You really are what you eat

In my first post I hinted at the fact that the food we are eating these days is so far removed from actual food that our bodies don't really know how to assimilate any of what we are actually putting into them. In order to grasp the concept of what organic and natural REALLY means, I think it's important to first understand the difference between what we class as food, and what real food, actually is.

The saying, "You are what you eat" is completely true. Everything that you eat gets used to build the body you have. Your body is constantly regenerating itself and it uses WHATEVER you give it, to regenerate itself. It won't be able to differentiate between an organic apple and a packet of crisps. Your digestive system will break it all down and send it out to be used to build more cells. You can imagine that the apple will provide some stellar fuel for your system, but the crisps? Not so much. More about that in a bit!

Pick me, pick me!

       

Here's some trivial, but interesting, info! You can lose anywhere from 200 000 to 3 000 000 cells per SECOND. It's difficult to get an exact answer as to how many body cells we lose on a daily basis but the atoms in your body go through a complete turnover about once every 7 years. That doesn't mean you get a whole new body as you hit the 7 year mark;) It means that, by the end of those 7 years, all the cells you started with at the beginning of that 7 year cycle, will have been replaced with new ones. When we are younger, we are making far more cells than we are losing. As we get older, or we get sick, we are making fewer cells than we are losing and that's how you notice the aging process beginning to happen. We see the result in the wrinkling of our skin, the greying of our hair, the loss of muscle and strength etc.  

Now let's go back to the apple and the crisps... Nutritionally, I think even the most hardened junk food addict will have to admit that the apple wins hands down! We all know a packet of crisps isn't going to win any nutritional food prizes;) But what difference does it really make to your life if you eat the crisps instead of the apple? It's food either way, right? Your body can use it for energy and it all goes out the same way doesn't it? Not quite...

Those crisps aren't ACTUALLY food. I mean, they LOOK like food because we've been told our whole lives, that they ARE food and so our brains are programmed to put them under the food category. But they aren't actually slices of a healthy, organically grown potato that was grown in a field that provided it with nutrients. The flavours are far from real. They're a mish mash of ingredients made by scientists using test tubes and machines. You only have to look at the ingredients to know that they are so far removed from what real food is, it's actually quite frightening.

Rennet of Calf?! I'm sorry... What?!

Someone very clever took all of that stuff, put it in pretty packaging and marketed it as food. They made it look so good and sound so healthy to us that we were convinced enough to slot those crisps into the food category and make them part of our daily intake. They are so full of all sorts of things specifically designed to appeal to our tastebuds that our minds go, "Ooooh, that tastes like food!"  The scary thing is, we totally ignore the process that goes into making them and what they look like before they are zapped full of colorants and flavorants. They will look and taste nothing like the end product and I can guarantee they have no real food in them. They were probably grey in color to start, before they were bleached and then smothered in colorants and synthetic spices! I mean, what food do you know of that is called E-330?! It sounds like a robot in Star Wars more than something that should be in your food. Seriously, the mind is an amazing thing. We can convince ourselves to not even ask questions about where those crisps come from because the marketing campaign was so good we've bought into the propaganda.

Who wants to be a simba chippie now?!

This may sound like an exaggeration but it does make you think, or it should! Don't ever believe that something is healthy or good for you based on marketing. There are NO companies who exist only for your health and well-being. They are all trying to make money and they will say just about anything to take that money from you, even if they've twisted the truth. Crisps are not, and never will be, real food, unless you make them yourself, from scratch.

So, what you think is food, is NOT food. Not even close. It's difficult to grasp that, especially since the marketing behind everything is so GOOD!

Alright then, what else can you class as not real food? Well here is where things can get overwhelming. Most of what we eat these days is not real food. The amazing thing is, real food is at our fingertips, but we have been so programmed over the years, to eat and drink certain things, that we can't see the raw honey for the corn syrup! I challenge you to go into your  kitchen and look through your cupboards and sort out what is real food and what isn't. Basically, anything processed in a factory can be classed as not real food. That will include pretty much anything refined, that is in a box or a packet.

Here are some examples: White flour, sugar, biscuits, chips, sweets, packet sauces, bottled sauces, 2 minute noodles, anything in a tin, white rice, bread, dry pasta, cereals etc. You get the idea? None of that stuff is real food. It's something made by scientists, in a factory. That means you can't be sure of what's in it. Even if you read the ingredients, there are things they are not obligated to tell you. And they conveniently don't have to tell you HOW it was made. Believe me, it's not made in a kitchen with a cook standing next to a stove adding real ingredients. It's made by people in white coats, wearing big rubber gloves, in a production line of machines and who knows how many machines and people it has bypassed on its journey to that packet. Contamination anyone?

And there is NO love going into that "food". No matter how much the marketing tries to convince you it's all about YOU and what's good for you, I promise you, it's not. It's all about what lines their pockets. They have some really clever words to hook your interest! They say things like "lower in fat" and "new improved formula" and "added fibre" and our minds are programmed to recognize those as good things and we blindly take them off the shelf because that's what we've done for so long and that's what our parents did and probably their parents.

But I'm guessing their parents grandparents DIDN'T. Before factories existed on a large scale, people bought from the local grocer who was supplied by small farmers who grew things naturally, before pesticides became the norm and genetically modified crops took the place of real crops and food was made by scientists and big machines in bigger factories.

They ate REAL food. And they died more from old age and natural causes than awful diseases and they weren't obese and heart disease wasn't even thought of. Did you know very few people died of heart disease before 1900? It was barely a whisper back then. Now it's the number one killer. The same goes for cancer. A by-product of our so-called "civilization".

You know, now, what not real food is! But what is real food? This one is easy:) It's anything that is literally REAL FOOD. If it was grown in a field, the natural way, without pesticides and chemicals to make it grow faster or out of season, it's real food.

Um, if you need that mask then you probably shouldn't be spraying that on our food?!

If it's meat or eggs or milk from an animal that has been allowed to range free and eat it's natural food rather than genetically modified grains, that hasn't been pumped full of hormones to make it grow faster, and antibiotics to try and cure the horrible diseases it gets from being held in such cramped, unhealthy quarters, it's real food.

Exactly how healthy and ethical is this?!

That's it.

I can practically hear you all saying, "That's IT?! The list was far longer for processed foods! What are we supposed to eat?!"

Actually, a lot! I, for one, only eat real food and yet I never go hungry. I can vouch for loads of people who do the same, and they don't go hungry. Not only do they not go hungry but they don't gain weight, they don't get sick, they don't have dread diseases and they are just all round happier, healthier people.

That is definitely enough food for thought for one post;) I am going to leave you there, but not for long!  This blog is going to be ALL about what you SHOULD be eating and all the deliciously yummy food you can make and eat knowing that it is all ethical, healthy and REAL. Can anyone say "Banana bread?!" Yes please!

Watch this space;)