Eating A Good Diet

While there is no single diet that is appropriate for everyone, the facts are these: disease can be both prevented and reversed by giving cells everything they need on a daily basis and by not giving them things they don't need. To do this, every calorie we consume must be loaded with nutrients and free of toxic contaminants. Unfortunately, modern diets consist mostly of foods that are deficient in nutrients and loaded with toxins.

In order to lead a healthy life, our bodies must be nourished and healthy at the cellular level. This means giving our cells all the raw materials they need every day. Multiple interactions between nutrients form the basis of all biological function—one or two nutrients don’t act alone. We need a precise mixture of at least 59 essential nutrients on a daily basis to maintain health. A chronic shortage of even one nutrient will result in a cascade of events impairing function and causing disease. When you stop to consider that most Americans are chronically deficient in calcium, zinc, folic acid, magnesium, chromium, essential fatty acids, and vitamins A, E, C, and B6, it’s no wonder disease-care costs are projected to double in the next 10 years, as we spend more time each year in hospitals.

Did you know that you can determine if your produce contains genetically-modified organisms (GMO) by looking at the sticker plastered on the fruit or vegetable? These little stickers contain different PLU (Price Look Up) codes that tell you whether the fruit was conventionally grown, organically grown, or genetically engineered.

The PLU code for conventionally grown fruit consists of four numbers; organically grown fruit is five numbers, prefaced by the number 9; and GMO fruit is five numbers but prefaced by the number 8. Of course the goal is to choose organic whenever possible, use conventional sparingly and completely avoid GMO. Here’s an example of the numbering system:

* A conventionally grown PLU would be 4446
* An organically grown PLU would be 94446
* And a genetically modified PLU would be 84446

Nutritional Fundamentals

The hunter-gatherers, our biological ancestors, did not eat spaghetti, nor did they microwave frozen vegetables. In our industrialized society, with its highly processed foods, it becomes very difficult to get all the essential nutrients we need for good health. Here are the nutritional fundamentals needed for good health:

Avoid processed food - Processing can include heating, freezing, refining and grinding foods. Essential nutrients required for cell construction and repair are lost during processing. This means avoiding packaged foods as well as products containing sugar, white flour, hydrogenated and processed oils, milk, and dairy products. These are low quality foods prevalent throughout American diets today. Low quality foods fill our bellies with empty calories while providing a multitude of toxic side effects. Don't eat them.

Eat fresh! - Fresh foods, in the form that nature provides them to us, are absolutely essential. Harvesting ripe food and eating it shortly thereafter is ideal. Each step away from this natural hunter/gatherer process decreases nutritional value. Foods picked green and then ripened, or processed and stored are misconceived as healthy foods.

Drink your water - Fluid deficiencies cause upsets in electrolyte balance, and can send body chemistry into chaos. Water aids in blood circulation and toxic elimination, directly affecting skin complexion and appearance. Water is an essential nutrient. Try to drink 8-8oz glasses per day. But stay away from unhealthy tap water. Even bottled water is not the best choice. Look into purchasing a reverse osmosis water filtration system.

Essential Fatty Acids (EFA's) are a must - Without a very specialized diet, obtaining adequate EFA's is impossible. As a result, up to 90% of the American population may be deficient in essential fatty acids. Fats are essential to cell structure, but they must be the right kinds of fats. Barleans Flaxseed Oil and Udo's Choice make excellent daily supplements.

Antioxidant chemicals are essential - A recent study in Free Radical Biological Medicine found that ozone in urban environments significantly reduces the amount of antioxidant vitamins in the epidermis, leading to measurable free radical skin damage. A study at the Anderson Cancer Center of the University of Texas found a 70% drop in skin cancer risk simply by taking a daily vitamin E dose of more than 100 I.U., and a 90% drop in skin cancer risk by taking 5000 I.U. of beta-carotene. Skin damage is prevalent in cities where we have constant exposure to toxins such air and water pollutants. Because these toxins are nearly unavoidable, it is important to get adequate amounts of antioxidants such as vitamins A, C, & E, as well as carotenes and selenium. To do this, eat a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables, accompanied by high quality supplements

Processed Foods

Food processing and refining are the largest single destroyers of the nutrient value of foods. Since more than half of the average person’s diet consists of processed foods, this is a serious impediment to obtaining the essential assortment of nutrients. We have even gone beyond processed foods to where we have created totally new artificial foods. Many of us no longer eat at home. we eat in cafeterias, restaurants, and fast-food chains where prepared and processed foods are the norm. Without intending to do so, the food processing industry has been responsible for an enormous reduction in the nutrient content of our foods. At the same time it has introduced thousands of chemical additives, such as preservatives, artificial colors, enhancers, and stabilizers, whose cumulative toxic effects are unknown, but are most likely substantial. More and more we are eating fabricated and imitation foods, so essentially we are eating more and more of less and less. This means that fewer nutrients and more toxins are reaching our cells.

Processing not only depletes the nutritional quality of the food, it can also change the molecular structure of food making it, in some cases, toxic. Consider milk: the pasteurization process changes the entire physicochemical state of the milk, deactivating key enzymes, reducing the bioavailability of its minerals, and even changing the structure of proteins. Pasteurized milk will kill a calf! No calf has survived more than eight weeks on pasteurized milk. Breakfast cereals made of puffed grains are another example. Whole grains are "puffed" by subjecting them to high heat and pressure. This process creates toxins that will kill laboratory animals after only two weeks on a puffed grain diet. Meat that is fried, grilled or barbecued forms powerful carcinogens called heterocyclic aromatic amines. Contributing to heart disease are chemicals called oxysterols. Damage to arteries is directly proportional to oxysterol concentration. Guess what? Processed foods which have been exposed to high heat and oxygen have lots of oxysterols in them. Processed foods like powdered egg yolk, powdered milk or gelatin all have oxysterols and these are added to hundreds of processed food products.

The World's Healthiest Foods

The George Mateljan Foundation has created an impressive on-line guide to 129 whole, natural, nutrient-rich foods that can serve as the basis of your “Healthy 4 Life Way of Eating”. Among other factors, this list uses the theory of nutrient density - a measure of the amount of nutrients a food contains in comparison to the number of calories.