Food. It’s Not What it Used to Be

Much has changed over the years. We’ve gone from horses to cars, typewriters
 to computers. Many people don’t realize that food has changed as well. Unlike typewriters and computers, which look different, our foods look very much the
same as they did decades and centuries ago. Even though food looks the same, its composition can be very different. For example, grass-fed beef has a different nutrient profile than corn-fed beef. How food is raised makes a difference in its nutritional value and changes the benefit to your body when you eat it.

We’ve changed how food is raised or grown

We have changed what livestock eat and inject them with hormones and antibiotics. When animals eat foods that are not natural to them, it changes the nutritional makeup of their tissues. For example, grass-fed beef has far more omega fatty acids than does corn-
fed beef. In addition, when animals are given growth hormones, there are residues that are present in the end product you are eating, whether it’s meat or milk. Then to make it worse, the animals get sick very easily when not eating a natural diet. They are injected with antibiotics so that they survive until they are ready for slaughter. Does this sound like a healthy animal you’d like to eat? Animals that are fed properly don’t need antibiotics and will have great nutritional value as they were designed to have.

We change food after it’s grown through processing

We also change food after it’s grown through various methods of food processing. Some food processing removes nutrients in order to increase shelf life. Typically, fatty acids
are removed because they become rancid quickly when exposed to air. This type of processing is typically done to grains which naturally contain omega fatty acids in the germ. Not only is nutrition removed, food is also bleached and deodorized. Does this sound like a healthy food you’d like to be eating?

We’ve changed the genetic makeup

Not only have we removed nutrition and changed food after it’s been grown and harvested, scientists have long been genetically modifying food (GMO) before it’s planted and grown. As if God didn’t design our food correctly in the first place, we think we can do it better. In the case of genetic modification, the changes are often for convenience in growing. For example, making crops immune to certain herbicides or pesticides so they won’t die when the chemical is applied. Some seeds are actually registered and classified as a pesticide with the FDA because they contain insect repellent chemicals within the seed itself. Do you really want to eat a food registered as a pesticide!

We’ve changed food, so what?

We’ve seen how food has been changed, now let’s look at how that affects our bodies. When nutrition isn’t present because of how an animal or plant is raised, or if nutrients have been processed out of the food, this limits the nutrition you are getting. Nutritional deficiency is the prime reason our bodies aren’t preventing and healing disease as they were meant to.

For example, one of the main nutrients we are not getting in the quantity we need is omega fatty acids. This nutrient is lacking in meat because of how it’s raised and it’s being processed out of grain based foods. When we don’t get the omega 6 and 3 fatty acids we need, our health can suffer in many ways. Omega fats are responsible for healthy cellular structure, brain health and vascular health. Just this one important nutrient missing from foods has changed the health of our country immensely. Consider the minerals and other nutrients we are missing and it’s no wonder we are in such poor health. The important thing to remember is that our food quality is not what it used to be, and we need to take a couple of steps to ensure we are properly nourishing our bodies.

Have you noticed how many people have developed food allergies just in the last two decades? In the 1970s and 1980s food allergies were few and far between. How could this
change so quickly? Allergies are simply inflammation from your body rejecting
a substance within. Would it make sense that your body would reject foreign proteins introduced from GMO foods or hormone and pesticide residues? Oftentimes, people with allergies can switch to organic foods not containing these substances and they are not allergic to the organic counterpart.

Dangers of food modification

Gluten allergies are a good example of what happens when we mess with food’s design. Wheat today has been modified to the point that it produces far more gluten than ever before. Many people can’t tolerate the gluten levels and have to avoid it all together. GMOs also introduce foreign proteins that many people are allergic to. Peanuts, corn and soy are examples.

Digestive diseases are another example of the danger of
modifying food. More and more foods are being pasteurized
to kill bacteria. Foods were created with bacteria for a
reason - our stomachs need it. We eat lots of dead food
today because processing kills the live cultures we need to have a healthy digestive system. Milk is a great example of this. The healthy bacteria in raw milk is killed through pasteurization, and we are left with a beverage that is much less nutritious.

Food quality is extremely important. Virtually all major diseases can be prevented, improved or eliminated if we put clean, whole foods into our bodies. Eating food as it was designed works with your body, not against it. Unfortunately, our food system is so broken it’s very difficult, inconvenient and expensive to eat a completely clean diet. Many people simply can’t afford it and, sadly, the ones who can often don’t want the inconvenience of finding and preparing good food. This is why Healthy for Life U exists. We offer simple and convenient strategies for you to get the nutrition you need!

How to determine good quality food

Now that we’ve established shortcomings in commonly available food, let’s look at how to find good quality food.

In general, you want to find foods that have not been changed by people (often called whole foods). These would be fruits, vegetables, meats, most dairy, eggs, nuts and unprocessed freshly-ground grains.

When it comes to animal protein, you want to find meats, poultry and fish that came from an environment that allowed them to eat what is natural to their diet and where they didn’t receive hormones or antibiotics. You’ve probably heard of terms like free range, grass-fed or organic. These are the terms used to describe such an environment. Grass-fed usually refers to beef. Free range or cage-free refers to poultry. These terms are sometimes used loosely, so use caution and read labels or ask the producer for more information. If a meat is certified organic that means it wasn’t raised with antibiotics or hormones, but it doesn’t mean it was grass-fed. This means it doesn’t have the bad stuff in it, but it isn’t going to be as nutritious as grass-fed meats are.

The majority of fruits and vegetables are grown with pesticide sprays, and many are also grown using herbicides as well. The easiest way to avoid this is to buy organic produce or buy from a local farmer who can tell you how the food is grown.

When you are determining what foods to eat, simply ask what has been added, removed or modified.

If the answer is nothing, the food should be good; the more that’s been changed, the worse the food.

Can you believe this?

The average American household used to spend an average of 15-17% of their household income on food and only 3-5% on healthcare. Currently the average American spends only 5-8% of their household income on food and 15-20% on healthcare. Creating processed “cheap” food has actually proved to be more costly when you consider the healthcare cost, not to mention the lower quality of life.

Benefits of whole food

Eating whole foods will make a huge difference in your health and how you feel. When your body begins to get the full spectrum of nutrients it needs, you will experience more energy, a stronger immune system (less sickness), stronger nails, softer hair and you will just plain feel better!

Is clean eating possible in the real world?

The short answer is yes. It is entirely possible to eat clean foods and provide your body with the nutrients it needs. In reality, most people won’t keep up with it long term. People are all about convenience and the additional effort and expense needed to obtain good quality foods and prepare them is often more than most people will keep up with long-term. What we recommend is a hybrid solution that is easy to do long-term. The hybrid solution is to buy organic for products that contain higher amounts of fat and conventional for products that contain low or no fat. The reason for this is that typically hormone residues or other toxins are stored in the fat cells of animals. Using organic products for foods that are higher in fat will assure you that the fat is clean and doesn’t contain the toxins you want to avoid. Examples of foods to buy organically are: milk, cheese, butter and non-lean meat such as rib-eye, bacon or 60-80% lean ground beef. Some of the conventional products you buy will be lacking in nutritional value, but much less expensive and easier to find. In order to make up for the missing nutrients, we also recommend supplementing the missing minerals and omega oils missing from foods.

Check out Healthy for Life omega 3-6-9 and Mineral Supplement if you are looking for a top quality nutrition program. http://www.healthyforlifeusa.com/products/packages/

Everyone is Mineral Deficient

There are many topics about nutrition that are controversial, but mineral deficiency isn’t one of them. It’s widely known and accepted that our farming soils are not rich in required minerals that our bodies need and while synthetic fertilizers help plants to grow, they don’t provide for human nutrition.

In 1936, the US Senate was presented with the results of a scientific study it had commissioned on the mineral content of our food. The results showed that many health problems could be attributed to the fact that our soil no longer provided plants with minerals that are essential to human nutrition and ultimately our health. This was reaffirmed this year by another congressional hearing discussing what to do about our still deficient soils.

Here is part of what was said in the Senate Document 264 of the 74th Congress, 2nd Session 1936:

“… 99 percent of the American people are deficient in … minerals, and … a marked deficiency in any one of the more important minerals actually results in disease.”

“Do you know that most of us today are suffering from certain dangerous diet deficiencies which cannot be remedied until the depleted soils from which our foods come are brought into proper mineral balance? The alarming fact is that foods–fruits and vegetables and grains–now being raised on millions of acres of land that no longer contains enough of certain needed minerals, are starving us–no matter how much of them we eat!”

“We know that vitamins are complex chemical substances which are indispensable to nutrition, and that each of them is important for the normal function of some special structure of the body. Disorder and disease result from any vitamin deficiency. It is not commonly realized, however, that vitamins control the body’s appropriation of minerals, and that in the absence of minerals they have no function to perform. Lacking vitamins, the system can make some use of minerals, but lacking minerals, vitamins are useless.”

“Laboratory tests prove that the fruits, vegetables, grains, eggs and even the milk and meats of today are not what they were a few generations ago. No man of today can eat enough fruits and vegetables to supply his system with the mineral salts he requires for perfect health….”

“It is bad news to learn from our leading authorities that 99 percent of the American people are deficient in these minerals, and that a marked deficiency in any one of the more important minerals actually results in disease. Any upset of the balance, any considerable lack of one or another element, however microscopic the body requirement may be, and we sicken, suffer, shorten our lives.”

Remember, this was in 1936, nothing has been done to remedy this problem. Instead we’ve ignored it and take medication that allows us to ignore the symptoms of the disease we have from poor nutrition. In addition to deficiency, modern farming practices add herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, insecticides, and genetic modification which alters proteins in the plant. Many of these proteins your body rejects, which we call allergies. Maybe we should refer to these modern foods as foodicides, meaning foods that will kill you, rather than nourish J

Minerals are so important and are used in so many ways in your body, mineral deficiency could literally be the cause or at least contribute to almost any health problem you have. Here are a few problems/symptoms that mineral deficiency is known to lead to: slow healing cuts, muscle cramps, low energy, foot odor, white spots on fingernails, yeast/fungal infections, hypertension, skin and hair problems, diarrhea, low immune system, vision problems, stunted growth, hormone imbalance, etc. The list could literally go on and on, but you get the idea.

So everyone is deficient in minerals. Now what? There are three solutions for individuals to remedy their deficiency.

Solution one. You can eat all organic foods grown on land that has not been farmed continuously for decades, as well as eating meats and protein from grass-fed and free-range animals. This option is the most difficult and expensive to do. I think it will become less expensive over time as more people demand better quality food. In our fast paced society, most families don't have the time it takes to source these foods and maintain supply. For now this option would be very difficult and unaffordable for most families.

Solution two. You can supplement minerals back into your body. With this solution you need to be careful as to which supplement you choose. It is important to use a mineral supplement that is chelated, meaning the mineral is bonded to a protein. The protein, being a charged particle, will attract itself to your cells, bringing the mineral with it. Minerals by themselves have no mechanism to get to the cell. If you get a mineral supplement that is not chelated it’s no different than eating mineral rich dirt, it will do nothing for you.

Solution three. The best solution is to supplement chelated minerals AND eat more foods that are local or organic. Since the “cides” are used in growing plant foods and hormones and antibiotics are used in animal foods, getting better quality foods that don’t included these negatives is a better idea. Since minerals are so important, even with organic or local foods you don’t really know the soil content from where they are grown, its best to be safe and supplement the minerals your body needs. You could think of it as the cheapest insurance policy you’ll ever buy!

It’s important to note that mineral deficiency can take years to re-mineralize, so if you’re not noticing anything, keep going, you need them and they are helping, even if you don’t notice outwardly.

You can find quality chelated minerals at http://www.healthyforlifeusa.com/products/minerals/

Fish oil or Plant Oil?

We know that our bodies need fat, Fat is vital for healthy eyes, heart, liver, kidneys, cells, hormones, immune system and more. Fats can come from various meats, poultry, fish, nuts and seeds. Often in our diet we aren't getting the healthy fats we need. Specifically, we often aren't getting enough omega 3 and omega 6. The reason for this is pretty simple, it's due to the way our food is raised and processed. Animals are often given feed with grains rather than being allow to eat grass from a pasture. Processing damages the oils rendering them useless and sometimes damaging to your body.

This is why supplementing omega 3 and omega 6 is a good idea, to insure you are getting the fats that your body requires. So the next questions is what product to supplement? There are literally thousands of omega supplements on the market. Currently the focus is largely on omega 3, specifically EPA and DHA. These are the omega 3 derivatives that are found in fish oil. Much attention is given to these derivatives, mainly because the fish oil industry has spent tons of money commissioning research to be done on the benefits of these fats. It is true that we need these derivatives, however, the body doesn't need a lot of them. Studies show that we need 5% or less of the omegas in derivative form, and 95% in the parent form.

So what is the parent form? Parent omega 3 and parent omega 6 are technically Alpha Linoleic Acid (ALA) and Linoleic Acid (LA). These are the most basic forms of the omega series fats. Your body can take these fats and break them down into related substances, also called derivatives. It's important to note that your body can not use a derivative fat and create the parent fat. Since your body needs around 95% parent fats, it doesn't make sense to focus on supplementing a derivative oil, like EPA and DHA, as the primary supplement. It's ok if EPA and DHA are added to the supplement, but many of the fish oil supplements are primarily EPA and DHA. The way to tell is to simply read the ingredient list. If the main ingredients are fish oil, then the supplement is primarily derivatives.

Another reason to avoid fish oil is quality. The best fish aren't going to be ground up and pressed for supplement oil, they are sent to markets and restaurants to be sold for top dollar. Fish used for supplements are lower quality fish or farmed raised fish. Krill is also commonly used for supplement oil. When is the last time you can recall humans eating krill? The tiny little creatures are usually eaten by whales. When choosing supplements, remember to keep in mind step 4 in the Healthy for Life U
plan. That is to use common sense and compare it to the past before all of the processing and mass production. Why aren't we getting the nutrient today, and how would we have gotten it before? We already discussed why we aren't getting it, and where people used to get it would have been from meats or seeds. Now you might ask, what about people groups who live by the ocean and eat lots of fish. Eating fish is great, when you get the oil from the fish you are getting in it a good proportion. Fish oil supplements are mega-dosing on the derivatives, giving you much more than you would get even eating fish three times per day. Those people are also eating other foods to get the parent omegas.

Plant based omega supplements are the best option and contain parent oils. When offered as organic, they are the most pure, quality oils available. Flax oil is the primary plant oil containing omega 3. Evening primrose, sunflower, safflower (linoleic varieties), pumpkin and borage are the primary seeds that contain omega 6 fats. A few of these have omega 3 in them also, but it's minimal compared to the omega 6. The best supplements for omega oils will have between 2 to 1 and 3 to 1 for the ratio between omega 6 and 3. Your body needs much more omega 6 than three.

Some will say we get plenty of omega 6 from our diets, the fact of the matter is that it's mostly processed and adulterated, meaning our body can't use it. Also the American Heart Association encouraged the use of omega 6 in the article Omega-6 Fatty Acids and Risk for Cardiovascular Disease. They even warned against the use of omega 3 without omega 6. This, however, is off the topic for this post, we'll discuss that in another post, for today we'll just leave it at that :)

For a great organic omega product formulated in the correct ratio, visit http://www.healthyforlifeusa.com/products/omega/

Can food really be the problem and the solution?

Yes, food is our problem and our solution! What we eat and where it comes from are the cause of virtually all of the major diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression and cancer. The simple explanation is that we are simply not feeding our bodies good food - the types of food we need to fight disease and have strong immune systems.  The good news is that since food is often the problem, it is also often the solution! Simply learn how to determine good food from bad and your body will do the rest.

Cellular biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton believes that 98% of disease is preventable and reversible and less than 2% is genetic. Much of the focus in our medical system is on treating symptoms and making people comfortable. Just because a symptom goes away, that doesn’t mean your problem has gone away. We need to shift our mindset to ask what the cause of our problems is and look for long term solutions. That’s when real healing begins! The Healthy for Life U is all about long term success. Very few things we teach will give you over night success; it’s all about the big picture and long term results.

So what are the foods that help your body heal?

The best foods are minimally processed and as close to their original state as possible. These foods are often referred to as whole foods. These foods would include fresh vegetables, fruits and various kinds of meat, poultry and fish. For fruits and vegetables, fresh and local are best. The progression of the next best options would be organic, conventional then frozen. For meats grass-fed or free range is best.

In addition to eating whole foods, it is extremely important to supplement key minerals and omega fatty acids. Minerals are simply depleted from the soils and most people aren't getting enough of the essential minerals the body needs. Iron, magnesium, zinc, selenium, copper, manganese, chromium and boron are the most important minerals to supplement. Fatty acids are also often missing from your diet and are so essential to the immune system and cardiovascular health, everyone should be supplementing omega 3 and 6. It's important to note, seeds oils are a far better source of omega 3 and 6 than fish oil. Seeds oils are more complete and are more pure than fish oil.

By eating quality food and supplementing minerals and omegas, your body will be getting the nutrition it needs and will be able to build an immune system that is capable of healing and preventing disease. You will be amazed at how good you feel and how you can overcome any health issues you may be dealing with. You will notice less sickness and more energy!

The new U blog

Welcome to the U blog. This blog is intended to be a useful tool to help keep you focused, motivated and excited about your health! If you have any topics you'd like to see covered, let us know we'd love to hear from you. If you'd like to learn more about Healthy for Life U our website is www.healthyforlifeu.com.