I love to eat.
I know some people can take it or leave it, but I really, really love to eat. But even people who don’t really enjoy eating cannot live without food. I mean, that’s just the way life is. The need for food is a biological reality of being, well, alive.
But I like real food—stuff like dark leafy greens (spinach, collards, chard, mustard and turnip greens), old-fashioned whole grains and sprouts, and home-grown fruits and vegetables—and that’s where I differ from a lot of people today.
There is a distinct difference between real food, and…let’s call them “food-like substances.” Things like packaged and processed foods, “fast” foods, sugared foods, high-salt-content foods, and other “taste good not-really foods” are just plain bad for us. They make us gain weight. They make us susceptible to cancer and diabetes and heart disease and strokes and lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome and– The list goes on and on.
I get tired thinking of all the different icky health problems that are rooted in the world’s modern “on-the-run” diet. More and more Americans are living lousy lives and dying too early because they eat too much stuff that just isn’t real food. Very few fruits, vegetables and grains. Then if you eat meat raised conventionally in CAFOs – (concentrated animal feeding operations), you’re sucking down antibiotics, growth hormones, pesticides, and more. No one needs that in their diet.
Food-like substances make us fat. This is why so many people in the world are now classified as “obese,” to the point that obesity has been recognized by the AMA as an epidemic.
Want to talk politics? Food-like substances—cleverly disguised and advertised as yummy; oh-so-satisfying; must-have; he-man; come on, you know you want it; don’tcha just crave it!—actually feed the coffers of the wealthy. You know who I’m talking about: the ones who run the “health-care systems” and the clinics and the hospitals and “big pharma” companies.
The food industry comprises huge amounts of marketing strategies designed to hook us. And it does just that – it’s cheap, convenient, and processed with addictive chemicals to make it taste really good – processed to create the right texture, color and smell – all with the intent to cause cravings. And with these addictive cravings toying with us, we’ve forgotten the words of Benjamin Franklin: “One should eat to live, not live to eat.” We’re doing the complete opposite, and it’s killing us.
And it’s not just the obvious fast-food drive-thrus with their processed foodstuffs. In modern America, it’s darn near all foods that exist in the center aisles of your grocery stores – the edible ‘food-like substances’ that aren’t really dignified with food. White-flour breads, cookies, cakes, crackers, and treats are not only devoid of any nutritional value whatsoever, but they don’t contain enough fiber to avoid turning into intestinal glue, gumming up our digestive system and giving us acid reflux and gastritis and diverticulitis and irritable bowel syndrome and colon cancer…. Plus, they raise our insulin ratios, stress our pancreas, and even make you belch.
Imagine what all those food-like substances are doing to your insides.
We’re eating less fiber than ever before with this kind of diet, and fiber is what feeds colon bacteria and
produces butyrate, which helps to maintain good bacteria population. Without ‘friendly bacteria’ in the intestinal tract, bad bacteria can take over and cause too many symptoms to count, including brain fog, weight gain, intestinal gas and bloating, and if they continue to take over eventually diseases like diabetes and cancer ensue. The less fiber we eat, the more the bad bacteria can grow, leading to obesity. The more fiber we eat (which comes from plants), the more we achieve optimal weight.
Today, we process our foods with soy and corn oils that contain too many omega 6s, which cancel out omega 3s, the stuff that fights inflammation and helps get rid of pain. We’re actually eating stuff that makes us hurt!
Did you know we now consume 1,000% more sugar than we did 200 years ago? A thousand percent! Food manufacturers—when did it start being necessary to manufacture food?—add to almost every processed substance, from bread to ketchup to “fresh-squeezed” juice and, of course, to sodas.
Don’t even get me started on the genetically engineered or modified foodstuffs that now make up 60% of the Standard American Diet. Corn, soybeans, wheat and rice used to be just called by their names – unmodified, unchanged. Now they’re turned into hydrolyzed soy protein, high fructose corn syrup, mono and diglycerides and other impossible-to-pronounce substances.
Our bodies don’t have a clue what to do with this stuff.
Look, if we really want to be healthy and live a life not dependent on doctors, prescriptions, and Tums®, we have to start ignoring all the advertisements. What is it about Americans that we buy so much into the advertising scams? If the Dairy Council says ‘milk does a body good,’ people run to buy it, ignoring the fact that it causes clogged arterties, big-time mucus production and osteoporosis, just what it’s supposed to help you avoid. When we were told to replace fats with sugars, we did so, causing more weight gain and stress on the body. When you think about it, if something has to be advertised, it probably isn’t good for us.
We have to go back to eating ONLY foods that will rot—yeah, that’s right—foods that rot. If it rots, it isn’t preserved. If it doesn’t, it is. If it’s preserved, it’s likely to make us sick in the long run. Eat raw foods grown by humans or foods cooked by humans, not created in commercial machines. Eat the way nature intended – eat real food, not too much, and make it mostly plants.