Healthy food and healthy living is a most important freedom!
Sunday, March 18, 2012 at 02:33PM
Nico de Haan

The fact that we, as modern humans, have a difficult time finding healthy food is hard to comprehend, but this is today's reality. The large food companies and governments have put us in this situation. It seems they are deliberately trying to make us sick and shortening our lives. That's not the only thing. We have drug companies flooding the market with dangerous drugs and vaccines, advertising these drugs everywhere! It is clear that large food companies  and governments are not looking out for us.

Why is it so hard to provide fresh healthy animals and fish that are free to find their own food in their natural setting, free of antibiotics, growth hormones and other additives?

We could be doing so much with the advancements in science, medicine and general knowledge, but we are not. Instead, we are stuck fighting about who's left and who's right, who's a Muslim, Jew, Catholic and who is not. A waste of time.

If we really wanted to give health care to people, we'd just open the doors to hospitals. it would be cheaper too. Don't do the paper work, just take care of people and educate them, instead of brainwashing them into using drugs and food that makes them sick and fat.

This problem seems to have accelerated these last few decades, but if we look back, we can pinpoint to the exact time when this problem began.

We know agriculture began after the last Ice Age, about 2,000 years ago to about 10,000 years ago, depending on location and population growth. This is about the time we began to gather in larger communities, town and cities; and marks the beginning of trading systems and with that came, organized religions, territorial boundaries, political formations, land ownership, slavery and, of course, a debt or money system.

This is what is commonly called civilization. Before agriculture there was no civilization. We became civilized by the cultivation of crops and domestication of animals because, by the cultivation of crops and domestication of animals, we began putting up fences and locking food away. The cultural hunting and gathering changed to tending and growing. With that came responsibility and worth. With that came all the conflicts of modern civilization. These are the conflicts we have today, and agriculture is the very point in history where it all began.

On my own, I can control a few things, especially about my health, about what I eat and the activities I participate in, so these are the things I want to concentrate on, food, my family, friends, business associates and the activities I choose for my life. If I control these things and maximize them, then I change my life and improve my mental and physical health.

What got me interested in the primal lifestyle was looking at this whole process from an evolutionary pathway. I am interested in longevity. I wanted a good foundation for myself to stay healthy. I want a quality of life more than a quantity of life. I recognized I could change how I felt by the way I ate. The better the quality of the food, the better my health. I also became interested in nutritional supplements to bridge the gap between the quality of today's food and the food we were evolved to eat.

The information we get is very confusing because of the interests, of the people selling us supplements and food in making money or political purposes. We cannot rely on the media and government to tell us how and what to eat. If you want to see what they are saying, just go to the mall and look at the majority of the people there or visit a Native Indian Reservation, and you will see the governmental recommended nutritional diet in action.

It's important to understand the role of our hormones, especially insulin. The less we use insulin, the healthier we are. Insulin ages us. Anything that requires us to use insulin, the more we age, the more our body breaks down. When our body relies on sugar as fuel, we become a slave to blood sugar levels which need insulin to normalize our glucose levels. The more our body uses insulin, the less it is repairing and maintaining our body. It is too busy ensuring your blood sugar levels are low enough.

Sugar, fruits, sodas, starchy tubers, beans, and grains spike insulin to normalize blood sugar levels. These also cause inflammatory conditions in your body creating irritations that eventually lead to many of our modern diseases, such as arthritis. These simple and complex carbohydrates have no nutritional dietary benefits for us. Fibrous vegetables do not cause this insulin reaction. Fiber does not turn into sugar, in fact, most fiber does not digest at all. Cooking helps to break down these foods to help digestion.

There are many toxins that we must deal with when we eat the Standard American Diet. Trans-fat will stay in your body up to 2 years. Many vegetable oils are processed in a way to produce hydrogen. Hydrogenation. Soy and corn are mostly GMO today, filled with proteins from other organisms to be resistant to certain chemicals that kill other plants. Soy was a political and economic scheme promoted as health food. Most processed food contains artificial colors, artificial ingredients, MSG , preservatives, and fillers.

During the last fifty or so years, we have been eliminating fat from our diet, specifically animal fat, as well as other naturally-saturated fat. At the same time, we switched from butter and lard to so-called vegetable oils, which are really just grain or bean oils.

This development changed us to a mentally and physically sick people by changing our chemical makeup. It change your body's PH changed from alkaline to acid. It changed our omega 6 to omega 3 balance from 3-1 to over 15-1. It decreased the amount of soluble and insoluble fiber we ingest. It changed our sodium-phosphorus ratio. It decreased the amount of macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients we consume. It changed the quality of the water, we drink, and it increased the amount of toxins our body has to deal with on a daily basis.

The primal or paleo diet is very simple. Eat some form of animal or fish protein and as many fibrous vegetables as you wish. The better the animals and fish were fed and cared for, the better the food is for us. We get our satisfaction from the healthy fat we consume, instead of the sugar as in the Standard American Diet.

I find it helpful to list the things we should avoid. Eliminate all sugar, grains, beans and potatoes and any food that contains them. Eliminate all processed food and snacks. Eliminate all artificial foods, sugars and sweeteners. Avoid fruit juices, fruit drinks and sports drinks.

The less processed food we eat, the healthier we are. The less the food spikes our insulin, the better it is for our health and longevity. Remember that great food spoils rather fast. So if it comes in a box or can and can be stored for a long time, it can't be fresh and it can't be good for us.

Healthy food and healthy living is a most important freedom!

Article originally appeared on Nico de Haan (http://livingaprimallifestyle.com/).
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