Why you should never eat processed foods again!!!
Resisting the urge to drink that soda pop or eat those chips can be
tough, especially if you have grown accustomed to eating these highly
addictive foods as part of your normal diet. But once
you understand a little bit more about how these and other processed
foods affect your mind, body, and even your soul, it becomes easier to
make healthier food choices that enrich your being rather than sap it.
Here are nine motivating reasons why you should cut processed foods from
your diet for good:
1) Processed foods are highly addictive.
Your body processes whole foods much differently than it does refined,
processed, and heavily-modified "junk" foods. Processed foods tend to
overstimulate the production of dopamine, also known as the "pleasure"
neurotransmitter, which makes you crave them constantly. Your body ends
up not being able to resist the temptation to continue eating junk foods
in excess, which can lead to obesity and other health problems.
2) Processed foods often contain phosphates that destroy your organs,
bones. Many processed foods contain phosphate additives that augment
taste, texture, and shelf-life. But these additives are known to cause
health problems like rapid aging, kidney deterioration and weak bones,
according to the Rodale Institute, which makes foods that contain them
far less attractive to those in the know.
3) Fresh foods are
actually cheaper than processed foods. People with junk food addictions
often claim that fresh, healthy foods are too expensive. But according
to numerous studies and assessments, whole foods made from scratch end
up costing less per serving than their unhealthy, processed equivalents.
According to Rodale, a single serving of 100 percent organic chili made
with fresh ingredients and grass-fed beef, for instance, is about 50
cents cheaper to make than buying a can of chemical-laden, microwaveable
chili from the grocery store.
4) Processed foods cause chronic
inflammation. One of the leading causes of chronic illness today is
inflammation. And studies continue to show that refined sugars,
processed flours, vegetable oils, and many other nasty ingredients
commonly found in processed foods are largely responsible for this
inflammation epidemic. So the next time your body craves a candy bar or a
box of cheese crackers, consider the fact that heart disease, dementia,
neurological problems, respiratory failure, and cancer have all been
linked to the chronic inflammation caused by processed food consumption.
5) Processed foods ruin digestion. Because they have been stripped of
their natural fibers, enzymes, vitamins, and other nutrients, processed
foods tend to wreak havoc on the digestive tract. Chronic consumption of
such foods can throw your internal ecosystem off balance, harming
beneficial bacteria and exposing your system to infection. So you can
basically think of those gummy bears and that piece of cake as literal
poison for your system, which may help deter you from eating them.
6) Processed foods destroy your mind. If you suffer from chronic bouts
of brain "fog," or have difficulty concentrating and thinking normally,
chances are your diet has something to do with it. And a recent study
out of Oxford University lends credence to this possibility, having
found that junk food consumption can cause people to become angry and
irritable. Nutrient-dense whole foods, on the other hand, can help level
out your mood, sustain your energy levels, and leave you feeling calmer
and more collected.
7) Processed foods are loaded with GMOs.
The basic buildings blocks of most processed foods on the market today
are derived from laboratories, not nature. Genetically-modified
organisms (GMOs), which have been linked to infertility, organ damage,
gastrointestinal disorders, and cancer, are prolific in processed foods.
Excess consumption of these poisons promotes weight gain, acidifies
your blood, and can even permanently alter the composition and function
of your intestinal flora.
8) Processed foods are loaded with
pesticides. In order to effectively grow the GMOs used in processed
foods, conventional farmers have to apply Roundup (glyphosate) and other
pesticides and herbicides, many of which end up in the final product.
According to data compiled by Rodale, breakfast cereals alone have been
found to contain up to 70 different types of pesticides, including
warehouse fumigation chemicals and other residues.
9) Processed
foods are not actually food. One of the ways you can assess the
nutritional value of food is to see how animals, insects, bacteria, and
fungi respond to it. Real foods will actually rot or grow mold, for
instance, while fake, processed foods remain largely the same in
appearance and shape no matter what their age. As we reported recently,
processed food is essentially synthetic, and the industry that produces
it admits that heavy tampering and crafty modifications are necessary to
make it taste real, even though it is not.
I know it's so easy
just to pop food into a Microwave or drive though a fast food line at
McDonald's many of us use the excuse that we don't have time to cook.
Well let me ask you this,"Do you have time to deal with cancer,
diabetes, high blood pressure or a host of other diseases caused by
eating these toxic foods?"
In the long run these foods are VERY
EXPENSIVE, they ruin your health, and you spend a fortune trying to fix
the damage caused by eating the toxic foods.
Carbohydrate Addiction is Epidemic........Part 2
The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food
Previous research has demonstrated that refined sugar is
more addictive than cocaine, giving you pleasure by triggering an innate
process in your brain via dopamine and opioid signals. Your brain
essentially becomes addicted to stimulating the release of its own
opioids.
Researchers have speculated that the sweet
receptors located on your tongue, which evolved in ancestral times when
the diet was very low in sugar, have not adapted to the seemingly
unlimited access to a cheap and omnipresent sugar supply in the modern
diet.
Therefore, the abnormally high stimulation of
these receptors by our sugar-rich diets generates excessive reward
signals in your brain, which have the potential to override normal
self-control mechanisms, thus leading to addiction.
But it doesn’t end there. Food manufacturers have gotten savvy to the
addictive nature of certain foods and tastes, including saltiness and
sweetness, and have turned addictive taste into a science in and of
itself.
In a recent New York Times article, Michael
Moss, author of Salt Sugar Fat, dished the dirt on the processed food
industry, revealing that there’s a conscious effort on behalf of food
manufacturers to get you hooked on foods that are convenient and
inexpensive to make.
I recommend reading his
article in its entirety, as it offers a series of case studies that shed
light on the extraordinary science and marketing tactics that make junk
food so hard to resist.
Sugar, salt and fat are
the top three substances making processed foods so addictive. In a Time
Magazine interview discussing his book, Moss says:
“One of the things that really surprised me was how concerted and
targeted the effort is by food companies to hit the magical formulation.
Take sugar for example. The optimum amount of sugar in a product became
known as the 'bliss point.' Food inventors and scientists spend a huge
amount of time formulating the perfect amount of sugar that will send us
over the moon, and send products flying off the shelves. It is the
process they've engineered that struck me as really stunning.”
It’s important to realize that added sugar (typically in the
form of high fructose corn syrup) is not confined to junky snack foods.
For example, most of Prego’s spaghetti sauces have one common feature,
and that is sugar—it’s the second largest ingredient, right after
tomatoes. A half-cup of Prego Traditional contains the equivalent of
more than two teaspoons of sugar.
The Dangers of Sugar:* Sugar can damage your heart*
Sugar specifically promotes belly fat
* Sugar is the true silent killer*
Sugar may be linked to cancer production and may effect cancer survival
* Your sugar "addiction" may be genetic
* Sugar and alcohol have similar toxic liver effects on the body
* Sugar may sap your brain power
* Sugar hides in many everyday "non-sugar" foods
* An overload of sugar (specifically in beverages) may shorten your life
* Sugar is making us fat
Excessive
sugar in the diet is not the best idea when it comes to healthy living.
Nonetheless, few of us are consuming sugar in recommended moderate
amounts and most of us are eating tons of it. In fact, worldwide we are consuming about 500 extra calories a day from
sugar. That's just about what you would need to consume if you wanted
to gain a pound a week. Most people know that sugar is not good for
them, but for some reason, they think the risk of excess sugar
consumption is less than that of having too much saturated and trans
fat, sodium or calories. Perhaps it's sugar's lack of sodium or fat that
make it the "lesser of several evils," or perhaps people are simply of
the mind frame that what they don't know won't hurt them. If you really
knew what it was doing to your body, though, you might just put it at
the top of your "foods to avoid" list. Here are ten things that may
surprise you about sugar.
1. Sugar can damage your heart
While it's been widely noted that excess sugar can increase the overall risk for heart disease, a 2013 study in
the Journal of the American Heart Association displayed strong evidence
that sugar can actually affect the pumping mechanism of your heart and
could increase the risk for heart failure. The findings specifically
pinpointed a molecule from sugar (as well as from starch) called glucose
metabolite glucose 6-phosphate (G6P) that was responsible for the
changes in the muscle protein of the heart. These changes could
eventually lead to heart failure. Approximately half of the people that
are diagnosed with heart failure die within five years.
2. Sugar specifically promotes belly fatAdolescent obesity rates
have tripled in the past 30 years and childhood obesity rates have
doubled. Many of us are aware of the data that demonstrates just how
literally big our future is looking, but beyond the studies and all the
initiatives to curb childhood obesity, one needs only to visit an
amusement park, school or mall to truly see what is happening. One
factor that seems to inflict obese children is fat accumulation in the
trunk area of the body. Why? One cause may be the increase in
fructose-laden beverages. A 2010 study
in children found that excess fructose intake (but not glucose intake)
actually caused visceral fat cells to mature -- setting the stage for a
big belly and even bigger future risk for heart disease and diabetes.
3. Sugar is the true silent killer
Move over salt and hypertension, you've got competition. Sugar, as it turns out, is just as much of a silent killer. A 2008 study found
that excess fructose consumption was linked to an increase in a
condition called leptin resistance. Leptin is a hormone that tells you
when you've had enough food. The problem is, we often ignore the signal
our brain sends to us. For some people though, leptin simply does not
want to work, leaving the person with no signal whatsoever that the body
has enough food to function. This in turn can lead to over consumption
of food and consequently, obesity. Why the silent killer? Because it
all happens without symptoms or warning bells. If you've gained weight
in the past year and can't quite figure out why, perhaps you should look
at how much fructose you're feeding your body.
4. Sugar may be linked to cancer production and may effect cancer survival
In the world of nutrition, it's hard to talk about sugar without talking
about insulin. That's because insulin is sugar's little chaperone to
the cells, and when too much of it is consumed, or our insulin does not
work (probably because we're eating too much sugar) and the body
revolts. One connection that has been well documented in the literature
is the link between insulin resistance and cancer. A 2013 study found
that sugars in the intestine triggered the formation of a hormone
called GIP (controlled by a protein called β-catenin that is completely
dependant on sugar levels), that in turn, increases insulin released by
the pancreas. Researchers found that β-catenin may in fact affect the
cells susceptibility to cancer formation. Futher studies
have found negative associations between high sugar and starch intake
and survival rates in both breast cancer patients and colon cancer patients.
5. Your sugar "addiction" may be genetic
If you've ever said, "I'm completely addicted to sugar," you may actually be correct. A recent study
of 579 individuals showed that those who had genetic changes in a
hormone called ghrelin consumed more sugar (and alcohol) than those that
had no gene variation. Ghrelin is a hormone that tells the brain you're
hungry. Researchers think that the genetic components that effect your
ghrelin release may have a lot to do with whether or not you seek to
enhance a neurological reward system through your sweet tooth. Findings
with this study were similar to study conducted in 2012 as well.
6. Sugar and alcohol have similar toxic liver effects on the body
A 2012 paper in the journal Nature, brought forth the idea that
limitations and warnings should be placed on sugar similar to warnings
we see on alcohol. The authors showed evidence
that fructose and glucose in excess can have a toxic effect on the
liver as the metabolism of ethanol -- the alcohol contained in
alcoholic beverages had similarities to the metabolic pathways that
fructose took. Further, sugar increased the risk for several of the same
chronic conditions
that alcohol was responsible for. Finally, if you think that your slim
stature keeps you immune from fructose causing liver damage, think
again. A 2013 study found that liver damage could occur even without excess calories or weight gain.
7. Sugar may sap your brain power
When I think back on my childhood, I remember consuming more sugar than I
probably should have. I should have enjoyed my youth back then, because
unfortunately, all the sugar may have accelerated the aging process. A
2009 study
found a positive relationship between glucose consumption and the aging
of our cells. Aging of the cells consequently can be the cause of
something as simple as wrinkles to something as dire as chronic disease.
But there is other alarming evidence that sugar may affect the aging of
your brain as well. A 2012 study found that excess sugar consumption was linked to deficiencies in memory and overall cognitive health. A 2009 study in rats showed similar findings.
8. Sugar hides in many everyday "non-sugar" foods
While many of my patients strive to avoid the "normal" sugary culprits
(candy, cookies, cake, etc.), they often are duped when they discover
some of their favorite foods also contain lots of sugar. Examples include tomato sauce, fat free dressing, tonic water, marinates, crackers and even bread.
9. An overload of sugar (specifically in beverages) may shorten your life
A 2013 study
estimated that 180,000 deaths worldwide may be attributed to sweetened
beverage consumption. The United States alone accounted for 25,000
deaths in 2010. The authors summarize that deaths occurred due to the
association with sugar-sweetened beverages and chronic disease risk such
as diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
10. Sugar is making us fat
I figured I'd leave the most obvious fact for last. While you may be
aware that too many calories from any source will be stored as fat if
not burned, what you may not connect is that the lack of other nutrients
in sugar actually makes it much easier to eat gobs of it with no
physical effects to warn us of the danger that lurks. Foods rich in fiber, fat and protein all
have been associated with increased fullness. Sugar will give you the
calories, but not the feeling that you've had enough. That's why you can
have an entire king-size bag of licorice (with it's sky high glycemic index at the movies and come out afterwards ready to go for dinner.
On
a final note, it's important to point out that simple sugars from milk
(in the form of lactose) don't display the same negative health effects
that we see in the literature when reviewing sugar's effects on the
body. Simple sugars coming from fruit are also less concerning given
their high amounts of disease-fighting compounds and fiber.
So now
you know, and knowing perhaps can create action. You can do something
about decreasing your overall sugar consumption without feeling
deprivation or sheer frustration!
Source: University Studies, Huff Post.
Why Sugar is Toxic to the Body and in particular the BRAIN
Part 4 of 5.
CORRECT FOOD COMBINING
Whether it's sugared cereal or pastry and black coffee for breakfast,
whether it's hamburgers and Coca-Cola for lunch or the full "gourmet"
dinner in the evening, chemically the average American diet is a formula
that guarantees bubble, bubble, stomach trouble. unless you've taken
too much insulin and, in a state of insulin shock, need sugar as an
antidote, hardly anyone ever has cause to take sugar alone. Humans need
sugar as much as they need the nicotine in tobacco. Crave it is one
thing-need it is another. From the days of the Persian Empire to our
own, sugar has usually been used to hop up the flavor of other food and
drink, as an ingredient in the kitchen or as a condiment at the table.
Let us leave aside for the moment the known effect of sugar (long-term
and short-term) on the entire system and concentrate on the effect of
sugar taken in combination with other daily foods.
When Grandma
warned that sugared cookies before meals "will spoil your supper", she
knew what she was talking about. Her explanation might not have
satisfied a chemist but, as with many traditional axioms from the Mosaic
law on kosher food and separation in the kitchen, such rules are based
on years of trial and error and are apt to be right on the button. Most
modern research in combining food is a labored discovery of the things
Grandma took for granted. Any diet or regimen undertaken for the single
purpose of losing weight is dangerous, by definition. Obesity is talked
about and treated as a disease in 20th-century America. Obesity is not a
disease. It is only a symptom, a sign, a warning that your body is out
of order. Dieting to lose weight is as silly and dangerous as taking
aspirin to relieve a headache before you know the reason for the
headache.
Getting rid of a symptom is like turning off an
alarm. It leaves the basic cause untouched. Any diet or regimen
undertaken with any objective short of restoration of total health of
your body is dangerous. Many overweight people are undernourished. (Dr.
H. Curtis Wood stresses this point in his 1971 book, Overfed But
undernourished.) Eating less can aggravate this condition, unless one is
concerned with the quality of the food instead of just its quantity.
Many people-doctors included-assume that if weight is lost, fat is lost.
This is not necessarily so. Any diet which lumps all carbohydrates
together is dangerous. Any diet which does not consider the quality of
carbohydrates and makes the crucial life-and-death distinction between
natural, unrefined carbohydrates like whole grains and vegetables and
man-refined carbohydrates like sugar and white flour is dangerous. Any
diet which includes refined sugar and white flour, no matter what
"scientific" name is applied to them, is dangerous.
Kicking
sugar and white flour and substituting whole grains, vegetables and
natural fruits in season, is the core of any sensible natural regimen.
Changing the quality of your carbohydrates can change the quality of
your health and life. If you eat natural food of good quality, quantity
tends to take care of itself. Nobody is going to eat a half-dozen sugar
beets or a whole case of sugar cane. Even if they do, it will be less
dangerous than a few ounces of sugar. Sugar of all kinds-natural sugars,
such as those in honey and fruit (fructose), as well as the refined
white stuff (sucrose)-tends to arrest the secretion of gastric juices
and have an inhibiting effect on the stomach's natural ability to move.
Sugars are not digested in the mouth, like cereals, or in the stomach,
like animal flesh. When taken alone, they pass quickly through the
stomach into the small intestine. When sugars are eaten with other
foods-perhaps meat and bread in a sandwich-they are held up in the
stomach for a while.
The sugar in the bread and the Coke sit
there with the hamburger and the bun waiting for them to be digested.
While the stomach is working on the animal protein and the refined
starch in the bread, the addition of the sugar practically guarantees
rapid acid fermentation under the conditions of warmth and moisture
existing in the stomach. One lump of sugar in your coffee after a
sandwich is enough to turn your stomach into a fermenter. One soda with a
hamburger is enough to turn your stomach into a still. Sugar on
cereal-whether you buy it already sugared in a box or add it
yourself-almost guarantees acid fermentation.
Since the
beginning of time, natural laws were observed, in both senses of that
word, when it came to eating foods in combination. Birds have been
observed eating insects at one period in the day and seeds at another.
Other animals tend to eat one food at a time. Flesh-eating animals take
their protein raw and straight. In the Orient, it is traditional to eat
yang before yin. Miso soup (fermented soybean protein, yang) for
breakfast; raw fish (more yang protein) at the beginning of the meal;
afterwards comes the rice (which is less yang than the miso and fish);
and then the vegetables which are yin. If you ever eat with a
traditional Japanese family and you violate this order, the Orientals
(if your friends) will correct you courteously but firmly. The law
observed by Orthodox Jews prohibits many combinations at the same meal,
especially flesh and dairy products. Special utensils for the dairy meal
and different utensils for the flesh meal reinforce that taboo at the
food's source in the kitchen.
Man learned very early in the
game what improper combinations of food could do to the human system.
When he got a stomach ache from combining raw fruit with grain, or honey
with porridge, he didn't reach for an antacid tablet. He learned not to
eat that way. When gluttony and excess became widespread, religious
codes and commandments were invoked against it. Gluttony is a capital
sin in most religions; but there are no specific religious warnings or
commandments against refined sugar because sugar abuse-like drug
abuse-did not appear on the world scene until centuries after holy books
had gone to press.
"Why must we accept as normal what we find
in a race of sick and weakened human beings?" Dr. Herbert M. Shelton
asks. "Must we always take it for granted that the present eating
practices of civilized men are normal?... Foul stools, loose stools,
impacted stools, pebbly stools, much foul gas, colitis, hemorrhoids,
bleeding with stools, the need for toilet paper are swept into the orbit
of the normal."
When starches and complex sugars (like those
in honey and fruits) are digested, they are broken down into simple
sugars called "monosaccharides", which are usable substances-nutriments.
When starches and sugars are taken together and undergo fermentation,
they are broken down into carbon dioxide, acetic acid, alcohol and
water. With the exception of the water, all these are unusable
substances-poisons. When proteins are digested, they are broken down
into amino acids, which are usable substances-nutriments. When proteins
are taken with sugar, they putrefy; they are broken down into a variety
of ptomaines and leucomaines, which are nonusable substances-poisons.
Enzymic digestion of foods prepares them for use by our body. Bacterial
decomposition makes them unfit for use by our body. The first process
gives us nutriments; the second gives us poisons.
Much that
passes for modern nutrition is obsessed with a mania for quantitative
counting. The body is treated like a check account. Deposit calories
(like dollars) and withdraw energy. Deposit proteins, carbohydrates,
fats, vitamins and minerals-balanced quantitatively-and the result,
theoretically, is a healthy body. People qualify as healthy today if
they can crawl out of bed, get to the office and sign in. If they can't
make it, call the doctor to qualify for sick pay, hospitalization, rest
cure-anything from a day's pay without working to an artificial kidney,
courtesy of the taxpayers. But what does it profit someone if the
theoretically required calories and nutrients are consumed daily, yet
this random eat-on-the-run, snack-time collection of foods ferments and
putrefies in the digestive tract? What good is it if the body is fed
protein, only to have it putrefy in the gastrointestinal canal?
Carbohydrates that ferment in the digestive tract are converted into
alcohol and acetic acid, not digestible monosaccharides. "To derive
sustenance from foods eaten, they must be digested," Shelton warned
years ago. "They must not rot." Sure, the body can get rid of poisons
through the urine and the pores; the amount of poisons in the urine is
taken as an index to what's going on in the intestine. The body does
establish a tolerance for these poisons, just as it adjusts gradually to
an intake of heroin. But, says Shelton, "the discomfort from
accumulation of gas, the bad breath, and foul and unpleasant odors are
as undesirable as are the poisons".
Why Sugar is Toxic to the Body and in particular the BRAIN Part 2 of 5.
SUGAR: HARMFUL TO HUMANS AND ANIMALS
Shipwrecked sailors who ate and drank nothing but sugar and rum for
nine days surely went through some of this trauma; the tales they had
to tell created a big public relations problem for the sugar pushers.
This incident occurred when a vessel carrying a cargo of sugar was
shipwrecked in 1793. The five surviving sailors were finally rescued
after being marooned for nine days. They were in a wasted condition due
to starvation, having consumed nothing but sugar and rum. The eminent
French physiologist F. Magendie was inspired by that incident to conduct
a series of experiments with animals, the results of which he published
in 1816. In the experiments, he fed dogs a diet of sugar or olive oil
and water. All the dogs wasted and died.
The shipwrecked
sailors and the French physiologist's experimental dogs proved the same
point. As a steady diet, sugar is worse than nothing. Plain water can
keep you alive for quite some time. Sugar and water can kill you. Humans
[and animals] are "unable to subsist on a diet of sugar". The dead dogs
in Professor Magendie's laboratory alerted the sugar industry to the
hazards of free scientific inquiry. From that day to this, the sugar
industry has invested millions of dollars in behind-the-scenes,
subsidized science. The best scientific names that money could buy have
been hired, in the hope that they could one day come up with something
at least pseudoscientific in the way of glad tidings about sugar.
It has been proved, however, that (1) sugar is a major factor in dental
decay; (2) sugar in a person's diet does cause overweight; (3) removal
of sugar from diets has cured symptoms of crippling, worldwide diseases
such as diabetes, cancer and heart illnesses. Sir Frederick Banting, the
codiscoverer of insulin, noticed in 1929 in Panama that, among sugar
plantation owners who ate large amounts of their refined stuff, diabetes
was common. Among native cane-cutters, who only got to chew the raw
cane, he saw no diabetes. However, the story of the public relations
attempts on the part of the sugar manufacturers began in Britain in 1808
when the Committee of West India reported to the House of Commons that a
prize of twenty-five guineas had been offered to anyone who could come
up with the most "satisfactory" experiments to prove that unrefined
sugar was good for feeding and fattening oxen, cows, hogs and sheep.
Food for animals is often seasonal, always expensive. Sugar, by then,
was dirt cheap. People weren't eating it fast enough. Naturally, the
attempt to feed livestock with sugar and molasses in England in 1808 was
a disaster. When the Committee on West India made its fourth report to
the House of Commons, one Member of Parliament, John Curwin, reported
that he had tried to feed sugar and molasses to calves without success.
He suggested that perhaps someone should try again by sneaking sugar and
molasses into skimmed milk. Had anything come of that, you can be sure
the West Indian sugar merchants would have spread the news around the
world. After this singular lack of success in pushing sugar in cow
pastures, the West Indian sugar merchants gave up.
With
undaunted zeal for increasing the market demand for the most important
agricultural product of the West Indies, the Committee of West India was
reduced to a tactic that has served the sugar pushers for almost 200
years: irrelevant and transparently silly testimonials from faraway,
inaccessible people with some kind of "scientific" credentials. While
preparing his epochal volume, A History of Nutrition, published in 1957,
Professor E. V. McCollum (Johns Hopkins university), sometimes called
America's foremost nutritionist and certainly a pioneer in the field,
reviewed approximately 200,000 published scientific papers, recording
experiments with food, their properties, their utilization and their
effects on animals and men. The material covered the period from the
mid-18th century to 1940. From this great repository of scientific
inquiry, McCollum selected those experiments which he regarded as
significant "to relate the story of progress in discovering human error
in this segment of science [of nutrition]".
Professor McCollum
failed to record a single controlled scientific experiment with sugar
between 1816 and 1940. unhappily, we must remind ourselves that
scientists today, and always, accomplish little without a sponsor. The
protocols of modern science have compounded the costs of scientific
inquiry. We have no right to be surprised when we read the introduction
to McCollum's A History of Nutrition and find that "The author and
publishers are indebted to The Nutrition Foundation, Inc., for a grant
provided to meet a portion of the cost of publication of this book".
What, you might ask, is The Nutrition Foundation, Inc.? The author and
the publishers don't tell you. It happens to be a front organization for
the leading sugar-pushing conglomerates in the food business, including
the American Sugar Refining Company, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Curtis
Candy Co., General Foods, General Mills, Nestlé Co., Pet Milk Co. and
Sunshine Biscuits-about 45 such companies in all. Perhaps the most
significant thing about McCollum's 1957 history was what he left out: a
monumental earlier work described by an eminent Harvard professor as
"one of those epochal pieces of research which makes every other
investigator desirous of kicking himself because he never thought of
doing the same thing".
In the 1930s, a research dentist from
Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. Weston A. Price, traveled all over the world-from
the lands of the Eskimos to the South Sea Islands, from Africa to New
Zealand. His Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of
Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects, which is illustrated with
hundreds of photographs, was first published in 1939. Dr. Price took the
whole world as his laboratory. His devastating conclusion, recorded in
horrifying detail in area after area, was simple. People who live under
so-called backward primitive conditions had excellent teeth and
wonderful general health. They ate natural, unrefined food from their
own locale. As soon as refined, sugared foods were imported as a result
of contact with "civilization," physical degeneration began in a way
that was definitely observable within a single generation. Any
credibility the sugar pushers have is based on our ignorance of works
like that of Dr. Price.
Sugar manufacturers keep trying, hoping
and contributing generous research grants to colleges and universities;
but the research laboratories never come up with anything solid the
manufacturers can use. Invariably, the research results are bad news.
"Let us go to the ignorant savage, consider his way of eating and be
wise," Harvard professor Ernest Hooten said in Apes, Men, and Morons.
"Let us cease pretending that toothbrushes and toothpaste are any more
important than shoe brushes and shoe polish. It is store food that has
given us store teeth." When the researchers bite the hands that feed
them, and the news gets out, it's embarrassing all around. In 1958, Time
magazine reported that a Harvard biochemist and his assistants had
worked with myriads of mice for more than ten years, bankrolled by the
Sugar Research Foundation, Inc. to the tune of $57,000, to find out how
sugar causes dental cavities and how to prevent this. It took them ten
years to discover that there was no way to prevent sugar causing dental
decay. When the researchers reported their findings in the Dental
Association Journal, their source of money dried up. The Sugar Research
Foundation withdrew its support. The more that the scientists
disappointed them, the more the sugar pushers had to rely on the ad me
Carbohydrate Addiction is Epidemic........
And the Food Industry Promotes it right along with the FDA & the AMA!
A staggering two-thirds of Americans are now overweight, and one in four are either diabetic or pre-diabetic.
Obesity rates in children in several states are now above 30%!!!!!!
Carb-rich processed foods are a primary driver of these statistics,
and while many blame Americans’ overindulgence of processed junk foods
on lack of self-control, scientists are now starting to reveal the truly
addictive nature of such foods.
Most recently, researchers
at the Boston Children's Hospital concluded that highly processed
carbohydrates stimulate brain regions involved in reward and cravings,
promoting excess hunger.
As reported by Science Daily:
“These findings suggest that limiting these 'high-glycemic index' foods could help obese individuals avoid overeating.”
While I don’t agree with the concept of high glycemic foods, it is
important that they are at least thinking in the right direction. Also,
the timing is ironic, considering the fact that the American Medical
Association (AMA) recently declared obesity a disease, treatable with a
variety of conventional methods, from drugs to novel anti-obesity
vaccines...
The featured research is on the mark, and shows
just how foolhardy the AMA’s financially-driven decision really is.
Drugs and vaccines are clearly not going to do anything to address the
underlying problem of addictive junk food.
Brain Imaging Shows Food Addiction Is Real
The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
examined the effects of high-glycemic foods on brain activity, using
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). One dozen overweight or
obese men between the ages of 18 and 35 each consumed one high-glycemic
and one low-glycemic meal. The fMRI was done four hours after each test
meal. According to the researchers:
“Compared with an
isocaloric low-GI meal, a high-glycemic index meal decreased plasma
glucose, increased hunger, and selectively stimulated brain regions
associated with reward and craving in the late postprandial period,
which is a time with special significance to eating behavior at the next
meal.”
The study demonstrates what many people experience:
After eating a high-glycemic meal, i.e. rapidly digesting
carbohydrates, their blood sugar initially spiked, followed by a sharp
crash a few hours later. The fMRI confirmed that this crash in blood
glucose intensely activated a brain region involved in addictive
behaviors, known as the nucleus accumbens.
Dr. Robert
Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the
University of California, a pioneer in decoding sugar metabolism,
weighed in on the featured research in an article by NPR:
“As Dr. Robert Lustig... points out, this research can’t tell us if
there’s a cause and effect relationship between eating certain foods and
triggering brain responses, or if those responses lead to overeating
and obesity.
'[The study] doesn’t tell you if this is
the reason they got obese,' says Lustig, 'or if this is what happens
once you’re already obese.' Nonetheless... he thinks this study offers
another bit of evidence that 'this phenomenon is real.'”
Previously, Dr. Lustig has explained the addictive nature of sugar as follows:
"The brain's pleasure center, called the nucleus accumbens, is
essential for our survival as a species... Turn off pleasure, and you
turn off the will to live... But long-term stimulation of the pleasure
center drives the process of addiction... When you consume any substance
of abuse, including sugar, the nucleus accumbens receives a dopamine
signal, from which you experience pleasure. And so you consume more.
The problem is that with prolonged exposure, the signal
attenuates, gets weaker. So you have to consume more to get the same
effect -- tolerance. And if you pull back on the substance, you go into
withdrawal. Tolerance and withdrawal constitute addiction. And make no
mistake, sugar is addictive."
The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food
Previous research has demonstrated that refined sugar is
more addictive than cocaine, giving you pleasure by triggering an innate
process in your brain via dopamine and opioid signals. Your brain
essentially becomes addicted to stimulating the release of its own
opioids.
Researchers have speculated that the sweet
receptors located on your tongue, which evolved in ancestral times when
the diet was very low in sugar, have not adapted to the seemingly
unlimited access to a cheap and omnipresent sugar supply in the modern
diet.
Therefore, the abnormally high stimulation of
these receptors by our sugar-rich diets generates excessive reward
signals in your brain, which have the potential to override normal
self-control mechanisms, thus leading to addiction.
But it doesn’t end there. Food manufacturers have gotten savvy to the
addictive nature of certain foods and tastes, including saltiness and
sweetness, and have turned addictive taste into a science in and of
itself.
In a recent New York Times article, Michael
Moss, author of Salt Sugar Fat, dished the dirt on the processed food
industry, revealing that there’s a conscious effort on behalf of food
manufacturers to get you hooked on foods that are convenient and
inexpensive to make.
I recommend reading his
article in its entirety, as it offers a series of case studies that shed
light on the extraordinary science and marketing tactics that make junk
food so hard to resist.
Sugar, salt and fat are
the top three substances making processed foods so addictive. In a Time
Magazine interview discussing his book, Moss says:
“One of the things that really surprised me was how concerted and
targeted the effort is by food companies to hit the magical formulation.
Take sugar for example. The optimum amount of sugar in a product became
known as the 'bliss point.' Food inventors and scientists spend a huge
amount of time formulating the perfect amount of sugar that will send us
over the moon, and send products flying off the shelves. It is the
process they've engineered that struck me as really stunning.”
It’s important to realize that added sugar (typically in the
form of high fructose corn syrup) is not confined to junky snack foods.
For example, most of Prego’s spaghetti sauces have one common feature,
and that is sugar—it’s the second largest ingredient, right after
tomatoes. A half-cup of Prego Traditional contains the equivalent of
more than two teaspoons of sugar.
Novel Flavor-Enhancers May Also Contribute to Food Addiction
Another guiding principle for the processed food industry
is known as “sensory-specific satiety.” Moss describes this as “the
tendency for big, distinct flavors to overwhelm your brain, which
responds by depressing your desire to have more.” The greatest
successes, whether beverages or foods, owe their “craveability” to
complex formulas that pique your taste buds just enough, without
overwhelming them, thereby overriding your brain’s inclination to say
“enough.”
Novel biotech flavor companies like Senomyx also play an important role.
Senomyx specializes in helping companies find new flavors
that allow them to use less salt and sugar in their foods. But does that
really make the food healthier? This is a questionable assertion at
best, seeing how these “flavor enhancers” are created using secret,
patented processes. They also do not need to be listed on the food
label, which leaves you completely in the dark. As of now, they simply
fall under the generic category of artificial and/or natural flavors,
and they don’t even need to be tested for safety, as they’re used in
minute amounts.
How to Combat Food Addiction and Regain Your Health
To protect your health, I advise spending 90 percent of your food
budget on whole foods, and only 10 percent on processed foods. It’s
important to realize that refined carbohydrates like breakfast cereals,
bagels, waffles, pretzels, and most other processed foods quickly break
down to sugar, increase your insulin levels, and cause insulin
resistance, which is the number one underlying factor of nearly every
chronic disease and condition known to man, including weight gain.
By taking the advice offered in the featured study and cutting out
these high-glycemic foods you can retrain your body to burn fat instead
of sugar. However, it’s important to replace these foods with healthy
fats, not protein—a fact not addressed in this research. I believe most
people may need between 50-70 percent of their daily calories in the
form of healthful fats, which include:
1. Olives & Olive oil
2. Coconut and Coconut Oils
3. Natural whole fat butter
4. Organic raw nuts, especially macadamia nuts, which are low in protein and omega-6 fat.
5. Organic pastured eggs and pastured meats
6. Avocados
A growing body of evidence also suggests that intermittent fasting
is particularly effective if you’re struggling with excess weight as it
provokes the natural secretion of human growth hormone (HGH), a
fat-burning hormone. It also increases resting energy expenditure while
decreasing insulin levels, which allows stored fat to be burned for
fuel. Together, these and other factors will turn you into an effective
fat-burning machine.
Best of all, once you transition to
fat burning mode your cravings for sugar and carbohydrates will
virtually disappear, as if by magic... While you’re making the
adjustment, you could supplement L-Glutamine (1,000MG) before each meal
and 3,000-6,000 MG at bed time. This will help reduce cravings.
Other tricks to help you overcome your sugar cravings include:
Exercise: Anyone who exercises intensely on a regular basis
will know that a significant amount of resistance exercise is one of
the best "cures" for food cravings. It always amazes me how my appetite,
especially for sweets, dramatically decreases after a good workout. I
believe the mechanism is related to the dramatic reduction in insulin
levels that occurs after exercise.
Organic black
coffee: Coffee is a potent opioid receptor antagonist, and contains
compounds such as cafestrol -- found plentifully in both caffeinated and
decaffeinated coffee -- which can bind to your opioid receptors, occupy
them and essentially block your addiction to other opioid-releasing
foods. This may profoundly reduce the addictive power of other
substances, such as sugar.
