Eat More Real Food

That’s the advice of HHS and the rationale behind turning the old Food Pyramid upside down.

Of course, eat more real food is a good idea. Everyone already knows this. But how do you do it? And what’s “real food”?

Eat More Whole Foods

Real food is not processed or minimally processed. Real food doesn’t have the nutrition cooked or baked out of it. It doesn’t come in boxes or foil bags. If it’s packaged, it’s packaged in a banana peel or orange peel. By the way, have you ever seen an orange wrapped in cellophane for sale? I have. Bizarre. It’s already wrapped in nice orange packaging.

Real food doesn’t include things like margarine or canola oil. Both are highly processed. Or hydrogenated oils which are used in making most snack foods.

You’d like to think something like orange juice is real food. But, there’s no orange juice in nature. That blast of sugar you get in fruit juice that has no fiber of the orange to slow down the sugar blast to your bloodstream…. That’s not good for your pancreas and the rest of your cells. Coffee, orange juice and toast for breakfast is a recipe for an early afternoon energy crash. Which usually sends that person on a quest for more caffeine and sugar from the vending machines at work.

How can you identify real food from processed? Think about where it came from. Is it ground up like flour? That’s processed. That step would be done by your teeth in chewing, but making flour out of grains starts the digestion process before you put it in your mouth. And a step further if it’s heated, baked or otherwise because the heat “digests” the cellulose bonds and frees up the sugar.

So, breads, chips, crackers, cookies, pretzels, donuts, Pop Tarts…. They’re all processed and hard on your glucose management.

I don’t think we need to talk about sodas. Sugar and carbonation (low pH acid) are also not easy on your blood sugar. Don’t get started on Nutrasweet (Diet Coke/Pepsi/Mountain Dew or whatever) thinking it’s better than sugar. It’s a neurotoxin. Pilots are warned against using it because it has been linked to blackouts while flying. And, some research is showing that even though it’s not calories, your body “thinks” it’s calories and your pancreas reacts with insulin anyway. Author theorized it’s the taste that triggers the insulin. Insulin isn’t good. You want low insulin levels. You don’t want to keep pumping that stuff out of your pancreas to keep trying to hold your blood sugar down after too many Krispy Kremes.

Healthy foods are generally refrigerated too. Because, they’re still fresh and have nutrient value… Refrigeration slows the decay. If it rots, it means it’s good for you… before it rots. So, like those French fries between your seat in your car from the drive thru last year? Ya, they’re not food either. They won’t rot. They’ll still be there when you sell your car.

It's not the top of the list but consider how your protein was raised as well. You’ve heard ‘You are what you eat’? It’s really, “You are what you eat, ate”. In other words, whatever they fed the cow, is incorporated into your hamburger. If they feed the cow sugar (corn), you’re going to have inflammatory, omega 6 fats in your burger. You might as well eat the sugar yourself and enjoy the ice cream rather than the cow getting all the ice cream and you eat the cow.

The upside down aspect of the Food Pyramid simply recommends less sugar in the form of grains. That was formerly recommended rather than fats. But, we know now that the fats, health fats, keep you healthy and off Ozempic.

Its main recommendation is for more fresh veggies and fruits. Also, it no longer makes red meat the devil. And of course, less processed grains.

These are long understood principles of health. They’re really not new. What IS new, is the government is finally starting to share this with the population.

Vibrant Life Center

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