What is Happening to Your Food? Top10 Health Benefits to Eating Clean!
What is happening to your Food
Learn Top 10 Health Benefits to Eating Clean
What does Eating Clean mean?
There are a lot of variations to clean eating; the basic guidelines are simple. Clean eating refers to eating foods that are as close as possible to their natural state. Being Free from synthetic ingredients, harmful additives, preservatives, artificial food dyes, and colourings. The benefits of eating these foods are that they are nutrient dense and enable your body to function optimally, to provide immune support, allowing the body to heal, restore and rejuvenate.
Variations that can be included and still referred to as clean eating – are packaged foods that haven’t been tampered with artificially or chemically.
- Frozen vegetables and fruits
- Fermented foods such as sauerkraut and kimchi
- Whole beans and legumes (soaked, drained, and cooked)
- Soy products such as tofu, miso, and fermented soybeans
- Nuts and seeds, especially those that haven’t been salted or with any additives
- Whole grains such as brown and black rice, barley, oats, quinoa, corn and amaranth
- Cold-pressed cooking oils such as olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, and walnut oils
- Unprocessed meat and poultry
- Organic dairy, goat products, oat, almond milk and eggs (in moderation)
- Herbs and spices
- Filtered Water
Why the Decision to Eat Clean?
The main reason to take on clean eating is the health benefits of consuming foods rich in nutrient content directly from the earth that have not been overly processed. Most Western Cultures eat a diet rich in heavily processed foods which have been made from synthetic ingredients, and packed with fat, sugar, sodium, chemicals, preservatives, food dyes and other additives your body doesn’t quite know what to do with. These additional items may be detrimental to your overall health and well-being.
Clean eating has been referred to as a “Fad Diet”. Fad Diet meaning something that is popular for a short period of time, something that is trendy or fashionable. I can assure you that there is nothing “Fad” about clean eating.
It is becoming aware of the foods that are available to eat, what is good for you, your health, growth and repair. To get the full benefits of clean eating it is about making healthy choices for your daily diet, not just for today, a week, a month or a year. It is about implementing these choices making them a lifetime habit to give your body the best chance, enabling you to live your best and healthiest life.
Clean Eating is about eating a Wide Variety of Fresh, Whole Foods and Free from Synthetic Chemicals, Artificial Additives, Flavours, Colouring, GMO modification or intervention. As it is these changes that have become a part of the Western World’s mainstream diet, that has led to the increase in obesity, and chronic, serious, health problems.
There is nothing “Fad” about your decision to eating clean, it is a lifetime decision that you make for your whole life, to live your best life.
Known Foods Leading to Obesity
& Chronic Disease
The alarming increase in Australia and worldwide with obesity and disease. It is a major concern both for communities and for the people being affected. Obesity and disease are for the most part are preventable. It is now a well-known fact that the increase in consumption of overly processed foods, fast and junk food is a major causative factor to obesity and the onset of chronic disease such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, stomach and liver disease.
Food Never to be Consumed and Why!
If you are wanting to Live the Best Life Possible, Free from Disease with the Best Quality you can have for your Whole Life. Take note of these suggestions.
- Endocrinologist: Canned Tomatoes
Fredrick Vom Saal, is an endocrinologist at the University of Missouri who studies bisphenol-A.
The problem: The resin linings of tin cans contain bisphenol A, a synthetic oestrogen that has been linked to ailments ranging from reproductive problems to heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Unfortunately, acidity (a prominent characteristic of tomatoes) causes BPA to leach into your food.
Studies show that the BPA in most people’s body exceeds the amount that suppresses sperm production or causes chromosomal damage to the eggs of animals. “You can get 50 mcg of BPA per litre out of a tomato can, and that’s a level that is going to impact people, particularly the young,” says vom Saal. “I won’t go near canned tomatoes.”
The solution: Choose either fresh tomatoes or those in glass jars or bottles (which do not need resin linings), such as the brands Bionaturae and Coluccio. You can also get several types in Tetra Pak boxes, like Trader Joe’s and Pomi. Exposure to BPA Causes Permanent Damage In Offspring. I think this could be a problem with most canned foods.
- Farmers say: Don’t Eat Corn-Fed Beef
Joel Salatin is co-owner of Poly face Farms and author of half a dozen books on sustainable farming.
The problem: Cattle evolved to eat grass, not grains. But farmers today feed their animal’s corn and soybeans, which fatten up the animals faster for slaughter. But more money for cattle farmers (and lower prices at the grocery store) means a lot less nutrition for us.
A recent comprehensive study conducted by the USDA and researchers from Clemson University found that compared with corn-fed beef, grass-fed beef is higher in beta-carotene, vitamin E, omega-3s, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), calcium, magnesium, and potassium; lower in inflammatory omega-6s; and lower in saturated fats that have been linked to heart disease. “We need to respect the fact that cows are herbivores, and that does not mean feeding them corn and chicken manure,” says Salatin.
The solution: Buy grass-fed beef, which can be found at specialty butchers and local farmers markets. It’s usually labelled because it demands a premium, but if you don’t see it, ask your butcher.
- The Toxicologist: Don’t Eat Microwave Popcorn
Olga Naidenko, is a senior scientist for the Environmental Working Group.
The problem: Chemicals, including per fluoro octanoic acid (PFOA), in the lining of the bag, are part of a class of compounds that may be linked to infertility in humans, according to a recent study from UCLA. In animal testing, the chemicals cause liver, testicular, and pancreatic cancer. Studies show that microwaving causes the chemicals to vaporize–and migrate into your popcorn.
“They stay in your body for years and accumulate there,” says Naidenko, which is why researchers worry that levels in humans could approach the amounts causing cancers in laboratory animals. DuPont and other manufacturers have promised to phase out PFOA by 2015 under a voluntary EPA plan, but millions of bags of popcorn will be sold between now and then.
The solution: Pop organic kernels the old-fashioned way: in a skillet. For flavourings, you can add real butter or dried seasonings, such as dill weed, vegetable flakes, garlic or onion flakes. Make it organic and use coconut oil.
I don’t cook anything in the microwave, I just feel that it is safest plus, if I cook or steam my foods, they taste better as well as being healthier for you.
- Director of Farming Foods: Says to avoid Nonorganic Potatoes Jeffrey Moyer is the chair of the National Organic Standards Board.
The problem: Root vegetables absorb herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides that wind up in soil. In the case of potatoes–the nation’s most popular vegetable–they’re treated with fungicides during the growing season, then sprayed with herbicides to kill off the fibrous vines before harvesting.
After the potatoes are dug up, they are treated yet again to prevent them from sprouting. “Try this experiment: Buy a conventional potato in a store and try to get it to sprout. It won’t,” says Moyer, who is also farm director of the Rodale Institute (also owned by Rodale Inc., the publisher of Prevention). “I’ve talked with potato growers who say point-blank they would never eat the potatoes they sell. They have separate plots where they grow potatoes for themselves without all the chemicals.”
The solution: Buy organic potatoes. Washing isn’t good enough if you’re trying to remove chemicals that have been absorbed into the flesh. Budget tip: Organic potatoes are only $1 to $2 a pound, slightly more expensive than conventional spuds.
- Fisheries Director: Avoid Farmed Salmon
Dr. David Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany, published a major study in the journal Science on contamination in fish.
The problem: Here the same is happening as what was to our chickens. Mother Nature didn’t intend for salmon to be crammed into pens and fed soy, poultry litter, and hydrolysed chicken feathers.
The results from this are that farmed salmon is lower in vitamin D and higher in contaminants, including carcinogens, PCBs, brominated flame retardants, and pesticides such as dioxin and DDT. According to Carpenter, the most contaminated fish come from Northern Europe, which can be found on American menus. “You could eat one of these salmon dinners every 5 months without increasing your risk of cancer,” says Carpenter, whose 2004 fish contamination study got broad media attention.
“It’s that bad.” Preliminary science has also linked DDT to diabetes and obesity, but some nutritionists believe the benefits of omega-3s outweigh the risks. There is also concern about the high level of antibiotics and pesticides used to treat these fish. When you eat farmed salmon, you get dosed with the same drugs and chemicals.
The solution: Switch to wild-caught Alaska salmon. If the package says fresh Atlantic, it’s farmed. There are no commercial fisheries left for wild Atlantic salmon. Farmed Fish vs. Wild Fish: Ensure you go to your local market and get Wild Fish:
- Cancer Research Team: Do not Drink Milk Produced with Artificial Hormones
Rick North is project director of the Campaign for Safe Food at the Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility and former CEO of the Oregon division of the American Cancer Society.
The problem: Dairy Farmers are treating their dairy cattle with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH or rBST, as it is also known) to boost milk production. But rBGH also increases udder infections and even pus in the milk. It also leads to higher levels of a hormone called insulin-like growth factor in milk. In people, high levels of IGF-1 may contribute to breast, prostate, and colon cancers.
“When the government approved rBGH, it was thought that IGF-1 from milk would be broken down in the human digestive tract,” says “North”. “There’s not 100 percent proof that this is increasing cancer in humans,” admits “North”. “However, it’s banned in most industrialized countries.”
The solution: Buy raw milk or check labels for rBGH-free, rBST-free, produced without artificial hormones, or organic milk. These phrases indicate rBGH-free products. Why Do Humans Still Drink Milk? It is not a necessary component of our diet there are healthier way to get our calcium via green vegetables, almonds, organic yogurt, figs, kale, bok choy canned wild caught salmon with bones, white turnip greens, seaweed and sesame seeds.
- Biotech Specialist says to avoid Conventional Soy: GMO Unfermented Soy
Michael Harris is biotech specialist who has directed several projects within the biotech sector including those for genetically engineered food. He has been a consultant, manager and director for companies such as Xenon Pharmaceuticals and Genon Corporation.
The problem: Genetically engineered food is a cause of great concern due to the manipulation of DNA and genetic code including transfers from one species to another. Fermented Soy Is the Only Soy Food Fit for Human Consumption and since almost 90% of soy in the world is genetically modified, if you are not ensuring sources are organic, long-term health problems are inevitable, especially since soy has been found to affect hormonal balance and even cause cancer.
The solution: Check labels to ensure soy is non-GMO or organic and never consume unfermented sources. If possible, contact the company to find out exactly where the non-GMO soy was obtained.
- Organic Foods Specialist: Avoid Conventional Apples
Mark Kastel, a former executive for agribusiness, is codirector of the Cornucopia Institute, a farm-policy research group that supports organic foods. To avoid “conventional apples”, these being apples cold stored after picking to a cold storage facility.
The problem: If fall fruits held a “most doused in pesticides contest,” apples would win. Why? They are individually grafted (descended from a single tree) so that each variety maintains its distinctive flavour. As such, apples don’t develop resistance to pests and are sprayed frequently.
The industry maintains that these residues are not harmful. But Kastel counters that it’s just common sense to minimize exposure by avoiding the most doused produce, like apples. “Farm workers have higher rates of many cancers,” he says. And increasing numbers of studies are starting to link a higher body burden of pesticides (from all sources) with Parkinson’s disease.
The solution: Buy organic apples or apples from a fruiter that gets them from a farmer they trust!
What is Happening to your Food!
Food scientists, Nutritionists and Health experts such as I are wanting you to become aware of the dangers to your health due to food that has been altered, manufactured and processed. A large percentage of these foods are containing toxic chemicals. These foods are altering cellular function and DNA within your bodies causing enormous health problems.
I am talking to you about being Vital and Healthy for your whole life. How becoming Mindful, Aware of the Foods you are Eating will give you the knowledge to make the necessary changes to your eating habits, to what is wrong with the Global Food System.
Important Talk from a young man – Birke Baehr – At 11 years of age Birke Baehr began planning a career as an organic farmer. He wants us to know how our food is made, where it comes from, and what’s in it. As this is so important in preventing disease and improving your quality of life.
What is Wrong with our Food System?
An Excerpt from his talk:
“First of all, I would like to say that I’m really amazed at how easily kids are led to believe all the marketing and advertising on TV, at public schools and pretty much everywhere else you look. It seems to me like corporations are always trying to get kids, like me, to get their parents to buy stuff that really isn’t good for us or the planet. Little kids, especially, are attracted by colourful packaging and plastic toys. I must admit, I used to be one of them. I also used to think that all of our food came from these happy, little farms where pigs rolled in mud and cows grazed on grass all day.
What I discovered was this is not true. I began to look into this stuff on the Internet, in books and in documentary films, in my travels with my family. I discovered the dark side of the industrialized food system. First, there’s genetically engineered seeds and organisms. That is when a seed is manipulated in a laboratory to do something not intended by nature — like taking the DNA of a fish and putting it into the DNA of a tomato. Yuck.
Don’t get me wrong, I like fish and tomatoes, but this is just creepy. (Laughter) The seeds are then planted, then grown. The food they produce have been proven to cause cancer and other problems in lab animals, and people have been eating food produced this way since the 1990s. And most folks don’t even know they exist.
Did you know rats that ate genetically engineered corn had developed signs of liver and kidney toxicity? These include kidney inflammation and lesions and increased kidney weight. Yet almost all the corn we eat has been altered genetically in some way. And let me tell you, corn is in everything. And don’t even get me started on the Confined Animal Feeding Operations called CAFOS.”
Click Here to Listen to the Video an amazing astute young man.
3 Key Reasons Why Becoming Mindful of the Food You EAT is Essential for your Quality of Health!
1: The heart of eating clean is consuming food in its most natural state, or as close to it as possible. It is not a type of diet; it is about having a lifestyle approach to food you are going to eat and why you are going to eat it. It is about how our food is grown, the conditions and the preparation of it.
So as to provide our body with the best fuel for energy, organ and tissue function: giving our body the maximum ability to heal and protect us from harmful disease. Food our daily eating habits are the very basis to us leading a life of optimal health and vitality. We can start with one meal at a time.
2: Best Options: Quite often these foods can be organic or at least free from preservatives, additives and chemicals. Your best options are buying these foods from local small businesses such as butchers, fruiters and markets so you know where the foods have been grown and slaughtered. In many cases where the food goes through large manufacturers the methods of food production is neither clean nor sustainable.
The result being that if you do not become mindful and avoid the damaging processing of your foods. This will be is both devastating and damaging both to your health including the environment. Not to mention your children.
3: Research has discovered: Let us take a look at what has been uncovered about eight of these most damaging foods from the people who have been spending the career looking into the safety and damage these foods are bestowing upon you.
You will notice that there is very little said out there in the food world about these foods being a part of the “banned foods” list. But reaching for safe, fresh foods with minimal processing as possible is the answer to improved health and peace of mind.
Top Ten Health Benefits to Eating Clean!
- Your Brain will function much more effectively. You won’t believe the difference.
- You will live longer, but more importantly you will not be spending most of your time sick, at Doctor’s appointments or in hospital.
- You will look better; your skin will be glowing and clear no matter how old you are.
- Apart from if you hurt yourself or have an accident. You will basically be pain free.
- You will sleep better, and your quality of sleep will improve.
- You will have more energy and when you are tired it will be a normal relaxed tired, not that total debilitation and exhausting feeling.
- You will be happier, great nutrition fuels your nervous system and you will suffer less from anxiety and tension.
- You will be stronger, eating a well -balanced diet of fresh foods, good quality protein helps to maintain healthy muscle function.
- You will maintain a healthy body weight because of the high nutritional density of fresh foods these calories will be metabolized and utilized by your body.
- You will be far less prone to chronic disease and should you become unwell your body will be in a much better position to recover and support you.
“Remember – Eating Fresh is Best
& Local Products that are in Season”
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