Category Archives: Nutrition

We need to take a look at how and what we are eating.  So many people are overweight and obese, have problems with; concentration, sleep, hormones, digestion, emotions…the list goes on forever. I have been watching this development for a long time and it took me some time to realize that much of it is connected to foods and eating-habits. “We are what we eat” doesn’t mean that we become pigs for eating pork, it is more about health and balance.
Our bodies have certain needs, and they are quite simple, in the old days all nutrients came naturally through our foods. Today much of our foods are either polluted or depleted of nutrients. Our bodies find ways to handle the toxins that come into our systems – to a certain point. When the amount of toxins becomes to large, the body slowly starts breaking down. And with body is included the brain = emotions, memory, hormones, concentration, learning…the list is vast. So much of the food people eat today is full of chemicals that are bad or outright dangerous. Much foods have no nutritious value at all. Many people don’t even know how to cook a simple meal.
Check out this video on additives in foodstuffs and tell me if you are prepared to feed this to yourself and your children.

Information on additives, toxins and depletion is becoming widely available as disease from unhealthy eating is growing rampant. Research has been and is being conducted to ascertain what nutrients we need to function  and what additives make us ill:

• Essential fatty acids are vital for healthy brain-function and has been found to help combatting dyslexia, how interesting then, that the number of dyslectic children is rising in today’s society. Essential fatty acids are found in fish-oil and cold-pressed, unrefined vegetable oils. The vegetable oils you find in your local store, with the exception of good quality olive oil, are so refined as to be unfit for eating.
• Vitamins and trace-elements (calcium, iron, magnesium etc) are found in most unrefined food-stuffs; vegetables, fruits, meat and dairy-products. Today most people suffer disease from vitamin and trace-element depletion. The levels of these vital nutrients are lower also in natural food-stuffs since the soil has been depleted.
• Natural sugars are being replaced with “fake” sugars such as aspartam, sorbitol and others. Some are believed to induce cancer. Extensive studies are being done in this area.
• Meat-producing animals are heavily medicated with antibiotics – not because they are ill, rather to “protect” them from illness. They are also given hormones for bigger meat-yield. Antibiotics and hormones are stored primarily in fatty tissue and also in muscle tissue (meat). When we eat the meat, we are also ingesting these antibiotics and hormones.
• Fizzy soft drinks; the carbonic acid, which gives the fizziness, lowers the pH of the body. To balance that, calcium is excreted from the sceletal system, depleting the bones of calcium = osteoporosis. The number of children with osteoporosis has risen drastically. Osteoporosis is normally an old peoples disease and comes from low calcium-levels together with a sedentary life-style. Children need calcium and movement to grow healthy. Now they are drinking sodas (which are cheaper than milk) and sitting still.

The list goes on forever.

A whole new food-movement is gaining momentum in today’s society, especially in the USA; check out this article about one amazing mans work to change the wave of food-induced deterioration:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/magazine/05allen-t.html

In the article is a link for the website, if you don’t feel like reading the article you can go straight to:

www.growingpower.org

Will Allen

Picture by Nigel Parry for The New York Times