|
|
Heartline Magazine April - June 2005
Food Villains
By Hazel Fergusson
We all eat every day. Some “eat to live, others live to
eat”, as the popular saying goes. Whatever the case, what we eat will eventually
decide how we live. The outcome will depend on whether we eat what looks good
only and then seek the Doctor’s assistance in sorting us out with medication, or
whether we will follow the old adage and “Let our medicine be our food and our
food be our medicine”.
Some of the “villains” of the food industry that we consume
daily and in great amounts are sweet drinks (sodas: sources of white sugar),
white flour (pastries and cakes), and white rice (a staple of our diet). These,
in combination or individually, will eventually attack our health.
Sweet drinks, or carbonated drinks as we sometimes call
them, are composed of water, white sugar, artificial flavour and artificial
colour, sodium benzoate and caffeine in the colas. Caffeine is a stimulant
depressant which may cause tachycardia (a fast heart rate) and leeches calcium
and other nutrients from the body. Aspartame, an artificial sweetener, is added
to the diet variety. This can be toxic to the liver if abused.
White sugar, the main ingredient in the above commercial
beverages can be addictive. This by-product of sugar cane, beet etc. has been
processed and in its present state it has become nothing but empty calories
which causes extreme levels in the blood sugar by stimulating the pancreas to
produce large quantities of insulin. This can lead to highs and lows in energy
levels, obesity and diabetes.
White flour, as we know it, is an overly processed version
of wheat flour. Wheat flour is made from the endosperm of the wheat kernel.
Wheat bran and wheat germ are also products of wheat. During the process of
conversion to white flour 80% of the nutrients are taken and what is left is
very high in starch and calories. If the package says vitamin enriched this a
lame attempt to replace some of the stolen vitamins. Organic white and
unbleached white flour have less chemical additives. A better buy would be stone
ground wheat flour.
Rye, oats, spelt and corn flours can all be used in cooking
and baking to produce a more nutritious product and, with the increase in the
price of bread, we can put our hands to the dough and come up with a worth while
item of food.
Rice in its natural state is brownish in colour and contains
a protective layer which provides bulk and contains vitamins B and other
nutrients. The cooking time is a bit longer and it calls for a little more
effort for the good result. This is however worth the effort for the benefits
that will be gained
White Rice in whatever form is a polished version of the
original and is usually quick cooking if parboiled. Vitamin enriched again is a
lame excused as most of what is left is starch which we know is empty calories.
Like all white products it does nothing to help the digestive tract in the
process of elimination and offers few, if any, nutrients.
The health conscious eater therefore who wants to maintain
or regain good health must be aware that 10-15% of items which pass for food on
our supermarket shelves will go towards feeding cells and building healthy
blood. We must be aware that we cannot depend on food manufacturers and fast
food restaurants to define what is good food . We must read and investigate
labels and packaging and seek to understand terms used on packages. We should be
extremely conscious of what we eat and drink, and even though it is not easy in
this age to find completely healthy food easily, we must do our best to
eliminate the most harmful products and additives from our daily diet.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
