The other day I was walking through a book store and I couldn’t help but notice how many book titles say “The (fill in the blank) Diet”. You name it, it was there. Just fill in the blank with Soup, blood type, Keto, 20/20, Atkins, Vegan, Dash, Fast, Super metabolism, this is just to name a few. There must be at least a hundred of these books. What I did not see was the Human diet.
Diet: the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.
Over hundreds of thousands of years, we humans have evolved eating a diet. Which by the way does not look at all like what we are eating today. Did you know that of all the species of animals on this planet right now Humans are the sickest and suffer from more diseases than any other? Including obesity. Followed very closely by our pets and than the animals we keep in zoo’s. Have you ever seen an animal living in the wild eating its natural diet that was obese? That is because it is eating its natural diet. It eats only what it has to eat to survive. Animals eat seasonally. In other words, they eat what is available to them at certain times of the year. They do not eat the same amounts or the same stuff all year. Many species know when fall and winter is coming to pack on some extra pounds and change their fur. No one has to tell them. It is a natural response. Than when spring comes along, the food supply changes and pounds begin to drop off again to get ready for hunting season. Hunting, running, catching and killing your food takes an animal that is fast nimble and at the correct body weight. If an animal cannot keep up with this natural cycle, it will die. It is natural selection. The weakest die. The stronger move on to reproduce and keep a strong, healthy reproductive species going. That’s how we have made it this far. Just one example of how bad things have become is the rates of infertility around the world and the numbers in the US alone are pretty scary. In July of 2017, the NY Times reported that according to the National Center for Health Statistics, in 2016, the fertility rate in the United States was the lowest it has ever been. The present overall fertility rate puts the United States population below replacement level. At this point, we all know someone who has had difficulties getting pregnant and has spent thousands of dollars in fertility treatments.
Where did we go so wrong? We let food manufacturers, advertisers and governments, Yes, our government is in on it, teach us how to eat. Its no wonder most humans are so sick. We are even making the animals we care for sick. We were taught to eat by advertisers and someone wanting to make money our eating habits. By the way, they changed our eating habits so they can make more money. In the late 60’s, sugar producers commissioned 2 Harvard professors to write an article claiming that fat was the cause of obesity and disease. Back then the researchers did not have to include information on who was funding the study. Shortly after, the New England Journal of Medicine published this article. Now sugar producers had what they needed to put sugar in everything they could. Food manufactures jumped in with all kinds of low fat food and replaced the fat with something much more addicting and harmful to humans, Sugar. The advertising companies did not want to get left out of this boom either. So they jumped in with all kinds of clever advertising tricks based on human emotions to get us to buy food that would eventually lead to the highest rates of obesity, Diabetes, Heart Disease, Cancer and yes Infertility. In the 1960’s only 1 in 7 Americans were obese. Now its 1 in 3.
We have done a pretty good job in this county at least informing people of the danger of cigarettes. Smoking rates are down. Where we have failed miserably is in letting people know that obesity is 7 times more likely to be the cause of an early death then cigarettes. I know we are all going to die sometime, but what are those last 10-15 years, if not longer. going to be like? Suffering with pain, high blood pressure, diabetes, peripheral neuropathy, macular degeneration that leads to blindness, Kidney disease and the list goes on. Things have become so bad, we have had to change the name of Diabetes from Child Onset and Adult Onset Diabetes to Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes. In 1980, there were almost no cases of children with Adult Onset Diabetes (what is now called Type 2). In 2000, nearly 1 in 10 children were pre-diabetic or had full blown Diabetes so the name had to be changed to Type 2 because it was no longer just adults being affected. In 2008, that number was up to 1 out of every 4 teenagers diagnosed to be pre-diabetic or have Type 2 Diabetes. It’s not bad enough that the adults are making themselves sick but we are making the next generation even sicker. If this continues, how high do you think the infertility rates will be when the next generation is due to reproduce? What are we passing on? If you would like to see a movie on just how bad the Childhood obesity has become you need to watch the documentary Fed Up.
Its starts with you. Its starts with me. If you want to live a life that is long, full of energy and vitality, you have to take certain steps. If you want to help start correcting the problems with our food sources and leave the next generation better off not worse off then ours, start somewhere, anywhere, just start. As long as you are still breathing and have a heart beat it is not to late.
Here are some action steps you can start with today. Some may be easy for you but hard for others. Start with the easy ones and make them part of your lifestyle. Remember, this is not a diet so you can fit into that bathing suit in the summer, this is for your life and the health and well being of your off spring.
One easy step you can take right now that could have a huge impact is to forward this article, share it, and talk about it. We all have to do our part in getting the word out that our current food supply is making us sick and killing us.
Stop giving your money to the big food manufactures. Find local, organic, sustainable producers and support them.
Read every label on products before you put them in your grocery cart. If it has added sugar in any of its 61 names , put it back down. Change your mind set on how you look at the company that is trying to and has been fooling you into buying there food so they can make a profit while getting you addicted to something that will cause you to be sick and die an early death. If you have Children and you buy them any one of those kids cereals, please stop. Read the ingredients before you put that next box in your grocery cart. For the love of your child, please stop.
Reduce all simple carbohydrates like potato’s and bread.
Increase good fats like MCT oil (Medium Chain Triglycerides), avocados, almonds, walnuts and even butter but only from grass fed cows.
Get some exercise. Depending where you are right now in your fitness level that may mean just walking up and down the block, or getting back to the gym. Just do something active today.
Look for educational resources to help you move in the right direction. If you have not seen the documentary Food Inc. . it is a must watch. Put that on your list of things to do. After you have seen Food Inc. , Watch Fed Up. You will be shocked at how bad our food sources are and how much our government knows and even protects the food manufactors. Read my post on Chronic Inflammatory Disease.
Living healthy and strong is a decision, it is a way of life. It is not luck or a temporary diet. Sign up now to know when new posts are up.