Research continues to challenge our concepts about food, how it is manufactured, and how it is consumed.
American culture has evolved into a society that, for the most part, is more and more removed from the immediacy of nature. We can use air conditioning to insulate us from the reality of weather. We can correct from heat, cold, humidity and storms with the exception of major weather events such as hurricanes and floods. We rarely know the phases of the moon or the change of the seasons the way farmers and families of old did. Most of us do not grow our own food and do not experience, know, or are become interested in the manufacturing process of the foods we eat.
We are marketed by food industries, grocery stores, television shows, and other media to take the easy, comfortable and fast way to obtain our food. We buy processed foods and prepared meals and utilize handy quick packaging to pop into our microwaves and ovens, or have delivered to our homes.
In the mean time, we have become a nation of obese people killing ourselves with lifestyles that promote health concerns such as heart disease (27% of us), Cancer (25%) stroke (10%), diabetes (4-5%) and Alzheimer’s (4-5) (according to the show Food Choices). Many scientists and Nutritionists believe that this is largely due to our food production methods and our food consumption choices. This show suggests that we need to change the way we think about these things and we need to change our behaviors.
Their recommendations? A plant based lifestyle is best. They do not contend that we should never eat meat but that we should drastically reduce our meat consumption. They argue that it is a myth that we must eat meat in order to obtain our needed amount of protein. Irrespective of fad diets and quick solutions to weight loss we need to become a nation that primarily eat these four principal food groups for our caloric consumption:
- Fruit
- Vegetables
- Whole grains
- Legumes
These groups are all high in fiber and low in processed foods. If we make these changes we can correct our death rate from diseases of nutritional ignorance and destructive lifestyle choices.
There are discussions in the program regarding the concept of being Vegan or Vegetarian and of the challenge of eating in moderation. There is a discussion of cultural evolution from hunter gatherer societies into modern industrial societies. They suggest that we decrease or eliminate our consumption of dairy products and that we increase our daily intake of fiber and potassium and reduce our consumption of protein.
In this Healthcast, we will examine these proposals in the light of what we believe about diet, and healthy lifestyles.
This Health cast was written and presented by Dr. Kathy Maupin, M.D., Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Expert and Author, with Brett Newcomb, MA., LPC., Family Counselor, Presenter and Author. www.BioBalanceHealth.com.
