Food, air and water. It has been said that we are what we
eat. It might also be fair to say that we are what we drink
and what we breath.
What is food?
There are only a few major categories of foods we can access
today when we wish to satisfy our hunger. "Real" foods that
include wild grown, organic and agribusiness produced food
and "Junk" foods. Real foods are "nature produced" in a
whole and completed form: Wild-grown foods are found
naturally in an uncultivated state and are harvested in a
variety of ways. Organic foods are cultivated foods where
chemical fertilizers, pesticides and other toxins are not
used in the growing processes. Agribusiness foods are
cultivated foods where chemical fertilizers plus pesticides,
insecticides, herbicides, nematocides, etc. and possibly
other toxins, are used in the growing processes. Junk foods
include all foods that have been processed, denatured,
fragmented and/or refined.
Why do we eat food?
When we are hungry, the body is not really asking us for a
hamburger or a carrot. It is merely asking us for a diet
that will provide MACRONUTRIENTS, such as proteins,
carbohydrates, and fats, to generate energy and support
growth, as well as MICRO-NUTRIENTS, such as vitamins,
minerals, and a wide range of other potent nutritional
components that protect the body's cells and tissues and
support essential metabolic functions. Think about this,
"When a hamburger or a carrot is thoroughly digested and
absorbed into the blood stream, is it a hamburger or a
carrot anymore?" No, not at all! It has now been broken down
into one or more of the six distinct groups of nutrients and
nutritional co-factors that are needed on a daily basis. The
entire range of nutrients are needed in sufficient
quantities and in proper balances so that we can function at
an optimum health level.
What is real food?
A real food is defined as a food substance which is
compatible with the body, that in no way takes from the
body, but lends itself to the building up of health and
maintaining life. It contains nothing that is harmful, toxic
or non-usable by the body. A real food meets the following
requirements:
It must be something edible, grown in the natural world. It
can be eaten without processing in any way. An entire meal
of just that one substance can be eaten, thoroughly enjoyed
and be completely satisfying. It is not offensive to the
taste buds.
Real foods come to us from nature as "complete packages".
This means they have everything in them necessary for the
body to process and assimilate that food for use by the
body. In other words, real foods always have all six
distinct groups of nutrients.
What is junk food?
A junk food is defined as a substance that does not meet all
three of the qualifications of a real food. This means it
would not be completely conducive to health and life, and
could be disease producing. This is because junk foods are
either missing some of the ingredients needed for the body
to make efficient use of the food, and the body must
complete the package from its own reserves and its own
tissue or the food is not usable. Also junk foods have
substances in them; i.e., toxins like artificial colors,
preservatives, and the many hundreds of other chemicals
added to our foods which "clog up the works," making the
body less efficient. Additionally, they cost the body the
energy and nutrients required to eliminate them from the
body. A wonderful example of junk food and its effects is
depicted in a film directed by Morgan Spurlock called "Super
Size Me" filmthreat.comReviews.aspOpen ↗
In order for the body to convert the glucose in the junk
food into energy, it is going to go through a cycle or
series of chemical reactions, ten of them to be specific
and the final result is energy. In every chemical
reaction, to convert glucose to energy, a catalyst is
required. What are the catalysts in foods? Vitamins and
minerals. How many vitamins and minerals in a doughnut?
Zero! So how in the world does the body convert the
glucose to energy without the required vitamins and
minerals. The body cannot squeeze them out of something
that doesn't have them in the first place. But, the body
can and will take these minerals and vitamins from itself.
It will rob (borrow) them from your bones and tissues to
compensate for the lack of these catalysts in the junk
food..., to create energy from junk food.
One of the main minerals the body needs to convert glucose
into energy is calcium. Calcium will be leached out of your
bones to be used to make energy from eating junk foods. When
you continue to eat processed, denatured and junk foods,
over time our bodies become weakened from robbing nutrients
and we can get sick. We get heart disease and we get cancer.
These diseases were never supposed to be a part of the human
experience.
How can we stop this roller coaster? We must eat real food.
In addition we should all supplement our diet with a whole
food supplement such as a high quality pure ginseng or a
high quality Aphanizomenon flos-aquae, known as blue-green
algae. These are two excellent examples of health giving,
God-given, natural whole foods.