You probably have read dozens of books about nutrition and many of them just repeat what you already know. The other day I was reading about nutrition and came upon a statistic that surprised me.
“In Defense of Food”, written by Michael Pollan, is the source of many insights regarding nutrition. He was looking into human eating habits over thousands of years and discovered the extremely diverse human diet. Counting all the different diets from the past thousands of years, there were over 80,000 different species of plants (fungi also) and animals. 3,000 of these plant and animal species were widespread and common to different cultures.
If you had to guess what percentage of those 3,000 food species we have in our diets today, what would be the number? Let’s restrict the diets to western cultures ( Canada, US, etc). 10%,.. 5%,.. 1%..? Well one indication is that 67% of caloric intake in the western diet is from 3 foods! What are they? WHEAT, CORN, & SOY.
You are probably way ahead of me if you are asking, “What should be the right percentage of these foods in our diets?” Well don’t look to the National Institute of Health or the Consumer Report Magazine on the best frozen pizza to get your answer. Good nutrition is based on tens of thousands of years of trial and error by our ancestors. Our common digestive systems have evolved to process between 1% to 5% of our total calories from wheat, corn, and soy products.
Your conclusion: reduce the amount of corn, soy, and wheat products in your diet. Yes, this could be one of the healthiest facts you could learn. End the food industry myth regarding these foods.
The benefits of adopting this new guideline for your diet are numerous. First, and maybe most important, is not being overweight. Second, but equally important, is that related allergies will go away.
You and millions of people just like you have been persuaded to consume massive quantities of corn, soy, and wheat products and their derivatives. The multi-billion food industry is counting on your purchases and not trying to improve your health and well-being. Time is here to get off the “fat train”.
An example of what you are leaving behind are high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), corn oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, refined wheat flour, maltodextrin, wheat starch. Saying goodbye to mono and diglycerides and many more food additives that are damaging to your digestive system.
If you are already diet conscious, you already know the major examples of poor nutrition. Soda, for example, and other sweetened drinks are loaded with HFCS. Lots of calories from just the corn derivative. Some of the dressings and marinades that flavor the foods have too much belly-fattening HFCS. Breads, pies, cookies, and baked goods in general contain too much soy, wheat, or corn derivative products.
Eating processed food has become a habit and way of life in our culture. We think nothing of eating processed foods that are fried in soybean or corn oil. Those snacks like chips, cookies, candies, taco and burrito wraps taste so good, also habit forming, have a stressful effect on your digestive system. They are unhealthy!
On top of that, think about how much breads, cereals, pastas, muffins, and other highly processed wheat products that most people consume each day. Again, this is LOADS of unhealthy, blood-sugar spiking,nutrient-poor calories, that more than half of the population has some degree of intolerance to anyway.
Be reasonable and don’t go to extremes. It’s ok to eat cookies, pasta, and chip-and-dip when dining out. Instead of excluding these foods from your diet, set some limits and make a list of foods that you like and have them once a week for example. Forget the soda pop and deep fried foods because they are too damaging to you good health!
If you found this information helpful, share this article with your friends and family on email, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, forums, etc. This “bad habit” is one of the MAJOR reasons that we are so unhealthy and overweight as a society. Stop giving into the billion dollar marketing machine that is the corn, soy, and wheat industries! Take control of your OWN health and start down the road to good health and a slim figure.
Viktor Kuhle is a scientist who researches nutrition and health related issues. To read more about burning belly fat, get your free report when you visit us. Check out these 5 tips to Get a Flat Stomach.
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