We continue to harp about the potential harm to the wild creatures from human poop.  Here's some food for thought.

Each year the average American consumes 150 POUNDS of sugar and 566 cans of pop (which might be called liquid candy).  According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, that’s about “52 teaspoonfuls of sugar - each day.”  “That can’t be right,” you say.  Okay, think about this, in 2001, the average American consumed 45 large bags of potato chips.  That’s almost one per week.  They consumed - on average during the course of a single year - 120 orders of French fries.  How about 190 candy bars and 120 pastries and 150 slices of pizza?

Why are so many people behaving like they’re seriously mentally ill these days?  The reason is this, they ARE mentally ill.  Junk foods and pop contain additives, chemicals, and many are laced with excitotoxins - such as MSG and aspartame.  In her book The Crazy Makers, Carol Simontacchi says, “Food industries wantonly destroy our bodies and our brains, all in the name of profit...Substances added to foods and beverages that literally stimulate neurons to death, causing brain damage of varying degrees.”  Ever wonder where all that nervous anxiety comes from?

Granted, food and drink aren't the only things that can cause mental illness.  Global media continues to reveal the madness of much political behavior.  The criminal behavior toward the innocents - such as in Darfur - as well as every sort of hatred and the lust by nations for more and more power - produce enough anxiety to distort reality to the point of madness.  But while we're [almost] helpless to do much about global politics, we can take responsibility for managing our own poop when in wilderness and remote backcountry areas.  

Signs That Things Are Bad Inside

Allergies, bad-breath, foul-smelling gas and poop, constipation, diarrhea, frequent congestion, colds, frequent headaches, general aches and pains, acid reflux, lower back pain, needing to sleep a long time, pain when we urinate, skin problems: rashes, boils, pimples, acne, etc., indicate we may be experiencing autointoxication (a process whereby we're poisoned by substances produced by our own body as a result of the food and drink we eat, as well as the digestion and elimination problems such eating and drinking produce.

When you realize that almost half of the American population has at least one chronic condition (60 million - or one-fifth of the entire population - have more than one), you then can get a feel for why so many people act as crazy as they do.  When they do autopsies - even on young people - medical staff are shocked by what they find - inside.  People self-poison themselves to death - regularly.  What we’re trying to get people to do by managing their own poop while visiting the wild places, is to stop the poisoning of the wild things that live there.