HEALTHY EATING!
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Moving from Hyper-Processed 'Foods' Back to Natural and Nutritious Foods
Though getting hyper-toxic metals like aluminum and mercury out of vaccines and other products might be one of the biggest institutional steps to help improve the overall health of the nation, it's still extremely important to get everyone thinking about the quality of what they're eating. As they quite truly say, 'you are what you eat'!
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Americans and the world at large have been steadily lulled into eating increasingly processed and biologically incompatible pseudo-foods. From the ubiquitous high-fructose-corn syrup and glyphosate-laden grain-products, and oxidized seed oils that occupy almost all grocery store shelves, to food-dyes and other mystery ingredients that you can puzzle about if you dare to read ingredient lists closely, our modern 'food forest' is anything but.
Before we can really get into what is or isn't a healthy way to eat - and where RFK Jr. and the MAHA outlook figure into the whole question - it's probably a good idea to make sure we're up to speed with at least basic information about nutrition and dietary choices in general:
Getting Down to Basics
As someone who's looked into the question of 'What is a truly healthy diet?' for years, I can say it really is one of the more controversial topics out there. There's hard-core vegetarians and hard-core totally carnivores, raw-foodists and cutting-edge bio-hackers - really everything else in-between!
While there certainly is considerable variance between which foods are best for some people versus for others - there fortunately are some basic principles that really apply to everyone.
The question of the 'ideal human diet' is really one of the most complex topics too - yet if looked at from another angle the essential basics can be relatively simple.
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One could explore deep into elaborately byzantine and intricately interrelated bio-chemical processes within the many organs. cells and organelles throughout one's body - figuring out just which nutrient does what and where... - or you could look at a more direct question like: 'What are the real essentials that a human body needs, and what are the toxic-substances that it should always avoid?'
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Even such a question like this isn't 100% black and white - but the most important principle is that we do best on the foods and other nutrients that our species evolved and thrived on for thousands of years - and we're generally harmed by substances and new chemical configurations that our bodies are not designed or equipped to process.
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To really understand how this plays out in our actual dietary choices - let's look a little more deeply into the basics of nutrition....
As we proceed further down this exploration of nutrition it's going to start to get a bit in-depth and deep - so if you want to stop here - let's just say the essence of healthy eating centers around as much as possible eating natural unprocessed foods - raw as well as cooked.
Food choices should generally be centered around vegetables, together with healthy sources of proteins and fats - whether of animal or vegetable origin. occasional fruits and quality grains can be a good idea too for most people.
Good vegetable-based protein sources can include nuts, seeds, beans and various powders from pea-protein to spirulina and beyond. Organic is certainly ideal too - if you can comfortably afford it. otherwise look into which foods have lower versus higher levels of pesticide residue.
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Advisable animal-based protein sources can range from non-factory farm meats of various types, eggs from well treated birds, fish from healthy waters and various dairy products -from milks to powders.
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Healthy fats and oils could include Coconut oil or Cocoa butter and grass-fed dairy butter for cooking as olive oil, and occasional polyunsaturated fats like cod-liver oil and non-rancid flax-seed oil.
But work hard to avoid highly-processed oils such as omega-6 dominant oils like Canola or soy - that often are quite loaded with pesticide residues too.
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Again, exactly the best combinations of foods can vary by individuals, specific health conditions and one's unique goals. Nutrition is really such a big and kind of unwieldy topic - but the above overview is a great general foundation if you're currently hesitant to look deeper.
Nutrition Pre-School:
Three Super-Basics & Three Controversies!
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Even before we get to the above-mentioned 'Three Super Basics' let's look at Two even more basics of human nutrition: the Two Main divisions of nutrient types: Macro (big) Nutrients & Micro (small) Nutrients:
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Macro-Nutrients include those nutritional elements that our bodies tend to require large amounts of primarily Carbohydrates, Proteins and Fats - along with more subtle nutrients such as Water and healthy Light exposure.
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Micro-Nutrients on the other hand are nutritional elements that we only need in small amounts - but these are often the nutritional substances without which the macro-nutrients don't function well in our bodies or, even worse, end up causing damage. Key vitamins, minerals and enzymes as well as some more esoteric substances are examples of key micro-nutrients.
We'll Start with the Macro-Nutrients here - as you may have guessed even these three most basic nutritional components of food - Carbohydrates, Proteins & Fats embody the Three Controversies mentioned in the subtitle above. ​
Going Big - The Three Main MACRO-NUTRIENTS
CARBOHYDRATES * PROTEINS * FATS
A LITTLE BIT OF CARBS TO GET US STARTED
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Carbohydrates... hmm.. that's a bit of a tough one - you got gluten allergies, diabetes, syndrome X, keto-genic diets and a number of other tricky factors tied to it. so for now - let's just say - that Cabohydrates - they're basically complex carbohydrates - like grains and such and simple carbohydrates - sugars of various types. In general carbohydrates are the macro-nutrient that give us easy energy - and humans used to get them in our diet from fruits, vegetables, tubers and occasionally a sweet like honey.
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Natural Carbs vs. Processed Carbs
When found in their natural sources carbohydrates come along with a bunch of important micro-nutrients - the right vitamins and minerals - that help our body use the carbohydrates well - and safely. That's one of the big problems with our grocery store Processed and Ultra-Processed 'foods' - they most often contain an over-abundance of carbohydrates without the micro-nutrients that allow our bodies to process them well. along with that there's usually toxic chemical additives as well as chemically engineered versions of the some of the absence natural micro-nutrients - and often these engineered 'nutrients' fail at the functions of their natural counterparts. That's really way-oversimplifying things - but hopefully at least helps give a basic idea of why modern store-bought carb-based foods can be harmful to our health. A little bit of that every once in a while isn't too bad - but overtime the effects can really add up.
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But rather than going deeper into the many issues with carbs here - allergies, blood-sugar imbalance, weight-gain, dysbiosis, etc. - let's skip to something a bit 'simpler' - The Macro-Nutrient that's been especially in the news around RFK Jr. and the MAHA scene lately - FAT.
As the battle around whether RFK Jr will get into office as the new Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services heats up, a side debate has come up around whether or not processed vegetable oils are healthy or unhealthy, and whether animal fats such as tallow are better.
Let's get into the thick of it!...
The FATS Of The Land
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Fats are a nutrient around which public opinion as well as scientific research certainly been on a rollercoaster ride over the past 30 or so years.
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Used to be that higher-fat beef was seen as the premium kind of meat - then in the 80s or 90s or so the saturated fat found in beef, butter and other animal-sources became seemingly the source of all evil. And even worse was Cholesterol! the heart-attack-inducing villain that accompanied saturated fat and was even further boosted by its consumption.
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Now we're increasingly being told that saturated fats - and maybe even cholesterol are good and it's the processed vegetable oils out there that you've really got to watch out for!
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So what's going on here!?
We should first look at what FATs actually means. There's two main subdivisions of fats: Solid Fats and Oils (or 'liquid fats') - whether a given fat is solid or liquid really comes down to the temperature at which it melts - and this in turn is due to the different chemical structures of fats vs oils. And both the structure and melting point temperature of fat types are actually pretty important to their health effects surprisingly enough.
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Solid Fats
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Here you've got your butter, lard, tallow and such classic animal-based fats. But it can be plant-based solid fats too: the good: Coconut 'Oil', Palm Oil and Cocoa-Butter, and the evil: margarine - an artificially solid unhealthy fat created through 'hydrogenation'.
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The term 'Saturated Fat' and 'solid fat' are roughly interchangeable. Not to get to technical here - but to make this a bit more practically understandable we've gotta delve briefly into some chemistry:
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Carbohydrates, Fats & Energy Production:
when it comes to the three primary Macro-nutrients, Carbohydrates, Fats & Proteins - the first two are essentially 'fuel' nutrients - what we get our energy and heat from; while protein is primarily used for structural maintenance and growth purposes. (hear we get a little more chemical-technical - apologies):
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The main part of food that our body uses for energy - is the super-simple and small element - Hydrogen - both Carbohydrates and Fats contain a lot of hydrogen in their structure - so when our body breaks them down we use it to make the energy that keeps us alive and functioning.
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Carbs, Fats, Carbon, Hydrogen & That Molecular Saturated 'Fullness'
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* In the very name 'Carbohydrate' it nicely describes what that nutrient is essentially made up of: 'Carbon' (carbo-) and 'Hydrogen' (hydrate). Fats are also mainly made up of carbon and hydrogen - although you wouldn't so much guess it from the name : )
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In their smallest components - simple-sugars and fatty-acids - both carbohydrates and fats are essentially made up of a central 'backbone' of carbons with a bunch of hydrogens attached at their sides.
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So when you look at solid fats versus a liquid fat or oil - the main chemical or structural difference that causes the first to be solid and the second to be liquid - is the degree to which the carbon center of a fatty-acid type is full or 'saturated' with hydrogens. A fat such as lard - or better yet cocoa - is very if not entirely full of hydrogens - and thus again, a 'saturated fat'.
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Fats, Heat and Oxidative Damage
You may be aware that a lot of human health issues are caused by over 'oxidation' of parts of our cells - basically its like oxygen getting into areas in our bodies where it's not supposed to be and then causing 'oxidation' - something much like 'rusting' much as oxygen rusts metals. But when this oxidative 'rust' happens in our bodies it can damage our cells in various ways - the worse such being damage to our DNA - the info molecules that guide how our body maintains and repairs itself.
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A great health quality about solid Fats is that their very structure protects them from oxidative damage. Also they're meant to be in biological bodies that run warm - mammals like us so to speak. More liquid vegetable oils and fish oils are designed to hold up well in cooler temperatures but quickly get damaged in high heat environments - such as the 98.6 C average temperature inside a human body.
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Although solid fats do have this protective advantage we still need liquid-oil fats for many of our biological structures and functions - and although our body can make some of its own there's arguable many benefits to healthy oils such as olive oil and unheated fish or flax-seed oil.
So what are the alleged infamous downsides of solid fats - such as tallow, butter, or coconut 'oil'?
Well in the case of animal-based fats many would argue that a major downside is the animal life being taken to procure the fat itself. But as that's more of a philosophical perspective - and one that my thinking is actually in line with - here we're just sticking to the physiological human health effects of things.
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The main fear around saturated fats has been that they'll contribute to heart disease or strokes - and that their consumption will also increase the production of cholesterol a substance that was thought to be even more a risk factor for dangerous circulatory health issues.
Breaking Food-Stamp's Junk-Food Habit!
* I have to face the facts that it'll be a while before I can manage to complete this whole section - so for the time being here's a few great recommendations for books that really take on the big picture of healthy eating choices - and even offer some paths to massive health improvement if you're up for taking a more pro-active regenerative approach.
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* & Again, also please check out the supplements/bio-hacking section of this site as well as the physical fitness page - once they exist that is.... : )
Clean: The Revolutionary Program To Restore The Body's Natural Ability To Heal Itself - By Alejandro Junger. A great relatively concise book about healthy eating as well as quickly and effectively detoxing and resetting your body's internal systems.
Helpful for achieving rapid healthy weight-loss as well as improving or even ending many disease conditions.
It may not cover every possible aspect of healthy eating and living, but if I had to recommend just one book that covers just about everything the average person needs to radically improve their health - this one - Clean - would certainly be it!
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The newer book Good Energy by the Means siblings is rapidly becoming a modern classic - and while I haven't yet read the whole book, it looks to be rather great and approaches health in a way very aligned with core MAHA principles as the Meanses are very tied to the MAHA movement and RFK Jr. Good Energy focuses on the mitrochondrial-energy production aspect of health and metabolism as well as pulling back some of the curtain on corruption of the medical-pharmaceutical-marketing complex.
Books like Dave Asprey's The BulletProof Diet or Tim Ferriss' The Four Hour Body can also be very informative - but probably more-so in an experimental bio-hacker type-way. There's so many good ones out there - but again the two suggested right above are great starting places - or may just answer all of your questions by themselves