Modern Man-Made Foods Have Us Overweight To Obese & Sick
We are not wired for the foods we eat!
2020 Weight crisis, obesity, increasing sickness - the need for healthy weight loss is urgent based on emerging facts of a growing sickness crisis in North America because biologically, we've changed little in the last 10,000 + years!
“Fat was a very precious commodity in the world that we emerged from …, where people lived on fruit and berries and wild game, and where there was almost no fat.
The choicest foods were the fatty flavoursome foods. … the human brain has been built to recognize fat, sugar and salt as part of the primeval survival mechanisms. Now we're handicapped, because we have fat everywhere, but we still have those brain mechanisms charging away.” - Prof. Philip James, Rowett Research Institute
Today, these 3 ingredients are so abundant and help to make food taste so good, that we are losing our ability to diversify taste or even appreciate the tastes of the more fundamental, yet essential foods that can nourish us.
Our core nutritional needs are essentially unchanged from ancient nomads
Most people of normal weight are unhealthy, although they often don’t know it. Western medicine tells us to accept headaches, stomach distress, body pain, fatigue, arthritis, and thousands of other ailments as inevitable symptoms that affect an aging population, yet this is not necessarily so.
The aches and pains of our body are signals that something is wrong. Science has vastly improved our standards of living, and that is good, but have we now begun to inflict damage on ourselves?
Our food has become an industrial product
"The transition of food to being an industrial product really has been a fundamental problem.
First, the actual processing has stripped away the nutritional value of the food. Most of the grains have been converted to starches.
We have sugar in concentrated form and many of the fats have been concentrated, and then worse of all, hydrogenated which creates trans fatty acids with very adverse effects on health.”
~ Dr. Walter Willet, Harvard School of Public Health
How has this happened to our food
- At the turn of the last century, restaurants were rare, today they are prevalent in every part our society, in fact we tend to spend an enormous amount of our disposable income on eating out – good news for restaurants!
- Up to the early 20th century, normal was home cooked meals and while our great grandparents did not have the diversity of choices we enjoy today they had the basics.
- We've lost substantial nutrient value in our foods. In fact, the nutrient value of their foods was substantially better than the distant cousins of today and farming methods still followed age old crop rotation principles to regenerate soil nutrients, naturally, over time.
How are modern foods affecting us
The unfortunate result is that most people are very slowly starving on an abundant supply of highly processed nutrient deficient food.
For example; the nutritive density of food is lowered by the preparations necessary for freezing and canning. There are 1000’s of different types of chemicals, additives, preservatives, colorings in our foods, which our body does not recognize as food – “We are not wired for these substances”
What happened to the nutrients in our fresh produce? Well, we as consumers play a big part here ... For example, many want picture-perfect produce.
The food industry focuses on developing food that ships well. Example: Tomatoes and lettuce are picked green and shipped in cold storage in order to appear picture perfect on the Store shelves. Unfortunately, peak nutrition is achieved by letting the fruit ripen on the vine.
Another significant factor is the condition of the soils our produce is grown in. For the most part, our farmers are highly mechanized chemical growers as the chemicals are essential to getting the plants to grow in the overused and nutrient depleted soil.
What Cost Do We Pay
These are numbing statistics and the trend has not abated as of 2020
Symptoms of a health epidemic in North America
- Overweight now affects over 60% of the adult population in North America - the trends is upwards
- Overweight now affects over 15% of adolescents - the trends is upwards
- Obesity now affects over 30% of the adult population in North America - the trends is upwards
- A third of adults whose weight had been normal in 1994/95 were overweight in 2002/2003 - the trends is upwards
- Type 2 Diabetes has become the fastest growing disease in North America - the trends is upwards
- Once an mid-life adult affliction, the fastest growing segment of Type 2 Diabetes are teens 15-19 years of age
- 1 in 3 children today will become diabetic in their lifetime
- OMA - The evidence that current behavior patterns of children and youth may accelerate life-style related disease processes, resulting in premature morbidity and mortality is compelling.
The long range impact, if not addressed, has staggering implications, both for the quality of life of Canadians and Americans as well as economic costs associated with treatment.
Obesity frequently becomes a lifelong issue and because treatment of childhood obesity is only variably successful, obesity prevention is the key. Children and adolescents must therefore learn to eat and enjoy healthy foods in moderate amounts and to exercise regularly as part of an ongoing lifestyle.
What Does It All Mean?
- the urgency for nutritious foods
- the importance of exercise and hydration
- that Weight and Diabetes are simply two of many symptoms of an unhealthy society
- the responsibility and a role each of us has in determining and influencing our personal
- our very wellness, and that of our children.
Parting fact on weight and obesity
Canadians as a whole lag behind their American counterparts, but for how long?
The crisis is worsening across North America
Want to look at the issue in more depth, check out our free article that we've simply called "Tired of being sick and tired?" which looks are the symptoms and effects of being overweight.
This page will remain a work in progress...the story is far from over...
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Crisis, What Weight Crisis?
The need for healthy weight loss is urgent based on emerging facts of a growing sickness crisis in North America. Whatever your choice may be, we can help you avoid this growing sickness crisis, get you feeling good, and looking great.
(C) Site Copyright 1994-2020
Diane McLaren
CCIr, ROHP, RNCP
As one of Canada's top
Holistic Natural Health Practitioners (a
Registered Holistic Nutritionist,
Master Herbalist &
Clinically Certified Iridologist), Diane and her team of practitioners have helped thousands of people successfully address a wide range of problems naturally from her wellness centres in Mississauga, Ontario (Canada).