While the poor silent carrot sits in silence in the produce section, the sugary cereal is screaming in aisle four about its whole grain goodness. This might be good for business, but is it good for us?
If you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid most food products that make health claims. Such claims on a food product are a good indication that it’s not really food, it’s a scientific invention. Food is what you want to eat.
As a general rule of thumb: the more a food needs to be advertised, the less healthy it probably is for you.
To make things simpler, forget the advertised nutrients and look out for the hidden anti-nutrients. If nutrients help us live a healthy life, anti-nutrients are the substances that cause the opposite effect.
These anti-nutrients include:
Poor quality fats:Most packaged foods contain fats such as hydrogenated oil, partially hydrogenated oil, cottonseed oil and olestra. These are the fats that have given all fats an unjust reputation.
Poor quality sugar: Look out for ingredient names such as high fructose corn syrup, white sugar, glucose, Florida Crystals and ALL artificial sweeteners. Sugar is a cheap and addictive ingredient that some companies add to their products in order to boost sales.
Poor quality white flour: Most mass-produced breads, cookies, muffins, bagels, crackers, pastries, donuts and breakfast cereals are made from this highly processed flour. Similar to processed sugar, this food-like substance provides no nutrients. When we eat, we use some of our stored nutrient resources to digest our food. When eating white sugar and flour we get no nutrient resources in return. This leaves us more depleted of energy than we were before we ate.
Poor quality dairy:The meat and dairy industry in our country has reached a point where the animals are treated so inhumanly that they must be pumped with antibiotics and hormones in order to keep them alive. These added hormones, combined with the animals’ high level of natural stress hormones, are found in each of these products. Thankfully, due to customer demand, most supermarkets are now offering affordable organic milk, yogurt and cheese. You can also look to leafy greens, nuts and seeds for excellent sources of calcium.
Poor quality meat:This is the meat found in fast-food, processed meats (such as packaged cold cuts) and commercially produced hot dogs. Similar to the dairy industry, any meat that is not raised without the use of antibiotics and hormones is of low quality. Would you like a side of fries with your antibiotics?
The quality of your food defines the quality of your life. The food that you eat is broken down in your body and is used to build your cells and tissues. If you want to feel energized and alive you must build your body from foods that contain energy and life.
Foods that are alive have life force. They are often raw and will spoil if left out. Let’s put it this way; if microorganisms cannot thrive on it, what makes me think I can?
Foods that don’t go bad are usually already dead. They have had all life processed out of them and are packed with preservatives to keep them from decaying. Processing foods removes the natural elements of fiber, vitamins and minerals. Our cells need these nutritional elements to communicate with each other. When they are processed out of our foods, our systems are unable to function at their best. We start to fall apart both physically and emotionally. Our cells don’t just build our muscles and bones; what we consume feeds our brain cells, our nervous system and hormonal system. If your cells are regenerating from processed foods alone, how healthy do you think you will feel?
If you want your body and your every thought to vibrate with life force, you must feed it life, not science.
