I’m not sure exactly when it was that people started having such a difficult time with food. Nothing has really changed in our DNA for the last hundred thousand years or so but the amount of food-like substances people continue to consume is truly staggering. So here is my food triage.
1. Don’t eat anything man-made. This includes all artificial sweeteners, all artificial fats, and all colors that don’t occur in nature (like that electric blue slurpee). If it takes a machine to make it-don’t eat it. If you don’t know how it’s made- don’t eat it.
2. Don’t eat anything that won’t rot. This includes almost everything in a box, especially cereal. This is dead food- don’t eat it.
3. Don’t eat anything your great-grand-mother wouldn’t recognize as food. This includes most soy based “food substitutes” like soy bacon, soy cheese, tofurkey etc. These things also violate the first two rules.
4. Don’t eat anything genetically modified. This is all soy foods and most corn. The wind doesn’t recognize boundaries, so even the corn and soy that is labeled “non-GMO” I have my doubts about. The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) has called for a moratorium on GM foods. They called on “Physicians to educate their patients, the medical community, and the public to avoid GM (genetically modified) foods when possible and provide educational materials concerning GM foods and health risks.” For more information on how to avoid Gm foods visit http://www.responsibletechnology.org/GMFree/Home/index.cfm
5. Avoid (as best you can) animals raised in a factory. This is ALL fast food meat. Theses are animals that have been taken out of their natural environment, fed food they aren’t designed to eat and pumped full of hormones and antibiotics. In some places this is very difficult to do, I know. In cases where the only meat available is factory get the leanest cuts possible. Hormones and antibiotics are stored in the fat. Animal fat is not the problem, it’s what in the fat that causes us to become ill.
Nature didn’t make mistakes when it came to food. Eating what comes out of the ground in its freshest most natural state is not only a joy, but is the best medicine.
