Chemistry

We were designed perfectly.  Our bodies are an example of perfect science -- a study in chemistry.  For each molecule of a food, there is a receptor in our bodies ready, waiting and needing it.  Each and every component in a real food can be used by our bodies:  to build, repair, transport, transfer, deliver, unload and store.  A real whole food is made up of what is called nutrients - substances our bodies need to carry out the abovementioned functions.  These substances are macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins and fats) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), and they all have a chemical structure that our bodies need to survive.

When you eat a whole food, each and every part of that food is used by your body for an essential function - every part.  When you eat food that is made up of man-made chemicals, there are no receptors in your body to receive and process these things.  Your body will accept what it recognizes, then in most cases store what it doesn't recognize in your adipose tissue (fat cells).  Think about it:  if you have stored up toxins in your excess fat stores, how good can that really be for your health?  Answer:  Not good.  Not good at all.  These toxins can and will leach out causing illness, chronic disease and disruption of your body's other essential functions.  Fascinatingly, when your body doesn't get enough of what it does need, it starts dipping into its inferior, substandard reserves (think Oreos, Doritos, "Uncrustables", etc.) to build its cells -- and if your body is desperate enough, it will end up using this toxic stuff that has been lurking in your adipose tissue to rebuild your cells with!  I don't know about you, but I really don't want the walls of my arteries to be made out of Cheetos...

When you eat foods that your body can use completely, you are optimizing your body's health and integrity.  Conversely, when you eat garbage in the form of man-made chemicals, you are contributing to your body's demise and sacrificing its integrity, plain and simple.  There is no receptor in your body waiting to receive some sodium stearoyl lactylate to get busy with.

Build your body and your health with species specific food:  real food, not chemicals.  It's not an old wives tale; you really are what you eat.

Thanks for reading,
Judith

"Planting your nutrition seed for the day."

Eat to live - live to eat.  As a culture we really live to eat, even though historically it has always been the other way around.

It usually comes as a shock when we find out how little we are really designed to eat on a day to day basis. Upon this shocking revelation, it is then hammered home how we have evolved to eat increasingly more and more - so much so that on a daily basis most people consume just about double (if not more than double) the amount of calories their bodies require.  It's no mystery what the end result of this type of evolution is:  excess weight.

It's also no mystery that portion sizes have just gotten way outta control, and our health bears the brunt of this phenomenon in terms of skyrocketing obesity, diabetes and heart disease.  Some may remember how years ago those old fashioned portion charts were commonly used as reference guides to dole out servings:  a fist sized portion of pasta, a deck-of-cards sized portion of meat.  In today's world just try to get away with serving someone a meager portion like that!  Your phone will probably stop ringing, friends will mysteriously fade away...

And so, let's take a look at a what a typical caloric requirement is and how much food it actually translates into.

Meet Steve.  Steve is a 40 year old averaged sized man, 5'10", medium build, 175 lbs. and exercises three times a week.  Based strictly "on the numbers" (age and height), Steve ought to weigh anywhere between 130 lbs. and 175 lbs.  This wide range takes into account his skeletal frame size:  a smaller boned man will weigh less than a larger framed man.  In this case, Steve's weight is teetering at the upper end of the spectrum because he is of medium build, but nevertheless he is in the healthy range.

Okay, so again, based strictly on numbers, the caloric need for a man of Steve's size is 2250 to 2350 calories per day, which we will set at 2250.  Remember, calories are a unit of measurement to determine the amount of energy that is in a food as well as how much energy (units) a food is going to give your body.  Our bodies need energy to run, just as a car needs gas to run, so this number - 2250 - is the amount of energy that Steve's body needs to run:  to breathe, pump blood, remove waste, digest, stand up, walk, talk...you get the picture.  2250 sounds like a big enough number, right?  Ahh...this is where the truth steps in.

Here is Steve's food log:

Pretty humbling picture, right?  Here's why:  we've already established that Steve exercises three times a week, yet even with a steady diet similar to what is shown above, he is still over his allotted calories and he is still hovering at the upper end of his weight range.  Upon first glance, it looks as if he really hasn't eaten all that much.  Plus we're left to assume that he's only drinking water - imagine if a glass of juice and a soda were added!  Get the picture?  Then to add insult to injury, his portion sizes would be considered less-than-average if not chintzy today.

Here's kind-of what he had for dinner:  

Here's what we are used to having for dinner:

Wow...

The very first step in modifying your eating habits is always always always reducing your portion size.  And now you can see why.  If Steve had eaten the second dish, he would have more-than-doubled just his dinner calories.  Again, we're just talking dinner here.

Subliminally, you can also see how those  "extra" calories like those that come from sodas and beer, not to mention "blind nibbling" like the four forkfulls of macaroni salad he ate - all count, and all have the potential to make the pounds creep up on you, leaving you scratching your head and saying "But I hardly eat anything!"

Thanks for reading,
Judith

"Planting your nutrition seed for the day."

*Here's a link to a pocket-sized portion guide:  portion-size-pocket-guide

Your Physical Health Affects Your Emotions and Your Spirit Too...

Good health is not just about the body.  To be completely healthy, you have physical health, mental health/health of the mind,  and spiritual health.  Our bodies are not compartmentalized; if one area is compromised, the other areas compensate and therefore become imbalanced and compromised as well.  Nurture one area, and your efforts naturally bleed over into the other areas.  When we choose to feed our bodies good food, the nutients in that food not only feed our physiological needs, but also "feed" our mental state by giving our brain the nutrients it needs, which then stimulates the desire to continue the overall sense of well being achieved by nurturing your soul --be it by meditation, "quiet time", going for a walk or listening to music.

Conversely, feeding your body garbage like any of the myriad packaged chemical concoctions  that currently make up most of our diets perpetuates ill health all around.  You figure, the digestive process begins with your eyes:  as soon as your eyes spot what it knows will be entering your mouth, your body begins "prepping" for the process of digestion and readying itself to get nourished with nutrients.  However, when these chemicals actually hit your digestive track and bloodstream, you trick your body with these substances it doesn't recognize as nutrients (because they're not) nor does it know what to do with them.  Really, the only area of your body that has benefitted from this "scam" is your happy center:  your dopamine and seratonin receptors -- and this is very, very short lived -- because your body is now angry.  It quickly realizes that no nutrition has been received, and now must overcompensate to work with these foreign invaders who are interfering with your body doing its job.  

The end result is that your physical health gets compromised, which in turn affects your mental health.  And when your mental health is compromised, your spirit cannot thrive.  Think about when you eat something that is chock full of nutrition --and how you not only feel great after you eat it (if you don't feel great after you eat something, this is your first indicator something is not right), but you have also fed your "happy center" correctly, boosting your sense of well being.  

Yogurt Wars

by Judith Daniel Hall

I got a beef with yogurt.  Somehow, somewhere, yogurt got branded as a “health food”.  (Notwithstanding, I also  have a problem with the term “health food”, aside from the fact that it’s so 1970s).  My earliest memories of yogurt was, yes, back in the 1970s, and yogurt only appeared in our fridge if Mom was “on a diet.”  Now, to me as a kid, this delicious looking-cool-packaged-delight in no way resembled a “diet-food”.  And as it was with all diet foods, it was totally off-limits during any other time of the year:  strictly relegated to the diet food category, for “diets” only.  “How could this be?” I wondered, innocently.  I mean, it looked like pudding! My Mom made it look so delectable when she ate this sacred fare:  she closed her eyes and savored each and every spoonful (she may have hummed a little too.  Bear with me, it was a long time ago).  Seriously!  A “diet-food”?  I was totally confused.

I still am. Forty years later I am still confused:  is it still a “diet food”?  No, and it never was.  Forty years ago we didn’t have a need to deem foods healthy or not.  It was a given.  Most things were whole foods, and although it was during the advent of Rice-A-Roni, Hamburger Helper and mashed potatoes out of a box,  common sense told you that these (few things) were the exception.  Your markets sold dry goods (in the middle of the store) and perishables (around the perimeter of the store).  Yogurt lived in the dairy case, and I believe, it was to us then what Slim Fast is now:  a “healthier” meal substitute, aka something you could eat as a meal if you were on a “diet”.  

So fast forward forty years and like the game ‘Telephone’, things have gotten a little...um...blurred, confused and out-of-control.  The only thing today’s yogurt has in common with yesterday’s yogurt is that it can still be found in the dairy case.  In 1970, it was a pretty good choice, although it still contained sugar so that alone takes the “healthy” status away; it came from grass fed cows not given hormones and antibiotics; it was cultured by traditional methods; the added fruit and sugar were not genetically engineered.  So not what it is today.  You see today, commercial yogurt is, plain and simple, a treat.  It’s dessert.  And not a good one, if you ask me.  Basically, ounce for ounce, you might as well eat cheesecake or pudding--you’d be doing yourself a favor by avoiding the ridiculous additives and chemicals that are what today’s yogurt-clone is comprised of.  

Here’s my favorite:  Activia’s Cherry Lowfat Yogurt:

Let’s take a look at this ingredient list, shall we?

Cultured grade A reduced fat milk is a euphemism for dry milk dissolved in water. Dry milk is produced by spray-drying skim milk at extremely high temperatures using hot gas! This process causes oxidation of the remaining lipids, which, in turn, are implicated in atherosclerosis and cancers.  The advantage, of course, is financial gain:  higher yield for less $$.

Sugar.  Number two in the ingredient list!  As a refresher, everything listed in an ingredient list is by weight first, meaning “what is this made mostly of?:  first, cultured milk, second, sugar...Commercially used sugar is: 1) bleached to its white color and 2) genetically modified from sugar beets (not sugarcane anymore, folks!).

Cherries, Water.  Okay.

Fructose.  The sweetest of sugars.  It’s still sugar, but just more damaging because it is a single molecule (monosaccharide) and goes directly into your bloodstream.  In addition to the not-sweet-enough-second-ingredient-sugar.

Modified Food Starch.  Ahh…Where should I begin…This concoction is widely used in so many packaged foods.  Basically it is enhanced “starch”, derived from corn, potato or tapioca (if derived from wheat it must state so on the label because it is an allergen), however this starch has been “altered” to speed up thickening, prolong thickening and increase stability and shelf life.

Milk Protein Concentrate.  My favorite.  Basically this Frankensteinian product is made from “fractionated” milk:  the milk is separated into several components in our food-factory-labs, each component altered/enhanced, one of its components being the dry milk product named above.  Each component is enhanced to “perform” in a better way than natures’ way.  Sheesh.  So, these MPC’s are used in this case for stabilization and emulsification; other uses include spray whipped cream, enhanced browning in bread products, and making products more heat stable.

Natural Flavor.  This will be an entirely different subject further down the road.  Just know that if it were all that “natural”, wouldn’t the label just say what the flavor was?  Of special note, the term “natural flavor” falls under the umbrella of MSG…

Modified Corn Starch.  In addition to the Modified Food Starch above.  I guess they needed to add some GMO starch to the mix as well.  Hey, why not?

Kosher Gelatin.  Gelatin (thickener) from a non-animal source.

Agar Agar.  Another plant-based (seaweed) thickener.

Carrageenan.  And another thickener, however this one helps with viscosity.

Carmine (E 120) is a bright red artificial color derived from either aluminum salt or harvested from scale insects—you pick!  It is also used to make red paint (of course-duh!)

Calcium Lactate is a preservative.  It is also used as a spray on melons to prolong their “salability”.

Malic acid (E 296) is a known mouth irritant and cavities-causing agent. It gives Activia its tartness.

Xanthan Gum.  And yet another thickener…

Seriously?  18 ingredients!!  This so-called “healthy food” has 18 ingredients.  You can begin to understand why I have such a beef with this one.  And please, pay no attention to the claim of “active” cultures or “live” cultures.   Probiotics live in our intestines.  In order to re-populate them orally, live bacteria need to survive the harsh environment of our stomachs, which were designed by nature to kill (sterilize) offenders, ie.  bacteria.  So even if you are ingesting active or live cultures, they will be killed in your stomach.  Sorry to be a buzzkill.  Prebiotics are best taken as a supplement in capsule form (designed to withstand stomach secretions)  or ones formulated with something called a Prebiotic:  saccharides that increase the bioavailability of the probiotic (enhances its effectiveness).  

Don’t fool yourselves and be mislead.  If you want to eat yogurt eat yogurt, but give your body the respect it deserves by giving it good yogurt, like Stonyfield.  Here’s what Stonyfield’s Whole Milk Vanilla Bean Yogurt has to offer:

  

One cup (8 oz.) gives you a whopping 390mg of potassium, a third of your daily requirement of calcium, 8 grams of protein,  and a quarter of your daily requirement of riboflavin (B2) and phosphorus (mineral).  Nutritionally, it gets a thumbs up, but the sugar content is a bit high, which is why I wouldn’t recommend something like this as a meal replacement:  it doesn’t have enough fiber to slow its effect on your insulin levels (although it does have a good amount of protein), and it is comprised in large part from sugar (remember, second ingredient).  It is better suited as a very good “dessert” choice instead.

So, if you are looking for an alternative choice under 250 calories--believe me, there are so many nutrient dense choices that will not only leave you feeling satisfied, but your body will be satisfied because it is getting nutrients--the one thing it really wants and needs--not sugar.  

To name a few:  for just 260 calories, you can have an actual lunch of turkey rolls:  a large romaine lettuce leaf with 2 oz of turkey and a thin slice of provolone--and you can have two of these! For only 210 calories, you can have ¾ -cup of cooked oatmeal with ½ teaspoon of honey and ½ cup of blueberries with cinnamon and nutmeg -- or 10 olives with 1 ½ oz of swiss cheese; for 225 calories how about 8 crackers topped with slices of avocado; for 260 calories you can have half of a large banana (4”) with 2 tablespoons of almond butter.  I know I know, it just doesn’t seem like much food, but trust me, it’s not supposed to be much food.  Perspective:  good food that our bodies understand and can use: to nourish our bodies, not our desires.  

Save the treats for dessert.  Have a yogurt.

-Judith Daniel Hall, 2013