She calls them “The Big Offenders.” These are the guys who add hormones and antibiotics to dairy cows, beef cattle, sheep, and chickens. They inject these hormones into cattle and sheep so the animals gain weight faster.
No one knows the subject better than Sandy Powers, author of Organic Health. I interviewed Sandy to find out more about this book that’s guaranteed to open everyone’s eyes the next time food is set on the dinner table.
Q: Can you tell us why you wrote Organic for Health and how long it took to complete?
A: In the summer of 2005, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and liver problems. I had a mastectomy for the breast cancer but I could not undergo any further cancer treatment because of my unhealthy liver. For the next year, the doctors took liver function tests every three months. My liver showed no improvement. But I was not idle during this year. I went into research mode. I read hundreds of medical journals, poured through hundreds of medical studies, and read dozens of books on nutrition, intensive farming, and soil depletion. I shifted through my piles of notes to devise a plan of healing. When my doctors wanted to begin treatment for the liver, I convinced them to give me six months to test my plan. I became my own guinea pig. After six months, I returned for medical tests. My liver had healed. I knew I had to share my research so I wrote Organic for Health.
Organic for Health took a year of extensive research, six months as a guinea pig, and seven months to write.
Q: Can you tell us what message you are trying to get across with Organic for Health?
A: There is no better message than the old Buddhist saying—every human being is the author of his own health.
Q: Why did you choose to self-publish Organic for Health?
A: I’ve always had a sense of urgency about life. Having breast cancer intensified that urgency. Traditional publishers, unless you are already a bestselling author, take anywhere from eighteen months to a year to publish. I felt my information was too important to wait that long so I went to iUniverse, who published in seven months.
Q: Organic for Health was named winner in the Health Category of the National 2008 Beach Book Festival held in California recently. Did you expect the book to do so well?
A: No one is more surprised than I am. But what has been more important to me is that my oncologist has recommended Organic for Health to her patients.
Q: What’s next for you?
A: I am working on a story about a family during the first half of the 20th Century. Thanks for having me!
Find out more about Sandy Powers, author of Organic for Health.
