Lesson #3: Not Recommended for Human Consumption!

[Skip]

Before we venture into various alternative diets, let’s take a look at what types of food everyone should avoid that have negative health consequences and other ecological implications.

One of the first things I learned in my quest for health, was to avoid the three “white poisons”. These are everyday items that get included in nearly every processed food product today.

The Three White Poisons:

Salt
White Sugar
Bleached Flour

Over the intervening years, most of the world has come to recognize that salt and sugar are unhealthy and overused, if not abused. Salt raises our blood pressure and is added in very high quantities as a flavoring agent, but also as a preservative. Why it’s needed in such quantities in canned and frozen food items defies reason, since they’ve used other means to preserve the food.

Always check the sodium levels on the nutrition label. You will see as much as a full gram or more per serving in both canned and frozen foods. Compare labels to see the variation between products and brands. Low sodium offerings are increasing, usually with a 40% or more reduction. If a product contains more than 400mg of salt per serving, find another brand or a different product if you can, or just avoid it.

Most foods already have a natural sodium content, so it usually not necessary to add salt to dishes (I never do, just a bit of tamari, occasionally). As we cut back on sodium, we desire it less. So hide the salt shakers!

Most baked goods contain a lot of salt too, usually too much. I should mention, as a professional baker, that you still need to add some salt to all baked goods you make from scratch, but this can be reduced a bit too.

White sugar is highly processed (a very nasty, smelly process at that!). It contains no nutritional value other than the empty calories. But it’s not just about white sugar, as all sugars are detrimental, especially if over consumed. It’s just that some sugar does have residual nutrition, like raw sugar, molasses, honey, maple syrup, etc.

Consuming sweets is a big pitfall for those attempting to go vegetarian. When we cut out meat from our diet, our bodies seek to replace all that energy from meat with another high energy source. Sugars provide energy in abundance, but it can really mess up our bodies by altering our blood sugar levels too quickly. Diabetes is just one disease that relates to our sugar intake, and is a major result of obesity from too many sweets (although some would argue it’s genetics).

Plain old white flour is another health nemesis. Again they’ve taken a healthy natural product, wheat, and processed it into a health damaging commercial product. To make white flour, they remove the husk of the wheat berry (bran), the most fibrous part, the wheat germ, the part high protein and nutrition, leaving the least desirable and least healthy part to made into baked goods.

There are numerous studies that show that a diet high in white, bleached flour leads to more stomach cancer and digestive problems. All that fine flour without fiber accumulates in small pockets in our intestines, clogging them up, leading to digestive problems and eventually cancer or other disease.

Likewise the lack of nutritional value in white flour means we deprive ourselves of needed vitamins and minerals in everything we eat containing it. Plus the lack of fiber in our diet is known to increase health risks, esp. cancer.

So whenever possible substitute whole wheat flour, or other whole grain meals for white flour. You can get whole wheat pastry flour to replace all-purpose flour. Check those labels to see if whole wheat bread is really made from whole wheat, instead of white flour and a few bran flakes.

Trans-Fats

And speaking of baked goods, it’s now a well established fact that trans-fats, which were invented to withstand higher temperatures and extend the shelf life of baked goods are very bad for our health.

Trans-fat is one of the leading causes of obesity today. That’s why it’s being restricted, if not outright banned in the US and Europe.

What is trans-fat? Basically it’s hydrogenated vegetable oils. These replaced natural fats like lard and butter in baking when Crisco was invented around 1912. So that margarine you eat is likely to contain some hydrogenated oils unless it specifically says otherwise.

So now when you go to buy margarine, you must not only look out for genetically modified ingredients (like soy and corn) and saturated fats, but trans-fats too!

I’m now using Earth Balance, also known as Soy Garden margarine. (NOT Healthy Balance!) This product contains organic canola, soy and olive oils, no GMOs, no trans-fats, and it tastes like butter! This is the gold standard as far as I’m concerned. It’s too bad you can’t find it everywhere.

I highly recommend avoiding using butter, substituting olive, canola or organic soy oils when possible. Butter and other animal fats do contain a different type of trans-fat but in much reduced levels. But they too are known to contribute to obesity and heart problems due to their high cholesterol content.

Meat and Dairy Products

There are so many reasons to avoid meat and dairy products, I doubt I can list them all. It’s not just about health, either. There are also many environmental, economic, social, political and spiritual reasons not to eat meat.

The health reasons alone should make one think twice about the wisdom of eating a dead animal, especially one raised in a factory pumped up with antibiotics, hormones, chemical laced feed, that’s been hacked up, shipped around the country, colored with dye and left waiting for weeks to be purchased on a shelf while putrefaction continues.

Yup! Eating factory farmed meat is one of the worst things we can do for ourselves and our planet! Every farm animal is injected with antibiotics that when consumed by humans lowers our resistance to disease. They’re fed hormones to fatten them up when they’re still young. These same hormones end up in children who eat meat, causing them to fatten up for the slaughter as well.

Cattle and other animal feed is now mostly genetically modified grains, meaning they contain more pesticides than before. Those chemicals, once in the food chain, accumulate in meat eaters, more than ever before. GM crops are tolerant to much higher doses of pesticide. Rather than genetically modify the crops to be resistant to bugs, they just make them more resistant to pesticides so they can sell more chemicals to farmers!

Factory farms process animals as though they were just fiber, not living beings. Nothing is done to make the animals lives comfortable. They live in deplorable crowded conditions, where disease runs rampant, thus the need for high doses of antibiotics.

So the use of these chemicals from antibiotics to hormones to pesticides, all benefit the farmer and the industry that sells them, to the detriment of the consumer. They increase the yield of feed crops, the size of the animals and the viability of them under extremely stressful living conditions. Thus it increases profit at the expense of public health. But hey, isn’t that what business is all about?

So this is not only about meat, but all non-organic dairy products too! They can contain even higher concentrations of these dangerous adulterants, especially in cream and butter. So if you must buy dairy, buy organic…

Meat takes much longer to digest than most vegetables. Before you even cook meat, it has begun to rot (putrify). This is unlike fruit and vegetables which ferment when they rot. So when you eat meat, it continues to putrify in your intestines, releasing nasty, carcinogenic chemicals. Fruit and vegetables digest much faster, with barely enough time to ferment, so very little, if any turns to alcohol in your body.

Besides your health, there are a number of other issues associated with the massive meat industry. The amount of land devoted to raising beef cattle is enormous and has resulted in the loss of millions of acres of pristine forest in places like the Amazon jungle.

The amount of farm land dedicated to animal feed has grown too, land that could be producing 12 times as much protein for human consumption each year! So eating beef deprives us of valuable farm land needed to feed the Earth's growing population.

The deforestation of course has knockon effects to the world's ecosystems. Global warming is an indirect consequence of the loss of those forests and the addition of billions of methane excreting animals (methane is far worse than CO2!)

See Frances Moore Lappe's Diet for a Small Planet for more on this.

Spiritually, many people realize they don't need to kill animals to eat. This is a great reason to stop eating meat. It means you've become conscious of your karma and don't wish to burden yourself with the unnecessary deaths of innocent animals.

In this case, even organically raised meats will leave you cold!

Organic vs. Non-Organically Grown Foods

As consumers wise up to the nature of the food they’re eating, more and more are opting to buy organically grown products. Each year the organic food market expands another 20%, and this has been happening for more than a decade now.

Farmers are learning that organically grown food is better for the land, for the farmer and for the consumer. It’s even becoming cheaper as Monsanto corners the market on genetics and chemicals, making them more expensive and farmers more dependent on the company.

It doesn’t take a scientist to discover that organically grown foods taste much better than non-organic, commercially grown foods. Because organic foods are not GMO, their genetics were selected due to qualities other than shelf-life and resistance to pesticides. Rather you get produce that’s tastier, more nutritious, without chemical additives.

Tasting is believing! Tomatoes are redder, juicier, far more intensely flavorful if organically grown. Even with something like eggs, you notice the difference. Organic eggs usually have real yellow yokes, harder shells and more flavor.

Of course organic foods usually cost more. Although the gap in price is decreasing, and I’m starting see some organic foods selling for the same price as non-organic foods, at least here in California. As that gap closes, more people will opt for organic and the market will explode!

There are many other types of food that are not fit for human consumption, but most of these contain one or more of the things I’ve already mentioned. So once you cut out those items above from your diet, that will include many more things you never realized might be harmful to you.

Of course for many it will be impossible to cut out all these things. But a conscious reduction in consumption of these items will yield immediate and long-term health benefits.

Assignment: Look at the food in your house. Read the labels. What things would you need to remove from your diet if you were to follow the advice given above?

[Pharoah]

Instead of butter, I'll use herbed olive oil~ I need to stop buying the el cheapo milk and just buy organic and drink less.
Gak the white flour I need to cut this out, I use it as a thickener in soups, it doesnt add much anyway. That probably goes for the "wheat" bread in the fridge too. Ooh and salt, that is a tough one, because I always thought of salt as good. I'm sure If I cut back on eating so much I would cut out lots of salt in my diet.

We do get alot of foods from family around here, we all grow veggies and share~ So I eat alot of homegrown good stuff from apples to zucchinis. I also buy organic and food from the farmers market on weekends.

[umm...ya]

When cooking I try to buy organic. If they don't have what I need then I will use non organic foods. As for salt I only use sea salt. It is very different and does not have the same harmful effects that iodized salt does.

[Skip]

When cooking I try to buy organic. If they don't have what I need then I will use non organic foods. As for salt I only use sea salt. It is very different and does not have the same harmful effects that iodized salt does.Yes, a good point. Sea salt is a different chemical combo with lots of trace elements. Campbells soup (which I don't usually recommend), just came out with a whole new line of lower sodium soups made with sea salt! I thought that was a breakthru! :)

[Fedora]

We use butter not good! I do prefer 100% whole wheat breat (7 grains) by Earthgrains, but my wife likes white bread. We eat a lot of garden veggies because I have a garden. This year was bad because of drought in NC but we still had a lot of hot peppers (habanero and jalopena) and okra. The flour is a problem with the okra b/c we usually saterate the okra with it before frying (which probably isn't best way to fix it) Wife has been experimenting with okra and tomatoes cooked or steamed which is very good. Salt: I always try and use seasalt but my wife usually uses regular salt. Where do grits and eggs fit into the picture. We usually get eggs from sister in law who has a farm with chickens (so they are not store-bought). Wife and I have talked and commited to try one of the diets when you post them. Still waiting on book to come from amazon (don't know why it is taking so long). My wife and I have been taking a lot of herb suppliments here lately to get off prescription medicine (Sinus Support and Fenugreek & Thyme for both of us and Saw Pelmetto, Zinc, and Milkthistle for me only. I know I need to cut out the EZ Mac and cheeze everyday and probably cut back on Doritos and Little Debbie cakes (just traded hot peppers for 3 boxes of Little Debbies), oh the temptation!!! Also just planted greens and turnips in garden for winter (started raining two days ago and is still raining as I write this [more than 3 and 1/2 inches] so greens should begin to come up. I also bought two 20 oz stainless steel containers to drink water out of (remember we have a filter on sink and want to quit buying bottled water as you advised). Coffee will probably be my downfall (8 cups a day-summer, more in winter). If I don't drink coffee I have a headache. The herb store girl said since I was A+ type blood that would help some but still needed to cut back. Hope the water containers will help (must resist temptation to fill with coffee). I am going to make a commitment to do better though and my wife joins me in this feat. The temptations are great though, yesterday I was taken out to fish camp and ate fried flounder and shrimp. Tonight we are going to church hot dog sale for supper and last Friday I ate shrimp and grits (maybe that wasn't too bad). We also been trying to eat sub sanwiches Veggie style when we go out. Peace be with you!!!

[Skip]

Fedora, how nice that you can grow your own veggies! That's always the best source. :) Eggs, imo, are pretty damn good. If they're coming from free-range, hunt and peck gals, they're probably fine.

Some ppl say eggs are bad because they have so much cholesterol, found in yokes. Others say they're not bad if you don't eat too many. Still others say it's the perfect food, tasty protein that comes in it's own recyclable packaging! (Don't forget to compost your egg shells)

I say the bad is balanced by the good. Egg whites are high in lecithin which supposedly counteracts the cholesterol clogging yokes. Therefore eggs are balanced. They're also an excellent source of protein, esp. for vegetarians who also eat eggs.

What kind of oil are you using for frying? Olive oil is good, as is canola. Soy and corn oils tend to be GM foods, so it's good to avoid those. Butter and lard are probably the worst, esp. for frying. Make sure your oil has no trans-fats (you want non-hydrogenated).

Good luck to both of you with your new diet. I hope to have one or two diets up by Monday for ppl to try if they like. :)

Ah, I guess I didn't address caffeine yet, either. Caffeine's effect upon the body is substantial. It's also addictive with nasty withdrawal symptoms that occur over the course of 2-3 days.

Caffeine appears in teas, coffee, mate, guarana and chocolate. It's a natural pesticide and occurs in the leaves and fruit of many plants. It's a psychoactive stimulant that also gets added to sodas and energy drinks.

Caffeine dilates blood vessels which has a number of effects, including enhanced concentration and a more energetic frame of mind. Caffeine acts to inhibit dopamine absorbtion in the brain, which means more dopamine in cell synapses, and a good feeling!

Excessive caffeine can cause a number of problems, even miscarriage or death (you'd have to take a lot of caffeine pills to kill yourself). But the most common is insomnia. I try to never drink caffeine after 11pm, as I find it's effects last 12 hours for me (different people, different effect times). So if I hope to go to bed by 11 or 12, I have to stop drinking it 12 hours earlier.

I go for one or two cups of half-caf in the morning, decaf tea or coffee at night. If you have problems sleeping, it definitely means it's time to cut down.

If you drink tons of it as Fedora does, then you'll probably not have a sleep problem because your intake is constant, so the level of caffeine is steady and your body adapts to it.

But the long-term consequences of more than 2 cups a day is not good. You might experience nervousness, irritability, anxiety, tremulousness, muscle twitching, insomnia, headaches, respiratory alkalosis and heart palpitations. I've experienced most of these at one time or another after too much coffee.

[Fedora]

Forgot about the oil. I use Bertolli Extra Virgin Olive Oil (trans fat 0). This is for okra. When I fry eggs though I usually use butter. Reckon I need to change. Thanks for the good advise.

[Skip]

Yeah, eggs are fine to fry in olive oil. I can't go back to butter because it makes the eggs taste too slimy and heavy. That Bertolli is very good stuff! It's too bad olive oil is so expensive now! Demand has increased so much and the Spanish can't be bothered to harvest their olives anymore. They don't want to work like that these days! So supply has decreased...

[umm...ya]

I use olive oil and peanut oil when I cook and instead of butter I use and 100% canola margarine. As for sugar I consume more than I should. I have a sweet tooth. But I have cut back a lot in the last few months. I have cut out most soda I don't put sugar in my tea or coffee any more. I use it sparingly when I cook but When I am making breads I do use regular sugar. I can't seem to get the bread to rise when I use raw sugar. I don't know what it is but it doesn't work for me.

edit: and I LOVE fresh eggs. They are the best!!

[Divinaeon]

Well most of the breads and baked goods I eat are probably chock full o' white sugar and flour, but I don't eat too many of those (and I'm a vegetarian) and I'm not too big on dairy either. I really like cheese, and it's hard to buy organic cheese around here, but the eggs we use are cage-free, vegetarian fed, organic, etc etc eggs. I rarely use butter, and I drink a lot of soy milk.

Question: Is there bad vs. good soy milk? I know you were talking about how they process wheat and grains, so is there a similar problem with soy products, or is soy just generally good for you all around no matter what (besides being a natural source of estrogen and giving men unwanted assets)?

[squawkers7]

Salt~as a child I couldn't add salt to any of my food, as I would get a bloody nose everytime. Even now if I eat to many chips or microwave popcorn I end up with fat lips that look like I got punched in the face. Even now if I go to someone's home to eat & they salt the food while cooking, it is to salty for me cuz I guess I just ain't used to it.
My cousin that died recently was diabetic and was having major problems with her kidneys.(she went to dialysis 3 times a week) The docs had told her not to have alot of salt and we had a hard time shopping for stuff like spaghetti sauce & peanut butter & whatever.

Today I went to the general store here at the canyon after reading this thread and for the first time in a long time (probably the first time in the 7 months that I've been here) I started reading all the labels on food I usually eat here.....OMG~what a surprise! I must of wandered around for over an hour, not knowing what I was gonna buy, cuz everytime I looked at a label it had way to much sodium & sugar...some things I normally eat had 500-600mg of sodium. Even those so-called healthy protein bars have to much in my opinion. I used to eat them almost every day for awhile. Maybe I should of checked labels before I went to the clinic here complaining of headaches & other stuff and listen to them tell me I had a sinus problem (and giving me a $300 bill for the visit & labwork)...and I never had a sinus problem before. But I don't know...does to much salt & sugar cause headaches? high blood pressure...duh, of course salt will do that.

[Skip]

Salt~as a child I couldn't add salt to any of my food, as I would get a bloody nose everytime. Even now if I eat to many chips or microwave popcorn I end up with fat lips that look like I got punched in the face. Even now if I go to someone's home to eat & they salt the food while cooking, it is to salty for me cuz I guess I just ain't used to it.
My cousin that died recently was diabetic and was having major problems with her kidneys.(she went to dialysis 3 times a week) The docs had told her not to have alot of salt and we had a hard time shopping for stuff like spaghetti sauce & peanut butter & whatever.

Today I went to the general store here at the canyon after reading this thread and for the first time in a long time (probably the first time in the 7 months that I've been here) I started reading all the labels on food I usually eat here.....OMG~what a surprise! I must of wandered around for over an hour, not knowing what I was gonna buy, cuz everytime I looked at a label it had way to much sodium & sugar...some things I normally eat had 500-600mg of sodium. Even those so-called healthy protein bars have to much in my opinion. I used to eat them almost every day for awhile. Maybe I should of checked labels before I went to the clinic here complaining of headaches & other stuff and listen to them tell me I had a sinus problem (and giving me a $300 bill for the visit & labwork)...and I never had a sinus problem before. But I don't know...does to much salt & sugar cause headaches? high blood pressure...duh, of course salt will do that.Yes, too much sugar too can cause headaches, but usually you have to eat a LOT! But everyone's body is different, and you seem to be more sensitive than most to salt.

And yes, you may have high blood pressure which causes headaches. Pollution can cause headaches too, but in the Grand Canyon, there's not usually too much pollution (but some days there is!).

If you're surviving on processed, packaged foods as is often the case when you live far from farms and produce markets, you put your health at greater risk.

It's always better to make a meal from scratch than to eat any packaged product. But there's not always a choice in some cases.

Living in the dry desert, you probably need a bit more salt than normal, esp. if you work outside, sweating out salts every day. But the amount found in packaged foods exceeds anyone's needs.

So cut back on packaged foods if you can, making your own from scratch when possible. If you use a premade tomato sauce say, add a can of tomatoes or fresh tomatoes to dilute the salt in the sauce. I do that all the time, make a sauce from scratch (saute up onions & mushrooms, etc., add tomatoes) then add some sauce from a jar to thicken. I never add more salt!

It's kinda funny when I have guests over. I never add salt to my cooked foods, and I never have a salt or pepper shaker out. So my guests always go crazy. My food tastes very bland to those who are used to lots of salt (even though there are usually lots of spices in it). But I never miss the salt as I'm used to low levels in my diet.

Once you are used to a low sodium diet, anything with a lot of salt will turn you off or make you feel very weird after eating it.

If you haven't checked your blood pressure, you should. Especially any older hippies out there! High blood pressure sneaks up on you over the years, and anyone 40 or older should definitely get it checked each year.

I have to take a bp pill and a diuretic every day to keep my bp down. Fortunately the drugs are the least problematic of all the ones available, and they work well. They're also the cheapest ones on the market, I pay $5 a month for one, $2.50 for the other (enalapril and HCTZ).

The diuretic flushes salt out of the body and when taken in combo with the bp pill they are more effective together. If I were to stop drinking caffeine and get more exercise I probably could cut back or eliminate the drugs. That is a goal I really should focus on myself! :)

[Skip]

Question: Is there bad vs. good soy milk? I know you were talking about how they process wheat and grains, so is there a similar problem with soy products, or is soy just generally good for you all around no matter what (besides being a natural source of estrogen and giving men unwanted assets)?There is some controversy over soy milk today. Like many soy products, it is highly processed, made into a powder, then reconsitituted. This is not the traditional way to make soymilk. The soybeans should be soaked, cooked, blended with water, boiled again, then strained. That makes soymilk.

But that is not the industrial process and some fear that process makes soy milk less digestible with more side effects.

Certainly there is a choice among soymilks. Most soymilk sold in America is flavored, sweetened, and sometimes fortified with vitamins. In other words it's become another mass-marketed, factory made food.

However there are organic brands of soymilk, which at least ensures they're not using GMO soy beans, which likely have more residual pesticides and other chemicals. The organic brands are usually made on a smaller scale, with a lot more awareness of the processing and its effects upon the body.

You don't need soymilk to be sweetened and flavored (sometimes artificially). You'll have to look very closely at the ingredients to find a brand that is organic and unsweetened and unflavored! Once you find it, if you like it, stick with it! Trader Joes has exactly that, for around $1.20 or so a box, about half the price for the name brands!

If you can find fresh soymilk, not reconstituted, that would be best, or you can make it from scratch, but it's a long tedious process that takes like an hour and a half. But then you can also make tofu with the soymilk, you can use the Okara (left over soy solids) to substitute for meat (it makes great burgers!)

I don't believe the hype about the estrogen, sorry. I've been eating soy products continuously for 35 years and I've yet to grow breasts or lose any hair (I wish!).

I'd really like to know who it is who comes up with this stuff, because obviously they want you drinking something else, probably milk. Soymilk is a direct threat to the dairy industry, which is huge and a big lobbying group. So my guess is any antisoy propaganda originates there.

[Divinaeon]

Thank you so much for the info! I usually drink Silk because of the taste, and I'll be sure to check to see if it's organic, etc.

Thanks!

[Skip]

I was going to mention Silk, they have an unsweetened version that is very good. But watch out because sometimes it might still have flavor, like fake vanilla even if it's not the vanilla version!

It always amazes me that they have to flavor & sweeten soy milk! If ppl want it flavored and sweetened, can't they do it themselves? Their marketing staff just assumes no one will buy it if it doesn't taste like a milkshake! Ridiculous!

Everyone should remember that if they don't find what they're looking for on the shelf, you can always ask them to order what you want. Some places do that automatically, but big supermarket chains often have to take what they get!

I once asked for a certain brand of product and was told they just request the generic name and get whatever they get... If that's the case, then go somewhere else to shop!

[IlUvMuSIc]

Hmmmm.... Well we do buy organic wherever we can (in the UK Sainsburys and shops like that are probably the best for it) and we eat brown bread. We get wholemeal flour (i have grown to love brown bread) and ermmm we dont eat margarine and not much butter.

We use ghee (well my ma :)) in cooking and sugar is a no go since my dad is like health mad.

Salt id say is not too bad but can be improved as my mum cooks our dinner and lunch is cooked every morning (normally pasta etc with veggie sauce) so we dont have ready meals etc. Though i need to cut back on the cereal bars... And i will.

[shaggie]

There's a saying, "Don't let your body be the burial ground for dead animals."

.

[Skip]

No matter what they say about estrogen in soy milk, it is NOTHING compared to the estrogen in Cow's milk! That is many times worse and has been linked to so many diseases including prostate cancer, cadmium poisoning, etc.

In addition to estrogen, Cows milk provides more than 50 other hormones and:
Most cow's milk has measurable quantities of herbicides, pesticides, dioxins (up to 200 times the safe levels), up to 52 powerful antibiotics (perhaps 53, with LS-50), blood, pus, feces, bacteria and viruses. (Cow's milk can have traces of anything the cow ate... including such things as radioactive fallout from nuke testing ... (the 50's strontium-90 problem). Here's the article about it:
http://www.rense.com/general26/milk.htm

If anyone thinks soy is so bad, go drink your cows milk, eat your cheese (10xs the concentration of the above toxins), eat your butter (20xs the concentration!).

I hope you live a long healthy life....

I find it incredibly ironic that the milk industry pushes these studies criticizing Soy milk, when their own product is so much worse, with so many other toxins causing human diseases besides estrogen...

[broken_bride23]

my question is this...its where my confusion sits...
how is eating meat unhealthy for an omnivore? humans are omnivores...we eat meat and plants...is just supplying the body with protein and the other beneficial nutrients from meat, with pills or porcessed supplements REALLY the answer to eating more healthy? didnt god make us omnivores because we were supposed to eat meat or did he make us omnivores to try to discover new ways to supply our bodies with the nutrients we need?

[Skip]

There are literally HUNDREDS of reasons not to eat meat.

Several dozen are the CHEMICALS that cattle are fed. Hormones, antibiotics, genetically engineered grains, etc.

The damage raising cattle does to the environment and the entire planet is enormous. So much good farmland is dedicated to cattle, whereas we could get 20 times more protein from the same land by growing crops.

Cattle are responsible for most of the E-coli outbreaks in the world.

There are so many reasons, please look them up, and LEARN!

If you're part of this class you SHOULD be reading Diet for a Small Planet which goes into this.

[broken_bride23]

my question was genuine and not intended to be taken as an attack.

[honeyhannah]

Well, perhaps as a species we are omnivores in general, but that does not mean we were made to be omnivores. If that were the case, wouldn't we be able to eat meat like other animals do, by tearing into their flesh, with our teeth, raw, we would be able to hunt like other meat eating animals do, with our bodies, not weapons. If you seach the American Cancer Society website you will see that cooked meat is loaded with toxins and carcinogens that cause cancer. That is answer enough for me that we are not meant to consume that. Also there are charts that compare the characteristics of omnivores, herbivores and humans and we have overwhelmingly high similarities to herbivores, not omnivores.

As for the oil, I just wanted to say that olive oil becomes rancid very easily, and canola oil even moreso. Olive oil is best in a dark container and used raw, as a dressing, etc. The best heat resistant oils are coconut oil and grapeseed oil. Also you can make a makeshift butter by putting olive oil and sea salt into ice cube trays and freezing it.

[BeOna]

There was a time when humans were nomads, hunters and gatherers. Then came the agricultural revolution, which in my opinion was one of the first downfalls of mankind. We stopped following the land. We began setting up civilizations and lost our hunting and foraging instincts. Individual families no longer had to be responsible for their own survival. If you've ever driven from San Fran to LA there is a spot where the land becomes black because as far as you can see there are cows upon cows packed together waiting to die so we can eat burgers and steaks. or have you ever seen the feathers flying from one of those trucks on the interstate filled with chickens who've never even had the chance to spread thier wings. some of these animals are even farmed indoors and never see the light of day. this is not natural. i cant imagine it to be healthy. i could go on forever but i will end with a big FUCK THE FDA!

[Bilby]

The Three White Poisons:

Salt I am not so sure about that. One researcher to dispute the idea is Dr Michael Alderman, Professor of Medicine and Population Health Albert Einstein College of Medicine New York, USA.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/healthreport/stories/2006/1587391.htm#



White Sugar While I would agree it is not particularly nutritious, according this researcher high fructose corn syrup is far worse and responsible for the rise in global obesity.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/healthreport/stories/2007/1969924.htm#transcript


Bleached Flour Ok it is not the most healthy food but I am not so sure buying wholemeal flour is such a good idea either.The problem is that once wheat is ground up, the wheat germ oil starts to go rancid.If you have your own wheat mill and can grind it up to make your own bread then great, but otherwise I would rather eat a nice bit of French baguette or crusty Italian bread with a generous dollop of butter.
I highly recommend avoiding using butter, substituting olive, canola or organic soy oils when possible. Butter and other animal fats do contain a different type of trans-fat but in much reduced levels. You mean conjuncted trans fat? My research shows that conjuncted trans fat is naturally occurring and not unhealthy and may in fact be a healthy.


But they too are known to contribute to obesity and heart problems due to their high cholesterol content. I thought that dietary cholesterol has no bearing on a person's blood cholesterol levels.Talking of which in the doctor's surgery the other day I asked the doctor is having a higher blood cholesterol level being associated with heart problems, the cause or effect? He said he did not know.


Meat and Dairy Products

Yup! Eating factory farmed meat is one of the worst things we can do for ourselves and our planet! Every farm animal is injected with antibiotics that when consumed by humans lowers our resistance to disease. They’re fed hormones to fatten them up when they’re still young. These same hormones end up in children who eat meat, causing them to fatten up for the slaughter as well.

I agree that factory farming is revolting so what about free range animal based food?





See Frances Moore Lappe's Diet for a Small Planet for more on this.

I thought she has revised opinions on the contents of this book. The publishers keep printing it because it sells.

For some time I have thought that big food processing conglomerates that make huge amounts of money by convincing large numbers of people that processed food is good for them and traditional food is not, with all the money the company directors make will indubitably go out to eat at upmarket restaurants that serve traditional foods.

[flytothe_sky]

I eat a lot of pasta that isn't whole grain, & I checked the ingredients and it said that it was made with durum flour. Does anyone know what that is?

As for other stuff, I could substitute white eggs for organic eggs. I'm trying to cut back on how much butter I use. Eventually I'd like to try that Earth Balance stuff if I can find it around here. And sea salt is always tasty, I could get that instead of iodized salt. The problem is, I'm still living at home & my dad won't budge on the food products he gets. He usually just buys the cheapest things he can find.

With my mom it's a little better though. She uses sea salt and we make lots of good veggies & other healthy foods together :) along with using whole grain tortillas. Those are so delicious, I actually prefer them to white tortillas.

[Skip]

I'm sorry Bilby but Dr. Mercola is NOT an UNBIASED SOURCE!

He sells MEAT on his website, so NOTHING he says is acceptable in these classes, got it?

Please pick sources that aren't trying to sell us something...

Also I have found the ABC (Australia Broadcasting Company) to be a propaganda arm of the Australian Food Industry as well as their other monopolistic industries.

It's all corporate propaganda. They're trying to sell us too.

[IdentityCrisis]

Why does selling meat make someone a biased source on HFCS? He doesn't -just- sell meat. I looked at the site and there's a huge variety of products. Classes such as these are supposed to be open to discussion, regardless of personal opinion on lifestyle choices such as eating meat (this is about properties of food, not about social justice). When I read things like, "He sells MEAT on his website, so NOTHING he says is acceptable in these classes, got it?", especially with that last "got it?", I see censorship fueled by personal anger and distaste.

That's the reason I hated conventional school so much - the teachers weren't willing to discuss anything other than what was in the curriculum and what they believed to be true.

Honestly, I thought Free School would be different; I thought it would have a bit more open-minded class ... in class.

[Skip]

Why does selling meat make someone a biased source on HFCS? He doesn't -just- sell meat. I looked at the site and there's a huge variety of products. Classes such as these are supposed to be open to discussion, regardless of personal opinion on lifestyle choices such as eating meat (this is about properties of food, not about social justice). When I read things like, "He sells MEAT on his website, so NOTHING he says is acceptable in these classes, got it?", especially with that last "got it?", I see censorship fueled by personal anger and distaste.

That's the reason I hated conventional school so much - the teachers weren't willing to discuss anything other than what was in the curriculum and what they believed to be true.

Honestly, I thought Free School would be different; I thought it would have a bit more open-minded class ... in class.
Unfortunately there's MORE to the story, which I didn't feel the need to expound upon, but now I will.

Dr. Mercola has posted bogus shit on his website, that others have quoted here, in many cases he is the ONLY SOURCE for the info he claims. So I have every right to discredit his bullshit website and I am in a good position as webmaster here to know when someone is full of it.

I have seen people post numerous references to bogus information that always goes back to Dr. Mercola. I'm sure if I did a little more digging I'd find more questionable info there, but rather than have ALL OF US waste our time with his B.S. (yes there's some real facts there too), you are being CLUED in about it in advance. If you prefer to remain clueless or defend his B.S., you don't need to participate here.

From now on I guess I'll just ban anymore references to his site as spam, as that is what it has become. He is a COMMERCIAL site pushing meat products, why do we need commercials here?

Are you here to learn or post corporate propaganda and spam?

That's another lesson some people need to learn - question your sources!

[trekker]

I like to snack on raw carrots when I have them. I like to eat oats because of the fiber, but I like the flavored oat packets. How much worse is it to eat that than whole oats cooked. The price of organic foods and healthy vegies by me is very restrictive. I need variety in what I eat. When your on a budget sometime Chef Boy R D is a viable option unfortunately. I try not to overeat, but sometimes the cravings are too strong. Fasting sometimes is a good thing though.

[hippiestead]

But what about high fruitose corn syrup...chemically modified sugar substitute? This stuff almost killed me, I consider it to be worse than white sugar.

[Lady of the Freaks]

But what about high fruitose corn syrup...chemically modified sugar substitute? This stuff almost killed me, I consider it to be worse than white sugar.
my co-op recently removed everything with corn syrup as an ingredient from the shelves.

[Meifeng488]

I don't like eating factory meats, but I will eat game because it's more fresh and, I believe, more edible.
Since i rarely eat game meats (actualy only once...) i eats mostly fruits nuts and vegies!!!:hat:
I will never stop eating dairy products
Anyone ever thought of using beer instead of butter lol :cheers2:??
oh yes and also I NEVER cook with white sugar or salt; stuff will kill you however fries and chips I am addicted to and my mom wont ever stop using the stuff....WHY!:eek:
also brown sugar (refined white sugar) is worse to eat
raw sugar which is also brown but with little to no additives is healthier:piggy:

[Bilby]

I'm sorry Bilby but Dr. Mercola is NOT an UNBIASED SOURCE!

He sells MEAT on his website, so NOTHING he says is acceptable in these classes, got it?

Please pick sources that aren't trying to sell us something...


I have only been getting the Mercola newsletter for a relatively short period of time. I
was aware of a commercial aspect to his website but I was not aware that he sells meat on his website until you mentioned it. What he generally promotes on newsletters is coconut oil, krill oil and enamelled saucepans. You can buy coconut oil at Asian grocery stores. I prefer to get my long chain omega 3’s from oily fish and I already have saucepans .One thing is for sure, he is no friend of the pharmaceutical companies. I would have thought you would have equal contempt for pharmaceutical companies as would most regular posters on Hipforums.

That's another lesson some people need to learn - question your sources!
Absolutely! I have frequently asked posters on HF and other people else where for scientific verification for claims they were making.


. I find some of Dr Mercola’s statements questionable but the same can be said of many other sources.

I found the ABC (Australia Broadcasting Company) to be a propaganda arm of the Australian Food Industry as well as their other monopolistic industries.

It's all corporate propaganda. They're trying to sell us too.


See,
http://www.hipforums.com/newforums/showthread.php?t=326911&f=528

[IdentityCrisis]

Unfortunately there's MORE to the story, which I didn't feel the need to expound upon, but now I will.

Dr. Mercola has posted bogus shit on his website, that others have quoted here, in many cases he is the ONLY SOURCE for the info he claims. So I have every right to discredit his bullshit website and I am in a good position as webmaster here to know when someone is full of it.

I have seen people post numerous references to bogus information that always goes back to Dr. Mercola. I'm sure if I did a little more digging I'd find more questionable info there, but rather than have ALL OF US waste our time with his B.S. (yes there's some real facts there too), you are being CLUED in about it in advance. If you prefer to remain clueless or defend his B.S., you don't need to participate here.

From now on I guess I'll just ban anymore references to his site as spam, as that is what it has become. He is a COMMERCIAL site pushing meat products, why do we need commercials here?

Are you here to learn or post corporate propaganda and spam?

That's another lesson some people need to learn - question your sources!



Whoa, calm down there. I'm not "defending" anyone. I am questioning my source - you (not that I disagree, but hear me out).

You obviously have a personal beef (no pun intended) with this man. Which is fine, maybe there is reason. But you can't just ban references to his site from other people. I mean what kind of totalitarian system is that? People should be able to reference whatever they want, even if it is total bullshit. You and everyone else have the right to say "That's bullshit; here's why" but to just pretend it doesn't exist and ban any mention of it is pure censorship. To use your status as webmaster in order to enforce this is also quite shocking. The reason I'm on the website in the first place is for the freedom of speech and activism I see. If I'm now finding out that the webmaster is some sort of totalitarian ruler, I'll just leave.

Webmaster or not, we are all in good position to tell bullshit for ourselves. We don't need a protector to tell us who we can listen to and trust and who we can't. We need the benefit of using our own minds.

Opinions are fine "on side notes", but this is really ridiculous. You can't force everyone to think like you. You can express your views and give back-up information to reinforce it, but you can not shove ideas down peoples' throats and say "Accept it or don't participate at all" ("If you prefer to remain clueless or defend his B.S., you don't need to participate here.")

No, I don't "prefer to remain clueless," but that would sure be my preference if I just took everything you said for fact, wouldn't it?

You seem tired of dealing with this man and quite frankly, worn out from explaining your reasons all the time. That's no excuse to try and make people think a certain way without any reinforcing facts.

I'm not talking about who is right and who is wrong and who is evil and who is not. I'm talking about Free School. I'm talking about Freedom.


A part of me just thinks you'll get so angry that I'm not just bowing to you as my supreme guardian that you'll ban me from this entire website and then remove all of these messages. To think that way about a person is truly sad.

I'm willing to listen to what you have to say if you have anything to say at all (an argument based on sources, articles, etc.). But I'm not willing to just listen to uncontrolled anger fueled by hatred.

There is a certain level of freedom and respect that users are entitled to and I'm really not seeing it here.



(And YES, I am tired of being crucified for being a Peace Loving Liberal) - this is not peaceful at all. This entire forum is filled with hypocrisy.

[Argiope aurantia]

You know, I was really enjoying this until the battle started. The sad prt is that no one really seems to be in the right. Even I am about to enter the fray out of frustration.

Bilby, did you really have to counter nearly every claim that Skip made at once? This is his(her?) class, after all. If you're so passionate and knowledgable, perhaps you could gather more sources (All sides must be represented for academic balance.) and show us your logic and research in another Free Class? Or maybe discuss the matter with Skip in a personal message or a thread in the cooking forums? I do congratulate you for your cool(ish) head in this, but it is very distracting.

IdentityCrisis, as much as I admire your devotion to freedom, it is not the topic of this thread. Food is. There is a difference between freedom of speech and disruption. The personal message route is available to you, as well.

Skip, while I admit that you seem to know more about the topic than I do, and I am very interested in learning more about a healty diet, I notice that while you tell your students to check their sources you do not post yours. Are you a dietician? Do you have any source other than "Diet for a Small Planet?" For all we know, you could be the owner of an evil vegetable company who seeks to discredit all mainstream food dealers to boost his(her?) own sales. Insert tongue in cheek here, of course. I mean to say that we, as students, must take all of our sources, including you and Mr. Mercola, with a grain of salt.

As for unbiased sources, I don't think that there is such a thing. One must look at all arguments and decide for oneself, or what use are our logic skills? For myself, I have never heard of this Mercola person. If someone could post a link, perhaps we could all look at his site and discuss (in another thread, of course) what we think of his legitimacy. As an educator and a hippie, I am sure that you understand the need for independent reasoning.


However this is resolved, could it be done elsewhere so we can continue with the discussion on food?

I am a beginning lacto-ovo-vegetarian, trading my old WalMart bags (Don't go there. ;)) to a local free-range chicken farmer for organic eggs. He's not "certified," or anything like that, but he raises them for the love of chickens rather than for money. He can't afford dangerous chemicals for his chickens, I know that. I still drink the usual milk and eat the usual dairy products, but the switch from meat was a large step for me that seems to have cured my lactose-intolerance. I don't know how it happened, but after twelve years of no dairy I am not willing to give that up.

What would be a good next step for me, diet-wise? I managed to cut caffeine to negligible amounts (My husband insists every month that chocolate must stay in my diet.) until finals week, when working the night shift full-time made caffeine a necessity. That will have to stay until after I graduate. . . or conceive, whichever comes first. I suspect that many cases of depression, including my own, may be related to pre-natal caffeine addiction, but I do not know how to test this. Bleached flour may also be impractical for now, as I am considering his tastes as well as mine.

Perhaps sugar and corn syrup could be reduced? I went Veg to avoid a genetic predisposition for type 2 diabetes and lose weight, so perhaps that would be a good idea. I need a little more salt than usual, as I tend towards low blood pressure, but I do not know how much I need to eat. I probably eat too much. Turning my soda consumption into green tea could drastically reduce sugar and salt (There's a lot of sodium in sodas. Hence the term "soda.") while helping my weight and not affecting my caffeine level too badly. Would this be advisable?