We've been trying to eat better around here for several months. My husband and I watched Forks Over Knives and tried veganism for a bit. Then we lightened up and tried vegetarian/flexitarian for a bit. Then I saw The Perfect Human Diet and now we're slowly easing into paleo. Paleo is short for The Paleolithic Diet also known as the Caveman Diet. It's the idea that we're better off eating like our ancestors rather than the Standard American Diet (appropriately abbreviated SAD).
I've always felt it's best to prevent a problem rather than cure one. American medicine is too centered on symptomatic treatment rather than preventative treatment. If you study the science of nutrition you will find it contradicts much of what you've been taught. The government and the food and drug industry are so tied together it is frightening. Every president as far back as the Depression has influenced agriculture. They promote food industry executives to positions of power and influence. Everything you know about the "4 food groups" has been influenced by politics and ultimately money.
When I first started hearing all of this I denied it. I chalked it up to conspiracy theory nut jobs. I was well educated, I was informed. The government won't guide us to eat things that'll harm us. WRONG! What swayed me was learning about the Monsanto Seed Co. This company controls almost all of the produce grown in the US. Their main goal is to have the highest yield possible from their crops.The way they go about it is by creating seeds that've been genetically altered and sprayed with chemicals to resist disease, weather and rot. These seeds can cause genetic mutations in humans (especially fetuses, children, the sick and the elderly). This is not to mention how they have almost taken out every farmer who won't use their seeds. Presidents George Bush Sr., Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama have all appointed former Monsanto employees to government offices. Hillary Clinton and Clarence Thomas both worked as legal council for Monsanto, and the Deputy Director of the FDA and HFS is a former Monsanto scientist. The real kicker, they are the company responsible for Agent Orange! Agent Orange! Doesn't that raise the hairs on the back of your neck?
For the last year, I have spent countless hours researching food. I've studied what we should eat, what we shouldn't eat, what causes cancer, what cures cancer, what causes weight loss, what causes weight gain. I've come to the conclusion through researching documentaries, medical journals and surveying friends and family members that the best way to gain weight and keep it on is to eat grains and sugar. It is also a wonderful way to turn benign cells lingering in your GI and organs into cancer cells. I'm not a scientist or a RD or a MD. I'm just a smart, informed person trying to make good choices based on the wealth of information I've studied.
Other documentaries I recommend are Farmageddon, Food Inc., and The High Cost of Low Price. These are alarming looks at the food industry and what the government doesn't want you to know. Many of the cheaper foods we buy here--and I'm talking vegetables and raw meat as well and not just processed foods--are from foreign countries that don't regulate safety. I was just reading about China's food safety nightmares yesterday. I immediately searched my kitchen for anything Chinese and tossed it. Think that was crazy? How do you feel about eating meat and FISH that're fed rotten animal carcasses? Ever hear of Mad Cow Disease? Call me nuts but I'm not going to be a test case for Mad Fish Disease.
What really won me over to paleo was understanding something I'd noticed long ago but didn't know what to do with. A couple of years ago I decided to pull up the government's latest guidelines for healthy eating and live by it. I researched how many calories and other nutrients I'd need to be my optimum weight. I exercised and ate exactly according to their guidelines for over two months. Funny thing happened. I stopped losing weight after the first week. I lost eight pounds. Read that last sentence again. I was obese and followed the governmental guidelines for health and exercise for over two months and I was still obese. I had no medical conditions preventing me from losing weight and was not on a single medication (other than a daily multivitamin, a calcium supplement, and a baby aspirin) and I only lost eight pounds. I also noticed that almost everything labeled "high fiber" or "excellent source of fiber" had hardly any fiber in it. When I would fill out my food chart each day, I noticed my fruits and vegetables had more fiber than the "whole grains" I ate. My piddly half an orange had as much fiber as two slices of whole wheat bread. If the only reason to eat grains is for the fiber, then there's no reason to eat them.
The other reason I decided to go paleo was the emphasis on organic and local, unprocessed food. This is the best way to combat all the nasty problems that go along with eating genetically modified foods.
I'll leave you with this thought. The Bible reports that many of the people in the early years of civilization lived to be hundreds of years old. This is one of the things those not believing in the Bible use to discount it. It's also a debated topic among believers as well. I think it's true and makes good sense. No, there were no vaccines or cutting edge surgeries and procedures back then. Would they have needed them? I have seen leprosy, epilepsy, consumption, paralysis and fever mentioned in the Bible. I haven't seen any mention of cancer or diabetes in there though. They also didn't have car accidents, acid rain, smog, plane crashes, pollution, etc. Could eating local, unprocessed, organic food, and daily, moderate exercise have been their answer for longevity? I think so.
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