We learn about healthy eating from people who don’t know, or corporations who want us to buy their food or drugs. Here are five untruths:
- Fried Food Is Bad For You
- Animal Foods Are a Good Source of Protein
- Dairy Producs Are a Good Source of Calcium
- Tomatoes, Eggplant, Peppers, Potatoes & Spinach Are Good For You
- Eating Many Small Meals Per Day Is As Good as Three Square Meals
1. Fried Food Is Bad For You
We need oil in our diet. The problem comes when we eat too much, or old, hydrogenated, pesticide-laden, or saturated (from animal foods) oils. Restaurants typically use cheap oil, such as canola oil, and use it over and over, driving up the harmful effects. When we eat meat, eggs and dairy with harmful oils, we are putting a great strain on our cardiovascular and digestive systems.
Light sautéeing of plant-based foods in high quality vegetable oil such as sesame, olive, sunflower and safflower oils can be an every day thing for most healthy people. The keys are moderation, proper cooking methods, and having a pickle afterwards. Deep-frying of vegetables or tofu in healthy oils can be a weekly event for healthy people as well, and offer a nice way to put people in a great mood.
2. Animal Foods Are a Good Source of Protein
There are almost no people in the U.S. who suffer from protein deficiency. The topic is only relevant in places like Africa, where people do not get enough calories because of famine, war or extreme poverty.
Meat, eggs and diary have too much protein, and are extremely detrimental to your health, especially when eaten in high proportion to plant-based foods. If you continue to get more than 15% of your protein from animal foods, you are at risk for all kinds of health problems, from sheared blood vessels, to strokes, to cancers of many types.
An excellent source of proof on this is The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell, and there are dozens of studies on this .
Grains are very high in healthy protein, as are many beans and some vegetables. The human body is able to transform proteins as well.
3. Dairy Producs Are a Good Source of Calcium
This is a situation where lobbyists are destroying our health in order to serve their client, the dairy council. If you have good feelings about milk mustaches, perhaps you need to take a closer look.
Dairy foods are horrible for the environment, and cause a lot of suffering for cows. In addition, they are among the most harmful foods we can eat. The calcium in dairy is high, but due to high fat and protein, the calcium cannot be readily absorbed by our bodies, and therefore causes more harm than good.
Sadly, dairy foods are also very often tainted with iodine (used in the milking process to treat cows with mastitis, can cause thyroid problems), pesticides (dairy cows are often smeared with pesticides after their tails are cut off, they have been linked to cancer and allergic reactions), and dangerous bacteria such as listeria, e-coli and salmonella.
Ironically, there is a lot of calcium in chick peas, other beans, and especially in greens such as kale, collard greens, etc.
Again, very few people are suffering from not enough calcium. Osteoporosis, which looks to be a symptom of calcium deficiency, is an entirely different situation. When our blood becomes acidic, from eating too much animal foods, night-shade vegetables, sugar, alcohol, etc., it uses calcium leached from the bones of the pelvis, legs, etc. as a buffer. Doctors and nutritionists do not have this information in many cases, because it is fairly new.
4. Tomatoes, Eggplant, Peppers, Potatoes & Spinach Are Good For You
As was just mentioned, acid-forming foods cause a lot of health problems, including osteoporosis.
Certain vegetables, known as nightshades, have a high acid content. When eaten raw, or eaten in large amounts in winter, then can weaken your health. Unfortunately, Americans eat these nightshades in large quantities, especially potatoes and tomatoes.
When eaten in small amounts, in warmer weather, and properly cooked, salted etc., these foods can be eaten without too much damage.
Eating Many Small Meals Per Day Is As Good as Three Square Meals
Popular as a result of the skyrocketing rate of diabetes, eating many meals per day promotes obesity, digestive problems, and is an inefficient way to live.
The problem comes from eating foods with a high glycemic index, especially white flour, fruit juice, milk and sugar. For the most part, we have trained our doctors to give us advice and medications that appease us, but come back to haunt us, and diet and diabetes are no exceptions.
If you are interested in learning how to work on your specific health problems, please call me at 508.333.4153, or buy my eBook.