Why Our Food Harms Us

What is “processed food“? Let’s get a quick look at some of the negatives associated with processed foods because the dangers in eating processed foods abound:

• Processed food makes you fat
• Processed food makes you sick
• Processed food causes your cells to begin to suffocate
• Processed foods cause your brain to have difficulty focusing
• Processed foods make you hyper and/or tired
• Processed foods lead to degenerative disease

I only wish one short article could tell you everything about your food but the fact is processed food is killing us. It’s nothing more than slow poison.

Over the millennials, our bodies simply have not had enough time to adjust to the chemicals and pollutants in today’s food supply. Here’s an excerpt I wrote several years ago that briefly helps explain why your food is sick and why you suffer as a result:

The Industrial Revolution and Food

(from “Holistic Nutrition and Muscle Response Testing: Understanding Food” written by Catherine Smith and copyright 2009 to-date)

After World War II, the United States experienced an explosion in the population. Men had returned from the battlefield, women had returned from the factories, and thus began the era of the Baby Boomers.

And as the children of this booming era grew, America became faced with a silent problem. With an explosion of post-WWII births, we had more mouths to feed than the farmers toiling the land could feed. Add to this the fact that we were feeding people in other countries and the conclusion would be that something had to be done.

In an effort to feed the masses, new substances became available to farmers. These chemicals, fertilizers and herbicides did the job they were designed to do. They made things grow faster and bigger. Suddenly, America could breathe a sigh of relief.

Here’s a brief history lesson on fertilizer:

As the years and decades marched forward, farmers continued their use of these substances.

It is not the opinion of this author that the farmers, or the scientists and chemists who created these substances, ever intended to do harm. But, stop for just one second and think about what chemicals do to plants.

If there is a caterpillar munching away on a leaf, the chemicals will kill the worm. The chemicals kill any living organism that invades the fields. But the chemicals also kill what is already in the field; namely the soil in which the plants grow.

Over time, our soil has become de-mineralized by the very chemicals which were originally created for our survival. And without minerals in our soil, there was no choice other than to spray laboratory-created and man-made minerals into the devitalized soil in the hopes the soils would continue to produce crops.

But what comes out of a lab is no way competition for what nature can provide. Should anyone doubt the power of nature, recall Hurricane Katrina and the wrath nature expressed in 2005; no laboratory, no army and no individual person could stop the destruction.

This understanding cannot undo the fact that today we are dependent on tons and tons of man-made chemicals being dumped on useless soil so malnourished, genetically modified crops can grow, be harvested and then processed before being placed on your grocery store shelf.

What this translates into is the fact that we consume the same chemicals as the caterpillar. Luckily, we are much bigger than the unimposing caterpillar. But time catches up with us all. And day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, decade by decade, we begin to feel the same impact of the chemicals as the caterpillar. Only we are not so lucky as to experience a quick death.

Today, we have what is referred to as “degenerative disease”; a new phrase for a new paradigm. Most of our grandparents and our great-grandparents (and our forefathers before them) did not have to live a lingering, painful death. But we do. And we do so because of the malnourished foods we eat.

America’s Meat Supply

Around the late-1940’s, cattle producers learned that by feeding cows grain the weeks before slaughter, the cows would gain an average of an extra 100 pounds. This resulted in higher revenue. At the time, it appeared “no harm, no foul” was a safe outlook.

But once again, it is the American people who pay a high price. This is true at the check-out line in the grocery store and it is also true for our long-term health.

Since the late 1970’s[1] when ranchers first started feeding byproducts mixed with grain to cattle, the average waist size has increased by about seven inches. Diabetes, cancer, and coronary artery disease have also continued to increase across our population as cows continue eating grains.

Studies show the cattle’s diet has a significant impact on the amount of Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) in both meat and dairy products. Not surprisingly, when cattle eat their natural diet, foraging pasture grasses and legumes, CLA levels are 30-40% higher. CLA levels drop dramatically in feed lots where cattle are fed grain and other byproduct feedstuff[2].

The only exception to this is the purchase of grass-fed beef available at health food stores and some farmer’s markets across the nation. You will need to ask at farmer’s markets if the beef is grass-fed or not. If the response is, “it is organic”, they are telling you the grain fed to the cattle was organic. Whether the grain is organic or conventional (see Produce and Meat Labeling) matters not; the cattle still cannot digest organic grains and the same problem with e-coli still exists.

There are similar issues with the poultry industry.

The birds are provided chemicals in their feed. These toxins were designed to modify the growth rate of certain parts of the bird.

White meat is preferred over dark meat by the general population. The toxins force growth of the breast at a faster rate than the rest of the body. This results in poultry not being able to stand on their own two feet since their legs are too weak to hold them upright. Their hearts work harder under this pressure and they collapse on the floor (since they never see daylight and are in-doors their entire lives, which last approximately six weeks). Other chickens, starved for nutrition, will cannibalize the near-dead in an effort to satisfy their body’s need for real nutrition.

What this means for you and your family is the toxins force-fed to the poultry and cattle result in your consumption of those same toxins. And just like the caterpillar, over time, they begin to have the same impact on us as the chemicals sprayed on the ground.

Produce Labeling

Understanding that a malnourished food supply, and not a nourished food supply, is readily available to us is a foundational step toward the path of wellness. Your ability to identify and consume correct foods can make the difference in your long-term health.

Labeling is now in place that may help you make better choices. Any produce sold commercially has a sticker or product code (a four or five digit number) associated with it. The very first digit in this code is your key in determining whether the food is conventionally grown, genetically engineered or organic.

A four digit code beginning with the number “3” or “4” simply means it was conventionally grown.

The banana to your left has “#4011” on the label to let you know it is conventionally grown. This is not a good thing!

If an apple or an orange or a bunch of carrots … any produce … has the code 4011, you know it is conventionally grown. This means that no one paid much attention to being sure the sprays used on them were non-toxic. These products will frequently be found in grocery stores and even in some health food stores.

If the produce code is 4 or 5 digits and begins with an “8” (84011 for example) it says the food has been genetically modified. The seller is not required to state this in words; but the presence of the “8” does tell you what it is.

A five digit code beginning with the number “9” tells you these foods are organic, so the banana, the apple, the carrots, the orange (any produce) would have the code 94011.

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The above is an extremely shortened version of what happens out there in the world of food processing and manufacturing. So … What is “processed food“? You now have a really good idea of why your body is most likely behaving the way it’s behaving. As stated at the very beginning of this article, the dangers in eating processed foods abound.

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It’s not too late to schedule your wellness consultation with Cathy. She is a Naturopathic Doctor with over 20 years experience helping people from all over the world return to balanced health. And she’s right here in West Fel. Give her a call at (225) 784 – 2168 today.

In Great Faith,

Cathy

[1] Ray Peat

[2] http://www.grasslandbeef.com/health.html

[3] Food Inc. DVD