Modern food products are major role players in our Nutrition….or lack thereof. The simple truth about modern food products is that we are what we eat, and how they are raised, fed and sprayed, are all significant influencers in our nutrition, health and wellness. The long shelf life treatments like radiation, ripening in the warehouse, refrigeration or freezing the products all affect the food that we eat. This is all done to our food to ensure longer shelf life. It is not ALL bad news! It just appears so to start with. There is good news on its way.
Our wellness is determined by our food and nutrition and by what others put into what we eat. “Food Chemists”, and there are thousands of them, are employed to develop the long life food to fill supermarket shelves! That Doesn’t affect me, you say. Well, yes it does, but that is not the point. The point is that they are developing the food with the company’s bottom line in mind and not your health and nutritional interests. That’s correct, and those foods on the supermarket shelves are produced by the 4 or 5 Multi-National Food Companies, with only their “bottom line” in mind and not you or your nutrition. And I am not referring to the fast food industry here.
Fast Food Industry
OK, so let’s talk about the fast food industry now. How quick and easy is it to stop for the Fried chicken with French fries or the pizza, or the hamburgers at the deli around
the corner, on the way home from work? Or even easier, phone and have it delivered. No fuss, no mess and no health advantage either. We are studied by the fast food companies in detail. They tell us what we like and their menus are prepared to get us to buy more of it. The food is processed and or frozen to make it last longer before preparation. To make sure it looks and tastes great, preservatives, flavourings and colourants are all added and then there are the salts, fats and sugars to entice us even more. And for goodness sake….don’t forget to supersize your order for a mere $1.
Takeout and obesity in children is a global problem. The scourge of obesity has 
followed wherever the western fast food culture has established itself. Check out the photo of the Mcdonalds’ obese child from the Belfast telegraph from a few years ago.
The Kids who go to KFC for Food, eat two-thirds of their RDA of salt in one meal. 11 To 14-year-olds have half the recommended amount of sugar from Burger King and McDonald’s. Being overweight and obese is currently a global trend, likely as a result of the marketing of these “instant meals” that glorify them to the status of “Super Food”.
Hmm…so if it is not fast food then it’s good, right? No chance. This does not imply that all food is bad. What is being implied (supported by most of the modern wellness coaches out there) is that we must be aware of what we eat. The food we eat, and how it is raised, fed and sprayed, plays an important role in our Wellness, nutrition and health. There are longer shelf life treatments like radiation, ripening in the warehouse, refrigeration or freezing of the products that degrade our food, that we must also be aware of. This is all done to ensure a longer shelf life! NEWS FLASH… These processes do not lengthen our shelf life! On the contrary, They probably shorten it.
The meat from the feed lots (this includes Chicken farms, mutton farms and Fish
farms) contains hormones that increase the likelihood of ill health and disease for those that consume the end products.
Animals are almost manufactured and not farmed. Animals that used to take 4 years to reach maturity before being slaughtered for the market are now being raised in 2 years on hormones.
Are the hormones stopped long enough beforehand for the hormones to having left the animal before it is slaughtered? What! and let it lose condition and value. Better the public eats the meat and the hormones than the Food Companies lose on their “bottom line”.
Another problem with farmed food e.g. salmon is that they are grain fed. This increases the Omega 6. Fish do not manufacture Omega 3 but eat it in the wild. Being fed mainly grain, they do not build up omega 3 but Omega 6, which means we are getting an excess of Omega 6 and insufficient Omega 3.
End Of Doom & Gloom (Well Almost)
I really do need to stop all this doom and gloom right now but, there is an item of food that has a hugely negative effect on our nutrition. I truly need to extend the not-so-good news for another paragraph. It is really important.
Enemy #1 This will actually blow your mind, how we have been fooled by these food companies into believing whatever they say. They manipulate a plant (corn, beet or sugarcane) and remove all of its natural health-promoting fibres, vitamins and minerals, leaving it with only the ultra-fast digesting, addictive, nutritionally worthless food…. Sugar…the killer food! Pure crystalline carbohydrates are all that is left (16 
calories per level teaspoon) and they say it is healthy for you! Sugar turns to glucose in your bloodstream giving you instant energy ( commonly known as a sugar rush). Great if you are a sports fanatic or you like running all day. Not that I have anything against running, but a lot of us do not, for various reasons. So what happens when you don’t burn the energy? Your body says “great, I’ll store that for later” and so the expanding middle begins( see our Breakfast Page for more info).
So, What Do We Eat?
“So what do we eat,” you ask. Well, this is where the great news begins. There is an awesome amount of nutritional food out there but you just need to know what to look for. When you get it right… Oh yes, I said when you get it right, you will enjoy an ever more active, healthier lifestyle than you ever imagined was possible. There are also some awesome, scientifically formulated supplements that are manufactured from natural ingredients. But beware, there are a lot of very unhealthy “Super” supplements made from extremely unhealthy chemicals and other ingredients.
To try to mitigate the effects of the toxins that you are consuming every day, it is important to home in on foods that have anti-oxidant effects. There are tons of foods out there that will help you. When buying groceries, mmmm … Yes, that’s it, no more
take-out meals, look for free-range meat or organically grown foods. This will eliminate your hormones and toxins in processed foods and feedlot meats. Try to buy fresh and not processed foods. I say fresh reservedly as most of our fruits and vegetables (potatoes, onions, pumpkins etc) are months old before they arrive at the supermarket.
A rule of thumb evaluation method to evaluate the food, in general, is by its colour. Colourful is good. E.g., If you eat bread, eat whole-wheat brown bread, if you eat rice or pasta, they must be brown. The more colourful the vegetable or fruit, the better it is for you. No soda drinks as gas make gas and other problems. Drink isotonic drinks, plenty of water, Rooibos tea (a traditional South African tea that has great anti-oxidant properties), green tea and definitely no milk!
Do you know of any other mammal that drinks milk from another lactating species? A cow doesn’t even drink milk. What is it with mankind and their obsession with cows’ milk? Milk creates more problems than its worth and there are enough other foods to ensure sufficient calcium intake. 80% Of adults are lactose intolerant and they don’t even know it.
Old Fashioned Food
“But my Grand Parents eat lots of meat and fat etc and they live to a ripe old age”
you cry. Too True, the older generations eat a lot more of whatever they liked, but most of the food in the old days was fresh, dried or pickled. They did not have the processed food of today. If you want to live a long and healthy life, you need to pay more attention to what food you eat. A rule of thumb is, If it is White, Canned or Processed it is not good.
I hope you found this article interesting. If you have any comments, please leave them below, they will be greatly appreciated. If you have any questions, please leave them here.