Food Friend and Foe

Fried foods especially, contain chemicals that are a pervasive and real problem. Processed foods today are what you find the most. In fact, you have to go out of your way to avoid processed foods.

Even if you are preparing a meal at home and you want to exclude these unwanted substances, Good Luck, but you are certainly to be applauded for trying.

Lets say you decide to fry some fish. The cooking oil that you use is likely to contain Propyl Gallate. This preservative is used to prevent fats in oils from spoiling and BHA and BHT to prevent the oil from turning rancid.

While this is good for shelf life of the oil, its not so good for you. These same substances are used in a number of foods that you might not even suspect.

Getting back to oil for a minute, In the old days, heavy weight, was used to mash the oil from plants, maintaining the nutrients but the shelf life of the oil was short. That's how vegetable oil got its name, squeezing the oil from vegetables. Today however, Oil is extracted from vegetables using heat and or chemicals such as hexane.
The result is that nutritional benefits are virtually destroyed, by heat especially. At certain temperatures, heat oxidizes and neutralizes many of the plant's nutrients, and also makes the oil rancid.

Now that the oil is rancid, more chemicals and high heat is used to bleach and deodorize the oil to remove the color and erase any rancid smell and taste. After all the chemical processing, can we still call it vegetable oil? It's really a poor synthesis of the real thing.

Some of these oils are marketed as healthy, such as Soybean and Canola. The truth is, oil that is processed in this manner is detrimental to health over a period of time. Then there is this confusion over whether Partially Hydrogenated Oils is somehow healthier. Healthier Than What?

There is hope however, because there are oils that are healthy, you just need to know what they are.
Some oils to research are:

Olive oil
Coconut Oil
Sesame Seed Oil

Processed food fills the aisles of your favorite grocery store. With all that attractive packaging there is plenty to catch your eye.
The boring part is to turn the package over and try to read and understand the ingredients list. You have to read the ingredients with the understanding that everything might not even be included on the ingredient list. That's because food manufacturers are not required to put everything on the list.
Are there additives designed to stimulate or induce cravings? What if ingredients in Product A and ingredients in Product B combine to cause neurological problems - what caused the problem? As you can see, consumers are at a huge disadvantage.

The FDA has a list of around 3,000 additives, but the number in existence is much much higher. There are currently more than 14,000 laboratory-made chemicals added to our foods to improve quality, shelf life, flavor, and appearance.

Now I would like to introduce a legalistic term "Plausible Deniability". The reason why this term is so important is because Its impossible many times to pin down with certainty what caused a specific medical condition or disease, when so many variables are in the mix. That is the case with processed food.

What I am clear on is the effects on the liver, kidneys, intestines, and the brain, that chemicals are having, and the obesity problems that are increasing at an alarming rate, which we know leads to all manner of degenerative diseases.

Many shoppers just glaze over when confronted with trying to understand these labels and shop wisely, especially when the fastest and cheapest is what we really should avoid.

There are communities where fresh vegetables and fruit are not available, and yet, fast food restaurants are within walking distance. It has quickly become the new norm, and that's not good for public health.

One fact is undeniable, in addition to the well known diseases, i.e. (Cancer, Diabetes, Heart Disease, Arthritis, Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, etc.) - There is an ever growing list of Neurological diseases that seem to be more recent (ADD, ADHD, Autism ect.). When contemplating how to adjust your diet to prevent disease - Everything you come in contact with matters!.

Strawberries are no doubt a healthy fruit. In fact the antioxidant activity in strawberries is only slightly less than blackberries, cranberries, and raspberries. This is great news for health conscientious people wanting to get the maximum amount of nutrients from what they consume.

If you are fortunate enough to live close to where strawberries are grown, you can get them at their freshest and most nutritious. If you don't live close to where they are grown you can still get them but, they might have been grown half way around the world.

Why does that matter? Because they were not grown locally, they were likely harvested early and sprayed with preservatives to preserve the fresh appearance. There is however a bigger difference between locally grown fruit and fruit shipped in to your supermarket. The nutrients in the fruits themselves.

You see, picking strawberries early means that nature is deprived of it's opportunity to give that fruit every last smidgen of nutrition it deserves. So in depriving the fruit you are also deprived of all the nutrition you deserve. Also, strawberries grown locally to be sold locally has no requirement for preservatives, so you avoid the extra chemicals.

So for instance, strawberries from South America are great, i'm sure, but because they have to be shipped to the U.S., I'm forced to take the nutritional hit and endure the extra chemicals to preserve them.

So while it is convenient to have strawberries all year round, they are probably not grown locally. The law requires that fruit imported be clearly labeled so consumers are aware. You should also know that washing fruit with water may not rid them of herbicides and pesticides.

Don't forget that food imported to the U.S. has to endure a process to prevent bugs and other contaminants from entering the country. There are basically three methods employed

mechanical (such as cold treatment or hot water or chemical dips)
fumigation
irradiation

Let us not discount all the travel that fruits like strawberries make within the U.S. once packaged. All the preservative measures still have to be taken so that when you shop for strawberries any time of year, you find some.

So as I am out and about, and see someone on the side of the road selling strawberries, I make sure to take advantage of the opportunity to get some fresh strawberries and enjoy the when in season, in my area.

One final point, this lens is about strawberries but the broader point is that this rationale for preferring locally grown fresh foods and the concerns over the safety of such, apply to all fruits and vegetables.

Bon Appetit!

There are millions of people all over the world who suffer from a variety of ailments from the very serious to the nagging bouts with gas and bloating. Many people take antacids for relief and keep on going. For the more serious however, the first thing doctors look at are germs, viruses, bacteria, pathogens and the like. That makes sense. Probably the next thing they look at is allergens.

Allergens is where we want to focus. For example, I love seafood but my sister almost died once when she ate seafood. She subsequently found that she could not tolerate any kind of shellfish. So is shellfish a poison? Of course not, unless you are someone who can't eat it.

There are other examples, such as lactose intolerance from dairy products, peanut allergies, gluten intolerance and others. These foods have the potential to do great harm to some individuals. At the same time many enjoy these foods with no apparent effect.

Lectins are a class of proteins that are present in most all foods including wheat, rye, barley malt and oats, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, all beans including soy and peanut, all milk products, cheese, yogurt, and eggs. In plants, Lectins make up part of a plant's immune system to protect them from invaders. But what's good for the plant's immune system may turn out to be bad for yours.

The reason I make this personal is because it can vary greatly from person to person. But if you have digestion and gut problems, lectins probably figure into the equation somehow. Sufferers of Celiac's Disease know they have gluten sensitives, but many other problems less pronounced could also be caused by gluten.

The real issue here seems to be hypersensitivity to some foods in some people. Gluten is getting a lot of press lately. In fact you see more and more foods labeled gluten free. The reason for the hypersensitivity to gluten could be any of the following:

Genetics - Your immune system may not be able to handle the onslaught of lectin attack found in the American diet

Bacteria or viruses - Certain bacteria and viruses can damage your cells- causing them react to lectin antibody-antigens

Prescription drugs - Using NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) or other inflammation-reducing drugs can increase gut permeability allowing lectins to enter your blood stream, causing immune dysfunction and inflammation.

Frequent exposure - Regular exposure to lectins in foods and the environment can build up until your body can no longer handle the lectin overload.

Hidden gluten - You may be on a gluten-free diet, but you can still come in contact with gluten found in medicines, cosmetics, vitamins, and nutritional supplements.

What flies under the radar is the situation where the intolerence to certain foods are undetectable, but still cause problems that are difficult to diagnose.

Researchers now know that gluten found in flours and breads-including white bread-can trigger inflammation throughout your entire body and cause a host of neurodegenerative illnesses, irritable bowels and autoimmune problems!

For more information and possible treatment click here