Nutrition Menubar
"Guidelines for making good nutritional choices”
"Live to Eat or Eat to Live?"
Guidelines for making good nutritional choices
"Let food be your medicine" - Hippocrates
Diet and lifestyle changes can prevent 70-90% of certain
common degenerative diseases. Among U.S. adults, more than 90%
of type 2 diabetes, 80% of coronary artery disease (CAD), 70% of stroke, and 70%
of colon cancer are potentially preventable by a combination of not smoking or
being overweight, having some moderate physical activity and a healthy diet, and moderating alcohol consumption.
Willett et al, 2006
The nutrition pyramid above is more healthful than the usually
promoted pyramid, which has grains at its base.
These are the time-tested recommendations
when choosing your food and drink:
Good food:
• Natural, unprocessed
and organic (chemical/GMO-free).
"Organic" - What does that
mean?
• Grown in your native
environment. i.e. locally grown and seasonal.
• Try to eat at least
1/3 of your food raw; Raw food contains
enzymes , which are destroyed by
heat. Some nutrients are made more bioavailable by heating, some are destroyed.
How to cook to preserve nutrients .
Healthy fats (It is of utmost
importance that we obtain a sufficiency of the
anti-inflammatory
omega-3 fats).
In addition to
saturated fat (includes grass-fed animal fats),
you also need monounsaturated fats and
polyunsaturated fats (We usually get plenty of
omega-6 fat, but are desperately
short-changing dietary Omega-3
fat).
Eliminate expeller-pressed, typical grocery store polyunsaturated vegetable oils (e.g. soybean,
corn, canola, cottonseed oils) and margarine - they are toxic, even more so when
used in high-heat cooking. This is a complicated
topic, but to help you understand which fats to eat and why:
Food Fats and Oils EFAs - Fats of Life
Some healthy recipes
Importance of body's balanced presence of
Omega-3 and Omega-6 fats -Today's "HOLY GRAIL" of
Health
Antioxidants
• Vitamins.
Water-soluble B and C, and fat-soluble A, D, E and K vitamins
•
Phytonutrients .
Carotenoids (e.g. beta-carotene in carrots, lutein, lycopene in tomatoes) and polyphenols
(e.g. resveratrol in red wine, anthocyanins in sweet cherries and epicatechins in
green tea / chocolate, quercetin in red onion)
• Other antioxidants.
E.g.
CoQ10 , alpha
lipoic acid
Antioxidants
Probiotics
More than 2/3 of your immune system is on your gut and depends on a healthy
presence of microflora.
Probiotics
Foods containing high-energy
electrons
Sufficient mineral intake.
Of the 92 naturally occurring elements on earth, we need
40 of them of which most are the major and trace minerals. Some minerals are no
longer present in sufficeint amounts in today's typical diet, including possibly
magnesium, sulfur, selenium, zinc, manganese, which may need to be supplemented.
Foods containing high-energy
electrons
Minerals
Minerals
Fiber
Fiber
UNpasteurized
dairy products (if you can find them) and
fermented foods
UNpasteurized
dairy products
Protein
A crucial body-building nutrient.
Comprised
of 23 amino acids, of which 15 are called
essential amino acids , meaning
they must be consumed in our diet because our body can't make them
Carbohydrates
Glucose
Required to make
cellular energy. The body can obtain glucose from carbohydrates, proteins and fats
Nutritional Supplements
Unfortunately, in today's world, numerous
factors have caused a
depletion of available nutrients in our food supply .
Therefore,
unless you have food sources from reliable nutrition-minded food producers, or are
responsibly growing your own food or keeping animals and birds for meat and eggs,
it has become necessary to include some daily supplements to ensure needed nutrients:
Daily Nutritional Supplement
Chart
Some foods / drinks should be moderated, minimized or avoided altogether
Consume little or no added sugar.
Except such as a small amount of honey, maple syrup or molasses or
use alternative natural low/no caloric sweeteners such as erythritol or stevia;
avoid unhealthy artificial sweeteners , such
as Nutrasweet™ and Splenda™.
Sweeteners
Antinutrients .
Particularly lectins and phytate in IMPROPERLY prepared WHOLE grains, seeds, nuts
and legumes. Lectins can cause a "leaky gut" / inlflammation leading to IBS, allergies,
asthma, arthritis, anemia, obesity, +++ ; Phytate can cause malabsorption of
magnesium, calcium,
iron, copper ,
and zinc;
Antinutrients
Other substances to avoid / minimize
Monosodium
glutamate (MSG)
GMOs
Caffeine
Alcohol
A note on bible references mentioned in this website
"Teacher, which is the greatest
commandment in the Law? 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the law and the
Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matthew 22:36-40
This author
believes that Christ's sacrifice on the cross abolished the need for us to obey
the O.T. Mosaic Book of the Law (noting however, that it is still
important to God that we keep his 10 commandments [which are essentially - love God / love
people] - as written with His own finger on stone tablets --- (1) to
authenticate our faith and (2) because Jesus told us to do so). However, by studying the O.T.
Book of the Law (written by Moses under God's direction), it is
soon realized that those laws relating to our health were not just a list of arbitrary
instructions, but rather were intended as a blessing to protect and enhance spiritual,
emotional, social and physical health. As such, a person would be wise to re-evaluate those instructions.
Bible References to Health
What do we actually eat?
It is a shocking fact that ~90% of the money spent
on food in the U.S. is spent on processed foods
( Fast Food
Nation by Eric Schlosser, 2002, Penguin Books).
Most of us eat and drink only for
enjoyment and sustenance, giving little attentionto whether we are obtaining needed
nutrients in the correct balance to maintain health. Although America is the richest
country in the world, it takes the "prize" for having the
highest
obesity rate (30% of the population). With some effort, however, it is possible
to make healthy choices that also fulfill our desire for pleasure when filling our
tummies.
According to 2011 USDA data, the average American eats almost 1 ton of food per year (includes food bought, served but not eaten)
- our average 2700 calories/day includes our annual consumption of 23# pizza, 24# ice cream, 53 gals. soda, and 24# artificial sweeteners. We do eat 415# vegetables, but many of those pounds are french fries and starchy corn.
Photo credit: Daily Infographic
References Willett WC, Koplan JP, Nugent R, et al. Prevention of
Chronic Disease by Means of Diet and Lifestyle Changes. In: Jamison DT, Breman
JG, Measham AR, et al., editors. Disease Control Priorities in Developing
Countries. 2nd edition. Washington (DC): The International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank; 2006. Chapter 44. Available
from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK11795/ Co-published by Oxford
University Press, New York.