Our diets are killing us

Now, I'm not one of those "organic foods" proponents, far from it. However, when it comes to some amazing recent revelations about our processed food diets and their assumed to be harmless additives, I can understand the obesity problem. It's not just a lack of exercise and overeating. It looks like the scale is greatly tilted toward obesity simply by the alteration of intestinal bacteria by the foods we eat. I didn't read the full studies, so I don't know if they stated whether the intestinal bacteria types and proportions negatively altered will naturally restore themselves once the altering factor is removed from the diet. It might take "poop pills":

https://www.livescience.com/40158-poop-transplant-pill-cdiff-infections.html

Anyway, go to a large supermarket and look for low carb processed foods. The selection is minimal. Then, try to find them without the emulsifiers mentioned below.

Widely used food additives promotes colitis, obesity and metabolic syndrome, shows study of emulsifiers
Date: February 25, 2015
Source: Georgia State University
Summary: Emulsifiers, which are added to most processed foods to aid texture and extend shelf life, can alter the gut microbiota composition and localization to induce intestinal inflammation that promotes the development of inflammatory bowel disease and metabolic syndrome, new research shows. (The polysorbate 80 and carboxymethylcellulsose emulsifiers were involved in the study)

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150225132105.htm

Excerpt: "We do not disagree with the commonly held assumption that over-eating is a central cause of obesity and metabolic syndrome," Gewirtz says. "Rather, our findings reinforce the concept suggested by earlier work that low-grade inflammation resulting from an altered microbiota can be an underlying cause of excess eating."

That new study reminded me of this earlier and even more amazing one:

Certain gut bacteria may induce metabolic changes following exposure to artificial sweeteners
Date: September 17, 2014
Source: Weizmann Institute of Science
Summary: Artificial sweeteners -- promoted as aids to weight loss and diabetes prevention -- could actually hasten the development of glucose intolerance and metabolic syndrome, and they do so in a surprising way: by changing the composition and function of the gut microbiota -- the substantial population of bacteria residing in our intestines.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140917131634.htm

If you read the description of this study's methodology, it is extremely convincing and as a result, to me, the result conclusive. What is really amazing is that the negative effects of the artificial sweeteners (impaired glucose tolerance and insulin resistance, pre-diabetic states) were even WORSE than with sugar water!

Refined grains and other foods with high glycemic index (most processed foods we eat, unfortunately) also lead to the same effect:

Refined grain consumption and the metabolic syndrome in urban Asian Indians

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19375591

Summary: Compared with participants in the bottom quartile, participants who were in the highest quartile of refined grain intake were significantly more likely to have the metabolic syndrome. Higher intake of refined grains was associated with insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome in this population of Asian Indians who habitually consume high-carbohydrate diets.

So, put them all together and you hag\ve huge negative health effects from glucose intolerance and metabolic syndrome with, in most cases, the resulting obesity.

Metabolic syndrome

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolic_syndrome

Metabolic syndrome is a disorder of energy utilization and storage, diagnosed by a co-occurrence of three out of five of the following medical conditions: abdominal (central) obesity, elevated blood pressure, elevated fasting plasma glucose, high serum triglycerides, and low high-density cholesterol (HDL) levels. Metabolic syndrome increases the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Some studies have shown the prevalence in the USA to be an estimated 34% of the adult population, and the prevalence increases with age.

I think that we Americans are largely victims of our own success. We have prospered and our technology has allowed us more leisure time to indulge in bad habits, like eating to excess. Further, most of us are now in occupations that require less physical effort so the calories accumulate and result in lots of problems...like diabetes, heart disease, cancers, etc., etc. etc. And I speak from personal experience and numerous bad choices made throughout my life. Just a personal observation.

Winston said:

Now, I'm not one of those "organic foods" proponents, far from it. However, when it comes to some amazing recent revelations about our processed food diets and their assumed to be harmless additives, I can understand the obesity problem. It's not just a lack of exercise and overeating. <snip>

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If you think about it, everything grown up until about WWII was *organic*. Everything! there were no pesticides, no whatever-i-fides, only natural fertilizers (manure), etc.

tmacklin said:

I think that we Americans are largely victims of our own success. We have prospered and our technology has allowed us more leisure time to indulge in bad habits, like eating to excess. Further, most of us are now in occupations that require less physical effort so the calories accumulate and result in lots of problems...like diabetes, heart disease, cancers, etc., etc. etc. And I speak from personal experience and numerous bad choices made throughout my life. Just a personal observation.

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I agree, I think about 90% of the problem is lack of exercise, sedentary habits, and people not evaluating what they are eating. My family was originally farmers, and man did they work, and nobody ever had any huge health problems...even if they were overweight (the men weren't the women were a little...pleasantly plump, shall we say?). Everybody pretty much died in their 80's or 90's, and usually was working in the fields up until a day or a week until they died. (They also got some of the best and freshest food available).

Tying the two posts together, there has been a change in the food industry (yes, it is an industry) to add sugars and other things to foods, to enhance the taste, even when it likely isn't necessary. I don't have time to go and collect all the needed scientific literature, but here is a personal anecdote:

We were buying tonic water recently. I remember tonic water from my childhood...bitter, bitter, bitter stuff (that's why you need to add gin to it!). Well, some "genius" must have figured out that by adding sugar, more people would like it, because I can't find tonic water now without sugar! And if you do, it has saccharin in it! Go figure...

I agree that a lot of processed foods are bad for people, really bad. However, I also have to say that modern farming is one of the key reasons why life expectancy has gone up so much in the last several hundred years. We have access to abundant food, food storage techniques and substantial information on nutrition.

Unfortunately, we&#8217;re also seeing one of the downsides to capitalism when we look at food in the most developed countries. Large companies that make food products tend to make things that are easy to mass produce, are easy to ship, can be stored for long periods of time and are easy to prepare by the consumer. But these foods tend to be high in salt, sugar, fat and artificial ingredients. Good nutrition is not a priority for most processed food.

Another factor is that people don&#8217;t have time, or are unwilling, to prepare meals at home. They eat out, or buy processed (not very nutritious) food that is easy to prepare.

So it&#8217;s really up to each of us to eat a healthy diet. However, as pointed out in the thread that I started on investing, people are amazingly ignorant about information that should be obvious to most of us.

The_Lone_Beagle said:

I agree, I think about 90% of the problem is lack of exercise, sedentary habits, and people not evaluating what they are eating.

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Yup. That being said, I urge everyone to cut out of their diets, today, the "factory food" stuff. I'm referring to the hydrogenated fats in particular. That stuff appears everywhere. Read the ingredients, and if you see hydrogenated-anything, don't eat it. While you're at it, cut out all the high fructose corn sugar (ADM - supermarket of the world) and sugar that gets loaded up in everything. You don't need to be consuming stuff like this.

Actually the term &#8220;Organic&#8221; simply means the compound contains carbon.
Inorganic means it contains no carbon.
At least that was the way it was explained to me in HS Chemistry.

I have come to the conclusion that the human race didn&#8217;t actually evolve on this planet.
There isn&#8217;t a damn thing about it that isn&#8217;t trying to kill us.
We can&#8217;t eat any of the plants or animals, according to one study or another.
Exposure to Earth&#8217;s sunlight levels will kill us.
Earth&#8217;s gravity wreaks our backs and knees.

I think humans really evolved on Mars and our ancient ancestors were forced to relocate to Earth when Mars turned sour.

Sanity switch now returned to the ON position.

I eat pretty healthy. No artificial anything.
The thing that's killing me is the rising prices at the Grocery Store!!!
I used to be able to fill two Carts full of foody goodness for around $300-350. Now I'm lucky if one Cart does not get near that.

May I suggest the book "Eat to Live" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman as a starting point for learning about food and diets?

Did you know that you can eat one POUND of greens (lettuce or kale or collards etc) and only have about 180 Calories? Its in the book.

What I thought was really interesting was the idea that some of the artificial ingredients cause a change in the gut organisms, and that could be what is making people fat and causing other health problems. For example, the article about emulsifiers is really interesting. Emulsifiers are in a lot of processed foods and help improve texture. Emulsifiers are also a bit like detergents. Those detergent qualities can slightly dissolve the protective linings of our guts and allow gut bacteria to get into places it doesn't belong. That causes inflammation and irritation that can lead to weight gain and other problems.

Artificial foods are scary. Corn maltodexran is the main source of of sugar in infant formulas and especially common in glutinous free foods. One soy infant formula, it is the number two ingredient. Menu? It is ready digestible to glucose with minimal effort and decreases enzymatic processed and gas.

Hmm, maybe we are meant to use those enzymes.

I think organics are a waste of money, and I think hybrids that avoid pestilence are a good invention, but maybe we take it a step too far.

cwbullet said:

Artificial foods are scary. Corn maltodexran is the main source of of sugar in infant formulas and especially common in glutinous free foods. One soy infant formula, it is the number two ingredient. Menu? It is ready digestible to glucose with minimal effort and decreases enzymatic processed and gas.

Hmm, maybe we are meant to use those enzymes.

I think organics are a waste of money, and I think hybrids that avoid pestilence are a good invention, but maybe we take it a step too far.

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But why should anyone listen to you? I mean, like, you're just a doctor, right? (Just pulling your leg, Doc! :wink

KarlS said:

May I suggest the book "Eat to Live" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman as a starting point for learning about food and diets?

Did you know that you can eat one POUND of greens (lettuce or kale or collards etc) and only have about 180 Calories? Its in the book.

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I once read that certain types of produce if eaten raw actually require more calories to digest than are contained in the item. Celery, radishes even broccoli if eaten raw cannot sustain a person, you could eat all you want and still starve to death.

You have to cook these types of &#8220;vegetable&#8221; at least a little, to help breakdown the cellulose to aid in digestion. This doesn&#8217;t mean you should not eat these items as they contain a lot of vitamins/minerals as well as fiber; just don&#8217;t expect to be able to survive on them.

Now; is the above true? Who knows, these kinds of nutritional &#8220;Facts&#8221; get changed more often than the oil in my car.

tmacklin said:

But why should anyone listen to you? I mean, like, you're just a doctor, right? (Just pulling your leg, Doc! :wink

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Doctors are the worst for eating a healthy diet.

cwbullet said:

Doctors are the worst for eating a healthy diet.

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That, and handwriting!

tmacklin said:

That, and handwriting!

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The handwriting is easy to explain.

During their years of medical school future doctors are forced to take immense amounts of notes. When this was done by actually hand writing them in a note book the speed with which these notes had to be written down forced the students to write fast and therefore they developed pretty crappy writing &#8220;Skills&#8221;.

The_Lone_Beagle said:

II agree, I think about 90% of the problem is lack of exercise, sedentary habits, and people not evaluating what they are eating.

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Agree that sedentary lifestyle is a problem, but I think "evaluating what they are eating" is the main problem, but what most of us eat is what we eat simply because it constitutes the vast majority of what is available and proper evaluation of it involves understanding what degrees of blood glucose spikes can be caused by it, those excessive spikes very easily leading to insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and Type II diabetes, all major weight gain factors.

Now, as I pointed out in my OP, we find that a few extremely commonly used additives previously thought to be harmless and basically inert make the blood glucose spikes even worse than they would be when eating the typical U.S., high carb, high glycemic index processed food diet. One of those additives, artificial sweeteners, added to avoid glucose spikes actually makes them worse! Consider then the potentially vast number of additives also currently considered to be harmless, but which could easily not be (as if the ones I pointed out weren't bad enough).

No matter how active or inactive we are, the game is heavily stacked against us by the vast majority of processed foods available.

boomtube-mk2 said:

The handwriting is easy to explain.

During their years of medical school future doctors are forced to take immense amounts of notes. When this was done by actually hand writing them in a note book the speed with which these notes had to be written down forced the students to write fast and therefore they developed pretty crappy writing &#8220;Skills&#8221;.

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Plus the words are impossible to spell so just write sloppy so they can't read it.

It is a combination of of sedentary lifestyle and super sized and calorie rich meals.

Now, I'm not one of those "organic foods" proponents, far from it.

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You've got one here! ;-)

About 2 years ago, my wife watched the documentary "Hungry for Change" on Netflix. Then she watched it a second time, taking notes in a notebook, then she watched it a third time with me, so that I would see it. In the following weeks, we then watched "Food Matters". Their website is here. Within a few months we had watched many other things, including "Genetic Roulette". Our eating habits, diets and daily routines have drastically changed for the better. Before these changes, I might have gotten sick, cold or the flu, at least once every year. I haven't gotten anything past a runny nose simply from the cold weather since the spring of 2012. I have since stopped taking any kind of sinus medicine (Claritin & Flonase) or any other kind of medications and my gut feels a whole lot better after eating meals whereas before it was a whole other story. If we go out to eat (which is a rarity) oh boy,... watch out!!!

The information we learned has changed our lives for the better and it has saved us money. Well, I can't say that is 100% true. The money we save on doctors visits and medications/antibiotics has been spent on vitamins and natural supplements like Spirulina, Chlorella, Turmeric, Probiotics, Reishi & Shiitake mushrooms, just to name a few that most people are unfamiliar with. Also Chia seeds. They are good for cleansing the colon and removing toxins from the body too. I mix in a healthy table spoon with 2 packs of organic oatmeal for breakfast about 2-3 times a week. Chia seeds are very high in Omega-3 fatty acids.

Best of all, we feel better about ourselves. If anyone would like to get any more information or more resources I could provide, please send me a PM. If you value your health, I HIGHLY recommend you watch these. The last one is just a trailer but the information it presents will be absolutely shocking for most people to hear and will entice you to watch the whole thing. I honestly can't pick one that I would say is more important to hear than the rest. I feel they are all very important. And no, you won't hear about this on the nightly news, or any main stream news source. I won't go into my beliefs about these topics, other than to say, none of it is to help keep us healthy. If nothing else, I hope this will help at least one person here.

[video=youtube;H5g6vI-jEMI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5g6vI-jEMI[/video]

[video=youtube;RwZY1jaw2EM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwZY1jaw2EM[/video]

[video=youtube;hAMlir8oprw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAMlir8oprw[/video]

But it tastes so good. : (

I would like to add, my wife and I had just began our journey of change when I parked next to Wayne and Sharon at Airfest, I think 2 years ago. They really helped open our eyes, and after seeing these two in action at the launch, I would honestly say I thought they had way more energy than I did. She traded several emails with my wife and was much help to us both. (I didn't want to mention you by name before hand and drag you into this topic) ;-) Thank you very much. I'm just trying to pass along the helpful information that others have passed on to us. That's the way it's suppose to work right? ;-)

Also, I forget how, but I sliced open my finger at the launch and before I knew it, she had brought me over a branch (?) of Aloe Vera to help heal my cut. She told me something like, "Oh you've got to have an Aloe Vera plant! They are so helpful for so many things!" Well, a few weeks later we had dinner one night with my parents and a couple of their friends who have a lake house near by. I had told the story at the dinner table and mentioned how we wanted to get an Aloe plant. Low an behold, when we got married, my parents friends gave us an Aloe Vera plant for our wedding gift. We have had it about a year and a half now and it has been used several times to help heal my cuts and burns. We re-potted it a few months ago and it has grown like a weed and we probably need to re-pot it again soon! I doubt we would have this plant if it were not for Wayne and Sharon help at that launch.
Thank you both very much!

Loki Research said:

I'm just trying to pass along the helpful information that others have passed on to us. That's the way it's suppose to work right? ;-)

I doubt we would have this plant if it were not for Wayne and Sharon help at that launch.
Thank you both very much!

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Welcome! I love the aloe vera story.

Put me right in the same camp as Scott & Sharon/Wayne (actually a great place to be when at a launch as I can attest).

One of the weird undercurrents of a discussion like this is that some folks tend to join or resist based on factors that have absolutely nothing to do with the issue at hand. I've seen lots of folks resist good healthy food, simply because of the associations with people that are "other" in some way (that actually makes no difference). They seem to fear that THEY might be associated with someone who is of different political persuasion, or some other silly thing.

But here's the thing. You CAN choose healthy, non-toxic food and still vote for whomever you please! You can be a NASCAR fan - and still eat good food! You can be a member of the NRA - and still eat good food! You can despise Al Gore, and think Sara Palin would make a fabulous president - and still eat good food! You can work for the oil & gas industry - and still eat good food!

And you can certainly fly rockets and still eat good food.

Do not make the mistake of thinking that buying and eating chemical-free, organic, locally-grown, non-processed food will automatically mean that you are some weirdo "librul", or that you can't still vote for Jeb Bush next time around. It just ain't so. And your health matters SO MUCH MORE than any of that nonsense anyway.

Eat better - regardless of your "other" personal beliefs and values - it's worth it.

And......if anyone is offended by this post for being "political", I'll apologize and pull it. But I posted it for the exact opposite reason, which is that POLITICS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT.

s6

Newly discovered hormone mimics the effects of exercise - March 3, 2015
Source: University of Southern California
Summary: Scientists have discovered a new hormone that fights the weight gain caused by a high-fat Western diet and normalizes the metabolism -- effects commonly associated with exercising. When tested in mice, the hormone blocked the negative health effects of eating a high-fat diet.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150303183407.htm

Side effects may include (with thanks to Stephen Colbert):

Abdominal Migration
Abdominal Salad Shooters
ADHDEAD
An Inability to Breathe on Weekends
Ankle Bearding
Aortal Collapse
Arby’s Mouth
Argyle Pattern Baldness
Armpit Homunculus
Autonomous Nipple Syndrome
Bad Humors
Bearded Thalamus
Bone Sporking
Braintooth
Brainwhistle
Capillary Yogurt
Carcassing
Chinese Firebones
DIS, or Dissolving Intestine Syndrome
Dry Mouth
Eye Curdling
Eyearrhea
Eyesplosions
Facial Corkboarding
Fallopian Tapeworm
Flunamis
Genital Migration
Gopherism
Hair Swelling
Hairy Uvula
Honey Nut Areolas
Honus Wagner’s Disease
Hungry Hungry Hipbones
Increased Appetite
Increased Risk of Vampire Attack
Ingrown Testicle
Involuntary Blowhole
Involuntary Narnia Adventures
Jimmy Crack Corns
Knee Transference
Lactose Addiction
Late Onset Albinoism
Lou Ferrignose
Lungfire
Lungquake
Massive Weight Gain
Mild Hulkism
Mild Kidney Explosions
Mind of Mencia
Minor Heart Explosions
Monkeylung
Multibrow
Nostril Inversion
Outgrown Testicle
Permanent Blindness
Phantom Hand Syndrome
Pituitary Ferns
Precocious Kidney
Prolonged Erections – But Not Where You’d Hope
Puckerlung
Pulmonary Weevils
R.E.O. Speedlung
Rage
Rectal Buffalo Wings
Rectal Dyslexia
Rectal Frosting
Rectal Hallucinations
Re-Emergence of the Umbilical Cord
Restless Arm Syndrome
Restless Leg Syndrome
Restless Torso Syndrome
Rocky Mountain Oysterism
Runaway Gums
Scrappy Dooism
Scrotal Bassoon
Scruffula
Severe Weight Loss
Siamese Nipples
Skeletal Xylophoning
Spaghetti Ovaries
Speaking In Tongues
Spontaneous and Uncontrollable Gum Growth
Spontaneous Gypsy Scarf
Spontaneous Harper’s Subscription
Spontaneous Mertail
Spontaneous Pregnancy
Steven Tyler Lip
Subcutaneous Funyuns
Tennis Scrotum
Teriyaki Lung
Testicular Cranberrying
Testicular Myopia
Testicular Testicularization
Thoracic Geysers
Tracheal Meerkat Colonies
Transsexual Kidneys
Urethral Knotting
Vein Seizures
Ventricular Funk
Verizon Guy Syndrome
Vivid Dreams of Self-Cannibalization
Warlock Hump
Whatever Happens When You Drink Rocket Fuel
X-Ray Hearing
Yellowstone National Bladder