It’s so easy to eat poorly . . . Why do we make it such a challenge to eat right? So many health problems have come about from the way we eat. To name a few:
- - Arthritis
- - Digestive complaints
- - Headaches
- - Diabetes
- - Hypertension
- - Fatigue - low energy
- - Skin rashes
- - Depression
It’s fascinating that we simply haven’t modified our diets. Two reasons come to mind:
- 1. Too lazy – It’s easier to grab a “to-go meal” or take a pill
- 2. Don’t know any better – We’ve been so brainwashed by commercials that we tend to believe all food is created equally or that the answer is in a pill.
Did you realize? So many diseases have emerged since humans have become industrialized. We have altered SEVEN crucial nutritional characteristics of a sound, stone-age styled diet:
- 1. Glycemic Load – High sugar content in food
- 2. Fatty Acid Composition – Bad fats, such as Omega 6
- 3. Macronutrient Composition – Percentage of total food energyderived from the three major foods is as follows: carbohydrate (too much), fat (too much), and protein (too little)
- 4. Micronutrient Density – The amount of vitamins or minerals found in food – doughnut versus an apple
- 5. Acid-Base Balance – Too much acid (not the hallucinogenic kind) in the diet, such as coffee, meats, etc.
- 6. Sodium-Potassium Ratio – Too much salt!
- 7. Fiber Content – Low fiber, less poop!
The bottom line: The nutritional qualities of recently-introducedfoods may underlie many of the chronic diseases of Western civilization. [American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, February 2005] What changes can you make? 1. We are the only mammals that consume milk and milk products into adulthood – Maybe we should remove it from the diet (and not replace it with soda!) 2. Go back to whole-grain cereals since milling and refining have pulverized the nutrients out of the wholesome, traditionally stone-ground grains. 3. Go back to good quality honey or Agave as a sweetener rather than sucrose (white sugar) and high-fructose corn syrup. It’s not only about the quality of the sweetener; it’s about what foods are supposed to taste like. Your mouth has nerves that sense taste for sweet. The more the taste buds are stimulated, the more there is desire for stimulation. Therefore, reducing sugar intake is like getting off of cigarettes or drugs. 4. Oils made from walnuts, almonds,olives, sesame seeds, and flax seeds are of choice. Butter is even better! Just remove margarine and shortening or highly-processed vegetable oils due to trans-fats that are not natural to the body. 5. If you’re going to guzzle alcohol, do it with wine – its part of a more natural process that’s been around forever. 6. Salt – why? The more you use, the more you need to feel that your meal is palatable. If you go no-salt for a week (or more), you’ll feel how your taste buds will become sensitive toward smaller amounts of salt again. 7. Meat – nowadays, there is so much saturated fat due to increasing the weight of the meat for a profitable sale and to cater to your palate, that we’ve lost touch with lean meat being best! Therefore, obese cattle are a hot commodity, leaving you with fats that have inadequate levels of the good Omega 3 and too much of the bad, Omega 6. In a nut shell:
- - Take in your recommended vitamins and minerals
- - Increase Omega 3
- - Increase magnesium
- - Increase potassium
- - Increase vitamin D
- - Regulate blood sugar
I listened to a great lecture by my colleague Dr. David Seaman. He’s the “Jerry Seinfeld” of nutrition. Some of the above recommendations were facilitated by his genius. Please feel free to share your experience with dietary changes and what has worked best for you. As well, share this with someone who can use the direction. Enjoy! Doc B
