Are the foods we are eating unhealthy? Do unhealthy foods lead to disease? Can healthy foods undo the damage?
To attain good physical health, to be free of disease, to achieve a healthy weight and to gain strength and vibrancy, we must fuel our bodies with the nutrients it requires.
To attain true mental health, we must first have a brain that is functioning properly. To have a brain that is functioning properly, then we must fuel our brain with the nourishment that good food provides. Once our brain is nourished, then we can begin to rebuild our thoughts to attain the strongest and happiest version of ourselves.
So it all comes down to the food we consume. Good food equals good health and unhealthy food equals disease, depression and discomfort.
In order to understand what good food is, first we must look at what unhealthy foods we consume regularly in the Standard American Diet. It is important to understand what is unhealthy so we can begin to replace these unhealthy foods, which rob our energy, with healthy foods that support a vibrant, strong body and a strong positive mind. So lets take a look at some of the food that we eat in a Standard American Diet (S.A.D.):
Dairy
Dairy is a huge contributor to disease in our country. We have been taught since childhood to drink a big glass of Milk every day for strong bones. But did you know that there is not a single study, that was not paid for by the Dairy Council, that shows that milk builds strong bones?
All independent studies showed that people who consumed milk daily actually had less calcium in their bodies at the end of the study then when it started.
This is why, even though most of us have been taught since childhood to drink milk every day, the rate of Osteoporosis is steadily on the rise. Crazy right?
Milk is acidic (6.5 ph) and consuming milk and all dairy products regularly, leads to the body being in an Acidic state. In order to survive, the body must maintain a ph of between 7.35 and 7.45, so when the body becomes Acidic, the body pulls from its mineral reserves, calcium being one of the most effective, to neutralize the acid and get the body back into homeostasis. (See Alkalize to learn more about Ph and why it matters.) So if we consume too many acid causing foods, without balancing them with abundant amounts of Alkalizing foods, eventually our Alkalizing Mineral stores will become depleted, and this is when disease begins.
Let’s look a little deeper at Milk. If we look to the animal kingdom, there is no other species around the world which consumes the milk of another species, this should be our first clue. Also looking at the animal kingdom, there is not another species on our entire planet which drinks milk from its mother once it has been weaned. You don’t find a juvenile or adult animal anywhere in nature who consumes milk.
Cow’s Milk is specially designed for baby calves, which being born at around 100 pounds quickly gain weight, growing to 8 times their weight (800 lbs) before being weaned. A human baby, being breast fed should gain about 6-8 pounds in their first year, so with an average weight of 8 pounds at birth this is just about 2 times their birth weight by their first birthday.
The composition of human milk, cow’s milk, goat’s milk and all other mammalian milks are completely unique, they contain different levels of proteins, sugars and nutrients in a specific balance which has been determined by millions of years of evolution. These milks are specifically designed for the unique bodies and growth patterns of their own species. The only milk we as humans need, is human breast milk, and only until we are grown enough to eat solid food.
Let’s just look at one last factor about dairy. How do we get the milk we drink? As you probably know, female cows, just like human women, only produce milk as long as they are nursing. As the baby cow weans, in nature that is, the milk production stops. So how do factory farms circumvent nature and get cows to continue to produce milk long after they naturally would?
Modern Dairy cows, through extensive genetic manipulation, have been bred to significantly increase the amount of milk they produce, up to 12 times what they would in nature. Then by artificially inseminating cows (on what the dairy industry so appropriately calls a “rape rack”) and then taking away their calf, the dairy “farmer” is able to take the milk meant to raise the calf.
So we have bred these cows to produce far more milk then they ever would naturally and we steal their newborn child from them. If you have ever been a mother or know someone who has, you can attest to the physical drain that the body is put through during childbirth and breast feeding. This is why it is so important for mothers to be properly nourished, so they can support their own health as well as their babies health. Well we are taking this extremely draining process and forcing these cows to go through it for an unnaturally long time, just so we can drink something that is detrimental to our own health. Does this sound crazy to anyone else?
Protein
We have a misguided notion that we need large amounts protein to build muscles and to survive. I am not sure where this idea came from, but it is pervasive. If you don’t believe me, just ask any vegetarian or Vegan what is the question you get asked most frequently? They will say, “Where do you get your protein?” As Americans we are always concerned that we are getting enough protein, but actually the average American eats more the double the RDA for protein, primarily from animal and dairy sources. At 125 lbs your RDA protein requirement would be 46 grams for females and 56 grams for males, however this RDA has a large margin of error built in, and our bodies actually can survive and thrive on far less protein.
You can determine your own RDA for protein by using this formula: Body weight (in pounds) x 0.36 = recommended protein intake (in grams)
The problems with consuming too much protein, particularly from animal sources are numerous. Consuming large amounts of protein has been shown to increase urinary calcium loses. Which means the more protein you eat, the more likely you are to get Osteoporosis. Protein from animal sources has also been shown to be the cause or a major contributing factor to several Cancers including Colon Cancer, Breast Cancer and Colorectal Cancer.
The biggest problem with consuming Animal proteins is in the cooking process, most Animal foods require cooking and most are cooked at very high temperatures, which not only kills enzymes which help to break down food in the body so it is digestible, but also cooking anything at high heat, changes its molecular form, making it Carcinogenic (cancer causing) to the body. Cooking also destroys most, if not all of the nutrients in the food, so not only are we consuming large amounts of foods which have been shown to be cancer causing but we are cooking all of the beneficial nutrients out of these foods. So what are we left with? A big mass of hard to digest useless material which makes us nutrient deficient, tired and depressed.
Toxins
As Americans we consume a staggering amount of Toxic substances, from food coloring and MSG to artificial sweeteners and petroleum by products. We are also subjected to Toxins in the air, in the water we drink, in the pesticides sprayed on our foods and in the personal care products we use on our bodies every day. We have been led to believe that these products are safe to use everyday, through advertising campaigns by the companies who make a profit off of these products.
Scientific studies saying the opposite have been silenced by the big corporations that profit from our pain, even to the point of threatening Scientists lives or the lives of their children and families. Scientists and Doctors have been bought, put on the payroll of giant food companies and industry boards, like the Dairy board, to spread misinformation and discredit true studies. But slowly this information is coming out and we are no longer subject to only the information that the most money can buy, thanks to the internet and social media, documentaries, independent publishers and individual people who are tired of being sick and poisoned for profit. Advertisers no longer have ultimate control over the information we receive. We are now free to search for studies that have not been paid for by the corporations trying to get approval from the FDA.
All of these toxins are acid causing in the body, which further strips our bodies of nutrients as our body naturally tries to keep our body at a slightly alkaline Ph. (To learn more about Body Ph and why it is the key to disease, check out the Alkalize Section of this website.)
Most people don’t realize, that the body uses fat cells to store toxins which it can not process quick enough. So the more toxins your body is subjected to, the more fat cells your body will store. One amazing example of this process is “Diet” Soda. Diet Soda uses artificial sweeteners to maintain a low calorie beverage. The problem is these artificial sweeteners are highly toxic to the body, so the body attempts to clean them out using the liver and kidneys. But as we continue to consume them daily, the liver becomes over taxed, so the body jumps into survival mode and starts shoving these toxins into buffered little fat cells. To protect the body from these poisons.
This is why, even though the market is saturated with “diet” products, obesity is on the rise. Have you ever noticed that there are very few skinny people who drink diet soda regularly? And those that do are usually skinny for other reasons, like being smokers or taking diet pills. They do not typically look healthy, their complexion is usually a little grey or even yellow. They are tired all the time or they are constantly hyped up on caffeine.
Grains
We consume large amounts of grains through not only the consumption of breads, cakes and pastries, but also hidden in lots of processed foods like your breakfast cereal. Have you ever tried to eat a dry, unprocessed grain? Not very appetizing, yet grains make up an astounding percentage of our daily meals. You have probably heard, through advertising, the health benefits of consuming “Whole Grains” and I’m sure you’ve seen the stickers on products all around the grocery store for “heart healthy, contains whole grains”.
Haven’t we always consumed grains?
Grains are so ingrained in our lives (pun not intended) that we think that they have always been a part of the human diet, but in reality grains have only been consumed by humans for 10,000 years. Okay, you are probably thinking, 10,000 years is a long time, I’m sure they are fine. But when you consider that scientists have determined that humans as we are now have been around for about 200,000 years and our ancestor species have been around for about 6 million years, 10,000 years is a comparatively small length of time and certainly not enough time for us to evolve our digestive processes significantly.
Grains began being harvested in mass quantities during the Agricultural Revolution. The consumption of grains is also in direct correlation with the decline in human intelligence and strength. Scientist have been studying the strength and intelligence of humans, which peaked just before the Agriculture Revolution and has been on a steady decline since.
Grains are not all bad, but unfortunately the way that we consume grains has changed so drastically that our bodies can get little to no benefit from them in their current state. Originally, grains were harvested and left in the fields, where they would naturally sprout before consumption. Grains contain Phytic Acid, which is a nutrient blocker. When Phytic Acid is consumed, it blocks the bodies ability to absorb nutrients. When allowed to sprout, the phytic acid is broken down and the nutrient content rises in the grains.
Since our grains are now harvested immediately and shipped off for processing, they still contain this Phytic Acid and the nutrients are limited. So now we are consuming another food which is stripping our body of nutrients rather then providing them. If we could bring our grain processing back to more natural methods, where they are sprouted and naturally fermented they might not be so damaging, but in their current highly processed state, they are not offering us much in the way of nutrition.
So now that we have looked at the biggest offenders of unhealthy foods in the S.A.D. diet, lets look at how we can remove these unhealthy foods and replace them with healthy food options.
Read more: