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;)

Are all the signs of aging, inevitable?

I've lost count of how many times I've heard people around me talk about their aching joints or their gradual weight gain in the last few years or their lack of energy and their loss of muscle and the comments are always followed by a sigh and the phrase, "I'm getting old I guess. It had to happen sometime." Have you noticed how some of those people actually seem to feel almost happy that they can blame all of those afflictions on the fact that they are getting old? They always say it with a smile! I guess it probably makes things easier to have a scapegoat. Honestly, I think, the phrase, "I'm getting old," is a bit of a copout. It moves any possible blame off of your shoulders, and onto Father Time's.

There is no question that we are all getting older. We start out, as little kids, with truckloads of energy. Everything we do as kids, we do at 110%, be it playing, eating, sleeping or learning. Kids have a naturally higher metabolism than adults because they are doing some serious growing. That means they burn energy faster and they recover faster and, unless you are feeding them tons of rubbish, they don't get fat BECAUSE they are on the go, all the time. An overweight child is a child being fed too much of the wrong foods and sitting around too much. Kids should be using whatever they eat, to fuel their ever-moving, ever-growing bodies. It shouldn't be turning to fat at this stage of their lives.

As we get older, things start to change. Most people tend to think that the body shape changes we experience over the years, are inevitable. For a lot of people, it is, these days. We are usually at our thinnest, growing up, and that mostly remains when we are in our early 20s. But, as you hit the late 20s, and then the 30s, things start to change without you really realising. You kind of know something isn't quite right, but you keep saying, "It's just because I haven't been eating right. I'll eat better from Monday and things will go back to normal." That doesn't quite sort the problem out, and, all of a sudden you have gained 8kgs and they just won't shift.

Along with the weight gain comes a sudden decrease in energy and fitness. The stairs you used to be able to run up, two at a time, suddenly seem difficult when you WALK them, one at a time. You can't carry as heavy objects as you used to, your muscle definition seems to have gone down a bit. It's a gradual process, and you hardly notice at first, but, eventually, it creeps into your subconscious and the reality can be quite a blow. Suddenly,one day, you think to yourself, "I'm getting older.  That must be it! It had to happen sometime!" And then you carry on because now you have an EXCUSE and that makes it ok for most folks.

As an exercise specialist, we get given risk factors to look out for when we want to train someone. One of the main risk factors is age. If a person is over a certain age, they need a doctor's approval to train. That applies to ALL older, or elderly, people. Given how the last couple of generations have aged, I can see why age would be a risk factor. Most elderly people these days have hyperkyphosis, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease, high blood pressure, alzheimer's and diabetes type 2, to name a FEW. We all consider most of these diseases a fairly natural part of ageing.

But why should we? A few generations ago, these things weren't NORMAL. They weren't even heard of. The weight gain, the loss of energy and muscle mass, the aching joints and the diseases are NOT an inevitability of ageing, they are an inevitability of the lifestyle that most South Africans are choosing to live.

Human beings were meant to move, but very few of us do. A by-product of civilisation is that people don't need to move much anymore. We walk a few metres to our car, we sit and drive to our destination, then we walk the few metres to the lift, catch it to the 2nd floor, and walk to a desk, where we sit for 7 or so hours and then we repeat that in reverse, to get home and sit on our couch watching TV until we lie down on a bed and sleep. Not much movement happening there at all! When we are kids, our metabolism is so fast that, even while we are sitting, we are burning fuel. But, as we get older, that metabolism slows down if we don't give it reason to keep its momentum. The problem with our metabolism slowing down is, we are still eating the same stuff, only, now there is too much of it to be used for fuel, and so it goes into storage, on our hips, thighs and stomach mostly!

Can you say, "Couch Potato?"

To make it worse, the food we are eating is all wrong. A few generations back, we not only moved around a lot more, but we also ate proper food. Not the processed, pesticide-ridden, genetically modified rubbish lining the shelves of grocery stores; we ate meat from animals that were allowed to range free and eat their natural diets. We ate fruit and vegetables grown in a garden without pesticides, in nutrient-rich soil that transferred its nutrients to the fruits and vegetables, and to our bodies. Nothing was made in a science lab, everything was wholesome and natural and real.

The POSSIBLE inevitable signs of ageing are graying hair, thinner skin and perhaps hearing and sight loss due to over-exposure to loud noises and too much computer work or television. Gaining weight, lossing fitness, aching joints, muscle loss, kyphosis, arthritis, high blood pressure, diabetes type 2, heart disease, alzheimer's and osteoporosis are NOT inevitabilities of ageing. They are inevitabilities of your lifestyle. If you don't exercise, if you don't eat real, organic food, if you live on processed food and chemicals, if you smoke, you WILL experience all of those inevitabilities and the only reason it happens when you're older, is because a body can only take so much abuse before it starts to give in. If you repeatedly beat on a wall with a hammer, the plaster will eventually crack. Our bodies are no different. When you look after your body, you give it the tools to repair itself, when you DON'T, it will start to give in.

Sound harsh? I guess it IS a harsh reality. But I think it's better to know the truth because you can WORK with it.

Before you allow yourself to give in to the "inevitabilities" of aging, try a lifestyle change, preferably sooner rather than later. Prevention IS really better than cure!

Why cholesterol is actually good for you.

I often get asked what causes high cholesterol and high sugar and what can be done about it. Believe it or not, the two of them are actually connected in a way and, if you fix one, chances are good you're going to fix the other. Out of the two of them, the only one you really should be concerned about, is the suger. The reality is that cholesterol itself, is NOT bad for you. In fact, your body needs it in order to function normally.

Cholesterol became a popular buzz-word round about the time that saturated fats became the enemy and low-fat diets became trendy. The best thing, according to everyone and their doctors, was to have as low cholesterol as possible. Well, like the low-fat diet, we have been misinformed! Eggs, butter, red meat, full cream dairy; they've all gotten a bad rap when it comes to our health. According to "experts", they are all just so bad for you, you need to stop eating ALL of them. Instead, you need to eat more grains and carbs. In other words, more sugar?!

Well, people are doing that and, guess what? More people are dying of heart attacks then EVER before. So how's that workin' for ya? Let's take a closer look at what cholesterol is really, and perhaps we'll have a better understanding of it.

When a woman gives birth to a baby, the first milk that her body will produce, is called colostrum.  For those who didn't know, colostrum is essential to your baby's development. It is considered your baby's first vaccine because it contains so many antibodies. It is also extremely high in cholesterol...

What?!?!?!

However, if you know what cholesterol is used for, then that would make all the sense in the world because cholesterol is used to help produce cell membranes, blood vessels, vitamin D and bile acids. You have cholesterol in your body all the time because it is helping to build it up. You can see why a baby would need it, but can you also see why YOU would need it? While a baby may have slightly more specific needs than us, we are not that different. We are still human and our bodies are always regenerating, as long as they have the tools to regenerate WITH. Take away the tools, and you are going to end up with any number of problems.

If you go to a doctor, and they tell you that you have high cholesterol, that doesn't immediately suggest that there is something wrong with you. First of all, high HDL (high density lipoprotein) which is considered the good cholesterol by conventional doctors, is indeed good, and necessary, for everyone. HDL takes excess cholesterol in your body, and transports it back to the liver. LDL (low density lipoprotein) is known as the "bad" cholesterol by conventional doctors. LDL takes cholesterol from your liver and transports it to the rest of the body. So, we can deduce from that, that both HDL and LDL are not actually cholesterol so much as "transporters" of cholesterol, right? Now, there are also TWO types of LDL: the big fluffy kind, which you don't need to worry about, and the small, dense kind, which MAY be more cause for concern and I'll explain why in a bit.

The problem is, most blood tests don't distinguish between HDL and LDL, never mind the two different types of LDL so, more than likely, the reading you are getting, is not telling you the whole story. It is one of my biggest issues with Discovery Vitality's health assessment. A finger prick test gives you the total of ALL your cholesterol levels, not a breakdown of good and bad. Penalising you points-wise, based on that, is simply incorrect and it can cause unnecessary worry as well.

If you have high cholesterol, it is a symptom of some underlying problem in your body. It ISN'T the cause of the problem. Cholesterol gets sent TO the problem areas to try and alleviate said problem. If there is inflammation in the arteries, cholesterol will be sent to the artery to help heal the inflammation. If it's successful, everything will return to normal. But, when the inflammation doesn’t subside, more cholesterol is sent and it eventually starts to accumulate around the artery. This is where the small, dense LDL will pose a problem because that's when plaque starts to form and that, as we know, is going to cause all kinds of trouble.

So you can see that cholesterol is sent to treat a problem, not to cause it. The root of the problem is actually the inflammation. What is that caused by: High levels of insulin, and high levels of insulin are caused by excessive carb (sugar) consumption, as well as excessive transfats and vegetable oil consumption. Can you see the link here between high sugar and high cholesterol? If you fix one, the other will likely balance out.

Getting a pill from your doctor isn't going to fix the problem. You knew I'd say that though;) Pills don't fix problems. They just mask symptoms. While the pill may lower your cholesterol, it won't stop the inflammation around your arteries. Whether you lower your cholesterol or not, you will STILL be sick and in danger of something going horribly wrong. The great irony is that, if you lower your cholesterol by cutting it out of your diet, or by taking pills, your body will simply MAKE its own cholesterol, because it needs it to function. If you eat cholesterol, your body won't need to compensate and so it won't make more.

So how can you fix both of these issues? It's actually so easy and, if you've read all my blog posts (if you haven't, start here and work your way through) you already have the tools! As I've said before, you really ARE what you eat. The only way you are going to lower your sugar levels, is to start eating REAL food. Cut out ALL processed foods. If you aren't sure what that means, read up here. Go through your cupboards and throw out anything that you have bought from the middle shopping aisles in a grocery store. That means all this stuff.

If it has to list ingredients on the packaging, you shouldn't be eating it. It's not real food. It's food made in a science lab and it's loaded with sugar, transfats and vegetable oils; all the things that will raise your sugar levels and cause inflammation throughout your body. The only way you are going to lower your sugar and inflammation is to go back to grass roots. Start eating good, wholesome food. That means anything that was grown in a field, the natural way, without pesticides and chemicals to make it grow faster or out of season. Eat meat or eggs or dairy from an animal that has been allowed to range free and eat its natural food rather than genetically modified grains; animals that haven't been pumped full of hormones to make them grow faster; and animals that haven't been pumped full of antibiotics to try and cure the horrible diseases they get from being held in such cramped, unhealthy quarters.

Real, organic food is not only GOOD for you, it's healing and it will heal you faster than any pill, or anything labelled as "health food", ever could. If none of this is making sense to you then I urge you to read the rest of my blog posts. I have spoken about all of this ad nauseum so it's pointless repeating myself, although I probably am anyway;) There is NOTHING else that is going to lower your sugar levels and regulate your cholesterol permanently. But remember, high cholesterol isn't a bad thing unless it is being sent out to fix a bad problem. Once you fix that problem, you lower your cholesterol to acceptable levels again, and you will be good to go! If your doctor tells you your cholesterol is high, ask them for a breakdown of the types of cholesterol. That will give you the tools you need to fix the problem IF there is a problem at all.

My advice? Fix your sugar by fixing your food intake, and you will fix yourself. Give it a try for a few weeks. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain!

King of the fast foods

I was listening to Redi Tlhabi talking on 702 this morning about the opening of the first Burger King in South Africa. Apparently Burger King were giving away free whopper burgers to the first 1 000 customers. I have to say, I share her confusion over why people would start queuing at a fast food joint several hours before it was supposed to open, unless they were homeless and starving and that burger meant the difference between life and death.

Colour me stupid but what is so special about Burger King? I GET that burgers are tasty. I also GET that fast food is convenient at times if you aren't as fussy as me. (Personally, I'd rather push through the hunger until I find something better.) I just don't understand how a burger, made in a fast food joint like Burger King, could possibly be more appealing than a burger made in your own kitchen, thereby giving you power over the ingredients IN said burger. In fact, Burger King is SO appealing to people, that they actually woke up early to go and queue outside Burger King hours before it opened when they could have actually used that time to make themselves a lunch that would have saved them, not only petrol and time, but also a possible heart attack, or some dread disease, later in life.

Recently, Burger King had to come clean, during the horsemeat scandal, and admit that they used horsemeat in their burgers. They only came clean AFTER DNA evidence was found proving that they were using horsemeat, and they were forced to admit to it and apologise for denying it only hours before. Too late, she cried? Apparently not according to the thousands queuing outside of Burger King this morning! It's scary to think that fast food eaters have no CLUE what they are eating, nor do they seem to care.

Mmm, delicious...

There are two possibilities here: One is that Burger King knowingly lied about the horsemeat in order to protect their own profit margins regardless of the harm they might be causing OR the other possibility is that Burger King literally had NO idea that their food contained horsemeat and are innocent of the lies... BUT that makes them ignorant about their own food so I'm not actually sure which is worse.

There are any number of scarily, toxic chemicals in most fast foods and if Burger King, and its clientele, are clueless about the horsemeat in their own burgers, how can they say they have been honest when listing the nutritional value of their burgers on their website? How can any of their clients trust that the nutritional breakdown on their website, is accurate? And if Burger King actually ARE aware of the horsemeat, then the nutritional breakdown on their website is null and void because they haven't declared it there and that means they have lied. Of course, I think we can safely say that they haven't declared it because they KNOW that you won't want to eat burgers made of horsemeat and so they'd rather lie to you and not lose your money. Where are the ethics there?

Unfortunately, horsemeat is actually the least of your worries when it comes to fast food. Here is a list of some of the ingredients NOT listed in the nutritional breakdown on their websites:

• sodium phosphates
• bleached wheat flour
• modified food starch 
• dextrose (sugar)
• partially hydrogenated soybean oil and cottonseed oil with mono-and diglycerides, (read: trans fats)
• Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil) (read: trans fats)
• TBHQ, tertiary butylhydroquinone, a petroleium derived product
• Dimethylpolysiloxane

You may have saved some money because you bought a cheap burger, but what price are you ultimately paying for having that burger? If you read my previous post you'll remember that everything that you eat, becomes a part of you. Your body sees it all as food and it becomes part of your cell makeup, it flows through your bloodstream and it contaminates everything it touches. Why do 1 in 3 people have cancer these days? The above bullet points are part of your answer, folks. If you still can't see it then I'm not sure who can help you there!

The ONLY things that most of us will recognise as "food" on that list, are the bleached wheat flour, the sugar and the vegetable oil. Bleached wheat flour has been sucked DRY of any nutrients that it might have had to start with. Can someone tell me WHY anyone would do that? You not only remove the nutrients, but you kill any flavour it might have had to start with and you might as well add talcum powder to the burger instead. There is also the issue that your body breaks down the white flour  into glucose extremely fast and so you tend to store more of it as fat.

As for sugar, we eat that all the time right? Surely it can't be THAT bad? Well, let's see how bad it can be:

• Bad bacteria LOVE to eat sugar, so sugar can depress your immune system by fueling the bad bacteria
• Sugar contributes to infertility
• Sugars raises blood glucose levels, which can deteriorate blood vessels and lead to heart disease
• Sugar can increase your risk of cancer. Some believe it can CAUSE cancer. Read this article to really blow your mind!
• Sugar contributes to candida, which MANY women suffer from, especially IBS sufferers.
• Sugar cravings are related to stress and the cravings are self-sustaining. (Meaning when you eat sugar because you’re stressed, you’re going to end up wanting more sugar when the stress returns.) Vicious cycle anyone?
• Sugar is addictive. Lisa Byrne says it best in her workbook, Break the Sugar Habit: “Refined, white sugar acts more like a drug than a food in our system…but it started as a whole plant. The sugar cane and beet plant in nature come complete with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytochemicals like any other plant. When glucose is part of the whole plant, it acts like a food in your body -- entering our system calmly, breaking down slowly and providing a range of nutrients in addition to energy. When glucose is isolated, sugar acts like a drug in your body. Too much refined sugar creates a cycle of intense highs and lows, keeping our blood sugar, hormones and neurotransmitters out of balance.

Ok, so sugar = not good! How about those vegetable oils? We've been told that they're good, right? Margarine is made out of vegetable oils and we are supposed to eat that instead of butter to lower cholesterol and prevent heart disease aren't we? 

That would be... WRONG!

One of the (many) problems with vegetable oils is that, unlike butter or coconut oil, vegetable oils can’t be extracted just by pressing or separating naturally. They have to be chemically removed, deodorised and altered. Vegetable oils are some of the most chemically altered foods in our diets and yet they get promoted as healthy. What's frightening is that they are found in pretty much EVERY processed food, from salad dressing to mayonnaise (and fast foods) and  even on the "healthy" nuts and seeds you buy (look at the ingredients).

The last few times I've been in Durban, lately, I've heard an advert punting Canola margarine as a healthy alternative. It's practically on repeat and I get so mad when I hear it I turn off the radio! Here is the scary thing about Canola oil:

• It was developed by making a hybrid version of the rapeseed, and it was given its name in the 1980s as part of a marketing effort organised by a conference on mono-saturates.
• Rapeseed oil contains high amounts of the toxic erucic acid, which is poisonous to the body. (it has been linked to the formation of fatty deposits in heart muscles in animals) Canola oil is an altered version, also called Low Erucic Acid Rapeseed and it is commonly genetically modified and treated with high levels of pesticides.
• Canola (modified rapeseed oil) is produced by heating the rapeseed and processing it with a petroleum solvent to extract the oil. Then another process of heat and an addition of acid is used to remove nasty solids (wax) that occur during the first processing.
• At this point, the newly created canola oil must be treated with yet MORE chemicals to improve the colour and separate the different parts of the oil. Finally, because the chemical process has created a horrible smelling oil, it must be chemically deodorised to be palatable!
• If the vegetable oil is going to be made into margarine, it undergoes an additional process called hydrogenation to make it solid at cold temperatures. Unlike saturated fats (butter, coconut oil, etc) vegetable oils are not naturally solid at these temperatures and must be hydrogenated to accomplish this. During this process of hydrogenation, those lovely transfats we’ve heard so much about, are created.

Still thinking about that Burger? Did I go through all the other stuff listed that we DIDN'T recognise?

• Sodium phosphates: According to web definitions: phosphate of sodium is used as a laxative to cleanse the bowels... 
• Food starch is usually modified via a chemical process and is used in most processed foods
• TBHQ or Tertiary Butylhydroquinone is found in many foods, ranging from crackers to crisps to fast foods. It is also found in certain brands of pet foods, as well as in cosmetic and baby skincare products, varnish, lacquers and resins and it is used in the stabilisation process of explosive compounds... and you want to eat it because... ?!
• Dimethylpolysiloxane is an antifoaming agent (a form of silicone used in cosmetics, and Silly Putty) It is also found in diet coke, sprite etc.

Some people will read this and say, "So what? Life is short and I want to enjoy it! My parents ate all this stuff and they're ok! But are they really? I challenge you to say you don't know a single person who has cancer or heart disease or diabetes or some other physical ailment. Ageing prematurely also counts. If it's no-one in your immediate circle, then there will be someone who you've met through someone close to you. Doctors will tell you that these diseases are genetic. I will agree that some people ARE genetically predisposed to some diseases. BUT I also believe that it is our lifestyle that will determine whether we get those diseases or not. You are not powerless unless you choose to be.

So, you have a choice here. To continue to live in ignorance, despite having the knowledge at your fingertips, or to begin to affect a change, not only in your life, but in the lives of those close to you. The choices you make will affect your children, and your children's children. Look what happened when food became a booming industry and people realised how much money could be made by deceiving the masses. Our parents were told that eating certain processed foods was much better than eating real food and THEY bought into it. So WE bought into it. That's the power of advertising. 

But I also believe in the power of the influence we have on those around us. So it's up to us whether we choose to continue that legacy, or to affect a change. We need to start a food revolution. That's what I'm doing here and I can see the change happening in people around me and it gives me a great amount of hope. By looking after ourselves, we are also looking after those close to us, AND a great side benefit is that we go easier on our planet too. It's a win-win situation:)

That's enough of that! Tomorrow is THE REAL FOOD FRIDAY FEAST and I'm finally going to share that banana bread recipe I've been talking so much about! I happened to spot a banana bread loaf in a grocery store yesterday and, out of interest, I peeked at the ingredients. All I can say is, it wasn't far removed from a fast food burger! Wouldn't it be nice to eat a banana bread that, you know, was actually good for you? Bet you always thought ANY cakes were cheat meals destined to land on your thighs and hips and you needed 3 gym sessions to work them off! Not this banana bread, I guarantee!

Can I get a YUM!?

Don't miss tomorrow's post;)

Go on, eat that fat!

Winter seems like the worst time ever to try and overhaul your entire lifestyle, right? I disagree! And over the course of this post, I'll tell you why;)

If you were going to be following a "diet" where a meal consisted of 3 lettuce leaves, half a can of tuna and 5 almonds  then, yes, I'd say winter is a bad time to do that. In my opinion, ANYTIME is a bad time to do that! Winter is a time when all we want to do is hibernate, and EAT! You want soups and curries and stews and lots of hot, baked goods and snacky things and hot, sweet drinks. Sounds like a lot of things you can't eat if you are organic and healthy, doesn't it? Well, it's time we blew THAT mindset right out of the water!

Looks pretty fattening, right? WRONG!

I don't believe in diets. I don't believe in weighing your food and counting calories and depriving yourself of all the good things in life, just to lose a bit of body fat that will more than likely return the minute you start to eat "normally" again. Going organic and eating real food is not a diet, or a fad, or a quick fix to your fat loss issues. It's an entire mindset and lifestyle change. It's FOR LIFE. The fact that it has a sideline benefit of losing body fat is an added bonus, but it shouldn't be the only motivation or you probably will fall off the fruit box eventually.

I made a decision to start eating real, organic food about a year ago and it was just as winter started so I can vouch for winter being a good time to start the process;) I'd always considered myself to be very healthy up until then. As I mentioned in my first post, nutrition and health has always fascinated me. But, no matter how healthy I thought I was, my weight fluctuated and my stomach gave me grief a lot of the time. I was constantly on a learning curve and I loved learning but it was frustrating at times, knowing I wasn't quite getting it right!

WTF?!

Just over a year ago, a friend started mentioning organic and paleo eating to me. I knew nothing about all of that and so I decided to start researching it, as I do! I was astounded at how much information I found. It took me a few months to work my way through it and figure it all out for myself, but I began to realise just how wrong I had been for so long. There I was, dutifully cutting all the fat out of my diet, eating low fat this and fat free that, eating only egg whites, skinless chicken breasts, eating next to nothing, counting all my calories and I couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting it right.

Despite doing everything the "experts" told me to do, I still had to watch what I ate to avoid my body weight fluctuating too much and my stomach was still giving me grief despite me avoiding all the known aggravants.  I was also still catching every bug that came my way as well. I felt tired and unhealthy and permanently grumpy!

Blegh...

So basically, we have ascertained that I was NOT achieving my aim. It was time for a complete overhaul; a change in mindset and a change in lifestyle.

I'm not saying it was a fast process. I had spent the last 35 years of my life learning what to do and what not to do. Suddenly I felt like a child again because I had to start learning almost from scratch. 

Perhaps the hardest thing to get my head around was that I could eat fat! Now, most of us know that we need to eat some fat, like nuts and avocados and olive oil. But did you know your body also needs animal fat?

Altogether now... WHAAAAT?!

For decades, saturated fat has been utterly vilified. It's supposed to be the cause of obesity, heart disease, high cholesterol, it's been linked to cancer, it's a death sentence for diabetics and it's even been blamed for diabetes. It's pretty much to blame for EVERYTHING that humans have ever been afflicted with in the last 100 years. What's really interesting is that, in the last few decades, since scientists decided to blame all of these diseases on our saturated fat consumption, and told all of us to cut it out of our lives, all of those diseases have escalated to epic proportions. Even more interesting is that, while they were telling us to cut saturated fat out of our lives, they were telling us to start eating more grains, starches and vegetable oils. People started drinking skim milk and buying margarine by the truckload, instead of butter and yet they were still getting sick and gaining weight. It's no coincidence that heart disease has now become the number one killer, with cancer and diabetes running close seconds.

I'm going to blow your mind a bit now...

Saturated fat is NOT bad for you. In fact, it's ESSENTIAL for you. If you don't believe me, there is a lot of science behind it and if you are interested in the science, here is a great video that will give you all the stats. It's long and very thorough.

There is a BUT...

Unless you eat free range or organic saturated fat, you are not going to benefit from eating it. In fact, if you choose not to eat free range, it CAN be harmful. The reason why is because, animals that AREN'T allowed to range free and eat their natural food, are, quite literally, sick. These days, cattle are being fed huge piles of genetically modified grains because it's cheaper and it makes them grow big and fat so that they make the companies more money. They are also being injected with hormones to make them grow faster, and, because they are getting sick due to a shockingly bad diet, they are being pumped full of antibiotics. All of that bad stuff doesn't miraculously leave the cattle when they are slaughtered. So you end up with really poor quality meat full of hormones, antibiotics and disease from eating grain. Which means, if you have a grain intolerance, meat will not agree with you. Do I even need to spell out what the hormones and antibiotics are doing to you?

If the quality of your meat doesn't really bother you, how about what the poor cows go through? It's bad enough that their lives are going to be cut short so that we can have food on our table. Shouldn't we show our gratitude for such an amazing gift, by allowing them a happy, dignified short life? The same thing applies to every other animal who is kind enough to feed us.

Which life would YOU prefer? This?

Or this?

It's tough to get your head around isn't it? Eating fat... Boy did I struggle!

For christmas last year, I decided to roast a free range duck from Woolies and, because it was my first time ever, I had to turn to google to find out how to go about it! I had NO IDEA that a duck was so full of fat! Every method involved roasting it for many, many hours, poking it with a knife every few hours, to get rid of all the fat. By the time I was done, I had at least 1 cup full of duck fat, and a VERY small, skinny, crunchy duck. It didn't go very far on christmas day, needless to say!

2 months later, the cup of duck fat was still in my fridge... I knew I COULD eat it, but my mind just refused to allow it. I was SO brainwashed into believing it was bad for me. One day I finally broke through and I made myself a pot of popcorn using duck fat instead of oil. OH... MY... GREATNESS... It was the most delicious popcorn I have ever eaten! After that it wasn't hard to start cooking with it;)

These days I make my popcorn with raw farm butter or duck fat or even coconut oil, I cook things using all three as well. I (gasp) have butter on my banana bread! I drink a glass of full cream goat's milk every night (because I am lactose intolerant and can't digest cow's milk) I eat full cream goat's milk cheese, and full cream goat's milk yoghurt, DAILY. I eat egg yolks now too;) I never thought I'd see the day! I went about 15 years without eating butter and drinking milk! I honestly feel like I've died and gone to heaven;) And the interesting thing is, I have actually LOST body fat. I wasn't trying. That was just a side benefit of  going organic and free range AND eating fat again. I feel so energetic and healthy too; another side benefit.

So, back to why winter is a great time for a lifestyle change...

What could be better than a warm chicken curry full of delicious, healthy chicken fat, on a bed of brown rice, followed by a hot mug of organic hot chocolate sweetened with raw honey. (I'm not talking about the kind you get in a tin. I'm talking about a mug of organic hot milk with a chunk of dark chocolate melted into it. Have I got your attention now? How about a slice of warm banana bread smothered in a thick layer of butter? Still think you can't do this now?

That, my friends, is what eating real food is all about. It's about using all the real things that we were meant to eat, instead of going for the man-made, processed, canned and bottled rubbish that you find lining the shelves of all major grocery stores. The beauty of a lot of organic stuff is that it's actually not that hard to make yourself. So when they tell you how expensive it is, and how it's just "not do-able", don't believe it. I make my own yoghurt. It's so easy a child could do it. I make my own stock which I use to add flavour and goodness to all my stews, curries and soups. I grow my own vegetables. I save a fortune because I don't buy pre-packaged goods loaded with rubbish and, aside from saving money, our health has benefited.

This blog is going to be full of info to help you on your organic way, and it's going to include a lot of recipes and suggestions to save you money and make you healthier in the process. I get so excited just thinking about how much this will change your life for the better.

But that's enough for now. I'm off to make myself a mug of hot chocolate and eat a slice of my delicious homemade banana bread;)