Eating for Health Food Consultation

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Eating for Health Food Consultation

Clean eating, eating for health, eating whole foods, natural eating…call it what you want to call it but it all means the same thing. It means eating foods that are in their “whole” state. It refers to foods that are not processed, not preserved, not concentrated and eating them as NATURE made them.

Nature has been making our food for a long time. The amounts of nutrients, calories, and fiber are all in perfect quantities. It was explained to me, that the nutrition of a plant comes as a packaged deal. Think of it like a symphony, all the instruments (nutrients) are great by themselves but when played together they not only complement each other, but they also help balance each other out. In a symphony no one sound will be overbearing. Or you can think of it as no one nutrient will be too much for our bodies to handle. I’m sure someone can ingest too much of a particular food and get sick or get a toxicity but these foods in general, are man-made foods, such as refined sugar, refined flour, industrial seed oils, and processed soy. [1] It is believed that we will not over eat natural, unaltered food, probably due to the amount of fiber contained in natural foods. When our stomachs become full with bulk, nerve sensors detect the stomach wall stretching and in turn tell our brain that we are getting full. Man-made foods with lots of “empty calories” do not cause the same effects (we will go further into this later).

Next, think of the body like a city. If we were building a city we would need the right equipment (body systems working together). We would also need the right building materials (nutrients) and we would need workers (enzymes). There is a whole list of nutrients that are required for your body to FUNCTION properly. When we lack any one of them our “construction job” gets held up and gets behind schedule. In the body the consequences of missing a construction material can lead to anything from muscle cramps, to impaired brain function, to chronic diseased states, and even death. It is actually pretty simple, once we obtain the tools and knowledge; we can easily pick the foods that will give us optimum benefits.

Facts & Statistics

The Facts About the Modern Diet

“The modern lifestyle. And though there are several aspects of our current lifestyle that contribute to disease, the widespread consumption of food toxins is by far the greatest offender. Specifically, the following four dietary toxins are to blame: Cereal grains (especially refined flour), Omega-6 industrial seed oils (corn, cottonseed, safflower, soybean, etc.), Sugar (especially high-fructose corn syrup), Processed soy (soy milk, soy protein, soy flour, etc.)”

https://chriskresser.com/9-steps-to-perfect-health-1-dont-eat-toxins/

“Typical American diets exceed the recommended intake levels or limits in four categories: calories from solid fats and added sugars; refined grains; sodium; and saturated fat.

Americans eat less than the recommended amounts of vegetables, fruits, whole-grains, dairy products, and oils.

About 90% of Americans eat more sodium than is recommended for a healthy diet.

Reducing the sodium Americans eat by 1,200mg per day on could save up to $20 billion a year in medical costs.

Food available for consumption increased in all major food categories from 1970 to 2008. Average daily calories per person in the marketplace increased approximately 600 calories.

Since the 1970s, the number of fast food restaurants has more than doubled.

More than 23 million Americans, including 6.5 million children, live in food deserts – areas that are more than a mile away from a supermarket.

In 2008, an estimated 49.1 million people, including 16.7 million children, experienced food insecurity (limited availability to safe and nutritionally adequate foods) multiple times throughout the year.

In 2013, residents of the following states were most likely to report eating at least five servings of vegetables four or more days per week: Vermont (68.7%), Montana (63.0%) and Washington (61.8%). The least likely were Oklahoma (52.3%), Louisiana (53.3%) and Missouri (53.8%). The national average for regular produce consumption is 57.7%.

Empty calories from added sugars and solid fats contribute to 40% of total daily calories for 2–18 year olds and half of these empty calories come from six sources: soda, fruit drinks, dairy desserts, grain desserts, pizza, and whole milk.

US adults consume an average of 3,400 mg/day [of sodium], well above the current federal guideline of less than 2,300 mg daily.

Food safety awareness goes hand-in-hand with nutrition education. In the United States, food-borne agents affect 1 out of 6 individuals and cause approximately 48 million illnesses, 128,000 hospitalizations, and 3,000 deaths each year.

US per capita consumption of total fat increased from approximately 57 pounds in 1980 to 78 pounds in 2009 with the highest consumption being 85 pounds in 2005.

The US percentage of food-insecure households, those with limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways, rose from 11% to 15% between 2005 and 2009.”

http://www.fitness.gov/resource-center/facts-and-statistics/

“The burden of chronic diseases is rapidly increasing worldwide. It has been calculated that, in 2001, chronic diseases contributed approximately 60% of the 56.5 million total reported deaths in the world and approximately 46% of the global burden of disease (1). The proportion of the burden of NCDs is expected to increase to 57% by 2020. Almost half of the total chronic disease deaths are attributable to cardiovascular diseases; obesity and diabetes are also showing worrying trends, not only because they already affect a large proportion of the population, but also because they have started to appear earlier in life.”

“Analyses of the three main risk factors (smoking, high blood pressure, raised plasma cholesterol) indicate that diet --- operating through lowering plasma cholesterol and blood pressure levels --- accounted for the larger part of this substantial decline in cardiovascular disease. The contribution made by medication and treatment (antilipid and hypotensive drugs, surgery) was very small.”

http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/publications/trs916/en/gsfao_background.pdf?ua=1

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