In the first article of this series we talked about the
negative impact of 4 common food toxins: wheat, industrial seed oil, fructose and processed soy. In the second article we discussed
which fats, carbohydrates and proteins are the best source of fuel for your body. In this article we're going to see the importance of eating
real food.
"Real food" is:
* Whole, unprocessed and unrefined
* pasture-raised (a.k.a. grass-fed) and wild
* local, seasonal and organic
Let's look at each of these in turn.
Whole, processed and unrefined: if it comes in a bag or a box, don't eat it!The introduction of industrial food processing has without a doubt had the most detrimental effect on our health of any other factor in the last few hundred years - and possibly in the entire history of humankind.
Food refining has brought us all four of the food toxins destroying our health: white flour, white sugar & HFCS, industrial seed oils and processed soy products. It has also brought us chemical additives and preservatives, some with known negative effects and others with effects still unknown.
New research is revealing the harm these newfangled processed foods have on us almost every day. Just yesterday
a study was published demonstrating that emulsifiers used in packaged foods ranging from mayonnaise to bread to ice cream increase intestinal permeability ("leaky gut") and cause a chain reaction of inflammation and autoimmune disease.
Another study showed that
diet soda consumption increases your risk of stroke and causes kidney damage, possibly because of the phosphoric acid used as an acidifying agent to give colas their tangy flavor.
To avoid the harm caused by processed and refined foods, a good general rule is "
if it comes in a bag or a box, don't eat it."
Of course not all foods that come in bags and boxes are harmful, so this isn't meant to be taken literally. It's just a helpful guideline. Butter is often packaged in a box, and Trader Joe's (for some strange reason) packages vegetables in sealed plastic bags. That doesn't mean you shouldn't eat butter and vegetables.
But in general, if you follow this guideline, you'll avoid most common food toxins. And that's more than half the battle.