‘We are what we eat’ is saying that what we choose to eat is who we are.
Our modern diet has become more and more intolerable to our natural state of being, where many illnesses and dis-eases in the body are coming from what we eat and our general lifestyle.
We call ourselves the most intelligent species on earth, yet what we eat is not always what our body is asking for.
Could we as humans learn from the animal kingdom who respect their body and only eat what they need and never more?
We have become a nation who indulges in excess on foods and in particular those that are deeply harmful to our body.
Our body has a natural way of living and being, which requires food to nourish and support it to function at an optimum level. Each organ and every cell in our body has a job to do and food plays a big part by supplying nutrients and giving the body energy and hydration – all which are needed to stay alive.
Our digestive system can be overloaded and unable to deal with what we are eating if we overeat or eat excess of certain foods.
Today’s fast foods and processed foods are known to be high in sugar and saturated fats, both of which have a negative effect on the body. Add to this our daily caffeine in tea, coffee and chocolate and is it any surprise we have so many types of complications and illnesses?
Alcohol alters our natural state of being and it is a scientific proven poison and yet for some reason we consume this drink, which is known to be addictive just like caffeine.
The main ingredient in alcohol is sugar and there is much debate now from the medical world telling us that sugar is harming our body and leading to all types of illness and disease.
Having a poor diet and making ill choices in what foods we eat means that our immune system will be low and we are more susceptible to the colds and flu that may be around.
Eating pre-packed food because we are stressed and have a busy lifestyle could mean that we are not getting any nutrients which the body requires to have daily vitality.
Vitamins and minerals are essential for our body and whilst supplements support this, our natural way is to receive these from the foods we eat.
We may not be aware that processed foods, antibiotics, tea, coffee, alcohol, smoking, anti-depressants, HRT and birth control pills are ALL assimilation barriers for certain vitamins and minerals. This means we do not get the essential nutrients being absorbed in our body because these foods and substances are blocking them.
This is serious and worth exploring as we tend to keep going until we get ill.
Caffeine, sugar and alcohol are all highly addictive and applying common sense and removing these from our diet will result in positive changes to our body.
Eating foods because of our beliefs may not always be the right thing for our body. In my case I was a vegan and then a vegetarian, which included dairy products. However, following a serious illness where my blood iron levels were so low, I was advised to eat meat and eggs. I was forced to ‘suspend all beliefs’ and change my diet. It is no surprise my blood count went back to normal and I began to pay attention to what I was eating.
Today I am what I eat. I have not visited my GP in 9 years and have increased vitality levels, since removing gluten, salt, sugar, dairy and yeast from my diet. I feel 20 years younger and I am constantly asked by others what I eat.
Next – the yeast menace is something that needs more public awareness. It can be the underlying cause to many current symptoms like depression, vaginal thrush, bloating, mood swings, anxiety, skin problems, constipation, headaches and the inability to lose weight.
Yeast affects the gut flora and this imbalance has been detected in people with Irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease and Rheumatoid arthritis.
Eating a sensible diet, which has variety can and will support us to absorb the nutrients that we need and increase our resilience against infection and live a more longer and healthier life.
Making wise food choices by eating wholefoods and eliminating refined and processed foods, is a good start.
Dr. Carl Pfeiffer, an American doctor and psychiatrist who studied the chemistry of the brain said, ‘with an adequate intake of micronutrients – essential substances we need to nourish us – most chronic diseases would not exist. Good nutritional therapy is the medicine of the future’.
Dr. Linus Pauling known as one of the geniuses of our time and voted the second most important scientist of the twentieth century, with 48 Ph.D.’s said ‘by giving the body the right (ortho) molecules, most disease would be eradicated. Optimum nutrition is the medicine of tomorrow’.
Throughout history we have been told that ‘We are what we eat’.
Edison in the early twentieth century said the doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet and the cause and prevention of disease.
Is this what Hippocrates was telling us in 390 BC when he said
‘Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food’?
Is it time to use food as medicine and not just something to function our body?
‘We are what we eat’ – this requires each and every one of us to take responsibility for our own health and well-being and as Edison expands on this it is also ‘the care of the human frame’ and not just diet that will prevent disease.
Taking responsibility for everything we eat and having an understanding of what food does to our body, will bring more awareness in a world that currently needs radical changes in our food industry, in order to bring down the illnesses related to the food we consume.
Patrick Holford who is one of the UK’s leading nutrition experts states ‘I am now completely convinced that the concept of optimum nutrition is the greatest step forward in medicine for over a century and that, if applied from an early age, it is a guarantee for a long and healthy life’.
References
Holford, P. (2005). The New Optimum Nutrition Bible (pages 1-4). Crossing Press
Comments 77
Dear world
Just incase you are reading this blog and its got you interested – keep checking the website as we will be posting weekly blogs and these are some of the related topics coming out this year..
Chocolate
Sugar
Alcohol
Diabetes
Obesity
Water
Diets
Eating
Fast Foods
Where possible we will give you statistics not to alarm you but so you get the picture of what is actually going on in our world today.
Another excellent blog Bina. We, as a humanity, have certainly lost our way with our food and lost touch with our common sense. I, like many, have noticed how much our health is related to the kind of food we eat or drink. Removing alcohol, coffee, gluten, diary, yeast and sugar has been the best thing that has happened to my body and I feel and look years younger. Fresh, simple and unprocessed food feels right for me as well as the right amount – not too much and not too little – according to our body mass and lifestyle.
So what you are saying really here Maryline is the lifestyle choices you have made by cutting out foods and drinks that you know are harmful to the body comes down to that word RESPONSIBILITY. We can always blame the food, the manufacturers, the adverts or whatever but it is only when we take things into our own hands and make the choices not to harm our body which lets face it is precious will things actually change.
What part of us is intelligent if we eat over and over again something we know is hurting us inside and the same goes for drinking?
I know if I was into all that list you mention in your comment, I would feel like it is a lot to give up, so the key is to do it step by step and keep asking why on earth do I need yeast or gluten and just opening up in this way brings more awareness and the possibility that you may even be able to feel how eating bread does have an effect on your body. Then you could stay open and check in how you feel after eating sugar and be honest as sugar is in so much food these days.
It has been my experience that the food we eat plays a big part of how well we feel within ourselves. Having given up gluten, dairy products, excessive sugar, yeast, alcohol and coffee a lot of my health issues started to clear up by themselves. The most noticeable condition which was affecting my daily life was IBS, bloating, being overweight and chronic fatigue – most days I was housebound and found it difficult to work and leave the house before midday due to the symptoms of the IBS. After a couple of months of giving up the gluten and dairy products my IBS symptoms improved immensely and I have never looked back. Things are so very different now as I work full time and most days leave the house around 7.30am and get back at around 6.30pm – it’s great to have the confidence and not worry about going out.
What you are saying here is huge Julie and coming from your own lived experience I feel that it is worth paying attention to. All your symptoms have some relation to what you eat and so the common sense tells us how about removing some foods from your diet and see what happens.
I never had IBS but I was constantly bloated and never ever dreamt of giving up my crusty white bread and butter so thick you would not believe it. If I am honest there was a comfort even though my body was uncomfortable. How absurd is that?
Once I got an understanding what it does to me and then feel that for myself and not because someone told me, I got it. I was willing to have a go and of course the benefits far outweigh the few seconds of that butter in my mouth and the smell of fresh bread.
Like you Julie, I work long hours now and have completely different vitality levels and the biggest change is my moods are not up and down or all over the place. I am known for my steadiness – a quality that has taken some time to develop and which I value and appreciate beyond words.
Great comment Michael to bring even more awareness about the QUALITY of the food we eat. Let me expand on this from my own experience.
Taking the time to shop and prepare the ingredients then cook holds a quality. Doing these tasks without feeling obligated or resentful or whinging that you got no time will also have a “quality”. Both have a different quality and this is what is felt.
So go with the first one and add a dose of deep self care and self love and bingo your are making a choice to nurture yourself and your body will thank you.
Now if that choice is comfort foods like pies, fatty foods, cakes and dairy then that is also a quality as your body will not see this as nurturing. If your organs could talk they would tell you they don’t need the burden of clearing all that out and of course it exhausts you. On that note – have you ever eaten and instantly feel tired or sleepy?
“Taking the time to shop and prepare the ingredients then cook holds a quality. Doing these tasks without feeling obligated or resentful or whinging that you got no time will also have a “quality”. Both have a different quality and this is what is felt.”
I have done an experiment on this with my kids and it is super-interesting.
1 of my boys doesn’t seem to like spinach. Yet one day, his Godmother had been down to the awesome greengrocer near her and bought some. She gave it to me. Now, this woman is incredible – she treats people and life with such respect and care that you can feel it in her movements. Well, she showed my kids the spinach and shared how she had bought it, from whom and why it was going to be so delicious and nourishing for the body. She was simply speaking from her own experience, not in ‘sell’ mode.
Would you believe that on the way home, my ‘I don’t like spinach’ son was tearing off spinach leaves from the bunch and stuffing them into his face. I kid you not.
Why was he doing that? What was it that he’d tuned into?
For me this says it all really.
Great question – “Is it time to use food as medicine and not just something to function our body?” Great blog, and hearing your personal experience makes it real. When I was younger I reacted to coffee with palpitations and hot sweats so I stopped drinking it, as I got older I had mucus and sinus trouble until I stopped all dairy and then those symptoms subsided. When I used to eat wheat/sandwiches etc my tummy bloated and I got sleepy so I gave up first wheat, then gluten. Our body knows what it doesn’t need, and, it also knows what it needs – if we choose to listen to it.
Thanks Jane – you are right that when we add our personal experience to something it does make it real and I feel it is because we can relate to it more. Bit like true stories and true movies, it sure has a different vibe so to speak. The Truth is we can relate to anything as we are constantly having a relationship with everything. So even food and what we eat is a relationship if you get what I mean.
Next – I have to agree that our body knows what it wants and what it does not want but that mind of ours can override anything if we choose to, so it does come down to choice.
Exactly Bina, it does come down to choice and in many instances our ‘unhealthy’ choices are determined by going for something that will satisfy us at a mental and emotional level but is actually harming the body. It takes the willingness to experiment and not go the comfortable way when we first start making different food choices – and it can be uncomfortable to start with as you give up foods you have used to satisfy an emotional need but it surely is worth it. In my case dairy was ruining my digestion but I loved my cheese and cream – so yes when I stopped eating them I felt very empty and hollow for a week or two, but wow my body and felt so much better, my constipation and bloating disappeared. I have never looked back and nothing would convince me to eat these foods again, not the lushest butter, ice cream or the most delicious brie cheese. I choose the way my body feels now with its robust digestion and vitality over and above anything that dairy once offered me.
Well this comment sounds like the foods I used to love Josephine.
Gooey brie cheese melted please and tons of butter and cream and ice cream all what I call ‘no teeth needed’ foods so very comforting like I was a baby.
Like you I felt empty inside to start with when I was ‘trying’ to give up and then I realised I was in reaction to what I had heard and not actually feeling it for myself. I went to soya cream and milk and gluten free bread but noticed it had a lot of sugar so that was not really an option. The magic is my spots started to go and so did the bloated belly and I started to like how I was feeling. Then when I had my frothy de-caff soya thing, I felt sick literally inside and this is when I made my own connection. It was like my stomach saying ‘get out and stay out’. This tends to be the way I learn and the more I listen to my body the more I get to support myself.
Just like you the vitality I now have simply confirms that I do not need dairy or other foods that harm my body.
…So what is stopping us from doing the sensible thing with food??!
Like so many, I did not find the strength to really and truly cut out the foods I knew where hurting me until I was so so unhappy and fed up with how I felt all the time and how dysfunctional I was due to exhaustion and moodiness.
At this point I found the role model I wanted in Bina Pattel. Her honesty and integrity helped me find the courage to dig deep and find the self love I needed to say ‘I want to stop harming myself’ and to make a commitment to ‘no more unconscious eating to escape my feelings or eating just for function sake with no self love in it at all’ and offer myself something different, something truly supportive… it is a process and one which only gets easier as I develop awareness of my body; feeling what it wants and does not want.
I have an entirely different relationship with food now and even with the list of things I no longer eat (nor crave to eat!) I feel more enjoyment and satisfaction and I am more passionate about my food than back when I ate ‘everything’.
My body feels really good and has become more sleek and lovely than I thought it could be and I am 43 now!
I love Josephine Bell’s comment and Bina’s reply here as it is high time we all talk about the “WHY” we eat foods that not only do not nurture us but that harm us.
Like so many, I too have found that I can unconsciously eat for the purpose of stuffing an emotion down instead of eating to support my body. Simple Living has inspired me to make a choice to become more aware of how I am feeling and why I crave certain foods. These days if I dont feel OK I stop and allow myself to ‘feel’ whatever emotion is coming up (that I don’t ‘want’ to feel) and once I have felt it and named it, it loses its hold on me and I am then free to feel what my body really wants to eat or IF I am even hungry at all.
This simple practice has helped me to lighten up not only physically but emotionally and has played a great part in my choices being SO much more loving in all areas of my life.
I agree with you Jo that there is a direct correlation to how we feel which will then determine the choices of food we eat. The other thing that someone shared with me recently is you eat when you are not doing something you want to do.
So after hearing this I took note and its true. I found myself having a thought about food and it was because I was doing something I didn’t want to do.
Well you could say that this is life but what if it was just a matter of wrong timing or you know you could have said ‘no thanks, not putting my body through that’.
Could it be that simple.
next – I have lost count how many times I needed water and not food so it shows you we think we are hungry but it may not be the case.
I found this blog very supportive for me today as I ate things yesterday that certainly did not make me feel great this morning as I have woken up a little snotty in the nose. No big deal, as I simply have to clock this and take greater care and pay more attention next time when placing food into my mouth. I can also check in with myself next time I go to put something in my mouth and ask is it actually what my body is asking for?
I know what you mean here Sally and how many times before we actually make changes when it comes to what we put inside our mouth that the body then goes “oh No, not again” as it has to process it all. Why are we not educated at school about the process of food and given the pros and cons so we can make our own minds up about the effects of food? Why is there not more media coverage on sugar which clearly is a poison?
Why are so many people taking cholesterol tablets without asking why?
Why is there so much indulgence in chocolate and most people would agree it is addictive. If it wasn’t we would not keep craving more.
It comes down to that question – where is our Responsibility?
When is it that we will take full Responsibility for our food choices?
It seems throughout our history different people have been saying that what we put into our mouths has the capacity to cause us great harm with many different diseases and ailments resulting. With the scientific knowledge that we have today, that what we put into our mouths causes a range of diseases from obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, issues involving all the major organs, to name just a few, why does the human race still eat and drink to excess? As you say Bina, we can learn from the animal kingdom. Animals will only eat when they are hungry and they will only eat what they need, no indulgence. On a personal level I used to be the king of indulgence, hence the reason my weight, at my heaviest, was 27 and a half stone. With the presentations of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, I gained an understanding as to what foods were doing to my body and why and when I was eating certain foods. But is having an understanding about food, enough to inspire people to change their diet? Looking at how the world is today and with the increasing rates of illness and disease related to food, I would say no. I feel that there is an understanding of the effect certain foods have on us, so what is it that makes us humans eat and drink to excess? Could it simply be that most people are not yet ready to be that responsible for their own well-being prefering instead to stay in the comfort of their comfortable lives?
Great confirmation Tim how we most certainly can learn from the animal kingdom when it comes to eating food.
So much money is research about what food consumption does to the human body and yet we forget the common sense stuff by asking WHY.
Why do we need to overeat? We need to look deeper and explore the possibilities that something is going on and this leads us to our food choices.
Your weight loss story is huge – pun intended and I know it has come from a deep understanding about WHY you got to over 27 stone in weight in the first place. There is a correlation between our emotional state and our what foods we choose to eat.
As you say Tim there is a responsibility and most of us prefer the easy comfort option in the knowing that the health systems will take care of us if needed.
I totally agree with this blog, having had bad irritable bowel syndrome from childhood and every medication on offer, anti inflammatories, anti spasmodics, pain killers, digest aids, to help with the symptoms it wasn’t until I stopped eating Gluten and Dairy that my symptoms hugely decreased. This was about 28 years ago when I also had ongoing sinusitis , which I had an appointment set to have my sinuses drilled having been on antibiotics for 6 months continually which didn’t stop it. 2 – 3 weeks after stopping dairy I was able to cancel the appointment for the surgery as it was no longer necessary, the sinusitis cleared up completely. That spoke volumes to me, so having proved that foods impacted my health to such a degree over time I continued to see what else was causing me problems.. sugar , salt, alcohol, yeast. It was a process of refinement, listening to my body. I was also a vegan for 10 years, I had no strength and was deficient in various nutrients. When I started to eat meat again , chicken first, I couldn’t believe the difference it made, I never looked back. With these changes I love cooking my own food from fresh ingredients and a selection of herbs and spices, so nutritious , so tasty. Like you I would not go near these foods now.
This is a great testimony Ruth about how important it is to discern and choose foods that our body is asking for that support it and not make it react with all the list of symptoms you mention in your comment.
Common sense tells us we do not have the multiple stomachs that a cow has and therefore we are not naturally designed to drink dairy milk from another species. You never see a goat drink the milk of another animal, so why do we as humans think it is ok?
Our blog on the website about gluten confirms it is a glue and that is where the original name came from. Our farming methods and agriculture has changed so much now that we no longer need gluten in our diet. I am yet to meet someone who has not benefited from taking gluten and dairy out of their diet.
The way gluten and dairy is manufactured today is in itself not what our precious bodies need to sustain vitality levels.
That’s quite a statement, to say you ‘have yet to meet someone who has not benefitted from taking gluten and dairy out of their diet’. It speaks for itself, from your lived experience, how this small change alone from our diet can have a large effect on our health, vitality and wellbeing.
There are so many gluten and dairy alternatives these days, super markets have their own sections for it with a good variety on offer and readily available.
I’m seeing a theme on this website about overriding – why do we humans override the things we know to be true? When I read this blog I know it is right beyond a shadow of a doubt: that bad food choices have a negative affect on my body. I get tired or over-stimulated or want to make more bad choices. So why make those choices in the first place? Is it really worth it for a few moments of comfort or whatever? There’s that old saying ‘a minute on the lips a lifetime on the hips’ and that’s literally it: just a single minute and then it’s in your body affecting your chemical balance and hormones and blood sugar and vitality (not just your hips!). There’s a lot to look at here about why we do this and to remind us we can make different choices. A wise person once told me it’s not about what you say no to (that cake, that coffee or whatever), but about what you say yes to (feeling good in your body, cherishing a good night’s sleep, for example).
You make some great points here JS and what sticks out is the bit about making bad choices then making ‘more bad choices’. Sounds absurd and makes no sense but that is exactly what we do. We abuse our body and then override the ill feeling inside us and do it again and again. Like a kind of momentum and we just can’t stop. Crazy how we behave really when you think about it.
Why is it that we love our food so much for the few seconds it is in our mouth?
As we all know it then starts its digestive process and most of us really don’t want to know how all that works, what goes on and how it truly affects our whole being inside.
Is that because if we knew the truth we would need to take RESPONSIBILITY?
That word is for sure a running theme in this website on blogs and comments from Simple Living Global incase you haven’t noticed.
We are what we eat and we would benefit if we started to pay more attention to what we place into our bodies and whether what we are eating is supporting our bodies to feel light, nourished and warm or whether the opposite is true. There are so many books and diets written about food that are not supportive of our bodies as each body is different. What works for me to eat may not work for another person of the same age and so how can we have any books, websites, magazines telling us what to or what not to eat? What we do really benefit from is being educated on the effects certain foods have on our bodies and the effects our consumption of them have on the animals kingdom like this article does.
https://simplelivingglobal.com/the-truth-about-dairy/
Good point you make here Shevon – how many of us actually pay any attention to what we place into our bodies?
People are walking down the street and eating or whilst they are working. Bit like multi tasking.
Do we care enough about our body to give it what it needs to support us to do what it does?
If we can honestly say yes to this question, then are we making sure we do this consistently?
Many of us have a tendency to go for it short term but it either gets boring or we get distracted and move to something else so we never keep at it.
Taking note of what foods feel right when we eat and being honest about how we feel AFTER we have a drink or eat our favourite foods would be a start.
Could it be possible that being dis-honest is one reason why we have not had any real change in our life?
As you say at the end we would ALL benefit from ‘being educated about the effects that certain foods have on our body’. It is time we got our kids learning about this so future generations will be in a better place than we are right now in the world.
This blog brings back memories of when I used to eat whatever, whenever I wanted to. I was Not taking note to my body’s constant signals, exhaustion, sleeplessness, fatigue, blocked noses, mucousiness, I could go on. Why was I ignoring these signals until a health issue stopped me in my tracks and I had the choice taken away, take heed or ignore and become worse.
Fast track to today, I have let go of a lot of the foods that were dis-serving my body and I feel so much different to back then.
Why do people continue to gorge themselves on food and drink, it is time for people of the world to realised they are responsible for what they eat.
Daily Mail – 11th March 2017
Organic farming has been reported as ‘not better for the planet’.
Some of the benefits of cutting out pesticides is being undone, as organic produce is 40% lower than on traditional farms – this adds to greenhouse gases and water shortages.
This leads to farmers needing more land to grow the same amount –
Dr. Verena Seufert, University of British Columbia
The study in the Journal Science Advances is said to also criticise the cost as organic shoppers often see their shopping costs increase by 50%.
I didn’t know this about the land and the reduced productivity, but on a micro-level, I did find that my finances were much reduced when I used to insist on having all organic food.
Today I don’t shop that way and hardly ever buy organic foods and to be honest I don’t notice any difference in the taste or my health and there is no decline. What I have noticed is that I spend much less on food which in turn can only assist the planet, as I am not spending more than I need.
This article in the Daily Mail last year gives some bare faced facts of the effects of sugar on our body – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3507655/Revealed-body-sugar-weakening-immune-triggering-thrush-terrifying-tool-reveals-exactly-white-stuff-harms-health.html
It shows in diagrams the harmful effects of sugar on Men, Women and Children.
The ‘white stuff’, as they call it, really is a poison to the body and a seriously addictive substance. According to the nutritionalist’s video it gives a high to the brain working on the opiate receptors in the brain, ‘it lights up the whole addiction centre, where as cocaine only lights up part of it’.
It states – Children have a delicate immune system which can be upset by too much sugar. After consuming around 100 grams of sugar (the amount found in a litre bottle of fizzy pop), white blood cells can be around 40 per cent less effective at killing germs. According to researchers at Columbia University, this can cripple the immune system for up to five hours after eating sugar.
This really does ask for the question.. why do we eat sugar?
What’s behind those cravings, the need for sweetness?
What is missing in our lives that sends us to the falseness of sugar and the harm it causes?
Are we listening to our body.. does it really want sugar?
Research at Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy has been looking at data from national sources (for 2012 in the U.S.) to understand more about the role diet may play in heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. (link below)
Professor Renata Micha said that her research group “…observed about 700,000 deaths due to those diseases,” and that “Nearly half of these were associated with suboptimal intakes of the 10 dietary factors combined.”
Micha sees a data trend implying that “It wasn’t just too much ‘bad’ in the American diet; it’s also not enough ‘good,’”. She says “Americans are not eating enough fruits, vegetables, nuts/seeds, whole grains, vegetable oils or fish,”
This is huge…
…nearly 350,000. deaths could be due to us not choosing enough foods that our body wants!
When faced with the suffering and loss that dying of one of these diseases costs us, our families and our world it is incredible to consider that such major health improvements may be in our reach simply by adding quality to our diet.
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=202105&utm_content=bufferb382a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Nearly half of all the ready meals eaten in Europe in 2016, were consumed in the U.K.
On average people in the U.K. eat one ready meal a week – twice as many as in France and 6 times as many as in Spain. (The Week magazine, 25th February 2017)
I feel that what these figures really show us is that with our quick, ‘rush here and there’ lifestyles we are not taking care of ourselves and valuing cooking as an important part of life.
From what I know of the Spanish, mealtimes and eating with others is a big part of their culture and so I also question whether with a fast paced life we are also devaluing the benefits of connecting and sharing with others as we eat.
I know that eating home cooked food with others is very nurturing and I always feel very warm and fulfilled thereafter, not just from the food but due to genuine engagement and connection with others.
Could we be missing out on more by opting for the quick fix?
I see the world and its brothers big into the vitamin pill popping stuff but as this blog says it simply does not work with certain things like alcohol and caffeine which block it.
Makes sense really and as someone who has not taken a single vitamin in decades and no GP or hospital visits in 9 years, I reckon I can say there is another way.
What we eat is a big thing and I for one am not in the mastery of this. What I do is try things out, stop listening to others, follow no one and work things out for myself. My body instantly knows if something is not right. I can eat it again and then feel the effects again until I learn No means NO.
The other serious thing that the world could do with knowing more about is the Yeast menace. Sometimes not being educated or informed leaves us in the dark and then we wonder why certain symptoms are happening and all we need to do is eliminate certain foods from our diet and see and feel the change.
Eating competitions are actually regarded as a sport, I was shocked to read this.
We all know how we feel when we overeat and so would it not be wiser to ask why we are overeating rather than creating eating competitions that encourage it?
With obesity rates rising and the consequent huge impact this is having on our health services, none of this is making sense.
What makes even more no-sense are stories where people are dying during eating competitions often through choking.
We are killing ourselves through food – literally.
An article in the Daily Mail, 11/03/17, talks of how prison food is of a better quality than hospital food.
One of the reasons for the drop in the standard of hospital food is that, more and more, the responsibility for providing food to hospitals is being outsourced to catering companies. With this, the meals are being mass produced and reheated or worse, regenerated in self-contained high-pressure steamers.
In many new hospitals being built, this reliance on this type of food has led to them being built without kitchens.
Although this is being done under the guise of ‘efficiency’, it is actually a false economy as patients are taking longer to recover because of being undernourished.
It seems illogical that some hospitals are choosing to feed their patients in this way. Medical science has known for a long time that adequate nourishment is needed for a healthy body but yet they are building hospitals without kitchens or bringing in food that is not up to the task of providing the necessary nutrition.
If the food in prisons is of a higher quality then are we missing the mark here?
Now it’s not to say that prison food should be of a lesser quality. There should, of course, be no distinction, but to have a medically ill person that isn’t receiving the required nutritional food to aid their recovery, seems totally absurd.
Is this just simply a cost saving exercise or is there something else going on here?
Is it possible that those in authority don’t nurture themselves properly so they are unable to nurture others?
I know if I were in hospital I would want a freshly cooked meal to nourish me rather than a pre heated or regenerated one.
Hospitals provide a great service in caring for their patients and the proper food should be part of that great service.
I have come to realise that this food and eating stuff is not that easy to get a grip of.
In the past I joined the veggie vegan bandwagon and then following two blood transfusions I was craving liver and red meat after surgery. That was over a decade ago.
The I started listening to what I thought made sense and went for it giving up this that and the other, but NOT ONCE asking my body how it was feeling.
The weight dropped off and I thought I looked great but inside I was like in starving mode. So then I went back to crazy thoughts and ate what I wanted, but of course it was not great even though most would consider it a healthy diet.
So to be honest nothing so far was working.
What changed was when I gave myself permission to STOP LISTENING TO OTHER PEOPLE and work things out for myself but always with common sense.
So if I want to eat something sweet then I know for a fact I am tired.
If I suddenly want to eat and there is no real hunger, I am very aware some ugly feeling I don’t want to feel has come up. Then in comes the choice of whether I stuff down the feeling with whatever I can find in the fridge or cupboard or suddenly create something to take my mind off what I was feeling and before you know it I am scoffing food and I feel numb, always bloated and none the wiser.
Healthy for each of us means something different and we all have convenient truths that suit us to justify what is ok and what is not.
What has worked and continues to work is checking in with our body and how it is feeling, so going off track is easily felt and we can then clock it and take note and then choose to make another choice next time. Not easy and it does require practice.
Eating for the sake of it or because the clock tells me it’s a certain time is simply not on my radar as that really does not work.
The best tip is to be sensible and realistic and learn about the harm of what any food is doing to our precious body and that way with the understanding it is easier to say No to things like chocolate, coffee, dairy, gluten and sugar.
The common phrases “just eat it” and “just suck it up” refer to letting something ‘slide’ (let it go without speaking up or saying no) that feels wrong and the terminology shows us that we know just where it goes… into our gut…
…so if we are what we eat than aren’t we also whatever else we take into our body?
Is it possible that my body has to “digest” every emotion, drama or disrespect I take into it?
The scientist Mina Bissell talks about discovering that it is the ‘environment’ surrounding the cells which either cultivate, prevent or even reverse cancer…
https://www.ted.com/talks/mina_bissell_experiments_that_point_to_a_new_understanding_of_canc
Is it possible that that with my every thought, choice and action am I creating a soup in which the cells that make me up will either thrive, become sick… or heal?
If food has an effect on our health why wouldn’t other things we put in our body have an effect on our health too?
What would happen if, for our health and well being, we took into consideration, not only what we eat but the quality of ‘anything’ else we can put ‘into’ our bodies on a daily basis like:
Sound, Emotion, Gentle or Harsh movements, Thoughts, Reactions, Music, Movies, Video games, Harsh or gentle Language, social environment, etc.?
What if we considered the quality of the thoughts and emotions we allow to run in our mind and throughout our body?
I know that I feel my body respond and react to my thoughts and emotions and that sometimes it is so strong it makes me feel physically sick…
…so what if we asked our body if it is disturbed or nurtured by more than just the food we consume?
As a regular commuter on trains and buses in London, I sure get to see a cross section of what our world is up to today.
Then ADD those ads that are in our face anywhere and everywhere with new this and that, when it comes to food and is it any wonder we have a massive obesity crisis and many now of all ages with eating disorders?
So we wake up knackered with lack of sleep and we feel sluggish and need to get going. We all know food gives us energy and what we eat plays a hand in how we are choosing to live. I have heard it so many times and experienced this in the past, that we crave fatty, carbs and sugary foods when we are tired.
With a dose of common sense, we all know deep down that these types of food do not truly nurture and nourish our body and give us the vitality levels we need to get on with daily life and what it brings.
I am a walking talking science – in other words, a living proof that we are what we eat.
In the past I can honestly say I was bloated 24/7 and my dominant thoughts and priority was food and what I could eat and how much. Food was more than a hobby. It had overtaken my life and no surprise I was married to a man who was morbidly obese.
That was over 10 years ago. Today I can claim that I know what works when it comes to food and if we are what we eat, then I have come a long way, as I do not suffer from exhaustion or have a need to shove foods in my mouth that are ’empty’ in value.
However, even if I am a little bit tired, I notice I want something sweet so that’s how quick I get my signs. I am not perfect but I do have an awareness of what works and what really does not work when it comes to eating food.
When I am asked what I eat and how come I look great and younger than my age, I always say ‘sort the sleep thing out and the food gets easier’ as the munchies are not there, if we are not tired.
ADD to that drinking plenty of water every day and things start to change and it is easier to stay on track. That’s coming from lived experience, so I know it works and I do not need to be double blind tested in a lab to prove it.
On my walk today on the high street there is a massive advert about the latest soda drink with no sugar. Really?
We all know we want the taste of sugar or the fix that it gives us when we drink it, so the million dollar question is –
What have we got in the drink now instead of zero sugar?
We all know how creative our human intelligence has become in making stuff in the lab to replicate whatever it is we need and demand.
If we are honest – does this really support the human body?
Is an artificial sweetener going to register with our body simply as sugar?
Are we fooling ourselves thinking it is zero sugar so must be good for us?
Are we interested to look at what else goes into making this coloured liquid?
Are we aware that we are not interested in asking questions like WHY do we need a fizzy drink that contains chemicals that are not natural?
If we could interview our body, have we wondered what it would have to say?
Something just came to me and that is, how about we had COMMON SENSE when it comes to our eating choices.
Let’s face it – we do actually have a choice in everything.
What if we started to get real and get honest, for example x food bloats you and it happens all the time. Why not take it as a sign that your body is reacting to this and stop eating it?
Another example could be you feel heavy and tired when you overeat so simple common sense would say – stop over eating as you really don’t want the consequences.
Another one is caffeine, sugar or whatever you feel is stimulating you – that might be hard to give up so how about we ask questions like, when do we notice we need that pick up during the day – is it first thing or last thing at night or all the time?
If we all put our common sense hat on and kept it on, may be we would could be the ones to make the changes that we know our body is calling for.
I know that my past eating was way off and discipline never worked.
Listening to those who walk the walk and talk the talk when it comes to eating choices, has made a big difference.
However, I still learn best when I go through it myself and become the experiment – tried and tested. That way it is coming from me and my body is my confirmation. Also I don’t need to subscribe to the latest fad diet or buzz word when it comes to eating and all these fancy pop up eating places trying to tempt us with more and more, while my body is saying “no thanks mate, seen it, done it, been there and it doesn’t work”.
Food is the ultimate drug as it is socially acceptable.
Of course we need food for our bodies but the majority of us eat way too much.
In every high street there are an abundance of eating places and new ones are constantly popping up. Now ‘healthy eating’ is popular we have a plethora of places selling gluten free, antioxidant rich, low sugar foods to name a few current trends, but are we eating these foods because we have truthfully felt the benefits for our body or because the latest magazine or celebrity say so?
I can certainly relate to what you are saying Bina as food was more than a hobby for me too. I was known to never be without food and praised for being able to eat a lot.
At any social gathering I would always head to the food – now I know that I was hiding behind the food so that I did not have to feel how uncomfortable I felt openly interacting with others.
The tips you give here of sorting out our sleep and drinking plenty of water are certainly two things that are helping me to not feel the need to eat so much.
Being willing to go to bed at a time that supports me and having water on my desk while I work, are two things that are helping me.
I know what you mean by feeling tired and then wanting something sweet to eat. It is interesting that our relationship with food is linked to how we are feeling inside.
I know that when I am regularly making and eating home cooked meals I am nurturing myself and when I am not or if I ever find myself regularly eating on the go, or snacking is happening I know I am avoiding nurturing myself and I have to ask why.
Also I find I can reach for certain foods that make me feel sleepy or slow me down if I have not being saying what I feel needs to be said in situations, instead using the food to further suppress what is there to be said.
It have really found it useful to consider that what we eat is not just about what we put into our mouths but also why we eat what we eat.
Just flicking through the magazine that comes with our weekend newspaper and of course there is more – always more on food.
I had heard of cronuts but not cruffins.
What is it about us that wants something different and mixing things around to give our tastebuds something else?
This is a cross between a croissant and a muffin and this celebrity chef is saying he has a new take by adding even more buttermilk, butter and sugar then frying them.
He then talked about pumpkin ice-cream and the bit that got me was you have to mix it 6 times in 3 hours whilst in the freezer. With the way the world is moving at this stressy fast pace, who has time but more to the point what on earth is this all doing to our insides?
We as humans are unable to settle for the basics and there is this incredible appetite to have more and more different types of foods.
Who is craving this stuff and why is what we should all be asking.
Our mind plays havoc at the expense of our body and it seems we have yet to join the dots and work this simple equation out.
Just reading about a celebrity chef who said that when it comes to chefs they do not hold back with fattening stuff like butter, cream, cheese, sugar and chocolate.
This in itself speaks volumes and we all love the nice restaurant food as someone more qualified than us is cooking and it looks and smells like what we want.
I was one for fine dining, in my champagne days with lemonade money. I done the London circuit for fancy restaurants. That was over 12 years ago and from lived experience I could now say that it left me bloated and full but always craving more. I recall eating and thinking, when could I go to my next fancy restaurant and where will it be.
I know now that the combo of salt, sugar and fat is addictive and as a business they want us coming back.
It worked, as I was one who would keep going back, even if that meant going into debt on my plastic cards, because those ‘specials’ on the board in fancy fine dining cost so much more than what is on the regular menu.
The weight piled on and there was no regard for my body, if I am being honest.
We are certainly what we eat and there is no getting away from that.
Making small changes and feeling what to eat always makes the difference.
Checking how my body feels before and after eating anything is still something I need to practice more of, as it is so easy to eat with my head and eyes, if you know what I mean.
I realise I get food ‘hangovers’.
If I eat food my brain wants but my body doesn’t, my body tells me the next day. Not just heavy, slow digestion, but a slight headache, a tired feeling, a sense of not being sharp.
I can feel it is because the body is struggling to process the food from the day before – still working on yesterday’s cycle instead of starting afresh today.
Alcohol hangovers are well known. What if the body also suffers when we poison it – perhaps much more subtly – with food?
And if this is true, what level of responsibility and care is the body actually asking for with food?
I just read about an ‘ingestible electronic capsule’ that monitors how gas levels in our gut are building up.
You swallow a tiny computer and it sends data to your mobile phone as is passes through your digestive system.
The goal is to understand how our gut works and food that may cause problems, from data such as ‘intestinal wind patterns’.
It is my experience that we know exactly, to the tiniest detail, which foods are hard to digest and sit in our system for ages. Which foods our body processes easily; those that make us feel nourished and well. Which foods make us gassy.
Do we need this ingestible pill to confirm to us our own lived science?
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/01/with-ingestible-pill-you-can-track-fart-development-in-real-time-on-your-phone/
Service Manager on a big airline was telling me that flights to certain places in Africa had extended seat belts as majority of passengers were overweight.
He said they would always ask for more food as the meal given is never enough. It was a ‘culture thing’ he called it and said being obese was normal and not seen as a health risk.
It reminded me of an African wedding where so many women I noticed were very overweight and it was regarded as a beauty thing not a bad thing.
What is interesting is that health and well-being are simply not on the radar for many of these people and what is that really saying?
Do we as individuals think it is ok to eat what we want, when we what and how much we want, without giving any consideration to what the consequences might be?
Do our airlines have a Responsibility in anyway and could they help?
Instead of passing ice cream out and alcohol, caffeine and fresh juices in between meals, would it be wiser to consider other food options, with water as the main or only beverage?
Next –
On another flight where lights are off as they call it, a night flight I observed many people with big bags of munchies.
What if toffee popcorn flavour family size pretzels bag, in front of a TV screen could mean that we do not register what we are actually eating?
Has anyone heard of stilton ice-cream?
Cheese ice-cream?
Bacon and egg ice-cream?
Marmalade on toast ice-cream?
Yes they do exist as I was reading an article about this recently and one made a chef very rich.
We seem to go to great lengths to push the boundaries and keep coming up with weird and wacky foods that will tantalise our taste buds, but do no-thing to nourish the body.
We’ve never heard of chefs becoming famous through making nourishing meals, but they can become famous through the demand of tantalising flavours! Makes no sense.
For me, this is something to question and shows en-masse where our priorities lie regarding what we eat.
This blog by Simple Living Global is important to take notice of as it lets us know that whatever we ingest does have an effect on our body.
We only have to be aware of how our body feels after eating something to know this to be true.
Well said Shevon. I saw the new range of ‘chocolate’ pizzas recently advertised too.
Those ice creams and the idea of chocolate pizza starts to remind me of pig fodder – a mixed up jumble of foods lumped together.
Our digestive system is super intricate – if we ever study the intricacies we realise just how sensitive our body is, and how many of the foods or the way we eat does not support the digestive system to flow as it needs to – hence why we have many digestive ailments – indigestion, regurgitation, constipation and much more.
Simple food flows, and the body feels the nourishment of it – and simple food can be super delicious too – with herbs and spices.
I am consistently surprised at what we are willing to put into our bodies without discerning if it is healthy or harming, without even discerning what it is we are ingesting.
Now that recreational marijuana is legal in my state, I see new ways to put it into the body every week.
Yesterday I saw a bottle calling itself a “Cannabis Tincture” .. but when I looked closer at the description “made with MCT oil & Full plant extract” I saw that a little white sticker been placed over the word “FULL”…
My herbology education tells me that it has been processed to the point that it is at least partially synthetic and this white sticker was all the FDA has required for ‘truth in labeling’.
..are people wanting to believe they are taking a natural plant extract but they are really getting a synthetic version of it?
I was thinking about service stations on motorways and how they sell what we want to buy.
Walking into a petrol station this morning, there was a whole wall of energy drinks – all different types – and racks and racks of sweets and chocolate, plus 2 coffee machines.
Does this simply present a snapshot of how we are living? Does it show us how reliant we are on stimulants?
What is all this doing to our bodies and the way we live?
2 girls on the tube this morning stuffing in breakfast burgers.
It made me reflect on how we eat.
Do we eat to nourish or do we stuff in the food to appease the hunger or push something down or to give us something?
I know I can often eat too fast or stop noticing what I’m eating during a meal and this takes away from the nourishment available to me from my food. Whereas when I prepare my food and sit down with care to eat it, that’s a whole different ballgame for my body.
What if we are HOW we eat as well as what we eat?
Daily Mail – 14 April 2018
Dr. Max Pemberton – NHS Psychiatrist
It has been revealed this week that NHS hospitals are spending £3 a day on patient food.
Dr. Max is saying given the importance of nutrition in helping people make a speedy recovery, we would assume that hospital food would be given proper thought and attention.
“Reheated, reconstituted pap is all too common in hospitals in this country and it has got to stop.”
There is rationing where a ward gets two apples a day as the hospital trust has decided it needed to make cut-backs.
Cooks are now a rare commodity in hospitals.
The responsibility for providing food has been increasingly outsourced to catering companies.
This means meals are mass produced off site and then reheated on the wards in the name of ‘efficiency’.
Can we all agree with Dr. Max that patients are being under-nourished because they cannot eat the food offered and so it takes longer for recovery and end up spending more time in hospital?
Are our most vulnerable patients – the elderly and those with mental health problems or learning disabilities, who often do not have people visiting who can bring extra food suffering?
“When we spend so much on cutting-edge treatments and drugs, surely it makes sense to spend a little more on one of the most important medicines of all – FOOD.”
Do we blame the government for not giving adequate funding?
Do we blame the service providers for trying to save money with cut backs?
Do we blame the suppliers who only get the contract if they make it cheap?
OR do we look at the bigger picture and not try and fix anything here?
Do we look at what Responsibility we have in any situation?
Do we ask more questions?
Do we involve people, who know how to take care of their own body and eat well for optimum true health and well being?
Do we look at our policy makers and all those in positions of power that make decisions on behalf of others, like those who decide what we eat in hospital?
Do we make sure that no policy maker or anyone who has the decision-making RESPONSIBILITY for others, can only be fit for the job if they themselves are providing us with a body that is deeply nourished and taken care of?
That means they make consistent daily lifestyle choices that are in absolute regard to their body?
Could it be possible that when someone like this is living a life of True Responsibility, we will all get the benefits because they have it inside them and value the benefits and pass it on by the quality in which they live?
In other words, we know the person holds themselves in high regard when it comes to their body and so they will ensure we all get the same – nothing more and nothing less.
Could this be the game changer once and for all, so that all business becomes PEOPLE BEFORE PROFITS?
Could this be what the world now needs as nothing seems to be working out there?
Citizen Journalism – reporting today 7 June 2018
In the local launderette where there is always something going on that is worthy of sharing by way of comment.
One retired lady was saying how she was in charge of ‘meals on wheels’, that was a great service with 8 trucks a day going out in the local community delivering dinners and also in bulk to clubs where they gathered, so there would be one delivery of 50 dinners.
Well no surprise with government cut backs and lack of funding there are now 2 trucks a day and the food is frozen and mass produced.
So if we are what we eat – what is the quality we are giving our people who are not able to do this for themselves for whatever reason?
Are we adding anything that is deeply nurturing or nourishing, or is it just a service now for those who are lucky and the others get nothing?
What I do know is the area in London she mentioned happens to have a lot of wealthy people and from experience there are many today living in the city with big houses alone and struggling.
What if we united and lived in Brotherhood and that means we see everyone as equal and the same as us and so what happens to another affects us?
Would our policymakers and those in charge of the public purse think differently?
We each have a responsibility and this woman was thankful she no longer works there because she really cares.
What I know is our solutions never seem to work as we need to get to the root cause of every ill we have in society if we are ever going to see real change.
An article in the Metro, 15th June 2018, talks about a ‘Health alert over salty ready-to-eat salads’.
Some ready-to-eat salads contain almost six grams of salt – the recommended amount for an entire day, a survey has found.
The salt in salads bought in restaurants, sandwich and coffee shops and fast food outlets has risen by 13 per cent to 1.86g on average since 2014, say health campaigners Action on Salt.
A Professor for Action on Salt said: “Reducing salt is the most cost effective measure to reduce the number of people dying or suffering from strokes or heart disease.
Growing up, we have been programmed to think we need salt to flavour our food.
But do we really need as much as we use?
According to the Harvard Medical School, the human body cant live without some sodium (salt). It’s needed to transmit nerve impulses, contract and relax muscle fibres and maintain a proper fluid balance. It doesn’t take much to do this.
When sodium is in short supply, a host of chemical and hormonal messages signal the kidneys and sweat glands to hold onto water and conserve sodium. When you get more sodium than you need, the kidneys flush out the excess by making more, or saltier, urine. If they can’t get rid of enough sodium, it accumulates in the fluid between cells. Water inevitably follows sodium, and as the volume of this fluid increases, so does the volume of blood. This means more work for the heart and more pressure on blood vessels. Over time this can stiffen blood vessels, leading to high blood pressure, heart attack or stroke. It can also lead to heart failure.
The US Food and Drug Administration says the recommended daily intake of salt is 2,300mg (2.3g).
The Yanomamo people of the rainforest get by on just 200mg (0.2g) of sodium a day and by comparison, the average American gets about 3,400mg (3.4g) and in northern Japan the daily intake is a whopping 26,000mg (26g).
The first thing that strikes me about this article is not the fact that there is salt in these salads but the fact of the increase in our consumption of salt in these salads.
Are the manufacturers of these salads just putting more salt in or are we asking for more salt?
Is it possible that if we didn’t want the extra salt we would say so?
What is going on for us that we are saying yes to all of this extra added salt?
What exactly is the excess salt giving us?
Is it possible that salt, like sugar, gives us a buzz and we are becoming more and more addicted to it?
And is it possible, that like sugar, our bodies are becoming more and more used to the effects so we need more to get that same ‘fix’?
Without doubt excess salt is very harmful.
Do we not have a responsibility in making sure we eat as healthily as possible?
If we are what we eat, are we becoming walking medical emergencies?
We have gone crazy with food.
For every event, no matter what emotion it brings up for us, most if not all of us turn to food and now that we can get food very, very cheap, this socially acceptable drug is easily accessible.
We can get chicken and chips from fast food take-away stores for just £1.99.
Meal deals from supermarkets can be bought for under £5 of pizzas, breaded chicken, chips and other junk food combinations.
With cream cakes, biscuits and croissants for breakfast our eating habits have become very poor, to the point that this is being blamed for the childhood obesity epidemic.
So where to from here?
When will we demand the truth about food and its true purpose, or is this too confronting?
What if food is simply there to nourish the body so that we can deliver what we are each here to bring to life?
Would that bring a different conversation about food and diet?
Would this stop the comparison of what others are eating and their body shape and size?
What if we focused on what we need for each of our bodies and listened to the way our body responds when we eat something, to know whether it is true for us to eat or not?
What if we focused on that and only that in relation to food and listened to nothing else?
Would we then know clearly what to eat and what not to eat and would this acceptance go someway to supporting us to reach our natural body shape and size, no matter what that is?
Daily Mail – 28 August 2018
Chemically altered trans fats found in many processed foods are bad news – particularly for the brain. They raise levels of cholesterol and other blood fats and promote inflammation in the body, increasing the risk of stroke, cognitive decline and dementia. We need only a small amount of trans fats in the diet to develop cognitive impairment.
Studies suggest people who eat 2g a day have twice the risk of declining memory and thinking skills than those who eat less.
Donuts, crackers, muffins, pies, cakes, creams, spreads and sweets are full of trans fats as well as ready meals and frozen pizza.
To preserve memory and lower the risk of diabetes we need to limit our sugar intake to just what the body needs. High blood-sugar levels cause metabolic problems such as inflammation and insulin resistance (a precursor to type 2 diabetes) which in turn can raise our risk of dementia.
The following foods break down quickly into sugar and have little fibre –
Fizzy drinks
Fruit juice
White flour food e.g. pasta and pizza.
Reading the above it really does confirm that ‘We are what we eat.’
Our bodies clearly definitely respond to what we eat and there is no getting away from the fact that if we eat crap food we will end up with poor health.
What if we need to look at this further and ask WHY we eat the foods that we do?
Many of us know that the foods that we eat are no good for us, but what is it that leaves us going back for more?
Is there something else at play that we need to address here when looking at our diets?
Is it enough to just change the foods, or would we benefit from looking at how we feel when we eat certain foods and what was going on before we reached for that muffin or hot chocolate?
What if it is possible that there are underlying emotions and hurts that are unresolved that lead us to eat what we do?
What if it is truly possible to heal our issues and as a result our choice of food naturally changes?
There is a burger named after a serious heart surgery that people have if they have been diagnosed with coronary heart disease or angina. The surgery is performed to help the blood supply to the heart muscle.
This burger is certainly not going to help any heart problem but will contribute to creating one. With 9,600 calories the burgers name is ironic and has been given its name in serious bad taste. Rather than improving blood supply to heart muscles it is likely to cause further blockages.
Is it possible that we are not taking the health problems of our world seriously, to the point that we have created an environment where we have foods that cause us harm and that contribute to us getting sick?
Thank God for this website by Simple Living Global, as for any one of us who are calling out for more, or who are questioning whether there is another way – there are a plethora of articles that can support us to re-consider what we have thus far accepted as normal.
This blog on We Are What We Eat and the four below are just a starter on this topic
https://simplelivingglobal.com/world-heart-day-part-1/
https://simplelivingglobal.com/fast-food-junk-food/
https://simplelivingglobal.com/why-do-we-get-sick/
https://simplelivingglobal.com/heartburn-and-common-sense/
An article from delish.com talks about a 9,600 calorie burger that is called the Quadruple Coronary Bypass burger.
It consists of:
• Eight slices of Texas toast
• Four 4 ounce sirloin patties
• Two 8 ounce sirloin patties
• 28 slices of American cheese
• Four fried eggs
• 27 strips of bacon
• French fries
• Tater tots
• Grilled onions
• Mayonnaise and relish
The whole thing is then covered with a cheesy gooey sauce.
If we are what we eat – what is this saying about us?
Greed?
Indulgence?
Irresponsibility?
With the all the health issues that the world faces, why would we want to create something that will most certainly add to the quadruple coronary bypass figures and other health statistics, because of all the saturated fat that this will contain.
9,600 calories is what an average man is recommended to eat over four days and yet this burger does that in one sitting.
Why do we constantly have to try and find ways to stimulate ourselves?
Some 795 million people in the world do not have enough food to lead a healthy active life. That is about one in nine people on Earth.
What are we doing here?
Where is our responsibility?
What is the purpose in this?
Mail Online – 5th April 2019
Gorging Ourselves into the Grave
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6892441/The-food-choices-make-blame-one-six-deaths-writes-food-historian-BEE-WILSON.html
A food historian writes we’ve never had such an abundance of cheap food but the choices we make are now to blame for one in six deaths
These days there are so many food delivery riders on the road where a few years ago there were none.
Leaving out your pizza, Indian takeaways or meals-on-wheels for the elderly, it would have seemed an unimaginable luxury to have someone bring you food to your front door, but now, at least for many urban populations, it is utterly normal.
To indicate the rise of this new way of life, one company, which was only founded in 2013, today employs 30,000 riders, has a valuation of £1.5 billion and operates in 150 cities, using cycles or scooters to convey hot restaurant food minutes after it has been ordered.
The explosive growth in meal deliveries is part of a food revolution that has swept the world, where the quest for sustenance has been replaced by the comfort of abundance.
Visits to restaurants and cafes, once rare treats for many, have become part of the enjoyable routine of life in the developed world. Half of all the money that Americans spend on food goes on eating out.
Food is not only more accessible, but also much cheaper. In the past, poorer people in Western societies had to spend more than half their income on food. Today food makes up just a small fraction of household budgets. In Britain, just £8.40 out of every £100, on average, is spent on food.
With the greater prosperity, industrialised farming methods and supply of food lines, there has never been so much food availability. In 1947, analysis by the United Nations, showed that half the people on our planet were underfed, today, it is just one person in nine.
Yet, despite this apparent progress, there is a paradox at work.
Amid all the affluence, our diets are badly undermining our health. We are filled up, but not well-nourished. Our food is killing us, not through its lack, but through its abundance: a hollow kind of abundance.
A major new study showed that poor diets killed nearly 90,000 Britons a year, and are now to blame for one in six deaths. The findings in The Lancet medical journal, show that the cost of lives is almost as high as the 96,000 who die from smoking-related illnesses.
Other figures show that what we eat now is a greater cause of disease and death overall than either tobacco or alcohol.
In 2015, 7 million people across the world died from smoking and another 3.3 million from alcohol-related causes, yet 12 million deaths were attributed to ‘dietary risks’ such as lack of vegetables or a high consumption of processed meat.
It is because our diets are rich in calories, but poor in nutrients, that we now see the dangerous expansion in obesity and diseases like hypertension, stroke and preventable forms of cancer.
In 2016, 600 British children were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes – 243 of whom were aged just 10-14. In 2000, there was not a single recorded case in this age group.
With such an abundance and easy access to fast food, which many would say is unhealthy due to the concentrated sugar, salt and fat content, is it no wonder that more and more of us are dying?
These delivery companies are making it easier and easier to maintain our sedentary lifestyle and making it harder and harder to start to make the correct choices regarding eating nutritional food.
A friend of mine told me that a work colleague had spent over £800 on one of these takeaway delivery companies. That is a lot of fast food and I am sure it is quite indicative for many of our reliance on this type of food.
Of course, we cannot blame these delivery companies – we are the ones choosing this lifestyle and they are there simply to provide a service.
The fact that children diagnosed with type 2 diabetes has gone from zero to 600 in 20 years is something that cannot be ignored.
These statistics concerning the death rates attributed to ‘dietary risks’ are thoroughly shocking simply because these deaths can be so easily avoided.
If we are what we eat, do we need to start to take more responsibility for what we are eating?
If we are what we eat, is it possible we are choosing illness and disease over health and wellbeing and, ultimately, death over life?
I was sitting in a diner when the owner asked if they could sit with me and have their very late lunch break. Strange but true and I see every moment with another as an opportunity for me to deliver any wisdom that I can share if it is needed.
Normally, they don’t find time to eat or they eat very late but what they always do is eat very very fast.
We got talking about where did this fast eating start.
It was at the time when she got married and had to move countries and the family she came into were super fast eaters and she was very young and shy and ate very slowly.
She decided that she would stop eating when they did and that meant most of her food was left and she started losing weight rapidly.
The father in law being the elder offered her some advice – start eating fast or she will get ill as she became so thin.
She took note and then 40 years later she is still eating fast.
Her take was she feels bloated, has put on weight, has digestive issues and her breathing changes, but she cannot stop herself from this fast eating habit.
What is interesting is she was eating what most people would call healthy.
A high protein gluten free grain, grilled chicken and salad with greens – so how come the bloating?
To me it confirms there is more for us to read and it is not just about the choice of food that we make.
On that note – this blog says WE ARE WHAT WE EAT
She eats fast and her life is fast and she is known for racing around constantly with a business that opens 7 days a week – so no time to slow down, rest and relax.
Just talking and being with me I noticed she started to eat slowly.
She then said she felt full up and that has never happened before as she had so much food still left on the plate.
What was clear was that sharing the root cause of when this fast eating business actually started, there was a time that was clearly identified and then bingo things can instantly change because of her honesty.
The second thing I feel is it was because she could feel how open and loving I was, with no judgement or reaction about what she was saying or doing.
The final thing is – could it be possible that if we have healed something inside us then we are the best one to offer that wisdom to another?
In this case, my fast eating days are well and truly gone, no longer on my radar because I got to the root cause and healed the ill that it was. This means others on some level can feel that vibration.
As this website does not yet have a blog about food, then we are what we eat feels the best place to post this comment.
When it comes to eating foods I should never eat – I call myself a work in progress and never is my goal perfection but I would like to question things when I feel SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT.
On that note – eating apple pie is something I love since I was a young kid.
Well eating it now actually changes my breathing and of course it bloats me instantly and I apologise to my body as I know it is not what it asked for, but rather me in my head wanting something that is sweet and full of comfort with zero nutritional value.
The only good thing is that it is not a daily thing and I am very aware of the impact of food on my body but there are times as a human I just do it and then feel the consequences.
What I am thinking is if it alters my breathing – how come in the past I never felt that?
I reckon I was so checked out and unaware because of all my lifestyle choices and in particular suffering with chronic exhaustion which meant carbs and sugar were constantly consumed in excess amounts. No sooner had I eaten I would say I was hungry and needed to eat again.
The main point of this comment is we do know when our breathing changes or we feel even slightly uncomfortable eating something that our body is saying No to and yet we still go for it again and again.
Should we be asking the million dollar question – WHY?
Talking to a teenager today in the community who has a rash that seemed to be spreading fast on her elbow and arm, I asked what she felt it could possibly be and when did it start.
Apparently she is allergic to mushrooms and her friend cooked something last night with mushrooms and said it would be ok just try it and so she ate what was on offer.
I told her in my elder wisdom communication that it was important to honour the fact that her body is communicating when it says it does not want fungus in her body because mushrooms are a form of fungus.
Was it worth it? is a question we all need to be asking when we make those silly mistakes that cost us and in this case itchy rash and she has to go to the chemist to get some medication and the fact that she was worried, as the rash looked very red and was rapidly spreading.
How many of us know that something is no longer for consumption and yet we merrily and happily ingest it and later deal with the consequences?
When it comes to food I know I have done that a lot in the past and these days I am a quick learner and do my best not to repeat something if my body is saying No more of this please.
Daily Mail – 4 July 2020
Research published in the British Medical Journal this week states that poor nutrition can contribute to low mood.
Dr. Max Pemberton from the NHS says that often, when we are feeling low, we reach for comfort foods such as cakes and chocolate bars, which in turn could increase our risk of depression and anxiety. This means that improving our diet may help to protect physical and mental health.
The majority of us do know that we love our so called comfort foods, as they give us that comfort feeling and the only bad thing is it never lasts, so we just go for more. We also know that we become addicted to certain foods – some like the salty stuff and others the sweet and we never consider that both may be doing the same job physiologically and that is giving us the reward we seek and our body is saying – “get out mate this is poison to me and not for human consumption”.
Most of us have also developed a strong override button that we press and that means our mind has endless thoughts coming through justifying why we should eat what we want to eat, knowing it will do us no good.
How can we escape the constant bombardment every day from TV commercials, food shows, social media, supermarket offers and big billboards selling us their comfort food products?
If we do make attempts or even manage to get going and stay off these foods, something happens and bingo, it all goes to pot and we are back on the comfort wagon seeking those junk foods and sugary snacks or whatever self medication foods we go to as our relieve button.
Buying fresh produce and preparing and cooking it requires a level of responsibility.
What we all need to get real and honest about is how committed are we to making this happen and if we are – can we be very honest and say for how long?
That means we will do it but we want something back in return, like recognition, identification, results suddenly of a perfect body or no acne or whatever?
Our relationship with food is a very personal one and trying or attempting to follow any diet will never work as we are all very different and our bodies will need a variety of foods to support us at any given time.
If we simply started with common sense when it comes to food, there is a chance we could begin to turn the tides, one by one.
Back to the news story – what would common sense say about comfort foods like cake and chocolate bars?
If you cannot relate to common sense, just say “what would your granny say”?
Our elders seem to have the good old fashion common sense wisdom and it could be a wise move to apply that to all areas of life and see what unfolds.
One thing we can agree with – we do not need a research study to tell us that poor nutrition equates to low mood. Common sense would tell us this and it would save all those resources for something else that the scientists could be working on.
Science Magazine – 21 July 2020
https://scienmag.com/study-calls-for-review-of-rice-and-sugar-in-food-subsidy-programme/
A new research study just published in the Journal of Social Policy has called for a review of the nutritional benefit of rice and sugar distributed by a national food subsidy programme in India as it may be limited.
India’s main food subsidy program provides sugar, rice and wheat to households at reasonably low cost to improve their nutrition and attain food security.
38% children under 5 experience long-term malnutrition that impacts growth, cognition and psycho-social development and perpetuates a cycle of intergenerational poverty.
The study also found that particularly for wealthier households, the subsidies encouraged the consumption of less nutritious foods with children receiving sugar subsidies snacking on sugary treats. Boys also received more rice and sugar than girls, which is consistent with broader evidence of son preference in India.
Many countries around the world are currently struggling to feed their populations in the midst of record unemployment, food system disruptions and social distancing linked to the pandemic. This study highlights that it is important from a long term perspective to carefully consider the nutritional value of foods through state provision.
For those who are aware, it would make no sense, as we know that eating rice will create sugar in the body and it is more of a filler and not a main part of the daily diet.
We seem to come up with solutions but not look in detail any further. Thankfully, we now have this study calling for a review because their research is spelling out that something is not right when we hand out rice, wheat and sugar to the masses who are desperate for food.
It would be a very interesting research study to collect data and do observational findings on those who make these decisions that affect millions of people.
To start we could investigate the detail of their wealth, what they eat daily, what food shortages or food choices they make and also what their immediate family is making. This would then give us a snap shot of how they are in relationship to food and we go from there.
If the policymakers, those in kingpin positions in government or society are the ones who dictate what the masses eat, then let’s be transparent and see what they are up to on a day to day basis when it comes to food choices?
An addition to the study could be to put these bigwigs on a diet mainly consisting of rice, sugar and wheat and see how their bodies respond or react after 9 days?
What would our findings be and if they refuse to participate, we the public – the voice for our fellow human brothers (who are not in a state to make change) appoint those who live a quality of life, where nutrition for the body comes with optimal vitality and minimal eating to get on the podium, express the truth about the value of real nutrition and let the masses know that we can END food poverty and come out of this contract we are bound by called food security in a simple step by step process?
Sounds way off, whacky and out there possibly for many but what if this is the way our future is going and on some level it would make sense to consider this small presentation from the author who values human life for ALL of us?
Science Magazine – 29 September 2020
https://scienmag.com/study-reveals-dietary-fructose-heightens-inflammatory-bowel-disease/
A new study is revealing that Fructose in our diet heightens Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
Rates of IBD have been increasing worldwide. According to the CDC – the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention there are 3 million Americans who are diagnosed with IBD each year.
Consumption of a western diet, which includes fructose is associated with increasing rates of Diabetes and Obesity and IBD may be an additional disease exacerbated by fructose intake.
Findings from this study provide evidence of a direct link between dietary fructose and Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
Are we all aware that IBD patients are at increased risk of developing colon cancer due to a lifetime of chronic inflammation of the gut?
For those who need more proof and evidence and the detail, the link above provides this.
To keep it simple and relatable to this blog – we are what we eat. This is a term that has been around for some time and if we stop for a moment to consider, it may just hold some truth.
What we eat speaks volumes and that means it says a lot about us and we may not be aware of that. Most of us do know that we seem to love sugar in all its forms for different reasons, but it is like a drug and very addictive. We have this association that it is a treat, a kind of reward we give ourselves and we use it in the form of confectionary for gifts and celebrations.
Sugar has been around for a very long time and we are now seeing the consequences to the human frame as a result of sugar consumption in our diets.
There is no getting away from the fact that sugar is a substance that we could call a legal drug.
It’s in anything and everything and there are many versions.
Next – some of us may think this is the obvious – we keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. In this case you will get a result, but it may not be what we want.
Change happens when we make different choices and that means we have to make the move, so to speak to behave differently and consider our options.
If we know something delicate inside us is getting inflammed, which means it is reacting to something that we have ingested, would it be wise to explore this by way of asking sensible questions? Why not suspend all beliefs and find out by trying something different and in this case cut out the foods that have fructose and that means fruit and honey to start with? It could be that the snack foods with dried fruits, which hold a lot of sugar could be irritating our gut or it could be the copious amount of chocolate and other sweet stuff that has become the norm every day.
What if we became our own body awareness expert by checking in with our body and feeling and sensing how it is and what disturbs it?
What if we got really honest so that we can get to the bottom of WHY we have this inflammation that seems to erupt and anything sugary that enters our mouth?
What if we look at how we are living in life? Are we guarded and protected because we feel the world has hurt us and we use the comfort of desserts and sugary sweets to feel safe? Possible?
May be not or may be this is way too far out and whacky to even be contemplated, but what if we all need to start a line of enquiry and not stop questioning, so we can get to the root cause of WHY and HOW we have this dis-ease in our body? What we do know is that it was not around on day dot when we arrived on this earth, so what happened along the way…?
Most of us are pretty savvy and do have an insight as to what it could be that got us this or that which now has a label from the medics, but the majority of us do nothing about it as we like to on some level keep up the behaviour that gives us a few seconds of pleasure in the mouth and agony thereafter as it moves through the digestive system and tortures us inside with this inflammation.
Some of us would rather resort to some form of medication and accept we got this instead of saying “No – there has to be another way.” and burn to get to the root of WHY on earth we have this and what is it we can do to change so we can alleviate the symptoms and not settle until we go even deeper to establish when it first started, how was life back then, what happened and can we link it to anything that was going on for us at that time.
ALL of this may seem pointless, hard work and we stick our “can’t be bothered’ hat on, but if we do then we can expect no change other than things may just get worse. WHY? Because our body sends us the small messages, like whispers and if we continue to ignore them and override what we are experiencing then we cannot be surprised when the big bang comes and that means a 911 wake up call.
Enough said – a final question to deeply ponder on…
Are we ok with the world keeping us posted on the next research study about our illness or disease OR are we going to take matters into our own hands, which would require a dose of honesty and responsibility and see what unfolds?
What we ought to be aware of is that man has created so many illnesses and diseases that even our advanced medical world are struggling, because the masses are unwell and all health systems cannot cope. What if there is another way and this website is leading the way on how to live in a simple and practical way that supports the human frame?
Note to the scholars of our future who no doubt will be interested in studying this monumental website.
Back in the early 21st century, 2020 there were amongst us those who were living what some may call ‘the future’. Ordinary in every way but living extra-ordinary lives, leaving a footprint for the future generations to know what was possible.
https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/106/1/162/4569823
There are very few studies that have assessed the link between potato consumption and mortality.
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study back in July 2017 claiming that fried potato consumption is associated with elevated mortality and their findings came from an 8 year longitudinal cohort study.
4,400 participants so we could say this study is telling us something. The study link above goes into the full details and is way too complicated for most of us to understand. However, an important point to note is that consumption of fried potatoes 2 times a week was consistently associated with an increased mortality risk in older adults.
Of course as with all research studies, the conclusion section mentions that additional studies in larger sample sizes should be carried out.
While we wait for more studies, it may give us the delay button we need to continue eating fries, chips or deep fried potatoes in other various forms. If we are being honest and can admit we belong to the fast food, junk food culture – could it be fact that we eat fried potato most days if not every day as that is our diet. Going without our fries would just not happen.
We could say this study is highlighting elevated mortality in the adult population so the youth are ok but are they really?
As the title of this blog says – We Are What We Eat.
The thing is we do know as it is common knowledge that fried potato and fried anything is not what health advocates or nutrition advisors would be telling us to consume in a healthy diet.
Do we really need more studies to tell us the same thing in a different way or are we going to put some common sense into our thinking when it comes to what we eat, when we eat, how we eat and why we eat?
https://www.freethink.com/science/lab-grown-foie-gras
There is no giving up when it comes to the human appetite. Where there is a demand, you can bet your bottom dollar, there will be a supplier…
A start up company that is developing lab grown foie gras, using stem cells to produce this culinary delicacy in a more ethical way.
For those that may not be aware – foie gras is the fattened liver of a duck or goose. To produce it, farmers have to use feeding tubes to force the birds to eat 2 or 3 times a day for about two weeks. This process, known as gavage, causes the bird’s livers to grow to 10 times their normal size and by the time they are ready for slaughter, the animals have difficulty walking and breathing.
This food is highly controversial and there are many that refuse to eat it on ethical grounds.
On that note – more than 12 nations have banned the production of foie gras and some states, including New York City and California have forbidden its sale.
Regardless, there remains a market and so we now have a solution. Let’s artificially make it in a lab and get a replica going and the reason is – people are allowed to enjoy the delicacy without compromising their morals or breaking the law.
We have a prototype version and with over 600 different compound interactions, the cultured meat costs around $500 per pound and the real thing is $80.
Dear World,
Who on earth came up for the very first time with the idea of making a bird over eat, a few times a day, against nature?
Why do we humans think we can make an imposition on another species, that does not have the expression to tell us to get lost, when we want them to perform for our own eating desires?
Why are we allowing anyone in this world to destroy the liver of a bird, just so we can have their fatty liver as a delicacy on our plate?
Why are we dismissive or ignoring the fact that this foie gras that we demand, comes from a bird that died with breathing problems and difficulty walking, simply because man decided to make its liver grow to 10 times its natural size?
How do we live with ourselves and where has it got us in life?
Where is our moral compass or humane approach, when it comes to all sentient beings, not just ducks and geese?
We seem to want a lot of things and our world delivers. There is always someone out there ready to supply whatever we desire.
Where do these desires come from in the first place?
Next – on a health and wellbeing stance, what would the nutrition world and health experts have to say on this so-called delicacy?
AND finally, on a basic common sense level – what would our wise old grandmother say about force feeding an animal, just to satiate our taste buds for the nano seconds it remains in the mouth?
Science Daily – 10 January 2022
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220110145249.htm
Consuming ½ tablespoon (7 grams) of olive oil per day is associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease mortality, cancer mortality, neurodegenerative disease mortality and respiratory disease mortality, according to a new study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Replacing 10 grams a day of margarine, butter, mayonnaise and dairy fat with equivalent amount of olive oil was associated with lower mortality risk.
Of course as with all research they have more questions and that means they require more research studies.
For now, we can simply join the dots. We know that olive oil comes from olives which is far more supportive for the human body than animal fats or artificial fats like margarine.
Most of us have heard by now that the Mediterranean diets are high in olive oil and this study confirms that.
Now that we know this are we ready to swap our buttered buns and lashings of mayonnaise that we consume so much of as part of our eating lifestyle?
As humans we rely on research studies but there is very little if any movement thereafter once we know the facts. Why is this?
This insightful short but interesting presentation about we are what we eat gives us so many pointers about the importance of what we eat and what it does to the human frame.
What if we spent more time on the school agenda teaching kids about real nutrition values instead of giving them a licence before and after school to spend money on snacks and junk foods that have zero nutritional value?
Why not start at day dot, nursery and kindergarten and introduce the foods that will support their vitality levels and not associate sugary foods with reward which they then expect and associate with throughout their lifetime?
The Guardian – 18 August 2022
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/18/uk-has-more-than-1000-livestock-mega-farms-investigation-reveals
An investigation has revealed there are now over 1,000 U.S. style mega-farms in the UK. Note this estimate is lower as there is the omission of Scottish data due to a cyber attack in 2020.
Newly published figures show for the first time how these factory farms have spread across the British countryside.
Some farms hold a million animals. One poultry farm is registered for 1.4. million birds.
There are pig farms holding more than 20,000 pigs.
There are also mega-dairies where cows are held in intensive dairies and are zero grazed, which means not allowed out into the fields and are permanently housed inside sheds. The largest in the UK holds 2,000 animals.
UK has 9 mega-farms which hold 1,000 or more beef cattle. These U.S. style beef feedlots, where cattle are fattened up before slaughter, were first identified as existing in 2018.
In the USA, mega-farms are defined as those that hold more than
125,000 birds reared for meat
82,000 egg-laying hens
2,500 pigs
700 dairy cows
1,000 beef cattle
These are labelled by U.S officials as CAFO – Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation.
Industrial farming maximises production while keeping costs to a minimum to produce cheap meat and dairy.
Each year, the UK slaughters
1 billion chickens
10 million pigs
2.6 million cattle
The majority of the UK farmed animals are kept in intensive units.
On that note, the “majority’ in the UK demand cheap meat and dairy.
Where we demand, the suppliers supply. It is that simple.
What we are not choosing to question is the QUALITY.
What are we getting with animals raised in poor conditions or never going outside?
WHY have we ended up with ‘mega-farms’ today and what is driving this force?
We have specialists in every health area giving us their “expert’ advice or opinion on what to eat and what not to eat but we end up doing what we want and with such cheap options we drive this whole mega-farm to continue.
What would happen if every UK citizen received this blog comment and each school student got to see filming of the conditions these animals are raised in?
This is not a call to go vegan or deplete the body of nutrients that are needed but surely having a sensible approach to anything we ingest requires us to be interested in the process of how food reaches us.
Or do we like to ignore everything as it’s more convenient to not know the truth?
University of Gothenburg – 19 April 2024
https://www.gu.se/en/news/dietary-treatment-more-effective-than-medicines-in-ibs
According to findings of a new study, Dietary Treatment is more effective than medications in Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
7 in 10 patients had significantly reduced symptoms with dietary adjustments.
IBS is a common diagnosis that causes abdominal pain, gas and abdominal bloating, diarrhoea and constipation, in various combinations and with varying degrees of severity.
Treatment often consists of dietary advice such as eating small and frequent meals and avoiding excessive of food triggers such as coffee, alcohol, and fizzy drinks.
Patients may also be given medications to improve specific symptoms, such as gas or constipation, diarrhoea, bloating or abdominal pain.
Antidepressants are sometimes used to improve symptoms in IBS.
Three groups were tested – the first group were given traditional dietary advice, focusing on eating behaviour combined with low intake of fermentable carbohydrates known as FODMAP’s. These include products with lactose, legumes, onions, and grains which ferment in the colon and can cause pain in IBS.
The second group received a dietary treatment low in carbohydrates and proportionately high in protein and fat.
The third group was given medication based on the patients most troublesome IBS symptoms.
The reduced symptoms were:
76% – First group
71% – Second group
58% – Third group
URV – Universitat Rovira i Virgili – 21 May 2024
https://diaridigital.urv.cat/en/ultra-processed-foods-increase-cardiometabolic-risk-in-children/
A new cross-sectional study led by the URV’s Human Nutrition Unit has associated the consumption of ultra-processed foods products with a greater risk of overweight, increased blood sugar and worse levels of good cholesterol.
A high consumption of ultra-processed foods during childhood is associated with worse Cardiometabolic Health. This is the main conclusion of the study.
The results showed that children who consumed more ultra-processed foods had higher scores on parameters such as body mass index, waist circumference, fat mass index and blood sugar levels. They also had lower levels of HDL cholesterol – regarded as good cholesterol in their blood.
The research was conducted on boys and girls between 3 and 6 years old.
“Our findings give cause for concern. Although the magnitude of the associations we found could be thought to be of limited clinical importance, the boys and girls taking part in our study were very young, but even so, there was a significant relationship between their consumption and these parameters.
It is essential to recognise the importance of early eating habits and their future implications on Cardiometabolic Health.”
Nancy Babio – Principal Researcher of the study.
The study was published in JAMA Network Open
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2818951
Health News – 24 May 2024
https://www.health.com/ultra-processed-food-higher-mortality-risk-8646790
Ultra-Processed Foods linked to HIGHER RISK of Premature Death.
A new study has found that people who ate high amounts of Ultra-Processed foods had 4% higher risk of all-cause mortality and 9% higher risk of death from causes other than Cancer and Heart Disease.
The study was published in The British Medical Journal
https://www.bmj.com/bmj/section-pdf/1096703?path=/bmj/385/8428/Research.full.pdf
Ultra-Processed foods go through multiple steps of processing, typically including added sugars, fats and flavourings.
Processed meats and sugar-sweetened beverages were most closely linked with increased risk of premature death.
There is a growing body of literature linking Ultra-Processed foods to numerous Chronic Diseases, including Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes and Chronic Kidney Disease.
Ultra-Processed foods now account for over 60% of daily calories in Americans.
University of Michigan – 3 June 2024
https://ihpi.umich.edu/news/fewer-1-4-patients-receive-dietary-counseling-after-heart-attack
Less than 1 in 4 patients receive Dietary Counselling after a Heart Attack, a new study finds.
Although Diet is the leading contributor to premature death from Heart Disease in the United States, only 23% who undergo major heart events received dietary counselling in the aftermath.
Results were published in Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
https://www.jandonline.org/article/S2212-2672(24)00111-4/abstract
“Nutrition counselling may reduce the risk a person has for cardiovascular episodes and disease, yet our research shows that the vast majority of patients, who are all at risk after significant heart events, are not receiving this essential education.”
Brahmajee Nallamothu M.D., M.P.H.
Senior Author and Professor of Internal Medicine-Cardiology at University of Michigan Medical School
Most of the dietary counselling documentation was within cardiac rehab; the program itself is considered under-utilized and only 20-30% of eligible patients participate.
When removing cardiac rehab from the equation, clinicians offered dietary counselling 5% of the time.
“When patients receive this education, we have seen tremendous results – some have cut cholesterol levels in half within weeks.
However, physicians are often limited by time required to manage other aspects of a patient’s condition. Additionally, most cardiologists do not receive sufficient education to provide the dietary advice themselves.”
Eric Brandt M.D., M.S.S., FACC
Director of Preventive Cardiology at the Frankel Cardiovascular Center
Women, adults over age 65 and patients with Chronic Kidney Disease were all less likely to receive counselling from their providers.
Nearly half of American adults have poor diet quality and many struggle to afford healthy foods.
“Lifestyle is the cornerstone for preventing Cardiovascular Disease” Brandt said.
Imperial College London – 11 June 2024
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/254034/plant-based-upfs-linked-with-higher-risk/
Heavily processed plant-based foods linked with HIGHER RISK of Cardiovascular Diseases and dying from these diseases.
Plant-based foods may be worse for heart health than less-processed foods, according to a new large study.
While plant-based foods are linked with reduced disease risk, overall, Ultra-Processed foods (UPFs) were linked with worse health outcomes.
According to the researchers, the findings published in the journal Lancet Regional Health indicate that while plant-based UPFs maybe marketed as healthy alternatives, they may be linked to worse health outcomes.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanepe/article/PIIS2666-7762(24)00115-7/fulltext
Many plant-based foods, including meat-free alternatives such as sausages, burgers and nuggets can be classified as UPFs, despite often being marketed as healthy options.
“Despite being plant-based, these foods can contribute to risk factors such as dyslipidaemia and hypertension due to their composition and processing methods. Food additives and industrial contaminants present in these foods can cause oxidative stress and inflammation, further aggravating the risks.”
Dr. Fernanda Rauber, first author of the study and researcher at University of Sao Paulo
Independent News – 30 June 2024
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/nova-chicago-london-metropolitan-university-b2571476.html
Limiting Ultra-Processed foods (UPFs) may not always result in a healthy and nutritious diet.
The level of food processing should not act as a proxy for Diet Quality.
UPFs are widely viewed as unhealthy because they contain high amounts of saturated fat, sugars and salt.
Scientists say cutting down on UPFs may not necessarily lead to a healthier diet because the system used to label foods is based on the level of processing and does NOT look at nutritional values.
The researchers also found certain foods that are labelled as minimally processed can be more expensive, have a shorter shelf life and provide a poor diet.
In the study – less processed menu was more than twice as expensive and reached its expiry date over 3 times faster without delivering any additional nutritional value.
“The results of this study indicate that building a nutritious diet involves more than a consideration of food processing.
Rejecting foods on the basis of their degree of processing would risk removing many foods which could add considerable nutritional value to diets.”
Dr. Julie Hess – Research Nutritionist at the United States Department of Agriculture
University of Edinburgh – 4 July 2024
https://www.ed.ac.uk/vet/news-events/2024/cuts-processed-meat-intake-bring-health-benefits
Cutting processed meat intake brings health benefits, according to a new study.
Reducing consumption of processed meat by 30% could prevent over 350,000 cases of Diabetes in the U.S.
This is the equivalent of 10 slices of bacon a week.
It would also lead to tens of thousands of fewer cases of Cardiovascular Disease and Colorectal Cancer, researchers say.
While many studies have identified links between high levels of processed meat consumption and chronic disease, few have evaluated the impact on multiple health outcomes.
Cutting processed meat intake by 30% would lead to 92,500 fewer Cardiovascular Disease cases and 53.300 fewer Colorectal Cancer cases over a decade.
Reducing consumption of unprocessed red meat and processed meat by 30% resulted in –
1,073,400 fewer Diabetes cases
382,400 fewer Cardiovascular Disease cases
84,400 fewer Colorectal Cancer cases
Eating one less quarter-pound beef burger a week resulted in –
732,000 fewer Diabetes cases
291,500 fewer Cardiovascular Disease cases
32,200 fewer Colorectal Cancer cases
The study was published in The Lancet Planetary Health Journal.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(24)00118-9/fulltext
University of Cambridge – 17 July 2024
https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/ultra-processed-food-makes-up-almost-two-thirds-of-calorie-intake-of-uk-adolescents
Adolescents consume two-thirds of their daily calories from UPFs – Ultra Processed Foods, according to a new research study from the Universities of Bristol and Cambridge.
The study found UPF consumption was HIGHEST among adolescents from deprived backgrounds, those of white ethnicity and younger adolescents.
Globally, the availability and sales of UPFs have INCREASED over time and previous evidence suggests that this has led to increased consumption among adolescents.
68% – adolescents from disadvantaged backgrounds consumed a higher proportion of calorie intake from UPFs
59% – adolescents from a non-white ethnicity consumed a lower proportion of calorie intake from UPFs
“Ultra-processed foods make up the majority of adolescents’ diets and their consumption is at a much higher level than is ideal, given their potential negative health impacts.”
Dr. Yanaina Chavez-Ugalde – Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge and study first author.
Diabetes UK – 20 July 2024
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/news/2024/jul/american-sweets-containing-banned-ingredients-on-sale-in-uk-shops.html
American sweets, cereals and drinks containing banned ingredients on sale in UK shops.
Illegal ingredients linked to Cancer, memory loss and behaviour issues in children have been found in American goods being sold in the UK.
Officials have described the selling of these imported sweets as a “problem” with the Food Standard Agency (FSA) warning shoppers to “avoid buying” them.
Products containing food colourings linked to hyperactivity in children have also been found on sale.