The food and beverages that we eat and drink, both in quantity and quality have created an incredibly toxic environment for the earth, the animals, and for our body and mind.
Diseases such as obesity, cancer, thyroid disorders, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, autism, attention deficit disorders, have skyrocketed in recent years. We like to think of ourselves as being so “advanced”, world leaders, but the truth is that we are losing not just our wealth and our freedom but our health and our credibility as a nation.
As the organic movement gathered steam, food marketers manipulated our expectations of healthier foods by deceitfully increasing the use of words such as “lite”,” lighter” or “less fat” or “fat free”, or “simple” and “simply” and the big one “healthy” on the labels. There are no health standards for those claims.
Hershey’s Good & Plenty candy boasts “A fat-free candy” but while there is no fat in it, the candy is 100 percent sugar and processed carbs. Food producers and marketers knows that the average mind equates fat-free with being good for you.
Start reading the labels to find among the first ingredient listed (there are listed by order of %) corn and soy or canola, corn or soybean oil (unless specifically indicated as not genetically modified, they are genetically modified), Not fruit, but high fructose corn syrup is often the first ingredient in staple preserves and fruit juice such as grape have as much as 30 grams of sugar (1 oz) per 6 oz serving. High fructose corn syrup is a most unhealthy source of sugar made from GMO corn.
At a time when hundreds of millions of people do not have enough to eat, hundreds of millions more are eating too 
much and are overweight . In the world today more people are obese than underweight. In the U.S, 72 percent of men and 70 percent of women are overweight. Food is cheap in America but evidently cheap food does not translate into healthy eating.
Epidemiological studies of human populations in Japan observe a strong relationship between low energy consumption and long life. Populations who consume the least calories have the longest life expectancy, the highest percentage of centenarians, and the lowest mortality from diabetes, heart disease, and several cancers.One of the reasons their calorie consumption is so low is become they eat very healthy, nutritious foods, such as soba (buckwheat) and whole rice noodles and soups with miso (soy paste) and greens, some fish, hardly any meat , or sugar. And dairy is essentially unknown in the traditional Asian diet. It is not how much we eat, but what we eat.
The notion of a standard calorie norm for all humans ignores the way the body adapts to external circumstances. Increased mechanization and a sedentary modern life style has reduced calorie needs. Even in rural areas bus services have increased greatly, and everywhere the use of cars and motorcycles has practically eliminated walking time. Tractors, combine harvesters and industrial machines and technology have greatly reduced the physical labor involved in agriculture and the industry. Automatic furnaces, washing machines, dishwashers and mixers have all reduced the need for physical effort in the home. Young children are eating too many calories and the number of obese children is stagering. Their (USDA recommended) calorie needs could be slashed in half if they were to eat nutritious whole foods instead of empty foods filled with fats and starches. Junk foods which include the parboiled rices and pasta ”ronis” and instant mash potaoes and canned soups, standard cereals,reconstituted juices, grocery cakes are nothing but denaturized processed foods made from concentrates and reconstituted starches, that have lost all their original vitamins and minerals and nutrients, enhanced with a variety of sugars and flavorings and re- enriched with an absurd amount of synthetically created vitamins and minerals. Every product boast “a full days supply of Vitamin C, Vitamin B, Calcium, Folic acid…..”.These low quality chemical vitamins are not well absorbed in our body and cannot replace natural nutrition. These foods are addictive partly because we have been conditionned to associate fats, starches and sugars with emotional comfort , but mostly because they never satisfy the body’s nutritional needs.
A person of average height who spends all day at a desk and all evening on the sofa watching TV may need only 1500 to 1800 calories a day. The same goes for a woman who stays a home and runs a few errands. Men and women up to the age of thirty can burn more calories than those past middle age even if their activity levels remains unchanged. The metabolism slows down and the need for scheduled excercise combined with quality, whole foods becomes essentials to stay fit.
We need to take a fresh look at nutritional norms and not those set by the USDA or politically motivated professionals. We need to have a intelligent look at what we eat and understand that a processed food can never be” healthy” for you.
Junk food is like a drug. A study in the journal of Nature Neuroscience found that eating junk food doesn’t just satisfy cravings—it creates them. That’s right; junk food is addictive. That’s why manufacturers load their foods with sugar, salt, and artificial flavorings, and why you should never forget the golden rule: If your food can go bad, it’s good for you. If it can’t go bad, it’s bad for you.
The average American has easy access to 2,800 calories each day, according to the USDA, versus just 2300 in 1970 and 
around 2000 in the 50’s, moving toward almost 3000 in 2015 according to the World Health Organization. So much food is on our plates and our refrigerators, at the fast food place on corner of every street, the all you can eat buffet, in the vending machines at school and at work. Potential calories are everywhere. And studies show a direct correlation between food exposure and consumption. If 500 calories a day doesn’t sound like much, consider: that’s 52 pounds a day.
Listed Servings per container are designed to cheat you. Food calories and nutritional properties are listed as servings per containers, between ½ to 1 cup for cereals, ¼ C for dry pasta, 1T for preserves or oils, etc… Interestingly the serving size is not standardized and varies to accommodate food marketing. For a cereal high in calories the serving is usually listed at ½ cup while a less caloric type may be at ¾ or even one cup. Obviously it is feared that if the serving size of a sugary fruit cereal is listed at a realistic 3/4 cup per serving, you will notice the calories and sugar to be not just slightly but twice higher as another. Many beverages are listed at 4 or 6 oz per serving with 1 and ½ or even 2 servings per container, but in reality it is an individual container intended for one person. How often do you actually portion the amount you eat or drink? If you do you will find that the so called servings are not even near the actual amount you snack, drink, pour into your bowl or spread on your bread. No one only eats ¼ of potato chips (1 oz per serving) at 160 calories, but twice that. A study showed that on the average it is one and a half to twice that indicated.
Smaller portions are equally as satisfying as larger portions. Participants in a Penn State study ate macaroni and cheese over four different days, and when presented with bigger portions, they consumed an extra 160 calories. Despite the extra food, they rated their fullness the same.
So why in the last 15 years has the average cheeseburger increased in size by 25 percent or a bag of pretzels by 93 calories?
The average American drinks 450 liquid calories a day. That’s twice as much as we consumed 30 years ago, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina. Sodas, juice cocktails and drinks, energy drinks, lattes, bottled teas, milk shakes and alcohol are the biggest calorie traps etc…. Studies have shown that the body does not recognize drink like food and a 350 calorie drink leaves you still hungry for another snack. Our bodies do not register liquid calories the way it does solid calories. So even after guzzling a jumbo-size soda at the movies, we don’t eat less when it’s time to eat again.
Meats are treated with chemicals for looks, tenderizing and bacterial control. Leaner cuts by definition are less juicy. To counteract this, some manufacturers “enhance” turkey, chicken, and beef products by pumping them full of a liquid solution that contains water and salt and also colorants. Now you are eating chemicals and drugs at every level.
Hamburgers—especially the stuff served at schools and fast food restaurants—are routinely treated with ammonia to kill off E. coli bacteria. That’s the same substance used in fertilizers and household cleaners.
In a 2006 Consumer Reports review, more than 80 percent of whole broiler chickens bought nationwide contained campylobacter or salmonella—the leading causes of food borne illness in America.
A diet high in Meat and cooked animal fat is linked to cancer.A recent study at the Imperial College of London concluded that PhIP a chemical commonly found in grilled and barbecued meats is not only a potent breast cancer culprit due to its ability to damage DNA, but could also increase the likelihood that breast cancer cells will become metastatic, worsening existing disease. Also contaminants found in animal products lead to increases in cancer and many of the known carcinogens are found equally in organic meat. The contribution of meat to cancer risk appears to stem from its nutrient make-up, high in saturated fat and devoid of fiber, rather than to the conditions of production. Meats, organic or not, that are cooked at high temperatures tend to contain sizable quantities of heterocyclic amines, carcinogens that form as meat cooks.
Note:Your food can legally contain maggots and rat poop. Sure, the FDA limits the amount of such appetite killers in your food, but that limit isn’t zero. Trace amounts won’t make you sick, but the thought of them will.
Grocery stores know that long checkout lines may make you fat. If you’re waiting to pay, you’re up to 25 percent more likely to buy the candy and sodas around you, according to a recent study at the University of Arizona. So don’t shop when you are hungry and avoid rush hours at the grocery store.
Food companies pay “slotting fees” to supermarkets to ensure the best possible placement—an average of $70 per item, according to a 2004 government report. These fees are passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. Pay less by shopping the tops and bottoms of the shelves; that’s where you’ll find brands that aren’t paying slotting fees. Often lesser brands on the shelves are manufactured by small town companies, often local ones who are important to their communities and use less additives and better ingredients than the giants.
In the end, only 19 percent of what you pay for a food product actually goes toward the food itself. The rest pays for packaging, labor, and marketing, according to USDA data.
A strong argument to buy fresh, local ingredients.
There is a false argument that fresh fruits and vegetables, and healthy foods prepared at home cost 2 to 3 times more than junk food. True: A thousand calories of nutritious food can cost between 6 and 8 dollars, while a thousand calories of junk food cost a mere $2 to $4 . Double that ratio for food taken out. But when you eat very healthy whole foods, you do not need as many calories. Yet to satisfy big appetites, there is nothing better than a Greek style lentil soup followed by a Green Salad with croutons and Morning Star Chicken strips, or a tofu chili and vegan corn bread (using organic corn meal), or whole rice and beans (black or red) with Tofurki or SmartChoice Italian or Chorizo style sausage. You’ll get the calories, the comfort food you crave , high protein and the healthy nutrition all together without spending much at all. In fact no matter how many fresh vegetables and fruit you buy, a healthy vegan diet with whole foods, legumes and grains and the use of high protein faux meats, tofu and tempeh will lower your total grocery bills and certainly your medical bills.
How do they keep junk-food costs so low? With tax payers subsidies for animal farming and big corporate farming and staple crops, like soy and corn,85% GMO. Corn is one of the cheapest food additives and the most highly subsidized crop in the world. This mountain of cheap corn is used primarily in processed foods. Corn and corn syrup products as sweeteners can be found in almost every product on supermarket shelves, and they are primary ingredients in most fast foods. That makes processed foods much cheaper than whole, natural and nutritious foods. Plus they don’t spoil as quickly as fresh produce and humans are inclined to crave the sweet and fatty stuff all enhanced with added chemicals for flavor, color and preservation….. and big corporations want to keep it that way.
There are more than 3,000 items on the FDA’s list of approved food additives—everything from acesulfame potassium or acesulfameK (an artificial sweetener that animal studies have linked to breast cancer) to Yellow #5 (a food coloring linked to learning and concentration disorders in children).
Check our list of common food additives(coming soon, still working on it) with serious side effects.
