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Tag Archives: junk food
5 Foods and Beverages You Should Avoid Like the Plague
Photo from www.memorise.org
Soda: Sodas used to contain 9 teaspoons of sugar, which is an enormous amount to consume, especially on an empty stomach. But sodas today are sweetened with an equivalent amount of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which leads to obesity and fatty liver disease ( aka non-alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver) because it is not used like sugar by the body, but rather gets stored as fat. On top of the HFCS, sodas contain phosphoric acid, which cause calcium to be leached from your bones, teeth, and soft tissue, setting you up for osteoporosis, cavities, arthritis and other disease states.
What to do? Drink home-made herbal iced tea sweetened with stevia or sparkling mineral water with lemon/lime or plain coconut water, or try kombucha, a delicious, fermented carbonated beverage with liver-detoxifying properties that you can buy or make at home.
Grain-fed beef from CAFOs: What is grain-fed beef from CAFO (concentrated animal food operations)? It is the beef you eat in 99% of all restaurants and at home. It is also the beef from cows that have been fed an unnatural diet of corn and animal by-products in cruel, unsanitary and disease-causing environments. The meat from these cows is void of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a potent protector from cancers. The meat also has the wrong omega 3 to omega 6 ratio, causing inflammation in the body. It is low in riboflavin and other important B vitamins as well as having less Vitamin E, Vitamin K, and trace minerals like magnesium, calcium, and selenium.
What to do? If you want to eat beef, eat 100% grass-fed beef from health food stores, organic butcher shops and from local farm buyers’ clubs – go to www.eatwild.com and check out their directory.
Processed snacks and baked goods: What kind of snacks are we talking about? It’s the candy bars, Oreos, muffins, pastries, Cheez Whiz, and chips. Most processed snacks contain trans fats of some kind. Trans fats get incorporated into your cell structures when you eat them and take two years to cycle out. The incorporation of trans fats into cell walls leaves them incapable of important chemical reactions. As a result, there is chaos and dysfunction on the cellular level. Over a period of time, this leads to cancer, heart disease, diabetes, immune dysfunction, disrupted fetal growth, and obesity.
What to do? Eat whole fruit/veggies and cheese or hummus for snacks, as well as raw and unsalted nuts, plain yogurt (sweetened with stevia if you like), and home baked goods made from almond flour.
Juice: You were always told that fruit was good for you, and what is fruit juice but lots of fruit? So it must be very good for you, right? Wrong! Commercially produced juice has relatively little vitamin and mineral content, and it has had all the fiber taken out, so it sends your blood sugar sky high without giving you much of anything in return. It causes over production of insulin and weight gain, and also causes sugar crashes with accompanying energy lows, inability to think, and mood swings including irritability, anger, anxiety and sadness – yuck! As if impaired mental function weren’t enough, all of these symptoms are just little steps on the road to diabetes – nothing to laugh about.
What to do? Drink herbal iced tea sweetened with stevia or sparkling mineral water with lemon/lime or plain coconut water, or try kombucha, a delicious, carbonated fermented beverage with liver-detoxifying properties. You could also enjoy freshly squeezed vegetable juices with small amounts of fruit added in, and very occasionally treat yourself to fresh-squeezed straight fruit juice if you want, but have it with protein and fat to limit the effects of.
Cereal: All cereals except granola and muesli are extruded at extremely high temperatures (over 500 degrees Fahrenheit), altering the molecular structure of the grains in the slurry and burdening your body, which doesn’t know what to do with this strange food. Add in sugar or aspartame, food dyes, preservatives, and the worst quality commercial vitamins sprayed onto it, and you have an extremely artificial food that gives your body no real nutrients and all the burden of figuring out how to incorporate it. According to Paul Stitt, biochemist and industrial food critic, in an unpublished study conducted by a cereal company, lab rats lived two weeks only when given a diet of extruded cereal, while rats given only water lived significantly longer. In spite of all the marketing around it, as revealed by the autopsy in this study and others, the truth is that extruded cereal is terrible for your body, leading to dysfunction of the pancreas, liver and kidneys and degeneration of the nerves of the spine, all signs of insulin shock.
What to do?If you must have cold cereal, eat granola or muesli in plain yogurt and add raw, unsalted nuts and fresh fruit.
– Babette
To learn more about Babette, click here
6 Addictive Foods & Substances That Will Jeopardize Your Health
Specrumfit.net
No matter where you are on your health journey, whether you are transitioning from vegetarian to vegan , vegan to raw, or just trying to eat a whole foods diet without processed foods, I’m sure at some point you have struggled to stop eating a food when you knew it was not in your best interest. We all have comfort foods that become our go-to when we are treating ourselves or even worse when we are down in the dumps and trying to medicate or numb our true feelings. There’s a group of practitioners within health an wellness that believe that one diet does not suit all. Meaning, not everyone is meant to eat a diet free of animal products, be macrobiotic, paleo, a raw foodie or whatever the latest fad is. I can get down with that school of thought to some degree (with an obvious bias towards plant-based diet), however I think some people take it to far when they start to argue that all cravings are justified. Yes, our bodies tell us what we need through cravings, but the majority of people are completely out of touch with their bodies. Who doesn’t know someone addicted to sugar? I myself used to be a vegan sugar addict. So much so that when I first stopped frequenting vegan bakeries for sweets and started juicing instead I had to overload my fresh juices with apples for them to be acceptable to my over-sugared palette. Now that I’m “sober” I have equal passion for foods that are bitter and can drink my greens straight-up if need be. It is only when you are free from the addiction you realize how much it controlled you. Junk food cravings have nothing to do with nutrition and everything to do with addiction. There is no way that you can justify from a nutritional standpoint cravings for oreos, twinkies, doughnuts, or any other sugar-laden foods that are so far beyond the bounds of nature, offer no real nutrition, and can do serious damage to your health longterm.
The reason why your body lets you know that you are hungry in the first place is because it needs nutrition to function optimally. When you are out of alignment with nature and are addicted to unnatural foods or substances it is possible to be obese and be “starving” your body to death because you are not taking in the nutrients your body needs in order to thrive. Below is a brief list of some foods and substances, most of which you already know about, that are certified addictive. So how do you break the addiction? You start by overhauling your taste buds one day at a time and getting used to the levels of sugar, salt etc that exist naturally in real, whole foods. You also take a look at the emotions if any, that trigger your need. Are you acting out of grief, anger, or stress? Pinpointing the emotions you are feeling can help you find find a healthier way to express them rather than taking another bite. Once you recognize that certain foods are addictive, it is up to you to stay vigilant, take control of your choices, and EAT TO LIVE rather than feed addiction and eventually disease. -XoXo Raw Girl
Processed Food
Most of the processed and packaged food in our supermarkets are not real. These “frankenfoods” along with their supposed taste, texture, and smells are created by scientists in labs who have the goal to create products that are inherently addictive and that consumers cannot just take one bite of. In addition various combinations of sugar, salt, and fat are the top three substances making processed foods so addictive.
Refined Flour
The gluten-free craze should be a clear sign that more than ever people’s bodies are reacting to refined flours. Whole grains been in the human diet for thousands of years and take much longer to be digested that refined flours. The more refined a flour is, the more bioavailable it becomes. The higher the bioavailability of a food, the greater the total absorption and rate of absorption in our digestive tracts. The faster a food is absorbed, the more quickly it turns to glucose in the body…which translates into a spike of blood sugar followed by a drop in blood sugar. Thus refined flours have a similar effect on the body as sugars and consumption can triggering bingeing for some people.
Cheese
Cheese is seriously addictive. Here’s why: the main protein in milk and cheese is called casein. As you digest casein, it breaks apart to release opiates, called casomorphins – which are morphine-like chemicals. Shortly after you swallow a bite of cheese pizza, these chemicals enter your bloodstream and pass to your brain and attach to your opiate receptors. The natural function of casomorphins’ is to provide a bit of feel-good sensation to a nursing calf so that they yearn for the milk that will help them grow to maturity. And because a calf is weaned very soon, the fat, cholesterol and sodium in milk products are not a problem, but for humans who get hooked on these same compounds this can amount to serious issues as time goes on.
Sugar
Sugar creates a mild addictive reaction as it is digested, and this can affect a person’s brain chemistry in the same way that alcohol and other addictive drugs do. Opioids are a key chemical compound in this reaction, and in many of the most powerful addictive drugs, such as cocaine, morphine and heroin which is why researchers compare sugar to these hard drugs. Every time you consume sugar it gives a feel good euphoria, and just like other addictions can start to make us numb to a certain dosage and need even more sugar to satisfy our cravings each time. Too much sugar results in weight gain, increased rate of cancer, hormonal changes, mood swings, diabetes and depression.
Salt
If you though that somehow being a salt junkie is better than being a sugar junkie, think again. Food filled with sodium have similar addictive qualities and health repercussions such as bloating, fatigue, inflammation, weight gain, cholesterol, heart disease and kidney stones. Researchers have said that salt is addictive in the same way as cigarettes or hard drugs, with the craving triggering the same genes, brain cells and brain connections. In most of the processed foods that are salted to the excess, to make the salt’s taste more powerful, companies use kosher salt instead of regular table salt. Why? Kosher salt is shaped differently and dissolves on your tongue faster and triggers a “flavor burst” all over your mouth, thus intensifying the neurological response.
Caffeine
In most European countries many of the energy drinks that contain excess caffeine are banned. In addition the sizes and portions of caffeinated beverages are much smaller. It seems that some parts of the world have caught on that caffeine should be consumed more sparingly. Why is it then that in the U.S. in Starbucks, one tall cup of almost anything on the menu includes twice the amount of caffeine it takes to make you legimately addicted? Dr. Jack James, who is editor in chief of the Journal of Caffeine Research, and head of the department of psychology at Reykjavik University, Iceland, expressed concern for the amounts of caffeine consumers are exposed to and said that it is response for many untimely deaths. Because of this he believes that products contain caffeine should be taxed and restricted like cigarettes and alcohol and that selling caffeine to children should be restricted. Caffeine is now found in everything from sodas, energy drinks, bottled water, alcoholic drinks, cookies, chewing gum, yogurt, flavoured milk, cold and flu remedies, weight loss pills, mints, cosmetics, and soaps.
6 Simple Ways to Overcome Binge Eating
You are having one of those bad days. Whether it’s a break up, job loss, or just general stress, for many of us bingeing is how we cope. Add to that the determination to stay on a healthy path, and you sometimes have the tug of war between denial and gluttony. You may feel horrible about yourself, but don’t. The binge eating phenomenon is partially a product of the scary processed frankenfoods on your market today that never existed. The scientists that work on these unnatural flavorings and additives for processed foods have admitted that their goal is create tastes and flavors that make you want to eat more. That coupled with the fact that your body is craving food for nutrients and the processed foods are nutrient-less is a recipe for binge eating! You may want to stop, but your body has not gotten the nutrition it needs, and the chemicals cue you to want more. It’s a vicious cycle.
I know first hand about the dangers of extreme bingeing, because when I was in college from my sophomore to junior year I struggled with bingeing. My last year of college I finally got control of my eating issues by seeing a therapist and dealing with emotional trauma. At the time I would say I had an eating disorder, but now looking back I would say it was a combination of several things: emotional trauma from a less than perfect childhood, stress, parasites, and the inability to confront my emotions head on. When you are an extreme binger, most times you binge instead of allowing whatever emotions are arising to just be. On the more average spectrum, bingeing may be the result of restrictive dieting or cravings when transitioning from an old lifestyle to a new one. At either extreme, I think there are several things you can do to keep yourself from overeating yourself into sickness or messing up your healthy regimen. Below are some tips from a Raw Girl who is proud to say she no longer has the urge to binge! -XoXo Raw Girl
Don’t Diet, Commit to Lifestyle Changes. If you are approaching healthy living, veganism, or raw foods as a diet, just like any fad, your zeal will come and go and all that will be left is you with indigestion and an empty tub of Haagen-dazs you said you wouldn’t eat. I’ll say it again don’t diet! Your lifestyle change should be about transitioning to healthier behaviors and taking care of yourself, emotionally, physically, spiritually. That is the only way to have lasting effective change.
Find Healthy Subsitutes for Junk Foods You Love. In the beginning and even later, it’s all about substitutes. When you are going from meat to vegan you may go the fake meat route to help you get there. I’m a sweet tooth girl, or at least I used to be in extreme (parasites!) So when I was transitioning I found raw sweets, which are even more rich and satisfying than junk food, and that did it for me. Now if I need some ice cream, I grab a small pint of raw hazelnut (YUM) icrecream that will never ever have me yearning to binge on some Breyers. It’s important to know your taste buds and what you crave most and find things that fulfill that. You may be a more crunchy/salty person, so its about raw or vegan chips, crackers, nuts. Make an effort and there’s no way you won’t find something satisfying. For every type of junk food there is in the world, there is a more satisfying and nourishing raw or vegan alternative. That I can put my money on.
Deal With Your Emotions. The rule I have had for years now, since dealing with bingeing issues is to not eat when I am stressed, angry, sad. You have to start training your body to not seek emotional relief from food. Talk it out with a friend, journal, scream, dance, find a way to release that energy without grabbing three extra portions of something you know you shouldn’t be eating. You can binge on “healthy” foods too, and even if it’s better than the junk you used to eat, you are going to be doing damage to your digestive system and your colon if you over consume in excess. Not to mention, you shorten your life span. Studies have show that eating less as we get older increases our longevity.
Find Nutritional Balance. Some cravings are the result of an addiction to the unnatural flavors, and others may be because your body is lacking well rounded optimal nutrients. When you are getting off the junk food lifestyle you have to recognize that it can be as powerful as drug addiction. So give yourself room to mess up, but continue to stick with your resolve to be healthy, find substitutes, and after some trial and error your body will get sensitive enough that it may reject the foods you once loved. No matter what you eat whether you are a meat-eater or not, you need to make sure that your meals are giving your body the nutrients it needs. To get a boost I highly recommend adding in superfoods like spirulina, maca, seaweeds, cacao etc. because they are packed with nutrients. Now, I know that at times, I crave certain vegetables and fruits because my body needs the nutrients that are in them. once you get on the healthy path, you’ll be more in tune and rather than just letting your taste buds alone guide what you eat, your body will sometimes give you cravings to resolve imbalances.
#MOVETHATBODY & Find Your Spiritual Center. When you excercise your emotions and mood get an immediate boost from the increased levels of serotonin in your brain. Beyond a mood boost, working out is a good remedy for controlling your eating habits. Usually when you workout you feel better and are more inclined to make and sustain healthy food choices throughout the day. So get up and get moving, NO EXCUSES. Stress can also play a big part in the urge to binge. Exercise can combat this and so can mindfulness and spiritual practices such as yoga, meditation, and prayer. Do what you have to do and find what works for you to help you stay calm in the midst of life storms. That way the next time a catastrophe hits, you’ll be centered enough to handle it without overeating.
Do a Parasite Cleanse. I know, I say this about everything, but seriously, if I could talk to my former self when I was dealing with this issue this would have been one of the first things I would tell the former me. Take a look at what kind of food you are binge eating. Are they mostly carbs and sugar? I have this theory that the majority of overweight people in our country that cannot stop eating are dealing with the fact that yes the foods are addictive, but also that their colon health as been further compromised by parasites from eating a bunch of junk which in turn heightens cravings. I can tell you firsthand that parasites will make you crave things to stay alive and feed off your nutrition. When you begin to eat green they are literally fighting for their lives and so suddenly although you haven’t touched bread in years, or had those cookies or whatever, the parasite inside you may drive you to feel you need that food. This is not a joke, and I wish more people were cleansing, because so many other health issues would cease from plagueing our population. Whether you think it’s parasites or not, do a cleanse anyway. Better safe and parasite-free than sorry and bingeing.