In your opinion, to what extent does the consumption of simple refined sugars compromise health? Please cite at least four ideas to support your opinion.
This is such a multi-layered question. First of all, simple refined sugars are very quickly broken down by the body, causing a spike in blood glucose levels. This spike can provide an energy boost for a fatigued individual, but will also cause a crash once it's been processed. This extra blood sugar is harmful to the pancreas, which creates insulin, and also to the adrenal glands, which end up over functioning and causing a condition called adrenal fatigue.
Additionally, over-consuming refined carbohydrates leads to deficiency in fiber, vitamins and minerals, and phytochemicals, because these essential elements of the foods we eat are practically processed out. So by consuming highly refined products we are consuming empty calories with little or no nutritional value at all. The book states that consuming these things leads to higher risks of obesity, heart disease, and even cancer, and obviously, diabetes.
In addition, Dr. Henele mentioned that increased refined sugars in soda leads to increased acidity in the body. Lots of reasons to stay away from these things...
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Minerals/Processing/Etc?
Foods produced today are estimated to be much lower in mineral content when compared to foods produced 100 years ago.What are some of the factors that contribute to this? What are some of the health problems associated with this deficiency of minerals in foods?
The major reason for this is that minerals are most readily available in whole, unprocessed foods, and I'd gander that maybe 75% or more of the foods being consumed in this country today have been heavily processed and refined. In addition packaged foods are loaded with sodium and then people add sodium while cooking and then more before eating, making other minerals less available to the body.
Another important cause of which more should be aware is that even the "whole foods" available to us are not necessarily whole. Produce and animal products travel long distances to arrive on our dinner plates. Transit time alone decreases the concentration of both vitamins and minerals. On top of this, happy little fruits and vegetables have likely been intoxicated with all sorts of chemicals which degrade their mineral content, and then they may be vulnerable irradiation or other treatments, all of which are known to decrease the nutritional quality of the foods themselves.
Our own exposure to environmental pollutants and our higher likelihood to have nutritional deficiencies at some point in time make us less able to absorb minerals that actually come to us in food. So it's a big catch 22, leading to issues like anemia, underweight babies, night blindness, knotty muscles, excessive bleeding, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, and heart attacks, just to name a few.
The major reason for this is that minerals are most readily available in whole, unprocessed foods, and I'd gander that maybe 75% or more of the foods being consumed in this country today have been heavily processed and refined. In addition packaged foods are loaded with sodium and then people add sodium while cooking and then more before eating, making other minerals less available to the body.
Another important cause of which more should be aware is that even the "whole foods" available to us are not necessarily whole. Produce and animal products travel long distances to arrive on our dinner plates. Transit time alone decreases the concentration of both vitamins and minerals. On top of this, happy little fruits and vegetables have likely been intoxicated with all sorts of chemicals which degrade their mineral content, and then they may be vulnerable irradiation or other treatments, all of which are known to decrease the nutritional quality of the foods themselves.
Our own exposure to environmental pollutants and our higher likelihood to have nutritional deficiencies at some point in time make us less able to absorb minerals that actually come to us in food. So it's a big catch 22, leading to issues like anemia, underweight babies, night blindness, knotty muscles, excessive bleeding, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, and heart attacks, just to name a few.
Whole Grain Deliciousness!
What are the nutritional and health benefits of using whole grains instead of refined grains?
Holism. The philosophy that the way a system behaves can not be explained or determined by how any of its given parts behave.
Aristotle stated in Metaphysics, "The whole is more than the sum of its parts."
This is a easy thing to throw around when you want to explain to someone why using a whole grain as food or a whole plant as medicine is better than using some part of one. All the parts of a plant work together toward the same goal. Each part of a plant has it's own role, on which other parts are dependent for proper functioning and future survival of that individual. Maybe I'm getting too theoretical here.
Whole grains have not gone through any (major) processing and retain the nutritional benefits of that plant as a whole. Removing the various parts of a grain leaves it deficient, and in a state that it would not survive. The same with the people who eat it. If I consume deficient foods, I will in turn become deficient, and like a polished grain of rice, I would not grow and survive. I might just have a shelf life.
The example about beriberi is very interesting, and you would think this information would encourage people all over the world to discontinue their consumption of refined products, especially wheat and rice, which are the two most popular grains of which I'm aware. I grew up eating white rice, and surely enjoy it's flavor and texture, but I have yet to convince my family that it's just like eating a bunch of empty calories.
The author often mentions the issue of world hunger in the chapters, and it seems like one of the best things that can be done toward ending world hunger is to educate people about whole foods and methods of growing whole foods.
Whole grains are a good source of complex carbohydrates, which keep blood sugar at stable levels. They also contain dietary fiber, also good for regulating blood sugar, but also necessary for maintaining a healthy digestive system. Minerals, B vitamins, and protein are all available from whole, unrefined grains.
Holism. The philosophy that the way a system behaves can not be explained or determined by how any of its given parts behave.
Aristotle stated in Metaphysics, "The whole is more than the sum of its parts."
This is a easy thing to throw around when you want to explain to someone why using a whole grain as food or a whole plant as medicine is better than using some part of one. All the parts of a plant work together toward the same goal. Each part of a plant has it's own role, on which other parts are dependent for proper functioning and future survival of that individual. Maybe I'm getting too theoretical here.
Whole grains have not gone through any (major) processing and retain the nutritional benefits of that plant as a whole. Removing the various parts of a grain leaves it deficient, and in a state that it would not survive. The same with the people who eat it. If I consume deficient foods, I will in turn become deficient, and like a polished grain of rice, I would not grow and survive. I might just have a shelf life.
The example about beriberi is very interesting, and you would think this information would encourage people all over the world to discontinue their consumption of refined products, especially wheat and rice, which are the two most popular grains of which I'm aware. I grew up eating white rice, and surely enjoy it's flavor and texture, but I have yet to convince my family that it's just like eating a bunch of empty calories.
The author often mentions the issue of world hunger in the chapters, and it seems like one of the best things that can be done toward ending world hunger is to educate people about whole foods and methods of growing whole foods.
Whole grains are a good source of complex carbohydrates, which keep blood sugar at stable levels. They also contain dietary fiber, also good for regulating blood sugar, but also necessary for maintaining a healthy digestive system. Minerals, B vitamins, and protein are all available from whole, unrefined grains.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Buckwheat
My new grain this week...Buckwheat - Fagopyrum esculentum. It's good. High in protein. I just ate it with an avocado and tuna. Sounds strange but it was tasty with lemon pepper. Haha. It makes me feel so full though...so far this is all I have to report, and I think that even though buckwheat pancakes are the bomb, I think I prefer brown rice to buckwheat right now.
Vegetables!
I'm so excited about artichokes.
Not only are they delicately delicious, they are powerful little medicinaries, just waiting to cleanse, restore, and protect our digestive, circulatory, and cardiovascular systems!
The Globe Artichoke, Cynara scolymus, is full of nutrients.Really. Eat one medium sized globe artichoke and you'll ingest dietary fiber, magnesium, chromium, vitamin c, folic acid, biotin, manganese, niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, vitamin A, and potassium. This is only part of the artichoke's goodness. In addition to getting all these vitamins and minerals, the artichoke eater consumes phytochemicals such as inulin and cynarin, which have affinities to the liver.
These phytochemicals are found in higher concentrations in the leaves, but they can also be found in the bracts and the artichoke heart. Extracted, juiced, or eaten, they stimulate bile flow and have the ability to clear out a congested liver by moving bile to and fro the gallbladder.
Called choleretics (chemicals that promote bile flow), cynarin and inulin have the ability to lower cholesterol levels because they increase excretion of cholesterol and also reduce its production in the liver. This is great for the cardiovascular system, as well as the circulatory system because artichoke leaf supports and improves the functioning of the endothelial cells (these line the arteries).
Beets. Yummy. These tasty vegetables are in the same family as spinach and swiss chard, and both the roots and leaves can be eaten. The greens are higher in calcium, iron, and vitamins A and C, but the roots are nutritional as well. They contain folic acid, fiber, manganese, and potassium, and both the roots and greens are high in magnesium, phosphorous, iron, and vitamin B6.
I was unaware, but apparently beet roots stimulate the liver's ability to detox, but I don't know much about why. The roots are high in the bioflavanoid betacyanin, which is a strong antioxidant. Because of the high fiber content in beet roots, combined with it's high betacyanin content, beets are known to have a protective quality against colon cancer.
Bitter melon is a popular food and medicine in most subtropical areas of the world, from South America to India to parts of Africa. I'm very interested in using this vegetable in the future for my own personal care, and I'm excited to share it with people I know who have diabetes, digestive issue, and women who have reproductive concerns.
The unripe bitter melon is low calorie yet very high in quite a few important nutritents, including vitamin C, folic acid, zinc, potassium, dietary fiber, thiamine,riboflavin, vitamin E, magnesium, manganese, pantothenic acid, and copper.
Bitter melon contains Popypeptide P, a vegetable insulin that can be utilized by juicing the melon, and used the same way injectible insulin would to treat people with diabetes. In addition to being able to lower blood sugar for hyperglycemics, Bitter Melon is known as a useful emmenegogue around the world, and for that reason should not be used by pregnant women (an emmenegogue is a plant used to start menstruation). It also has antiviral properties that inhibit the AIDS virus (in vitro, nothing mentioned abouthow it can be used to treat people infected with AIDS already), herpes simplex virus, and other viruses. The ripened fruit also shows some anticancer effects (spec. Leukemia).
Not only are they delicately delicious, they are powerful little medicinaries, just waiting to cleanse, restore, and protect our digestive, circulatory, and cardiovascular systems!
The Globe Artichoke, Cynara scolymus, is full of nutrients.Really. Eat one medium sized globe artichoke and you'll ingest dietary fiber, magnesium, chromium, vitamin c, folic acid, biotin, manganese, niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, vitamin A, and potassium. This is only part of the artichoke's goodness. In addition to getting all these vitamins and minerals, the artichoke eater consumes phytochemicals such as inulin and cynarin, which have affinities to the liver.
These phytochemicals are found in higher concentrations in the leaves, but they can also be found in the bracts and the artichoke heart. Extracted, juiced, or eaten, they stimulate bile flow and have the ability to clear out a congested liver by moving bile to and fro the gallbladder.
Called choleretics (chemicals that promote bile flow), cynarin and inulin have the ability to lower cholesterol levels because they increase excretion of cholesterol and also reduce its production in the liver. This is great for the cardiovascular system, as well as the circulatory system because artichoke leaf supports and improves the functioning of the endothelial cells (these line the arteries).
Beets. Yummy. These tasty vegetables are in the same family as spinach and swiss chard, and both the roots and leaves can be eaten. The greens are higher in calcium, iron, and vitamins A and C, but the roots are nutritional as well. They contain folic acid, fiber, manganese, and potassium, and both the roots and greens are high in magnesium, phosphorous, iron, and vitamin B6.
I was unaware, but apparently beet roots stimulate the liver's ability to detox, but I don't know much about why. The roots are high in the bioflavanoid betacyanin, which is a strong antioxidant. Because of the high fiber content in beet roots, combined with it's high betacyanin content, beets are known to have a protective quality against colon cancer.
Bitter melon is a popular food and medicine in most subtropical areas of the world, from South America to India to parts of Africa. I'm very interested in using this vegetable in the future for my own personal care, and I'm excited to share it with people I know who have diabetes, digestive issue, and women who have reproductive concerns.
The unripe bitter melon is low calorie yet very high in quite a few important nutritents, including vitamin C, folic acid, zinc, potassium, dietary fiber, thiamine,riboflavin, vitamin E, magnesium, manganese, pantothenic acid, and copper.
Bitter melon contains Popypeptide P, a vegetable insulin that can be utilized by juicing the melon, and used the same way injectible insulin would to treat people with diabetes. In addition to being able to lower blood sugar for hyperglycemics, Bitter Melon is known as a useful emmenegogue around the world, and for that reason should not be used by pregnant women (an emmenegogue is a plant used to start menstruation). It also has antiviral properties that inhibit the AIDS virus (in vitro, nothing mentioned abouthow it can be used to treat people infected with AIDS already), herpes simplex virus, and other viruses. The ripened fruit also shows some anticancer effects (spec. Leukemia).
Glenn Beck
Glenn Beck takes on Vegetarianism
Jeeze I hate this kind of sarcasm. Seriously. Maybe just everything pisses me off! Haha...
My last entry was just a little insane, for that I apologize. I got all worked up about how meat production and world hunger probably aren't related, and totally forgot to push an equally important issue, that meat production (particularly in this country) is destructive against our natural landscapes and the environment as a whole. It's amusing in a way when people have the ability to totally ignore this fact because they like meat so much. I like to eat meat because it makes my body more resilient. But seriously, it's pretty obvious to me that the environment is more important than large scale meat production on factory farms that are unethical, environmentally and soul-ly degrading.
Reform!
Sometimes I ask myself, and everyone..."How the hell are we going to do this?"
Sigh...
Ick...I have so many freakin feelings running around right now it's hard to contain or understand them. I'll go back to reading about vegetables for now.
Jeeze I hate this kind of sarcasm. Seriously. Maybe just everything pisses me off! Haha...
My last entry was just a little insane, for that I apologize. I got all worked up about how meat production and world hunger probably aren't related, and totally forgot to push an equally important issue, that meat production (particularly in this country) is destructive against our natural landscapes and the environment as a whole. It's amusing in a way when people have the ability to totally ignore this fact because they like meat so much. I like to eat meat because it makes my body more resilient. But seriously, it's pretty obvious to me that the environment is more important than large scale meat production on factory farms that are unethical, environmentally and soul-ly degrading.
Reform!
Sometimes I ask myself, and everyone..."How the hell are we going to do this?"
Sigh...
Ick...I have so many freakin feelings running around right now it's hard to contain or understand them. I'll go back to reading about vegetables for now.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Oh Meat...A Rant
Chapter 18 - The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods, Michael Murray MD
"While moderate consumption of meat and animal products may be health promoting, there isno question that overconsumption of these foods is spurring a global epidemic of lifestyle diseases suchas heart attacks, strokes, and cancers, as well as creating new pressures on land and water resources, contributing to water pollution, and exacerbating global warming. World meat production has surged nearly sixfold since 1950."
"...meat production is an inefficient use of natural resources..."
"...one in six pople goes hungry each day, the politics of meat consumption are increasingly heated..."
"70 per cent of the grain grown goes to feed livestock and poultry."
"If the 670 million tons of the world's grain used for feed were reduced by just 10 per cent, this would free up 67 million tons of grain, enough to sustain 225 million people, or keep up withworld population growth for the next three years. In addition, if each American reduced his or her meat consumption by only 5%, roughly equivalent to eating one dish less of meat each week, 7.5 million tons of grain would be saved, enough to feed 25 million people-roughly the number estimated to go hungry in the US each day."
...oh man what can I say to this but wow! What the hell are we doing to our earth and to our people guys? None of these statements even begin to address the issues of humane treatment with regards to the animals that are actually being eaten. This is a heavily faceted situation...many issues all in one, all having to do with MEAT. Or do they really?
I think there is a big, huge, ginormous issue that is being left out of this conversation in the nutrition text book. And perhaps the author doesn't want to get too political, but since Mr. Murray skims the fringe of food politics in his book, I absolutely have to point out that he's overly idealistic about the situation of world hunger and it's relationship to meat production. Before I go there though, I have to say that I agree 100% with the statements that the methods utilized for meat production in this country and probably all the other developed countries in the world, are at best, f'd up, at worst, purely evil. All of everything natural is threatened and people are eating themselves to death with processed, poisoned, energetically negative, toxic meat products. But is that also causing hunger? Or would world hunger be reduced if meat production was reduced? I seriously doubt it...
I don't think it's possible to say a positive correlation exists between grain production for livestock and rates of hunger...there are too many questions involved...what qualifies as hunger? What quantifies it? Or are we talking about starvation here? And...if we stop using all that grain to feed livestock, is some generous philanthropist gonna ship it some place where hungry people can eat it? NO WAY! Even if that nice guy existed, there would probably end up being some organization on the other end mandating who could receive the donation and what they'd have to do to get it...There's is an even bigger problem than the way factory farms ruin our landscapes and deplete our ozone (not more important, but more relevant, and that's what I mean by bigger). That problem has to do with money. That's what it's all about, and whoever has it is is calling the shots. It also has to do with the relationships between agribusiness and government, and there are several positive correlations there for sure...but if average Joe cuts out his weekly hotdog (which I definitely think he should do, for a million reasons), it's not gonna reduce world hunger. Even if every average Joe and Jane and their Jack and Jill children cut out their weekly hotdogs, people in this world are still going to be hungry.
I guess my point is that our text might be encouraging its audience to be naive. It reminds me of those commercials saying that if every person just changed one of their household light bulbs to a compact fluorescent something or other we'd reduce all these dependencies on electricity and save the whole earth. It's bull. These problems calls for something much more radical, and much more active. Like what we are learning with the other parts of our holistic educations, we also have to learn and REMEMBER that every problem has a cause, and eradicating that cause is the only way to eradicate the symptom. The symptom of world hunger is not caused by grain overproduction for cows to feed fat Americans. It's caused by inadequate support systems, overindulgence of material goods by people with insatiable appetites, and dis-integral relationships by the people who own the food and the people who run the world. So what is the solution?
If you want to fight hunger, do it locally. Start a community garden, and teach people how to catch their own fish.
Some links. I like the Economist. It's straightforward reporting.
Guatemala
A really good movie about Jamaica's agricultural issues...and more: Life + Debt
"While moderate consumption of meat and animal products may be health promoting, there isno question that overconsumption of these foods is spurring a global epidemic of lifestyle diseases suchas heart attacks, strokes, and cancers, as well as creating new pressures on land and water resources, contributing to water pollution, and exacerbating global warming. World meat production has surged nearly sixfold since 1950."
"...meat production is an inefficient use of natural resources..."
"...one in six pople goes hungry each day, the politics of meat consumption are increasingly heated..."
"70 per cent of the grain grown goes to feed livestock and poultry."
"If the 670 million tons of the world's grain used for feed were reduced by just 10 per cent, this would free up 67 million tons of grain, enough to sustain 225 million people, or keep up withworld population growth for the next three years. In addition, if each American reduced his or her meat consumption by only 5%, roughly equivalent to eating one dish less of meat each week, 7.5 million tons of grain would be saved, enough to feed 25 million people-roughly the number estimated to go hungry in the US each day."
...oh man what can I say to this but wow! What the hell are we doing to our earth and to our people guys? None of these statements even begin to address the issues of humane treatment with regards to the animals that are actually being eaten. This is a heavily faceted situation...many issues all in one, all having to do with MEAT. Or do they really?
I think there is a big, huge, ginormous issue that is being left out of this conversation in the nutrition text book. And perhaps the author doesn't want to get too political, but since Mr. Murray skims the fringe of food politics in his book, I absolutely have to point out that he's overly idealistic about the situation of world hunger and it's relationship to meat production. Before I go there though, I have to say that I agree 100% with the statements that the methods utilized for meat production in this country and probably all the other developed countries in the world, are at best, f'd up, at worst, purely evil. All of everything natural is threatened and people are eating themselves to death with processed, poisoned, energetically negative, toxic meat products. But is that also causing hunger? Or would world hunger be reduced if meat production was reduced? I seriously doubt it...
I don't think it's possible to say a positive correlation exists between grain production for livestock and rates of hunger...there are too many questions involved...what qualifies as hunger? What quantifies it? Or are we talking about starvation here? And...if we stop using all that grain to feed livestock, is some generous philanthropist gonna ship it some place where hungry people can eat it? NO WAY! Even if that nice guy existed, there would probably end up being some organization on the other end mandating who could receive the donation and what they'd have to do to get it...There's is an even bigger problem than the way factory farms ruin our landscapes and deplete our ozone (not more important, but more relevant, and that's what I mean by bigger). That problem has to do with money. That's what it's all about, and whoever has it is is calling the shots. It also has to do with the relationships between agribusiness and government, and there are several positive correlations there for sure...but if average Joe cuts out his weekly hotdog (which I definitely think he should do, for a million reasons), it's not gonna reduce world hunger. Even if every average Joe and Jane and their Jack and Jill children cut out their weekly hotdogs, people in this world are still going to be hungry.
I guess my point is that our text might be encouraging its audience to be naive. It reminds me of those commercials saying that if every person just changed one of their household light bulbs to a compact fluorescent something or other we'd reduce all these dependencies on electricity and save the whole earth. It's bull. These problems calls for something much more radical, and much more active. Like what we are learning with the other parts of our holistic educations, we also have to learn and REMEMBER that every problem has a cause, and eradicating that cause is the only way to eradicate the symptom. The symptom of world hunger is not caused by grain overproduction for cows to feed fat Americans. It's caused by inadequate support systems, overindulgence of material goods by people with insatiable appetites, and dis-integral relationships by the people who own the food and the people who run the world. So what is the solution?
If you want to fight hunger, do it locally. Start a community garden, and teach people how to catch their own fish.
Some links. I like the Economist. It's straightforward reporting.
Guatemala
A really good movie about Jamaica's agricultural issues...and more: Life + Debt
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