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About
Michelle Adams is the Food Stoic where she explores the truth of food using her experience and principles of philosophy in order to advance good health and sustainability
My Story
“How I Remember It:
As a kid growing up in the 70’s I would run through the rows of corn fields that surrounded our small Midwest town, pull a ripe ear off the stalk and eat it just like that. It was so sweet and tender you didn’t need to cook it. We didn’t worry about a poison called Glyphosate.
We rode our bikes all day and drank from the hose. Our illnesses consisted of Chicken Pox and Mono, which we considered a fun break from school. In fact, when someone had Chicken Pox you typically went over to their house to get the illness to become immune to it (true story). Nobody we knew was gluten sensitive or had ADHD. We freely enjoyed peanut butter because nobody had nut allergies.
Our dogs didn’t die of cancer. They lived long and happy dog lives, then passed away from old age. In fact, most of the people we knew also died of old age. Cancer was rarely discussed.
Our food was safe. We ate what was in season and cooked with time honored methods. There were no microwaves or instant pots. We didn’t eat highly processed foods. There was no talk about pesticides, high fructose corn syrup, GMO or Red 40 because those things didn’t even exist in food then.
Instead, food was amazing. Wholesome. Nutritious.
We lived simply. . . .without a lot of conveniences. Yet, we were happy. Healthier.
And I would trade everything I have today to go back.”
Everything is different now. Especially our food.
It all changed right under our noses.
They created genetically modified grains that they douse in pesticides.
The grains then get hauled off to factories to be turned into sugar, oil and starches.
Or fed to animals that live in crowded indoor farms, never to feel the grass on their feet or the sun on their nose.
They lie and people believe them. About how the animals they farm are actually “happy”. About how their industrialized oil is better than farm butter. That raw milk kills.
The biggest lie perpetrated: we need pesticides to feed the world.
A world that is growing sicker by the minute.
Hi, I’m Michelle. I believed all the food lies because I craved convenience. Then I woke up.
I was born in a time when we had very little convenient food. So when I was a teenager, Coke, potato chips and especially Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, all sounded pretty cool. I remember working at McDonald’s being in awe of all the sauces to pair with chicken nuggets. I could polish off a box of 20 pretty easily. Why not—there wasn’t anything wrong with it.
As a young mother, hard-working lawyer and busy law firm owner, I needed the convenience of fast food and a Standard American diet. My kids grew up on Pop-tarts, Lunchables and microwavable syrup.
But I became disillusioned with the medical industry seeing it from the inside as their lawyer. I became burnt out on the lifestyle that required me to work 70 to 80 hour work weeks that left nutrition on the backburner and my kids without seeing their mother most days. It’s no wonder attorney suicide is through the roof and burnout is our middle name. Moreover, after reviewing millions of pages of medical records I came to understand how sick everyone is becoming. I kept seeing the same illnesses being treated with the same prescription drugs. There was so much illness.
It was when I decided to venture into the food industry that I became aware of ingredients. Individual components that make up our food. Ingredients that actually do more harm than good.
When I had two dogs diagnosed with cancer I dived head first down the rabbit hole to find out why. As a former medical litigator, I am familiar with complicated medical research. As a trial lawyer, I understand burden of proof and how to get it. As a trained advocate, it takes more than a social media post to sway me.
I came to learn that not all the pesticides on our food exit our bodies. Instead, they live in our bone marrow. Even before they get to our marrow, they harm our gut, brain and overall health. This explained how my dog got bone cancer and the other, stomach cancer. Pesticides, harmful chemicals and cheap ingredients masquerading as “food”.
For me, this all suddenly explained why my dogs got cancer so young; why my son had unexplainable gastrointestinal symptoms for years despite numerous doctors saying nothing was wrong; why my daughter had an autoimmune disorder; and why I found myself with multiple chronic illnesses they considered “normal” for someone my age, even skin cancer. I was slathering chemicals all over my body and they had everyone believing “it’s just the sun”.
I didn’t think enough about my food. Now, I can’t stop.
I spend hours researching what I eat.
I read every label.
I understand what I’m eating.
I stopped eating ultra-processed food.
Although I’ve had a long legal career, I am also a self-trained pastry chef and was the owner of a farm to table bakery. The experience of creating recipes with good ingredients to defy the norm, along with my small farming community upbringing, formed the basis for me to change my family’s food from a standard American diet back to homegrown.
I realized that every day we make choices about our food. These choices need to be informed choices.
After going down the rabbit hole, I took a leap.
I left it all behind to find peace and health. Then I found my true purpose—helping others understand what’s in our food in order to help prevent disease before it starts.
The Food Stoic is my journey into food, how it’s made and what it does to us. My family may be healing, but it’s a long road. We’re learning more and more about the toxins in our lives and how it brought us to this point. We’re also learning how to heal from the inside out using good food as our therapy. Yes, even food for our skin.
I’m not a doctor or nutritionist or dietician. I’m just a mom, a home cook, a decent human and for most of my life, an impassioned advocate for the truth. Now I am truth seeking in a different way, one that will hopefully have much more impact. We all deserve good health. It all starts with our food.
I want to bring the truth to the forefront. Will you join me?
