12 minute read
Foods To Avoid
PROCESSED OILS
By now everyone knows that hydrogenated fats and partially hydrogenated fats are very bad. We call them trans fats. Our bodies have the worst time processing them. They are like poison to body functions. The food industry has listened and you find less use of these oils, but they are still being used. Always check the label of processed foods to make sure they don’t contain these oils. Even better, avoid processed foods.
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These fats are from vegetable oils that denature while heating. Food manufacturers use them because they prolong the shelf life of foods. Not only do these fatty oils cause an accumulation of bad cholesterol (LDL), but they wipe out good cholesterol (HDL). They also wreak havoc on insulin, preventing it from bonding to glucose (sugar) molecules so it can be utilized by the cells, leading to obesity and diabetes. To maintain proper pH, the body can’t let these molecules just keep floating around; fat is created to store these unutilized molecules.
Don’t confuse these fats with all fats. There are fats our bodies do need. We call these essential fatty acids – Omega 3-6-9 (see Nutrients section). Our body needs them to function at optimal efficiency.
General Rule of Thumb – Do not cook with oil! Do not fry! Do not deep fry! Do not sautee! When you heat oil it denatures the oil, changing its chemical makeup. Plus Americans intake an estimated 26 times the fat we need by using even healthy cooking oils. I use water and add herbs and seasonings to season my foods. On the occasions I use salt for flavoring I use natural rock salt containing a lot of nutrients. After a short time you will notice how much the flavors of the foods pop out. Cooking with oils hides the true flavor of God’s bounty. Better yet, if you can eat it raw, the better the benefits to you. I personally save the water from stew and soup so I can drink all of the nutrients that wash out during cooking. Interesting note: foods like carrots, potatoes and cabbage that are more fibrous will actually produce more beneficial body-healthy fiber as you cook them and break down the cellulose fibers.
Use olive oil and other healthy oils in place of butter and margarine and in salad dressings. But limit how much you use.
Note: Virgin coconut oil is the only oil that does not denature no matter the heating temperature. If I want to fry something, or to cook with oil, virgin coconut oil is the only oil I will use. It is 100% natural. It has so many healthy benefits and is good for you. (See
Nutrients section for more info on health benefits.) I use it instead of butter and margarine for buttering a potato or toast, for baking healthy cookies and for salad dressing. Interestingly it is solid until about 80 degrees, so you have to heat it slightly to use it as salad dressing. Do not use internally if it doesn’t say ‘virgin’ coconut oil. Plain coconut oil is bleached and processed.
MEATS
Not eating meat is hard for me, as I grew up with meat as a part of almost every dinner. I was taught that meat was an important source of protein. It was necessary. I could never understand cultures that ate predominately vegetables and fruits and very little meat. I read of one such culture that might share a chicken thigh among 4 to 5 adults, while I would consider 2 to 3 pieces of fried chicken at a meal about right. So, I did a little research to see if I could find out something to convince me to at least cut back my meat consumption.
Did you know that broccoli is about 48% protein? Vegetables and fruits not only contain vitamins and minerals in abundance, but are the best source of fiber that rids the body of excess fats, cleans the intestines and controls hunger. That fiber is produced from proteins, just as our structure of muscles is built from protein. Did you know the strongest animals in the world eat plants? Horses, elephants, elk, gorillas and others are vegetarians.
I was always told that athletes needed animal protein to reach peak performance, but I found that protein from meat is not only hard for the body to digest, but an excess of protein leaches calcium from your body, making your bones weaker. Besides, our bodies produce 70% of the protein we need. If we put stress on our bodies to develop more strength and power, our bodies step up to produce what we need from the foods we eat, especially vegetables. Think about when we have the greatest protein needs in as lives. It is as we are growing. Mother’s milk is only 2% protein. Yet the first years of life are when we grow and develop most.
Consider some world class athletes: Sixto Lenares is a world record holder in the triathalon. He cycled 185 miles, swam 4.8 miles and ran 52.4 miles in one day. Peter Burwash, a Canadian tennis player received the highest physical index of any athlete in Canada. Dave Scott won the Ironman Triathalon six times – that’s a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile cycling and 26.2 mile run. Donna McMahon is a USA athlete who has completed many marathons. These athletes did not eat meat or dairy products. If you want to see more famous vegetarians visit www.ivu.org/people/sports/.
Protein is the last source our bodies use for energy. Carbohydrates are used first; simple sugars from fruits and then more complex carbohydrates. Fats are used next, followed by
proteins last. In fact, our bodies don’t like to metabolize protein. They only use protein if there is no other source of energy. Protein is used by the body to build, not to create energy.
Our bodies try to flush animal-based protein from our bodies because of the acidic nature of meat, leading to calcium leaching to maintain a balanced pH. Plant-based protein is so much easier for the body to process for its needs. Even then, excess protein in flushed from the body. Meats are high in protein and difficult for the body to metabolize. We just don’t need the excess protein from meats.
Meat is difficult to digest and requires more enzymes to process through the stomach. Remember those reports about 5 pounds of meat sitting in your intestines? That’s because meat putrifies in your intestines. Last time I checked ‘putrify’ means rot. Yuck!
“Choosing meals built on whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables is the best way to stay healthy.” - American Dietetic Association
Uric acid is the substance that gives meat its flavor, and actually comes from the urine of the animal that floods the body of the animal when it is killed. No wonder meat, especially beef, is high on the acidity scale of foods. An average piece of meat contains about 2½ times the uric acid the human body can effectively process daily.
The American Cancer Society has ‘two fundamental foundations’ for preventing or treating cancer through diet. Eat more plant-based foods and eat less animal-based foods. Yet, how often do you hear that from your doctor?
Animal products have no fiber.
Environmental Reasons not to eat meat: If Americans cut their meat consumption by just 10%, enough grain could be saved to feed 60 million people. Isn’t that an astounding figure? Imagine if all countries cut back on meat consumption. We would be able to feed the world, with excess. Did you know that 7 out of every 10 acres are used to grow crops for livestock, especially beef. That doesn’t include pasture land. One acre of land produces 165 pounds of meat, while the same acreage can produce 20,000 pounds of potatoes. It requires 2500 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef and just 25 gallons to produce one pound of vegetables. Just imagine the savings in water, fertilizer, gasoline, etc. if we all just cut back consumption by 10%.
I still eat some meat, despite all the evidence against doing so. I applaud all those who do give it up completely. I have cut out about 90% of my former consumption, but I doubt I will ever entirely remove it from my diet.
MILK
‘Milk does a body good’ is a slogan most of us have heard. It’s used by the American Dairy Association to promote cow’s milk. Raw milk has some great benefits, but processed milk as we get it from the store does not do our bodies good.
I grew up on cow’s milk, believed the hype and have been told that milk is our best source of calcium. I grew up in an area where dairy was big business – lots of dairy farms. I was taught that homogenization and pasteurization were very good for the milk. I have found that they are simply ways to mass produce dairy milk without strict standards for large production facilities. Pasteurization, heating/cooking of the milk to destroy any bacteria, actually makes calcium less bio-available, less digestible and actually denatures some of the proteins in milk.
Milk neutralizes hydrochloric acid in the stomach, making it much harder for the body to digest. Studies show that the people who drink more milk have the lowest calcium levels in their bodies. It is just not useable by the body in its grocery store form. If you can get your hands on certified raw milk, that does have benefits. Drinking processed milk actually makes the body less efficient at absorbing nutrients, not just from milk, but from all foods. This is caused by the mucous layer milk leaves on our stomach and intestines. That’s why we are often told to drink milk for an upset stomach or to prevent absorption for some poisons.
Another problem with milk is its high protein content. Our bodies make 70% of what we need and get the rest from plant-based foods. Animal-based proteins found in milk are harder for the body to process and cause calcium leaching to try and rid the excess from our blood. Remember, calcium is used to maintain pH. Excess protein in the blood makes the blood more acidic and the body has to remove it.
Cow’s milk is for calves.
SUGAR
Sugar is good for metabolism and is the first source of energy in our bodies. It is this source we need for instant energy. We get what we need from fruits and vegetable. Sugars from fruits, called fructose, are broken down by the body slowly and are converted into glucose and glycogen, energy sources for the cells. Glycogen is stored in the muscles for quick energy, while glucose is metabolized by the cells for their energy needs. Unlike table sugar your body can’t use fructose until it is converted by the liver, usually into glycogen. Sucrose (table sugar) is instantly available and spikes blood sugar levels, which can overtax an overworked pancreas.
Processed sugar comes from sugar beets and sugar cane, with an end product of processed sugars (white sugar, brown sugar, etc) and molasses, while yet another sugar is produced from corn, making corn syrup. These sugars are so refined that they are readily digested and absorbed into our systems, often in greater quantities than our bodies need. They are acidic in nature and tax our body’s pH maintenance systems.
Food manufacturers like to use corn syrup instead of sugar because it is less expensive. The problem is it is not as sweet. So they add fructose (fruit sugar) resulting in high fructose corn syrup. The body can only store so much glycogen, which is produced from fructose. The rest is stored by the liver as fat. The sucrose from the corn syrup is readily available to the cells, but unless you are burning it up exercising at the time, it cannot utilize it. Insulin spikes to process the sugar. If it can’t be immediately used it creates an acid environment and the body triggers fat storage to equalize the acidic build-up. That is why high fructose corn syrup is not good for you. High fructose corn syrup is found in many of our processed foods today. The resulting health epidemic is already here with people consuming large quantities. Our bodies were never intended to process such high sugar content.
SODA POP
All those wasted years where I drank soda. Drinking regular or diet is like driving a nail in your coffin. High acidic pH, leaching calcium from your body, phosphoric acids blocking calcium absorption, sugar concentrations at max, sugar substitutes as bad or worse than sugar overloads, caffeine and mystery additives are all reasons not to drink soda. I dropped 20 pounds in one month when I gave up drinking sodas. Please stop drinking soda! I’m not afraid to die. I have a secure home for eternity. I just cannot understand how people when given the knowledge will push the limits instead of living a fulfilling life. I used to drink two 2-liter bottles daily. I’m paying for my ignorance.
ALCOHOL
Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram. These calories are empty calories and provide no nutritional value to the body. Alcohol is a depressant and depresses cell function and works the pancreas overtime correcting the acidic pH. There are studies that lead to the belief that beer is good for you because of the barley or hops or that wine is good for you because it is made from grapes. Why not just eat hops or barley or eat grapes or drink grape juice? In limited moderation beer and wine are probably fine. Be conscious of their effects.
CAFFEINE
Caffeine is a stimulant that causes an addiction while providing no nutritional benefit. It has an acidic pH and really provides no energy. It is used in many diet supplements because of its stimulating affect, but it actually taxes the body’s systems.
The perk people feel from coffee is from the energy created by the body to neutralize the 200 acids it contains. Instead drink various teas – dark teas, red tea, green tea and mate. They carry many antioxidants that are healthy to the body.
NICOTINE
Nicotine is an addictive, stimulating drug which taxes the body. Smoking is the number one preventable disease causing action. One million people a year die because of it. There is absolutely nothing good that smoking and nicotine produce. It also has a negative affect to create an acidic pH.
This section sounds like a death sentence to many vices. The choice is yours. There are many healthy alternatives. Do you want to live a quality life or to just scrape by?
