My Food Manifesto, Part One: The Bad News

For the past nine months, I have learned a great deal about nutrition. It all started when I was considering feeding Lucia solids. She was about six months old, and I wanted to feed her from our table rather than from a baby food jar. I wanted to give her natural, whole foods so she could continue the healthy eating habits she'd had since birth (breastmilk is the ultimate health food!). But I realized right away that Joel and I were not eating healthy enough for me to feed Lucia from our plates. Thus began my self-education on nutrition.

One thing I've learned about food: there is a lot of conflicting information out there. Though I am not a doctor or dietician, I've sifted through this information and have arrived at a philosophy of nutrition that makes the most sense to me, and promotes a healthy mind and body. I first learned about much of the following information in a wonderful book, Eat Fat, Lose Fat¹, by Mary Enig and Sally Fallon. I highly recommend it.

There is so much I'd like to blog about — since I am very excited to share what I've learned — but I simply can't put it all in this blog. For that reason, I'm going to give you the facts and the philosophy, but not the scientific evidence you need to back up my conclusions. If you want proof, you can follow the links I provide for further reading.

The information I have for you is organized into two categories: good news and bad news. I'll give you the bad news first, in part one of this three-part series. Part two is the good news, and part three will be the story of how better nutrition has changed my life and my family’s life for the better.

The Bad News — What you shouldn't be eating

Our diet today is hurting our bodies. To be healthy, we need to 1) stop eating junk, and 2) start putting in high-quality, nutrient-dense food. But what qualifies as junk? Let me show you.

Trans Fats

Recently, trans fats have been getting the bad rap they deserve. It is not a fad; trans fats are very, very bad for you. Look at the label before you buy, and if it has trans fats in it, don't put it in your cart. Trans fats are made when oils are hydrogenated. This process increases the shelf life of foods and makes oils more solid (think margarine). However, trans fats have been found to have many adverse effects on our health, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, immune system deficiencies, obesity, and reproductive and lactation problems.

Trans fats are found in many processed foods, including baked goods, frozen foods (yes, pizza), and foods that contain oils, so they can sit on the grocery store shelf for years without going bad. Big ones to avoid are margarine and Crisco. These are trans fats incarnate and not fit for human consumption. We will probably see trans fats banned from foods in the future.

Speaking of Crisco, here's a great article about the history of Crisco².

Hydrogenated/Partially Hydrogenated Oils

These are the oils containing trans fats. They can sometimes hide in the ingredient list, even though it says that there are no trans fats. Hydrogenation is an unnatural process, and it is not wise to consume these oils.

Here's a good two-part article about trans fats and hydrogenated oils: Part 1³, Part 2⁴. 

High Fructose Corn Syrup

This is a substance that tastes and acts like sugar but is highly addictive and nutritionally worse than sugar. It is mass produced because it is cheaper than sugar. Most people are addicted to HFCS and don't realize it. Research has indicated that this addiction mimicks a drug or caffeine addiction. That’s why we frequently crave sugar, “need” soda, and have those afternoon slumps that only a candy bar can fix. Soda is probably the worst offender and should be avoided completely.

I managed to kick the soda habit even though soda was my favorite drink of all time. I used to have about one soda per day. If you stop drinking soda, you will help to break your HFCS addiction and probably lose some weight in the process (I lost five pounds last year just by giving up soda!). If you have a hard time not drinking soda, try a spritzer: put bubbly mineral water, the juice of one fresh lime, and a dash of sea salt (better than refined table salt) over ice in a tall glass. It is not the same as soda, but it is a nice, fizzy drink and satisfies me whenever I’m craving something carbonated.

Read more information about HFCS⁵.

White Flour

Ah, the staple of the American diet: wheat! It’s in everything. The problem with wheat today is that by the time it reaches your table, it’s been treated with a myriad of chemicals and subjected to unnatural harvesting and processing. The end product is hardly nutritious.

Many people are switching to wheat flour now that this message has gotten out. However, these alternatives are sometimes little better than their white counterparts. The best way is to grind your own wheat and bake your own bread. For an easier alternative, look for frozen “sprouted” grain bread (Ezekiel⁶ is a good brand) at your local natural foods store. Spelt and kamut breads are also good; they are cousins to wheat and have not been subjected to the same processing methods.

One more note about commercial breads: most contain potassium bromate, a toxic additive which has been linked to hearing loss and other health problems. The use of potassium bromate in food has been banned in several countries, including England and Canada.

Read the story of wheat in America today⁷. And here's an excellent article on replacing white flour with whole grains⁸. 

Artificial Sweeteners

Nutrasweet, Splenda, Sweet & Low, whatever...these are not good for us. There are, however, some good, natural substitutes. One is stevia. It is an herb and is two hundred times sweeter than sugar! However, it does not have the dietary problems of sugar. I recommend it if you like sugar in your tea or coffee, and I've read you can learn to bake with it, although I haven't tried it.

If you must use sugar, use it in moderation, and buy only Sucanat or Rapadura (look for it at your local health food store or online). This is evaporated cane juice (sugar) that is not as refined as the usual stuff and hasn't been subjected to pesticides and other chemical processes. It doesn't look like sugar (more like brown granules), but baked into a recipe, one can hardly tell the difference. There are other natural sweeteners as well, such as honey (make sure you get “raw” honey) and Stevia (an herb that is about 200 times sweeter than sugar that doesn't affect blood sugar). If you like to bake, there are recipies that incorporate natural sweetener substitutes. However, a better solution is to limit your intake of sweets and focus on natural sugars found in fruit. Re-train your tastebuds to appreciate a hint of sweetness rather than a blast of highly refined sugar devoid of any nutrients. Sweeteners are a big topic, but for now I'll limit my presentation to what I've written here.

Here is more information about harmful artificial sweeteners⁹, including alternatives.

MSG (Monosodium Glutamate)

Most people know that MSG is bad for us. It causes a myriad of problems when ingested — one common reaction is migrane headaches. MSG is known to cause cancer in rats, and has been linked to brain cancer in humans. Because many people know that MSG is toxic, manufacturers have changed the name in many products to hide it. Even the phrase “natural flavors” can mean that a food has MSG. The rule for packaged foods is this: if you don’t know what the ingredient is, research it before you buy. It may be MSG in disguise, or some other harmful additive.

Most soups contain MSG. It is much better to make your own broths from scratch — you can make a big batch and freeze the rest for later. For help with this, I recommend Eat Fat, Lose Fat, and another book by the same author, Nourishing Traditions¹⁰, for recipies. Many spice blends also contain MSG under various names. However, many foods still have MSG plainly listed on the label. I was baffled recently when I looked at a bag of Lay's potato chips. The front side proudly advertised that there were no trans fats and no hydrogenated oils in the chips, and that they were made with sunflower oil. However, when I checked the ingredients on the back, MSG was listed. The chips still weren’t "healthy", although they were advertised as such because of the oil used.

More on MSG¹¹, and more on food additives in general¹² (including some not mentioned here).

Artificial Colors and Flavors

“Artificial flavors” often means MSG. Artificial colors are made in a lab, from things like tar and petroleum — yummy! Certain artificial colors are known to cause reactions in a percentage of the population, and must be specifically disclosed on the ingredient list (for example, FD&C Yellow no. 5); however, others can simply be described as “artificial colors”. All of these ingredients should be avoided, as they have been linked to various kinds of cancer. Additionally, these ingredients are especially harmful to children, as artificial colorings have been linked to ADD and other behavioral problems in kids.

Baked goods and candy frequently have artificial colorings in them. I love candy, and this was a hard one for me, but I found that I crave candy much less now. Besides, candies are loaded with high fructose corn syrup.

More on artificial colorings¹³.

Soy

Soy is not a health food. When the soybean crops sprayed with chemicals (as all of our crops are nowadays), soybeans become toxic. The soy that is in our foods today is an even more toxic by-product made when oil is extracted from soybeans. Soybean oil itself is also unhealthy, even though it is the number one vegetable oil today. Additionally, the toxic sludge that remains (when it is extracted) is in the majority of processed and packaged foods today: bread, candy, chocolate, salad dressings, soy-based infant formulas...start looking at the labels and you will find soy in almost everything. If you think that the only ones eating soy are the hippies...think again. Look at the labels on your food. I encourage you to read more about soy (there's a link below to start with) so that you're motivated to find alternatives.

Many people point to Eastern diets as healthy and full of soy. Eastern diets are healthy, but they are not full of soy. Traditional Asian diets use soy primarily as a condiment, in soy sauce. Endamame (soy beans) and tofu are also eaten, but not as a "staple" in the diet. Another thing to remember about the use of soy in Asian diet is that it is not processed the way our American soybean cash crop is (one example is genetic modification, the standard in American soybeans).

More on understanding the harms of soy¹⁴.

What to do?

Right now, you might be asking yourself, "Why is the food at the supermarket today so bad for us?" There are a lot of reasons why, but one principal reason I see is that the American life is a very busy one, and busy people don’t have time to go into the kitchen and cook. So we've demanded convenience foods. Big businesses know that we care a lot less about how the food gets into the box than we do about buying the box and eating whatever food is in it.

But here's the problem: food doesn't come out of a box. It comes from the land. It comes from plants that grow from the earth, and animals that roam on it. In our busy-ness, we’ve forgotten where food comes from, and we're paying the price with our health.

There is one good principle to remember when buying and eating food: Is it of our Creator? Is it of nature? Those two questions are one and the same, and are excellent guides when considering what we put into our bodies. Here's an example: butter is of nature; Crisco is not.

Another thing you might be wondering right now, "If I can't eat any of the stuff above, what can I eat?" Never fear — that's what Part Two is all about: delicious and nutritious foods that are very good for you!