Did you hear about the Tom Brady dust up recently? Finally! We have a prominent professional athlete speaking out against the Giants of Big Food instead of promoting them for money. This is awesome! Here’s a couple quotes,
“I think we’ve been lied to by a lot of food companies over the years, by a lot of beverage companies over the years. But we still [believe] it… We believe that Frosted Flakes is a food…”
Great point. Food is food. Frosted flakes, ( and Captain Crunch and Froot Loops and Raisin Bran etc etc etc) are processed pieces of flour, sugar, artificial color/flavors/scents, additives, and preservatives.
Read the ingredient list for Frosted Flakes:
Milled Corn, Sugar, Malt Flavoring, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Salt, Sodium Ascorbate, Ascorbic Acid, Niacinamide, Reduced Iron, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Thiamine Hydrochloride, Vitamin A Palmitate, Folic Acid, BHT, Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D
That’s not food. That’s crap. In Tom Brady’s words, “And the fact that they can sell that to kids? I mean, that’s poison…”
Did you notice that Coke now sells their product in cans and bottles that have names on them?? Oh yeah. They researched the 250 most popular TEEN names, and stuck them on their containers. Wow. So much for their promise not to market to kids.
Here’s the ingredient list for Coca Cola:
Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, phosphoric acid, natural flavors, and caffeine.
I’ve become used to people telling me I’m either crazy/way too out there/or over-reacting. That our government wouldn’t ever let our food supply become saturated with ingredients that absolutely cause cancer, heart disease, diabetes, mood disorders, auto-immune, and every single other disease out there.
Well, I’m happily wearing the crazy hat, because I believe that’s exactly what’s happened. Want proof?
Recent studies show:
– 70% of all the calories Americans consume now come from processed foods ( breads, crackers, pasta, cereals, pizza, etc)
– Multiple studies confirm that processed food is just as addictive as heroin and cocaine. Moms, this means that your skinny, active kids actually shouldn’t get a pass to eat processed foods; their life long eating patterns are being created – by you, right now. Bad patterns will eventually come back to bite them in the butt.
– Multiple studies link artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, and additives to cancer, heart disease, diabetes, allergies, hyperactivity, Alzheimers, and literally every disease out there. Not convinced? Read here.
Let’s look at a few common ingredients.
BHA and BHT are synthetic preservatives that keep fat from going rancid. Look on cereals, breads, meats, microwave dinners, vegetables oils, margarine’s, chewing gum, any and all chips, cookies, cakes, skin lotions, face make-up,… the list is endless. Literally. If you buy and consume processed, refined foods (and lots of restaurants use processed refined foods), you’re consuming these chemicals.
Let’s follow the chem trail. In the 1970’s, the FDA reviewed BHA and BHT and gave then a “GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status, but acknowledged additional review was needed.
In 1986, they just repeated that dictum. No further review – by the FDA – has happened.
However, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Agency for Cancer Research, and The National Toxicology Program, have all declared BHA and BHT as Carcinogenic. There’s also very strong links between these products and hyperactivity in children; it’s highly suspected they cause liver damage; and it takes the average male adult TEN days to eliminate BHA from the system.
Our food system is loaded with cases like this! Let’s look at pizza, which is pretty much a giant chemical, unless you’re making it at home (another recipe here).
The average American eats 46 slices of pizza a year. 25% of all boys ages 6 to 19 eat pizza every single day. Our government has actually declared pizza a vegetable for school lunches, hospitals, jails, and social programs. (??)
Food Babe (an incredibly determined Activist) did a thorough investigation of the ingredient list in several pizzas, and the results were horrible. Did you know you can say “100% Real”, legally, and have it be loaded with crap??
Among the many chemicals is MSG, in all it’s FDA approved monikers. Think a little MSG can’t hurt? Oh my gosh, please think again. MSG, under ALL it’s names (yeast extract, autolyzed yeast extract,… there’s more than 40 approved names for it) is an EXCITO-TOXIN. It literally excites brain cells to death; MSG’s links to cancer and other disease states are profound. Unfortunately, like so much poison, it makes food taste good, and it has the effect of stimulating areas of the brain that make us want more. MSG is a Food Manufacturers Dream.
Take a look at some pizza ingredients that contain MSG:
YUCK! Not. Real. Food. In Tom Brady’s words: Poison. We have to wake-up, and unhook ourselves from the siren call of processed foods, because it’s killing us. Slowly and quietly, but it’s killing us.
The answer? Real Whole Foods. Cooking at home. Making food and meals and nutrition a priority for our health, and our kids health. Letting go of the idea that skinny=healthy, because it doesn’t. Healthy=Healthy. I know lots of skinny people with cancer, heart disease, auto-immune conditions, neurological conditions, etc.
It’s the food. Moms and dads, don’t push this advice away just because you’re overwhelmed and busy. Our kid’s futures depend on this. We can make Real Whole Foods our norm, honest.
Want a great place to start? Read the links included in this Post. The more you know about our food system, the easier it becomes to avoid processed foods through fear and disgust.
Don’t know how to cook/shop/prep/pack? Get in touch with me. It’s not hard, it’s just a skill to master; and a way of thinking.
Finally, I want to link to a great book I finished recently: French Kids Eat Everything. This book is wonderful, and I wish I’d read it 25 years ago. It details the differences in American and French food beliefs/culture/norms, and why and how French kids eat everything. It’s a positive approach to food that we just don’t have here. For example, we have “kid foods” galore in the US: chicken nuggets, pasta, cereal, etc. Kid foods in France are pureed vegetables and small bites of organ meats. They don’t snack, and they use utensils at 2. They really do eat everything over there, and consequently, France has the second lowest rate of heart disease in the industrial world, and no weight issues.
I hope you get 2 take-aways from today’s Post. (1) we’re literally creating and training our children for life long eating patterns and food preferences every single day we have them. (2) We are what we eat. We eat crap, we create a crap body. We eat Real Whole Foods, and we give our body the nutrients it needs to rebuild, repair, and thrive.
Get in touch with me for help and changes. We have so much potential!