The Basics

Of all the pillars of wellness, nutrition is probably the most dynamic (at least on the surface).  And by “dynamic”, I mean that what we consider nutritious is in a constant state of flux.  Additionally, technology and bio-engineering continue to afford manufacturers “creative license” when producing our food and beverages.  All of this adds up to some very unhealthy (and sometimes toxic) products in stores.

Despite all that, the more things change, the more they stay the same.  Certain nutritional principles stand the test of time, regardless how convenient, inexpensive and tasty food becomes.  Fresh vegetables, water, fruits and high quality protein (wild game, fish, nuts, etc.) remain the currencies of wellness.  In ancient times, there were no labs to process food or supermarkets to sell it.  The were no convenience stores, restaurants or fast food drive-thrus.  Our ancestors were responsible for their own food procurement.  So, much of their physical activity came from survival – eat or die.  And according to archaeological evidence, their diet primarily consisted of fruits and nuts.  Meat and fish came later as they discovered ways to catch/kill their prey.  About 10,000 years ago these hunter-gatherers became farmers as the rise of agriculture began to take hold.  The world changed forever as they were able to cultivate a dependable food source.

By most accounts, the “diseases of affluence” that are so prevalent today were virtually non-existent back then.  There are advocates who propose that we adopt a similar lifestyle to our hunter-gatherer ancestors.  Actually, there are diets (Warrior Diet, Paleo Diet, Intermittent Fasting, etc.) built around this whole concept.  Genetically and nutritionally, this is how our bodies were meant to eat.  But alas, times have changed a little since then with things like commutes, work, soccer games, karate practice, (did I mention work?) all dominating our daily schedules.  Plus, it’s not all that practical to chase a chicken around your yard every night for dinner.  So, the key is to find a way to meld the best of these two lifestyles.

From Grain To Grocer

Arguably, the best and worst thing that has happened to food is capitalism.  To be honest, I’m by no means an economic expert, but I really can’t think of a better economic system where consumers dictate market conditions (that’s the theory, at least).  However, free markets are not without fault.  The profit motive plays a part in virtually every decision a business makes.  Unfortunately, this profit motive morphs into greed more often than not, which means the greater good often takes a back seat.

Unscrupulous multinational agribusiness and meat packers wield enormous influence on the whole food chain, thanks to their powerful lobbyists.  From grain to grocer, these companies have adulterated our food in unthinkable ways.  Huge marketing budgets are absolutely necessary to create an “all natural” or “healthy” image (commercials trying to prove that point or farm image on the product).  But, don’t be fooled.  Growth hormones and antibiotics added to our meat insidiously affect our health.  Factory farming has led to deplorable and inhumane conditions for animals (videos and documentaries illustrate this better than words ever could).  For those who couldn’t care less about the welfare of your meat before they’re slaughtered (full disclosure: I am an omnivore), ponder this: the close quarters in which animals live has a direct correlation to pathogenic bacterial (e. coli) outbreaks that you see on the news.  A handful of companies control the vast majority of farms in this country, which means their power base is highly centralized.  They’ve industrialized the farming process (factory farming) to the point where animals are essentially given steroids and grains to fatten them up and reduce the time it takes to mature.  This is not healthy meat that these manufacturers are bringing to market.  And, I haven’t even touched on the environmental impact.

Crops are really no better.  Large agriculture conglomerates have gotten legislation passed that has enabled them to patent life.  Essentially, this means that they own the rights to most of the seeds used to grow most of our vegetables, so they can basically do what they want to these seeds and the farmers who try to use their own.  And, they have.  Crops have been manipulated at the genetic level (aka: GMO – genetically modified organism) and are treated with a cocktail of synthetic chemicals such as fungicides, herbicides and pesticides.  To be fair, the jury is still out on GMOs, but the other aforementioned chemicals can have serious, negative long-term affects on your health.

By now, you’re hopefully probably asking yourself “shouldn’t the government be regulating all of this”?  The folks who run agencies like the FDA and the USDA reads like a who’s who from these same companies I just mentioned.  Basically, there’s a revolving door between those companies and our government agencies.  So, I’ll let you come to your own conclusions (but, you don’t need to be a CSI investigator to figure it out).

And all of this is really just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.  Of all these questionable unethical practices, the “coup de grâce” is convincing everyone that these problems don’t exist.  I encourage you to read everything with a healthy dose of skepticism, and do your own research.  This is the only way to educate and empower yourself, which is how we unify, organize, and fight back by getting legislation passed.

But, I digress lest the Food Libel gestapo come looking for me.

Standard American Diet (S.A.D.)

From farm to fork, our food is literally being hijacked and poisoned without our knowledge.  And to make matters worse, multinational food companies invest absurd amounts of money in R&D to make food as addictive as illicit drugs.  Studies show sugar and fat work on the pleasure centers of the brain responsible for releasing endorphins.  Sugar and simple carbohydrates are especially dangerous.  An alarming portion of our daily diet comes in the form of some version of a simple carb – white bread/dough, snacks, sodas, juices, desserts, etc.  In small amounts, these foods are not ideal, but they’re not all that dangerous either.  The problem is that the term “small amounts” is about as foreign as Aramaic for most Americans.  In a culture where bigger is better and more is virtuous, it’s hard to dial down cravings.  From super big gulps to super sized meals, we are being bombarded with some of the unhealthiest food choices EVER created.  Our bodies were not designed to consume these types of food.

The main problem with consuming large quantities of simple carbs over a long period of time is your insulin response.  Every time you eat something, your digestive sytem breaks down the food constituents into three main macronutrients – glucose (sugar), lipids (fat), and amino acids (protein).  During sugar metabolism, your pancreas produces a huge spike of insulin that shuttles glucose to your liver and muscles for later use, where it is stored as glycogen.  (Note: sugar and processed carbs are both broken down to glucose and thus are metabolized the same in your body).  After about 30 minutes, your blood sugar dips leading to irritability, fatigue and even more cravings.  Problems arise when, after several years of this roller-coaster high carb diet, your cells shut down after being inundated with insulin for such a long period of time.  This is the beginning of Type 2 diabetes, but is also the beginning of your problems.  Inflammation is an even bigger, and more life-threatening problem.  It can manifest itself in various forms, from arteries to joints.  Consuming a highly processed carb diet has been linked to obesity, heart disease, cancer, stroke and a host of other autoimmune diseases.  So, buyer beware.

Don’t get me wrong, glucose (along with the other macronutrients) is necessary for survival.  As a matter of fact, your brain uses about 100 grams, on average, per day just to function.  You’ll need even more if you live an active lifestyle.  But here’s the rub, millions of Americans eat way more than 100 grams of sugar daily and do virtually nothing physically active (walking to the car or pressing the button on your remote don’t count).

Large food companies (Big Food) use three criteria to bring their products to market – taste, convenience, and price.  Believe it or not, seemingly harmless corn plays a central role in all of this.  Derivatives of corn can be found in almost every packaged and processed food on store shelves.  From the well known high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to lesser known maltodextrin, corn is the veritable chameleon of food ingredients.  Government corn subsidies allow these companies to manufacture food with corn derivatives (e.g. – highly processed carbs) below cost, thus bringing them to market at a desirable price point for many consumers.  But, what’s the hidden cost?

In addition to the myriad of health problems for adults, children seem to be the unknowing victims of this whole mess.  Predatory marketing and foods littered with almost every unhealthy food constituent imaginable has led to soaring rates of child diabetes, cholesterol and obesity.  When I was growing up playing actually meant engaging in physical activities like baseball, basketball, tag, swimming and the like.  These days powerful gaming consoles and computers have reduced all of that to “virtual activity”.  Crappy diets and lack of movement seek to afflict our children with a lifetime of diseases.  Some experts have projected that, unless things drastically change, this could be the first generation that doesn’t outlive their parents.  You can actually start to see this come to fruition with folks (average Joes/Janes and celebrities alike) dying in their 30s, 40s and 50s…way too early.  And those that don’t go that route, end up with a list of preventable medical problems, which forces them to become a lifetime customer of Big Food’s cousin, Big Pharma.

Are you starting to get the picture yet?

What Can You Do?

• Healthy food is your right.  Educate and empower yourself.  I hope to have a small (or large) part in that.
• Eat more vegetables, and be creative.  Colors are important in nature, the same is true with vegetables.  So, mix it up.
• Support farmers and restaurants that absorb higher costs for more wholesome food options.
• Buy local and organic.
• Drink more water.  Don’t worry about reverse osmosis or filtered or whatever at this point (unless you’re so inclined).  Even tap water is better than soda.
• Move something.  Shake something.  Lift something.  Do something.
• If you eat meat, look for free-range, hormone and antibiotic-free choices.  Ask for wild fish…avoid farm raised fish, if possible.
• Eat smaller portions.  Food either goes to waste or to your waist.
• Set a healthy example for your kids.
• Write/call your local politicians and demand legislation that puts the onus on multinational companies to bring higher quality food to market.  Make them step their game up. Change WILL come…it’s the essence of free markets and democracy.  There is strength  numbers.

Health is a pay now or pay later game.  Healthier food choices will cost a little more, but the potential trade-off is a vibrant, healthy life, free from the shackles and crushing debt caused by being a life-long customer of pharma cartels, hospitals and insurance companies.

Food can be your medicine or your poison, you decide.

Related posts:

1. Fitness 101
2. Prevention 101
3. Supplements 101

If you’re new to the whole idea actually living a healthy lifestyle, it can be a daunting (and at times, seemingly impossible) undertaking.  Misinformation is ubiquitous, so consumers feel confused and powerless when it comes to their health.  You don’t have to feel confused and powerless though.  Information is the key and the first step toward empowerment and optimal wellness.

What is wellness?  Merriam-Webster defines wellness as “the quality or state of being in good health especially as an actively sought goal.”  In my opinion, this is an over-simplified and somewhat ambiguous definition (although I do like the “actively sought” part of it).  A more comprehensive definition would be something like “a complete state of optimal health that encompasses nutritional, mental and physical lifestyle choices geared towards fitness, disease prevention and reducing toxic load.”  I call these the “pillars of wellness”.  Idealistic?  Perhaps – especially these days in a healthcare system dominated by pimped-out, greedy politicians as well as crooked food and drug lobbyists.  But, this is the true essence of wellness.  And, it’s more than just compartmentalizing health into a few actions like exercising, or eating salad a few days a week.  It’s a lifestyle choice – all of the pillars of wellness work together synergistically.  Each one has an absolute effect on the other, so while isolating one may be a start, it’s not the way to achieve optimal wellness.  So, the next logical question is how do you attain this elusive goal of optimal wellness?

Our actions are born from our thoughts, so the first thing the should happen is a total shift in perspective and the way you think about your health.  This sets a strong foundation for enabling you to make sound choices as you begin to adopt a healthy lifestyle.  I cannot overemphasize this enough.  It’s hard for many people to unlearn much of what they’ve been taught as popular health strategies are challenged.  But, being open-minded and receptive to new ideas is imperative if you are to embrace true wellness.  Contrary to mainstream opinion, this approach to wellness does not mean living on the fringes.  It does not mean eschewing all conventional medicine in lieu of herbs, acupuncture and raw foods.  For instance, if you had an acute injury or illness, it wouldn’t be a good idea to discount all the advances that have been made in modern medicine.  By the same token, if you have an autoimmune disorder like diabetes mellitus (Type 1 or 2), it would be in your best interest to explore natural therapies before popping a pill.

And therein lies my point.  These ideologies don’t have to live in a vacuum.  They don’t have to compete, constantly espousing the shortcomings of one another.  The best of each could coexist if consumers like you and I were informed of all our options, both allopathic and alternative.  Ah, but there’s the rub.  Full disclosure conflicts with the very foundation of capitalism.  For many industries, an uninformed customer is necessary for long-term growth.  Millions of dollars are spent annually on propaganda marketing budgets.  Imagine that you were told that Vitamin D cured cancer or fish oil prevented heart attacks (disclaimer: I’m just using these for illustrative purposes).  How do you think that would affect a multi-national pharmaceutical company’s stock price?  Suffice it to say that their shareholders would not be very happy.  So, there is absolutely a vested interest in keeping consumers in the dark, which means that it’s incumbent upon you to educate yourself.  Lobbyists own politicians, so you can’t really count on reliable information from government either.  At the very least, you can start to ask the right questions to your health providers.

As the adage goes, “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.  So if you’re ready, let’s get started.

Nutrition 101

Fitness 101

Supplements 101

Prevention 101

Mind & Body 101

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Benefits of Breakfast

Some of the benefits of breakfast include controlling weight, normalizing blood sugar levels, and increasing your focus and concentration.  Because of the rampant obesity in this country (and abroad), weight control is probably the most publicized benefit of breakfast.  Consuming something when you wake up will help regulate your blood sugar and make you less inclined to overeat later in the day.  Eating smaller meals throughout the day will do even more to further this goal.

Too Busy?

There are several reasons why folks don’t eat breakfast, but not having the time to prepare something is by far the most popular excuse.  The craziness of the morning juggling act of getting ready for work, getting kids ready for school, and commuting reduce breakfast to some sort of caffeinated beverage (soda, coffee, etc.) and pastry (doughnut, bagel, muffin, etc.) for most people.  The main caveat here is that this type of breakfast actually ends up being counterproductive for your blood sugar levels.  In other words, processed carbs like doughnuts, bagels, and muffins spike blood sugar and cause a crash after about 30-60 minutes of consuming them.  This will leave you hungry soon after eating and many people end up overindulging later in the day.  This vicious cycle continues day in, day out for most Americans.

Other popular American breakfast foods like pancakes, waffles, and even fruit juices are highly processed, high-glycemic carbs as well and have the same yo-yo effect on blood sugar.  Breakfast meats like eggs, bacon, and sausage are slightly better, but are high in sodium, saturated fats, and cholesterol.  Eggs are actually an ideal breakfast food, and have been called a “perfect protein” by many health experts.  But, that doesn’t leave a lot of room for variety…unless you rethink what you’ve been taught about breakfast.

Thinking Outside The Bagel

Since the traditional American breakfast is cheap to produce, multinational food companies and restaurant chains continue to market these high-glycemic foods as proper fuel for your morning grind.  The truth is that, your body doesn’t really care what’s considered “proper.”  Proper nutrition is the only constant, regardless of the time of day.  Most mornings, I bring a dark green lettuce salad (iceberg lettuce has little nutritional value) topped with an assortment of raw veggies.  I’ll also add some sort of meat, fish or soy to it to fulfill my protein requirement.  And, I top this off with an olive oil and apple cider vinegar dressing.  It’s always interesting seeing the reactions of people when I eat this for breakfast.  In particular, I remember my mother saying “That ain’t breakfast food.”  I chuckled and politely challenged what she perceives as breakfast food.

And, I pose the same challenge to you.  If you’re reading this article, chances are that you either currently live healthy or are considering a healthy lifestyle.  By no means am I saying that everyone should eat an organic, raw salad with free-range meat every morning.  However, I am suggesting that your meal include a good mix of macro and micronutrients – lean protein (meat, fish, nuts), healthy fats (usually comes with lean protein), and veggies/fruits (phytonutrients, antioxidants, minerals).  Be creative and add a lot of variety to avoid boredom.  This is the most natural way to give your body the proper fuel it needs each morning.  It’s time to unlearn what we’ve been taught about American breakfast foods and think outside the bagel.

Plan You Work, Work Your Plan

Above all else, I’m a realist and I realize that these meals aren’t as easy as grabbing a blueberry muffin and a cup of joe.  They will take some effort and planning on your part.  The trade-off is that you’ll have more normalized blood-sugar levels, which means more sustained energy, focus, concentration and weight-control.  And hopefully, these eating habits make their way to other meals throughout your day as well.  Then, coupled with an exercise regimen, you’ll start to realize long-term benefits such as reduced risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, hypertension, obesity – the list goes on.

No related posts.