antidepressants and painkilling opioids are most commonly prescribed, their study found. Twenty percent of patients are on five or more prescription medications, according to the findings, published online in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Seniors represent 13.7% of the United States population, about 1 in 7 Americans.  

If you want to spend money - invest it in the most important thing you could invest in. YOURSELF! Buy healthy foods.  Exercise your body and mind.

To see this picture of my grandmother's plate makes me so sad...and not just because it's my grandmother. I'm sad knowing that people either don't really care all that much or they truly think that this is an acceptable plate of food.

What's on your plate?

-Laurie Gouley 

As a follow up my Uncle is contacting the facility today to get this resolved.

"Take care of your body; it's the only place you have to live."

Pictured:

Laurie's Husband, Duane, her Memere, and Laurie