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Examples Of Just How Incredibly Bad The Average Diet Is These Days.

 
MemberMember
410
(@alternativista)

Posted : 02/28/2012 3:34 pm

Since few people have any idea.

 

I'll start with the amount of sugar people eat now days.

 

Supposedly, the average American today consumes over 70 grams per day. And I think that's lower than reality considering how much is in a soda that people might drink multiple times per day, on top of what they eat. I use to drink at least 2 per day. I thought it was just empty calories. I didn't know about the harm from elevated blood sugar, insulin and inflammation.

 

Also, I've read that the USDA recommends people limit their sugar intake to 40 grams per day. The CDC recommends you limit it to 25 grams per day.

 

There's 39 grams of sugar from HFCS in one can of Coke.

 

If we got our sugar only from fruits and vegetables like we are meant to, we'd consume more like 15 grams per day.

 

And the USDA is not looking out for your health! They are a much bigger advocate for the sugar and corn growers than they are a protector of your health. And the CDC is a member of our medical 'treat everything with a drug' establishment.

 

And then there's the added problem of most of that added sugar coming from High Fructose Corn Syrup. The switch to HFCS in commercial products is where our health issues really took off. Note that HFCS has only been around 1 generation. The sickly one.

 

And then there's the complete lack of understanding about what consuming any high glycemic meal, drink or snack does to you. It's not just about the calories. It sets all kinds of badness in motion. It screws up your hormones and causes subclinical inflammation that is the root cause of most of the diseases this sickly culture suffers from. Including acne. And it ages you.

 

Your cells cant take in more sugar if they are already full. And if you are sedentary, they are likely full. Every time you take in more sugar than your cells will take in, damage occurs. Both the insulin released and the sugar are harmful hardening tissues and clogging arteries, promoting inflammation, etc.

 

Excellent MDA article on what happens when you consume more sugar than you use for energy in your cells. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/diabetes/#axzz2WTeNM9gz

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MemberMember
0
(@phresh)

Posted : 02/28/2012 3:57 pm

So true. It's funny (but sad) seeing people my age (20s) having to go see nutritionists (who also don't know wtf they are talking about) because they have horrible cholesterol, blood pressure, insulin sensitivity, digestive issues etc. Where's the drive to do better for themselves? Live longer for their loved ones, do better for their kids?

 

Healthy food tastes better than anything else. It also makes you feel way better. All it takes is a little research and some motivation to cook for yourself. To me there's really no justifiable reason not to pursue that path aside from blunt laziness.

 

It does suck having people argue or attempt to attack you based on what their government or doctor told them is "healthy". Too much propaganda.

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MemberMember
410
(@alternativista)

Posted : 02/28/2012 4:23 pm

Yeah. And I can't convince my mother who has had 3 strokes in a little over a year despite not having any of the usual risk factors, that she doesn't eat as well as she thinks she does. She keeps saying she eats a lot of vegetables. And no she doesn't. Except on the days they make something like broccoli or cabbage soup for lunch, she has about a tablespoon of overcooked veggies at dinner. And what amounts to one to one and a half servings of fruit at breakfast.

 

And she eats a lot of processed foods never reading the labels as they buy the cheapest crap possible. Half her recipes involve crap-filled campbell's or store brand equivalent soup or the cheapest jar of alfredo sauce she can buy. The label on the jar of peanut butter she buys and eats a lot of goes something like: Peanuts, sugar, partially hydrogenated whatever fat, dextrose, HFCS, and various chemicals.

 

And of course, all animal products are the cheapest money can buy. Despite having local bison and elk producers.

 

And she's a cokaholic but believes the one or two per day she's cut back to in recent years is 'moderation.'

 

I don't even bother getting into avoiding plastics.

 

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Crap in processed foods.

 

Labels on things should only have a couple of ingredients and they should all be food, herbs, spices, oil (and not hydrogenated).

 

For example a nut butter label should say nuts, oil, salt.

 

A jarred tomato pasta sauce should say something like tomatoes, onions, garlic, basil, oil, spices.

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MemberMember
0
(@phresh)

Posted : 02/28/2012 4:48 pm

Most people stop short looking at labels. Example: They see "0g Trans fat" and think yay! But they miss the .4g listed as partially hydrogenated/shortening/fractioned or however else it is hidden. Your nut butter sandwich isn't all that healthy anymore, nor is your salad with the ranch dressing or your chicken sandwich with a pound of mayo.

 

I guess I should feel thankful my mother actually strives for organic/natural/fresh food, and often asks me for advice on cooking or whether or not such-and-such item is any good. I've also got my best bud off the dairy train.

 

It's baffling to me looking at ingredient labels on commercial products in the stores, when I can make the stuff myself with way less ingredients that do nothing but bad for the food. It'd save 'em money wouldn't it? Hahaha. One less manufacturing process, one less ingredient needed to buy in bulk and manage.

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MemberMember
410
(@alternativista)

Posted : 02/28/2012 6:25 pm

Here's a good one. For the first time in history, "lifestyle" diseases -- diabetes, heart disease of all sorts, and some cancers -- are killing more people than communicable diseases. And these are diseases caused by what you do to yourself, primarily your diet, lack of physical activity, and unnatural circadian cycle that results in poor sleep and low vitamin D.

 

 

And treating these entirely preventable illnesses costs more than one-seventh of the U.S. GDP. It stands to reason then that simply preventing these diseases could save the US health care system around one trillion dollars a year.
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MemberMember
2
(@maximus-decimus-merideous)

Posted : 02/28/2012 7:54 pm

What about this, I bought this power/protein bar thing at whole foods, because it said 0 grams of sugar/all organic. Yeah it has 0 grams of sugar...but 11 grams of sugar alcohol. wtf

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MemberMember
12
(@abg-fairy)

Posted : 02/28/2012 8:06 pm

Alternativista,

I hate hearing that your mother eats poorly--that must be frustrating for you. sad.png She has the best person to learn from! My mom and I have been into nutrition for years, but my dad didn't get excited about it until a few years ago when he dropped over 30 lbs. When I got into Dr. Fuhrman's plant-based diet and starting making foods for my parents, before we knew it, they had both slimmed way down. My mom had already starting making green smoothies for she and my dad about a year prior and were eating relatively healthful and mostly non-processed foods, but they were still doing too many animal products and dining out. When I was working on my certificate in plant-based nutrition, I was sharing a lot of what I was learning with my parents, which made an impact on my dad. What then really sealed it for my dad was when he decided to read Dr. Fuhrman's book, "Eat for Health." He's a science/logic type of guy, and the book really made sense to him. When he slimmed down even more and started exercising, he loved how he felt so much that he has stayed motivated to eat well. He just loved it when he got into a pair of jeans he wore over 20 years ago! ha! He was definitely a work in progress though--it did take a while.

 

My brother, on the other hand, seems to be a bit of a lost cause for now. I drop little seeds here and there though, and he jokingly pokes fun at my diet. He seems to think his body can take whatever he throws at it, and he loves to cook, which means lots of meat, butter and whatever else he thinks will taste great. What's even sadder is seeing the way he and his wife feed my precious nephew. :( He has definitely seen the change in my dad though, and I'm sure that has made an impact on him in some way....at least I hope. But anyhow, I do know what it's like to have family members that just won't listen.... confused.gif

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MemberMember
410
(@alternativista)

Posted : 02/28/2012 9:01 pm

some good articles

 

Big Food Must Go: Why We Need to Radically Change the Way We Eat http://www.alternet....ONl-Wp&rd=1&t=2

 

The Silent Time Bomb on Your Plate - When Will Your Moment of Truth Arrive? Monoculture vs polyculture. About the documentary 'Fresh' which you can see for free until Mar 3 at http://www.freshthemovie.com/ Article: http://articles.merc...20226_SNL_Art_1

 

Sugar May Be Bad, But This Sweetener is Far More Deadly

http://articles.merc...Metabolism.aspx which is a summary of this Grist article: http://grist.org/food/sweetness-and-blight/ And Endocrinologist Dr. Johnson's youTube presentation: Sugar, the bitter truth.

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MemberMember
5
(@chunkylard)

Posted : 02/28/2012 11:08 pm

Yeah. And I can't convince my mother who has had 3 strokes in a little over a year despite not having any of the usual risk factors, that she doesn't eat as well as she thinks she does. She keeps saying she eats a lot of vegetables. And no she doesn't. Except on the days they make something like broccoli or cabbage soup for lunch, she has about a tablespoon of overcooked veggies at dinner. And what amounts to one to one and a half servings of fruit at breakfast.

And she eats a lot of processed foods never reading the labels as they buy the cheapest crap possible. Half her recipes involve crap-filled campbell's or store brand equivalent soup or the cheapest jar of alfredo sauce she can buy. The label on the jar of peanut butter she buys and eats a lot of goes something like: Peanuts, sugar, partially hydrogenated whatever fat, dextrose, HFCS, and various chemicals.

And of course, all animal products are the cheapest money can buy. Despite having local bison and elk producers.

And she's a cokaholic but believes the one or two per day she's cut back to in recent years is 'moderation.'

I don't even bother getting into avoiding plastics.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crap in processed foods.

Labels on things should only have a couple of ingredients and they should all be food, herbs, spices, oil (and not hydrogenated).

For example a nut butter label should say nuts, oil, salt.

A jarred tomato pasta sauce should say something like tomatoes, onions, garlic, basil, oil, spices.

 

Same thing with my mom and arthritis. Father suffers from high cholesterol and is probably diabetic and doesn't know it. It's getting to that point where it's becoming debilitating for my parents and is no longer just a minor inconvenience. I'm trying to plant those seeds of "live healthier = no arthritis/bad cholesterol ratio." They're submitting to it gradually but it's like pulling teeth every step of the way.

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MemberMember
12
(@abg-fairy)

Posted : 02/28/2012 11:31 pm

One of the keys I think is getting people to realize how eating healthfully will greatly impact their quality of life for the better--and that it doesn't have to be difficult or tasteless. Once people fully realize the ease and joy in eating healthfully, they tend to stick with it. It's just not always easy to get people to that point--or for them to ever see it. Some people are very set in their ways. :(

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MemberMember
271
(@dejaclairevoyant)

Posted : 02/29/2012 4:04 pm

It's amazing. I was watching Mtv "true life" yesterday, the one about young people with diabetes. The lack of knowledge these kids had when it comes to diet and taking care of themselves was just baffling. One of the girls was pregnant, had type 2 diabetes (at age 20 or something) and they were warning her that she could possibly kill her baby if she didn't take care of herself. She was telling the nutritionist, "I know I've been eating really healthy--when I went to taco bell I get the chicken instead of the beef"

 

It was just like...wow.

 

All of the kids on the show were suffering so much and still eating total crap. One of them was in severe medical debt from all her medications and stuff she has to do. All that struggle, all that money, all that complaining... and never did it cross their mind to change their diet?

 

It's the same with a lot of other health problems. People have been saying "you are what you eat" for a long time now... and even still to this day on this forum we get people arguing that food doesn't effect anything.

 

It'll never be something I understand.

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MemberMember
9
(@tunnelvisionary)

Posted : 02/29/2012 4:59 pm

Yeah, the problem is definitely that what we're constantly told is healthy is actually not.

 

I still remember being really taken aback when I read that bread could cause acne. I had only heard of gluten once before in my life prior to that.

 

I've been guilty of thinking I was eating healthy too. I'd eat mostly bread...whole grain, you know. None of that unhealthy white bread tongue.png I'd have a few pieces of fruit in the evening. When I ate out, I figured that I could just use the fat, since I'm so skinny. I didn't know what the big deal behind carbs were.

 

Fast forward to now, I've gained a greater understanding of the foods I eat, and how they affect the body. Sadly enough, no one really gives a damn about the food they eat as long as they don't know it doesn't give them a major disease or it doesn't wreck their face. Otherwise, it doesn't matter, as long as the food tastes good.

 

Now, on top of reading about nutrition for the fun of it (I've really grown a liking to read about this stuff, and it helps extra because I'm studying to become a doctor), I pay attention to political, environmental, and economic issues dealing with our food. It's frustrating because far too few people care, yet at the same time, the people who do care are slowly, but surely, spreading awareness and making changes.

 

GMOs are heartbreaking to read about. Not just because questions of their safety are up in the air, but how blatantly us humans are capable of disregarding and irreversibly destroying the environment.

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MemberMember
2
(@bittersweet098)

Posted : 02/29/2012 5:04 pm

 

I have been watching documentaries on GMO and that is what scares me. I am in the process of doing more research into it, but I wonder how far will it go? Also, sooo many people have no clue about it. I didn't. Its not mandated to label it on packages, which also, makes it untraceable. Which is what they want, bc then they could hold some liability.

 

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MemberMember
9
(@tunnelvisionary)

Posted : 02/29/2012 5:25 pm

I am compelled to tell my friends about it. A lot of them are vegetarian or vegan, and think soy will deliver us from the evil of eating food products. Actually, they're not really like that, but I do wonder if they know that around 80% of the soybean crops in the US are GMOs. Plus, with the lack of labeling, you're pretty much guaranteed to be buying it.

 

They're talking about making corn that's resistant to Agent Orange, because weeds are becoming resistant to Roundup...

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_24592.cfm

 

That's just wrong on so many levels. The USDA or the FDA or whatever organization is pretending to be of any use to us is also trying to get the review time for new GMO crops shortened.

 

It seems like a conspiracy at first. I'm prone to believing that sort of thing, but I also do believe it's just human greed, incompetence, and ignorance. "Oh don't worry about it, just wash it with water! The Agent Orange will come right off!" -__-

 

I try to spread awareness when I can. If you over-do it, people stop listening. I don't let the injustices rule over my life though, I just make sure to go the extra mile to ensure my food is coming from a good...or less bad...source, lol. When the subject of food comes up though, no one shall be spared! Haha

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MemberMember
410
(@alternativista)

Posted : 02/29/2012 5:29 pm

One of the keys I think is getting people to realize how eating healthfully will greatly impact their quality of life for the better--and that it doesn't have to be difficult or tasteless. Once people fully realize the ease and joy in eating healthfully,

 

Yes, but they think they eat well. They, like most people, don't get how bad our food industry and diets have become.

My Grandmother is actually concerned about the days she doesn't get to have a potato. But not at all about all the days they don't eat a green vegetable. Or that she boils everything to death. And I pointed out all the crap in the jar of peanut butter and she said, 'yeah, they put that stuff in everything nowdays' like 'what are you going to do?'

One of the girls was pregnant, had type 2 diabetes (at age 20 or something) and they were warning her that she could possibly kill her baby if she didn't take care of herself.

 

Well, she's likely already ruined the future health of that baby. We had a poster here that said when his mom was pregnant with him, she developed gestational diabetes and was told to watch her diet. When she was pregnant with the next child a different doctor told her not to worry about it and eat whatever she wanted. And she blindly followed his advice. Guess which child had a high birthweight and now has trouble with weight and other health issues?

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MemberMember
410
(@alternativista)

Posted : 02/29/2012 5:46 pm

Vegetable Oil and Shortening. It isn't made from vegetables!!!!

 

It is made from grains and seeds which means they are high in omega 6 EFAs.

 

And they are unstable. They go rancid easily and turn to trans fats at high heat or with processing into margarine and shortening.

 

And it kills me that people use crisco in 'suet' recipes for birds. Isn't it bad enough that we destroy their habitat and pollute their environment? We have to feed them trans fats too?

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MemberMember
2
(@bittersweet098)

Posted : 02/29/2012 7:04 pm

XX

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MemberMember
9
(@tunnelvisionary)

Posted : 02/29/2012 7:33 pm

Vegetable Oil and Shortening. It isn't made from vegetables!!!!

 

Ugh, I think eating out would be much easier to do if every restaurant didn't use vegetable oil. It also goes rancid and causes damage really easily. Probably causes more heart disease if anything.

Maybe you can help me 'grasp' a concept Im having trouble understanding. Im confused about the Antibiotic Marker. How this plays into possible antibiotic resistance? Is this bc of the viruses/bacteria they insert to get the foreign DNA to stay? Then it can interact with each other unpredicatibly and then we eat it, ect? I got lost at this part and the more I read about it, the more I get confused.

 

Well from the 2 minutes I spent investigating this issue (had never read into it previously haha), it seems that the antibiotic marker is a gene that is inserted with the desired gene into a plant. Only a few thousand cells successfully take up the gene, and to isolate these cells from the rest, scientists treat the crop with antibiotic. The cells with the antibiotic resistance gene, which also carry the desired pesticide resistance gene or whatever, are the ones that survive with treatment from antibiotics.

I'm not sure of the implications of this on our own health, but I would definitely want extensive testing done to make sure that these foods are safe to consume beyond reasonable doubt.

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MemberMember
410
(@alternativista)

Posted : 02/29/2012 8:01 pm

Pollution has made fish unhealthy.

 

Mercury and other toxins in the fish from burning fossil fuels, especially coal power plants and chemicals from agriculture. Do your part by conserving energy and promoting renewable energy.

 

But that problem will go away fairly soon when the fish are all be gone from overfishing, acidification and dead zones.

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MemberMember
410
(@alternativista)

Posted : 03/01/2012 10:31 am

CAFO grain fed animals and how unhealthy they are.

-The antibiotics

-How they don't contain the right ratio of EFAs (for us or them). They are too high in inflammatory omega 6 fats and not the source of Omega 3s they should be.

-Don't contain nearly as much other beneficial fats and nutrients as pastured animals. Such as the CLA that helps us burn fat.

-They are higher in lectins. People are much less likely to be intolerant to meat from pastured animals such as lamb and goats that are rarely grain fed.

-Are developing more dangerous forms of diseases such as e coli, which should be harmless for most of us, and MRSA.

-How such farming practices are polluting the planet.

-Inhumane.

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MemberMember
410
(@alternativista)

Posted : 03/01/2012 10:55 am

Things they do to our supposedly fresh whole foods before they get around to processing them.

-Genetically modify them.

-Spray the crops with harmful pesticides and fertilizers.

-The various things they are allowed to coat fruit and vegetables with to preserve them as they ship them from thousands of miles away.

-Things they fumigate foods with.

-The reduction in diversity in our food supply due to Big Ag. We once ate a much bigger variety of foods. And in the Andes, where the potato originated, they grow hundreds of varieties. Not one or two. And growing just one or two is what led to the potato blight that caused famine in Ireland. Nowadays, of course, we just spray the blighted plants with chemicals...

 

Do something about it here: http://www.acne.org/...o-to-your-food/

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MemberMember
0
(@phresh)

Posted : 03/01/2012 9:18 pm

It sounds like we should all just live on a ranch together where everything is like a fairytale. Perfectly organic, natural, and acne-free!

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MemberMember
9
(@tunnelvisionary)

Posted : 03/01/2012 10:35 pm

Two of my friends got a cold, and they needed to get better fast, so they thought drinking green tea, taking multivitamins, and some Emergen-C would make them better. Honestly, I don't blame them for thinking that, but with the knowledge I know now, it's more of a testament to how far out our ideas of healthy are nowadays.

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MemberMember
271
(@dejaclairevoyant)

Posted : 03/02/2012 12:50 am

Oregano oil has helped me get over a cold fast. But funnily enough since I've been eating high raw and no grain I haven't been sick once.

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MemberMember
410
(@alternativista)

Posted : 03/02/2012 10:02 am

Oregano oil has helped me get over a cold fast. But funnily enough since I've been eating high raw and no grain I haven't been sick once.

 

Me neither. But I rarely got sick before either. I don't think anything can get through my sinuses/mucosa. I leave that part out though when talking about diet and how I never get sick. Like when people ask if I'm going to get a flu shot and I say no, I don't get the flu because I maintain my strong immune system.

Parents let their kids live on sugary cereal, mac n cheese, chicken tenders, PB&J sandwiches supplemented by frequent fast food meals.

This after giving them a terrible start in life with messed up gut flora, low omega 3s and gestational diabetes during pregnancy, then feeding them commercial baby foods.

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