I was going to write a different article today, but I just had a little interchange with a friend about "the average diet" and I think this is more important right now.
Such a common story: "I am in my 50s, I have slightly high blood pressure (controlled by medication), and sometimes feel depressed, but I am otherwise healthy. I eat a good diet, no junk food, everything cooked from fresh, meat and vegetables."
Sounds good, right?
Not a mention of those croissants, baguettes, pastries, pasta, desserts, ice cream, pancakes, sugary drinks, alcohol, chocolate, deep-fried items, white rice, biscuits or cake...
As soon as someone mentions diet, we seem to blank out these items, like they don't exist. We only admit to the items in our diet that we believe to be healthy! Or we avoid the issue by saying “I drink red wine, which is proved to be healthy”. Yes, it’s healthy except for the alcohol 😃
It’s hard to face the fact that those items made from white flour, sugar and fat are virtually empty calories. For instance, 80 per cent of the magnesium has been removed from white flour. Sugar contains no nutrition at all except calories.
How healthy is meat? Well, it has protein and some vitamins, iron and zinc. Not much else. Almost no magnesium. It acidifies the body, which puts a stress on the kidneys. Fish (mostly oily fish) is a little better.
So that healthy diet that you think you're eating provides everything you need to keep your body in good working order, right?
In fact, based on the statistics, most people are getting vitamins and minerals from only eight percent of the calories they consume. Even if you can push that up to twenty percent by cutting down on the sugar and white flour, and eating some fresh fruit every day, it's still not what your body was designed for.
Symptoms like skin rashes, fatigue, raised blood pressure, failing memory, insomnia, high cholesterol, water retention, depression, anxiety, constipation, inflammatory changes - all are messages from your body that you are not giving it what it needs. If you think the answer is to take medicines for these symptoms, take a look at the elderly people around you and in nursing homes. They thought so too, so what is going to stop you becoming the same as them in 10 or 20 years' time?
Don't take my word for it that the figures in this chart do matter. Take a look at the research below into the prevalence of nutritional deficiencies in both the developed and the developing world.
Vitamin B6 deficiency
https://scholars.direct/Articles/human-nutrition/jhn-2-008.php?jid=human-nutrition
Vitamin D deficiency
https://www.clinicalnutritionjournal.com/article/S0261-5614(20)30639-7/fulltext#%20
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/vitamin-d-deficiency-united-states/
Iodine deficiency
Iron deficiency
Magnesium deficiency
Selenium deficiency
Zinc deficiency
General deficiencies
https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/micronutrient-inadequacies/overview
So, we know that nutritional deficiencies are in epidemic proportions, but is there any research that links them to specific health problems? Yes there is. We could do with more research, but that won’t happen until we are free of the current medical system which appears to want to conceal from us the full extent of the link between diet and disease. Here is a sample of research.
Alzheimer's disease
Magnesium deficiency
Selenium deficiency
Vitamin D deficiency
Brain function and development
Vitamin B12 deficiency
Iodine deficiency
Iodine deficiency
Iodine deficiency
Iron deficiency
Iron deficiency
Iron deficiency
Zinc deficiency
Cancer (prostate)
Congestive heart failure
Depression
Zinc deficiency
Zinc, copper and selenium deficiency
Dermatitis
Selenium and zinc deficiency
Zinc deficiency
Infections (immunity)
Iron deficiency
Selenium deficiency
Selenium deficiency
Zinc deficiency
Zinc deficiency
Physical performance
Iron deficiency
Iron and zinc deficiency
Pre-diabetes
Magnesium deficiency
Magnesium deficiency
Stress
Thyroid disease
Iron deficiency
Selenium deficiency
Vitamins B12 and D deficiency
Vitamin D deficiency
Vitamin D deficiency
Vitamin D deficiency
Vitamin D deficiency
Vitamin D deficiency
Vitamin D deficiency
Vitamin D deficiency
After reading that, most people think they are being very clever by rushing out to buy supplements. A vitamin and mineral supplement has everything you need to make up for the empty calories? Really?
Pardon me for thinking that's funny, but in the 20 years that I worked as a naturopathic consultant (including three years with a GP) I have seen it all. People will do anything, absolutely ANYTHING, to avoid changing what they EAT
.
This is what your body is designed to eat, plus not much more than about ten percent free choice. If you list all the nutrients, including the many valuable phytonutrients, in those foods, do you really imagine that supplements can provide them all? All the different types of carotenes, lycopene, zeaxanthin, fisetin, quercetin, polyamines, and many, many more? Cunning marketers may list some phytonutrients on multivitamin product labels, but it's largely a scam. A pill stuffed full of vitamins and minerals cannot hold significant amounts of anything else. What use is a microgram of lutein here and there?
One of the best changes you can make is to start eating oats every day. For some simple recipes, see my earlier article on food shortages. Restrict yourself to one sweetened item per day, providing no more than 4-6 teaspoons of sugar. And a glass of organic, low-salt, beet and vegetable juice will do far more for you than an artificial pill.
You can help your health (and also help to support me), by getting one or two of my E-books. I especially recommend the Oat Cuisine E-book, and also "How To Choose The Best Diet", which explodes the myths created by diet gurus who are out to make a fast buck from a fancy idea.
If you want to turn back the clock and learn how to rejuvenate yourself, my professional training video course will teach you the very latest in anti-ageing science. It’s fun too, and you can get a 40-dollar discount if you use this discount code within the next 30 days: C39CC4D9D25A64CBA8DE
Wishing you the BEST of health!
Linda