In life, people only have two choices: either they can move forward, or start over.
Starting over could be something like accepting a new job, moving to a new area, or adjusting to life without persons who you used to spend it with. All of these could be challenging at first, but that doesn’t mean they are necessarily a bad thing.
Moving forward, for example could be getting promotions and pay raises at your job. Same can be said for asking a person of interest out on a date, or to dance. It’s basically moving from one page, (in that book called life) to the next.
However, both of those choices result in what people fear the most — the unknown — so sometimes people try to pick a third option, which is to stand still and simply do nothing.
The feeling of comfort and security that some people have from staying in one place and acting like there is no need to shift in any new direction (for fear of dealing with the unknown) is too great for them to even try something new. But regardless of what you do, there is always the possibility of rejection or failure.
But which choice – is the best choice?
The answer is that you should always move forward. Why is that? Because even if you choose to stand still, the world around you will continue to spin. Your parents will die, your kids will grow up, you yourself will get older, your car will depreciate, the cost of living will rise, need I go on?
So by all means, you should always move forward.
Everyone’s life is in motion
Even from an early age, we’re all taught that life is about moving forward. Kids enter pre-school, and then elementary school, middle school, high school, college and so on. Young adults want to get married, have kids, buy a home and so on.
And what happens when people are held back, when circumstances prevent them from moving forward? They become unhappy and feel dejected. And these feelings are perfectly normal.
Sometimes though, you have to start over in order to move forward. For example, if you would like to have a bigger salary, sometimes that requires you get up and change jobs, even if the job you have now is comfortable but they see no need to give you a bigger pay raise.
Or perhaps you no longer enjoy the city/town/area where you live. You want more excitement, a new circle of friends, and better opportunities for your family or for yourself. In order to move forward, you know that you have to start over.
In such situations, it becomes a matter of pushing aside fears of the unknown. It’s easy to mask your fears with a number of excuses. Yes, moving from one place to another will demand sacrifices and money but such a move may help you to move forward in ways that your current location cannot allow. People who are immigrants from foreign lands know this in ways that most citizens of the new country never can.
Buy an Umbrella
On the other hand, sometimes situations in life will force you to start over. Your house may burn down, you may unexpectedly lose your job, or you may have a sudden tragic loss of a loved one. But even after any one of these difficult circumstances, you move forward.
In regards to finances, this is one scenario where you absolutely DO want to move forward. It’s wise to plan ahead of time—to have things like sufficient life insurance for your family members, an emergency fund, and keeping your credit score up. All of these things can minimize the pain associated with a sudden tragic loss, if one were to happen.
It’s better to own an umbrella when the sun is still shining, because you may not be able to find one when the storm comes.
Try to have these things in place BEFORE life forces you to start over. Because starting over without enough insurance/savings or wealth makes a struggle harder than it needed to be. And there is no excuse, because right now you still have time to prepare for these things.
Don’t broadcast it!
Regardless of which choice you make; whether it’s to move forward or start over, be very cautious about who you tell this to. Other people may not like your choice, because more often than not it won’t involve them.
Some may even make excuses or try to discourage you from doing what you know to be the best choice for you. But you’ll soon recognize that those same people who told you to stand still, will move forward themselves. So its best to not be so quick to broadcast your decision.
At the end of the day you will either know, or soon learn who can be trusted with such information. And even if they can be trusted, ask yourself: Do they really NEED to know? Because if your plan to move forward or start over doesn’t involve them, it might become their mission to stop you or convince you to remain motionless.
On the flip side, sometimes we ourselves can also keep ourselves motionless.
Is it wise to allow one challenging time period, one job, one relationship, or one event to dominate the rest of your life?
weidelonwinning.com
Holding on the past can hold you back from moving forward. Never freeze yourself in time. Let go of “how it was supposed to go”, because this kind of thinking will prevent you from reaching goals and dreams that you may want for your future. You can’t move forward if you keep yourself stuck in the past. So stop analyzing and asking yourself what went wrong, just let it go and move forward. This is how you will reach living your best life here and now.
So when life takes you in a new direction and you’re wondering which way you should go – up, down, right or left – the correct answer, is always forward.[a]
Disclaimer: the information provided on this web site is for educational purposes only, and does not substitute for professional medical advice. The author of this blog is not a licensed dietitian or medical professional. Please consult with a licensed medical professional or healthcare provider if you are seeking medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment. We are not responsible for any decisions that you choose to make.
Footnotes
[a] You can greatly benefit by moving forward when life takes you in a new direction but I don’t want you to take that out of context. Some situations don’t apply….. For example: If you are wondering if you should drive while being intoxicated, or have unsafe sex, or do something otherwise illegal- the answer is NOT to move forward. This blog post is not recommending for you to just blindly follow this advice to your detriment, or make a rash decision with the reasoning: “I should always move forward! “, because that would be foolish. This article is not encouraging you to make bad choices. Nor is it giving you an excuse to indulge in illegal or addictive behaviors. We only encourage positive and healthy behaviors.
I used to love eating movie theater popcorn, or just popping my own popcorn at home in the microwave. It seemed like the perfect complement for any great movie. But I no longer do that.
The convenience of being able to quickly and easily throw a bag of popcorn in to the microwave and almost instantly have a perfectly popped bag with butter & salt that requires no preparation/cooking comes at a great cost.
What is that cost? I’m glad you asked.
Genetically Modified Ingredients
Actual popcorn itself is not a GMO. However, ingredients included in the microwavable bag of many popcorn brands (corn oil, soy oil, or soy lecithin, etc.) are all common GMO ingredients or GMO-derived ingredients.
GMOs have never been tested long term on human beings and are linked to a slew of health issues that are rising in this country and abroad. Most popcorn brands do not use organic corn either, so you can be sure they contain harmful pesticides.
Toxic Artificial Butter Flavoring (Diacetyl)
Structural formula of Diacetyl
Many popcorn brands have used artificial butter flavoring in their microwave popcorn. This chemical is called diacetyl and it has caused respiratory and lung problems and may even cause brain damage related to alzheimer’s disease.
Although most popcorn manufacturers have reportedly removed diacetyl from their products today, it’s been replaced with other kinds of butter flavoring that some scientists say are just as bad as the original stuff.
Prefer margarine?
Margarine (basically fake butter spread) and similar oil-based products typically also add diacetyl and acetoin (along with beta-carotene for the yellow color) to make the final product butter-flavored, because it would otherwise be relatively tasteless. This fact alone should make you rethink your dietary choices.
Bronchiolitis Obliterans
The artificial butter flavoring (diacetyl) can cause lung problems for some, and it HAS afflicted enough people working in popcorn factories to garner it’s own disease – it’s called “popcorn lung” or bronchiolitis obliterans.
This disease is irreversible and can cause permanent lung inflammation, scarring and even restricted airflow resulting in breathing trouble. In extreme cases it can be life-threatening. Thankfully chances of contracting this disease today is very rare.
Movie theater popcorn, smothered in diacetyl
Perfluorooctanoic Acid in The Bag
One of the worst things about microwave popcorn are the chemicals that come in the bag itself.
Perfluorooctanoic compounds are used in many Teflon coated (non-stick) frying pans, it is also used in grease-resistant packaging material such as popcorn bags and pizza boxes. We were never meant to eat this stuff, but when exposed to extreme heat sometimes Perfluorooctanoic Acids (PFOA) get released and get into our food.
In nature almost all organic compounds break down/decay and eventually decompose. Well, not this stuff… As kernels are popped in the microwave, the compounds coating the bag break down into PFOA, and when PFOA enters the bloodstream it takes a long time before it leaves the body.
Studies show that PFOA does not break down by any known environmental degradation mechanism: hydrolysis, photolysis, or biodegradation. It is also not broken down in the human or animal gut, but remains unchanged in the body, and stays for years once it finds its way in.
The Environmental Working Group
The scary thing is that PFOA is a known carcinogen and has been shown to cause developmental and other adverse effects in lab rats. PFOA is widely thought to cause cancer. Why is it acceptable to still sell these? Apparently the government doesn’t think there are enough quantifiable issues with the amount of PFOA transferred to foods. The amount of PFOA used on boxes/bags is much lower than the amount needed before you see signs of trouble, but I still wouldn’t recommend it.
Preservatives
Many brands of microwave popcorn use preservatives that are toxic and can cause health problems. Propyl gallate is a preservative usually added to foods containing oils and fats to prevent oxidation.
The FDA considers it safe for Americans to consume, but it’s interesting that many other counties have banned it or limited it’s use. It may have caused tumors in lab rats.
Because of the possible adverse effects of propyl gallate, it is being phased out of food products in many other countries, but unfortunately the United States has yet to draw attention to this one.
A healthy snack?
Even with all of the above items stated, many sources will still make the claim that popcorn in general is a healthy snack.
Sure, popcorn itself is a much better choice than eating candy bars or greasy potato chips, but let’s not mince words, foods that are rightly called “healthy” give us nutrients that our bodies need to be nourished and fight off disease. The amount of nutrients that can be found in popcorn is negligible, mostly just carbs.
That being said, eating organic popcorn in moderation (without excessive salt and fake butter) won’t hurt you, but for all the reasons mentioned above, microwave popcorn is not the best choice for a healthy snack.
But I love popcorn!
Raw popcorn kernels
Yes I know. This is also a childhood favorite of mine too, and it’s extremely hard to pass up sometimes. If you do want to still keep some popcorn around, don’t buy the heavily processed variety.
The absolute best option is to buy raw organic popcorn kernels and just pop them yourself in a popcorn popper. You can add real butter or coconut oil. You can also sprinkle a small amount himalayan pink salt (which is better than processed/refined white table salt).
A stainless steel popcorn popper
For cooking in general, it’s best to use cast iron, or glass cookware as much as possible. These are your best options, but stainless steel (as shown) is also okay.
Don’t use cheap materials in the microwave; like brown paper bags, plastic tupperware, or cook with metal pans that easily degrade or emit toxins when exposed to extreme heat.
The main lesson to take away from all this is that you should stick to real, organic foods and ingredients as much as possible. Food manufacturing companies are always looking for cheap alternatives (in packaging or the product itself) to cut costs, and to raise profits and the last thing that they have time to be concerned with is your health. So you need to do your own due diligence, eat clean, and watch what you eat!
Disclaimer: the information provided on this web site is for educational purposes only, and does not substitute for professional medical advice. The author of this blog is not a licensed dietitian or medical professional. Please consult with a licensed medical professional or healthcare provider if you are seeking medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment. We are not responsible for any decisions that you choose to make.
It’s been described as the healthiest diet on the planet. It can lower cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugars. It can prevent or reverse heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. It can also reduce symptoms of arthritis and improve your overall quality of life. What is it?
It’s called the Whole Foods Plant Based (WFPB) diet.
It’s a diet is that centers on whole, unrefined, and unprocessed foods. It’s made up of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, lentils, nuts, and seeds. Similar to a vegan diet, a WFPB diet excludes all meats, fish, dairy, and eggs, however, it also steers clear of most refined and processed foods like refined white flours and grains, refined sugars and processed oils. The terms, ‘Whole food’ and ‘plant-based’ are terms typically used to describe something that is made from whole/natural plant foods that have not been refined in any way.
You might be thinking, “it sounds wonderful, but what’s wrong with eating meat, and oil? Aren’t these healthy?”
Well, I have personally adopted the WFPB diet myself this year, and I had those exact same questions too, so let’s dive in.
The problem with eating meat
The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified red meat as a Group 1 carcinogenic to humans. Interestingly, smoking tobacco and asbestos are in that same group.
In other words, there is more than enough evidence now that proves eating red meat causes cancer. Yet, no one ever thinks about this when they go to eat a steak, a hamburger, or sausages.
I believe that humans are herbivorous creatures. Yes, we CAN eat meat, but it’s not the best choice for our bodies. We’re made to eat plants. Just like smoking; yes it’s something you CAN do, but everyone knows it’s bad for you and so you shouldn’t.
What happens when you stop eating meat?
It reduces inflammation in your body
It lowers bad cholesterol levels
It restores beneficial bacteria in your intestines
It reduces your risk of type 2 diabetes/cancer
And it may help you to control acne and avoid arthritis
People often think, “we need protein” and yes this is true. We do. But did you know that most people who eat meat are actually taking in TOO MUCH protein?[a] The amount of meat that Americans are eating today puts way more protein in their diet than they even need. And let’s not forget about all the other toxins from the meat. How many times have you heard about meat/fish recalls due to a salmonella outbreaks?
The truth is, when you eat a balanced variety of vegetables your diet will contain enough protein for you to remain healthy. But the meat and diary industry would never want you to know this. They want you to think that “Milk does a body good.”
The reality is that the odds of you catching some crazy parasite or food borne illness is far less likely if you aren’t eating any meat. Because many species of flies (such as mosquitoes, horse-flies, blow-flies and warble-flies) can transfer parasitic disease to domestic animals, and transmit organisms that cause diseases.
People who follow fads like “keto” diet or the “carnivore” diet may lose some weight in the short term, but they are giving themselves a one-way ticket to the dialysis clinic or the chemotherapy ward if they stick to these diets long term. On the other hand, the WFPB diet is by far the healthiest diet on the planet.
Milk does a body good?
The problem with diary products is that cow’s milk is a growth hormone designed to nourish baby cows. Not humans. Nature intended for human breast milk to nourish human infants. And all mammals (except for humans) stop drinking milk after infancy.
Infant mammals are born with an immature immune system, and their mothers milk is designed to help them to jump start their immune system by stimulating growth. The milk secretion creates extra mucus in the infant. This is fine if you are a baby because you need it, your digestive system is programmed to break down the amino acids in lactate and use it. But if you are a 40 year old man who drinks this same growth hormone, you might be growing free radicals that will grow colon cancer for you or grow prostate cancer. I doubt that’s what you want.
The only way for mother cows to produce this milk on a regular basis is through artificial insemination. They are impregnated on a regular basis, the farmer shoves his arm in the cows you-know-what and then as soon as the baby cow is born, it’s taken away from its mother within 24 hours so the farmer can then “steal” the mothers milk all over again. This is unquestionably shocking and cruel to both mother and baby, and farm hands definitely don’t treat the newborn calf with tender loving care. If it’s a male calf, it could be instantly killed because bulls are far less profitable.
This is not the circle of life. This is not a natural system like what we have in nature. This is a human-fabricated product line, designed only to bring profits to the people who operate the dairy industry. And their animals have no rights, no voice, no workers union. And every time you eat meat you are paying for the death of that animal, and the next one in line at the slaughterhouse.
Additionally, mother cows are given antibiotics on a regular basis just to fight off diseases that come from existing in unsanitary close quarters. The milk is a combination of estrogen, puss, and other bacteria which was designed for an animal to ingest, not humans. No other creature on the planet drinks the milk of a different species!
The majority of the human race can’t even handle the lactose in milk, but yet we teach our kids that they need to drink milk for calcium so they will have strong bones, when in reality they don’t. All the calcium that we need we can get from eating green vegetables like broccoli and other green leafy plants.
When I was growing up, as a child in school, I often had snotty nose, allergies, stomach aches, headaches, fatigue and other issues. And I used to wonder why, but now I KNOW why—my body was rejecting the animal hormones that I was taking in (out of ignorance) because I was told that I needed it. The reality is that a corrupt industry fed us disease-inducing food from an early age. The statement that “Milk does a body good” is nothing more than television marketing. It has no basis upon human health or nutrition.
Recent scientific studies have also shown that if you feed a human infant cows milk before the age of 1-years old it can trigger type 1 diabetes (T1D) in the child.
It’s no surprise to me that a babies immature immune system would be thrown into confusion like this after ingesting the milk of a different species—something which is an aberration of what is natural. The body tries to reject the animal growth hormone, but mistakenly destroys it’s own insulin-producing cells, and that is the irreversible onset of T1D.
Let’s talk about oil
Most consumers are Walmart shoppers. Meaning that people want to buy everything as cheap as they can find it, including food. But you should NEVER bargain shop when it comes to food.
Cheap food is often made with ingredients, preservatives and additives that are toxic or outright poison originally, but are processed/refined to be edible.
Here’s a few examples:
Conola oil is made from the rapeseed plant. These plants contains toxic erucic acid, known to increase the of risk of lung cancer; and anaemia. They are allowed to sell it because the toxicity level averages 0.01 percent.
Cottonseed oil is another ingredient that you will sometimes see added to food, but last time I checked, cotton is not even edible. So how can they extract the oil from Cotton and add it to food?[b]
In 1995, canola oil was genetically engineered to contain bacterial DNA that would make it resistant to toxic herbicides (Roundup). Released to the market as a “healthy” oil, consumers weren’t told that 82% of the world’s canola is a GMO.
Oil is added to nearly all processed foods, food bought in stores, in restaurants and sold on the street. All of that oil (processed fat) is killing people. Cardiovascular deaths kill more people every year than all forms of cancer combined.
What about healthy oils?
By now I’m sure you’re thinking, “But we need healthy fat!” and yes, I agree, we do. But let me break this down.
Oil is fat. Omega-3 and Omega-6 are nutrients that we get from fat. The human body cannot produce these, so we need to get them from food. This is the only reason why oil is considered healthy. But these nutrients don’t need to come from UNNATURAL sources, like man-made oils. We can get enough healthy fat from whole/natural food sources like avocados and nuts.
According to Google, “Omega-3 fatty acids are essential nutrients that are important in preventing and managing heart disease.” Note that getting Omega-3 is good for us, but it’s not the only way to prevent heart disease.
And for Omega-6[c], Google says Omega-6 is “a type of polyunsaturated fatty acid that helps stimulate skin and hair growth, maintain bone health, regulate metabolism, and maintain the reproductive system.”
So yes we do need fat, but as stated earlier, you can get Omega-6 NATURALLY; from foods like corn, tofu, nuts/seeds, avocados, etc. You don’t need to drizzle a bottle of highly processed oil (made with toxic ingredients and possibly GMOs) on your food!
Your body is made of mostly water. Oil and water don’t mix. So if you pour an oil-based dressing on a salad, that doesn’t make it healthy. What it does is cause your blood to coagulate and it fills your arteries with atherosclerotic plaque. Not cool.
A better alternative
Imagine if you ate nothing but whole/national foods on a daily basis. What would that do to your body, your heart, your circulation, your blood, and metabolism? It could do nothing except give you all the necessary nutrients that you are now missing, minus all of the bad stuff like absurd amounts of sugar, fat, salt and toxins.
Eating like this and you will no longer need to be concerned with eating bad cholesterol from meat, eating heavy metals from fish, eating hormones in dairy, and you will have lower chances of developing cancer, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, cardiovascular issues and many other preventable diseases. You’d only see a doctor once per year for your yearly checkup.
Almost all of these plant based foods contain fiber and water so there is no need to portion control, no counting calories, no hydration issues, and no constipation if you balance it out by eating a variety of fruits, vegetables and grains.
Below is the food pyramid that I wish they would have taught me in school. If I had been eating like this I would not be diabetic today, and neither would 1/3rd of the population in America.
You’d also have the satisfaction of knowing that less animals will have to endure horrendous torture/suffering and death in a slaughterhouse, because you aren’t buying any animal products.
But a plant based diet is a win for everyone; humans, animals and the environment. So, what’s on your plate? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Disclaimer: the information provided on this web site is for educational purposes only, and does not substitute for professional medical advice. The author of this blog is not a licensed dietitian or medical professional. Please consult with a licensed medical professional or healthcare provider if you are seeking medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment. We are not responsible for any decisions that you choose to make.
Footnotes
[a] According to WebMD an adult male only needs about 56 grams of protein (10% of his caloric intake) per day. American adults eat about 5 times the amount of needed protein per day according to the World Health Organization, and according to the USDA Americans eat only twice the needed protein that they recommended. Too much protein could lead to bad breath, weight gain, constipation, diarrhea, dehydration, calcium loss, and worst case scenario, kidney damage and even heart disease.
[b] We can only eat cottonseed oil because they remove the gossypol in it. gossypol can cause all sorts of issues like respiratory distress, weight gain, anorexia, weakness, and death after several days. With gossypol removed, sure you may be able to eat this oil, but I do NOT recommend it.
[c] Most people get there Omega-6 from eating fish like salmon, but where do the fish get it from? Fish eat algae and phytoplankton. You too can also get Omega-6 from eating seaweed capsule supplements if you want to avoid eating fish on a plant based diet.
In the United States, diabetes has become increasingly prevalent in recent years. In 1980, 5.8 million American adults were diagnosed with diabetes, compared with 34.2 million today, and an additional 88 million Americans—approximately 1 in 3—who have prediabetes. These ones are well on their way.
What changed over the last 50 years? Well our diet for one thing. Almost everything is processed in food factories now. But it hasn’t always been this way.
For thousands of years men have survived (without widespread diabetes) eating a very different kind of diet. If you look at Asian cultures, like Okinawa for example, elderly people there have been known to live well into their 90s and still maintain relatively good health and mobility. The food that this older generation ate is nothing like what people are eating today.
Most of those Okinawan people were eating lots of family farmed, locally grown vegetables with a starch (like rice, yams or sweet potatoes) with every meal. Sure, they may occasionally add a small amount of meat like fish, but it’s definitely NOT something that they would eat 3 times a day. They also would not add processed oils to every meal.
Our diet today
Today we are eating refined grains (i.e. white bread), fried foods and some kind of animal-based protein with every single meal because we have been wrongly convinced to believe that we need all this extra protein. We might go and eat in fast food restaurants several times a week, which adds to our already excessive intake of sugar, fat and salt.
To combat this, many dieticians and medical professionals will advise you to adopt a “low carb” diet and avoid starches/sugars.
Even Google recommends a so-called “diabetic diet” to manage diabetes, as shown below.
This seems like good advice on the surface, since the more sugars you take in, the more sugars you will have in your body. But it’s not simply a matter of just avoiding all sugars and carbs.
The Okinawan people did not have access to factory-made refined sugar (soda pop), or refined grains (white bread), but they were eating natural sugars/carbohydrates (like rice, potatoes and fruit) for thousands of years—without widespread diabetes—so how can those be bad? There must be something wrong with how our food is made today.
Not so natural flavors
1. What makes cookies/cakes and other desserts taste so good? Quite naturally, it’s the refined sugar. If you were to take the sugar out from these foods, you would have just a small pile of fine white powder (granulated sugar).
In this case, pure refined sugar is the issue. That’s what makes these foods unhealthy.
White refined sugar is void of any nutrients, just pure carbohydrates.
By contrast:
The sugar cane plant is loaded with fiber and nutrients: potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, thiamin, riboflavin and several amino acids.
But if you simply extract the sugar from that plant and process it, it contains no nutrients at all: calories: 15.4, carbohydrates: 4g
Since sugar is a source of carbohydrates, people assume that means the fewer carbs you eat, the better. This is not exactly correct, potatoes are healthy, yet they are a high carb vegetable. The issue here is when you “process” the food and strip away the fiber and nutrients like we have done with refined sugar and refined grains. These inferior man-made food products are what is killing us.
2. What makes fried chicken or potato chips taste so good? It’s the added fat. And if you were to extract all the fat out of these foods, what you would have is a small bottle of oil.
Oil is the most calorically dense type of fat.
Most people never think about this. They usually don’t associate oil as being fat, but it is. And almost every single kind of packaged/processed food that you can buy in stores is made by adding one or more kinds of oil. Just look at the ingredients. People are buying conola oil, coconut oil, and extra virgin olive oil — and somehow adding these to every single meal, thinking that this is healthy but it’s not. Why not?
In the Standard American Diet (SAD) we consume high amounts of fat and a huge amount of sugars/carbs on a daily basis. So what happens here? Your body is designed to first burn carbohydrates for energy, and the fat (to burn it later) if all the carbohydrates are used up. In the SAD diet, the body never gets a chance to burn any of the fat, because with each new meal, the body is flooded with more fat and more sugar.
When fat enters your bloodstream, it doesn’t magically turn into something else, it stays fat. Because your body never is given a chance (or the need) to burn this fat. Your body doesn’t simply throw the fat away, it stores the fat as a source of energy that it can be used later if needed (and this is called oxidative priority). And this is why most people eating processed food have a hard time losing weight because they don’t know that oil, is processed fat.
What’s in a typical western diet?
Breakfast: Bacon/eggs and pancakes with orange juice (sugar and fat)
Lunch: Cheeseburger/fries with ketchup and a soda pop (sugar and fat)
Dinner: Fried chicken/steak with potatoes and dessert (sugar and fat)
People are eating that processed sugar/fat combination all day long, three times a day, 365 days a year.
Even if you just eat a nice fresh salad with a oily salad dressing, its like pouring liquid fat on top of an otherwise healthy salad.
All of this processed fat being added to each and every meal leads to thickening of your blood/hardening of the arteries (called atherosclerosis), which lead to an array of other degenerative diseases which will show up over the long term, like cardiovascular disease, heart disease, stroke, etc. but typically all of these conditions will start with diabetes first.
Again, these diseases don’t just happen overnight, they take a long time to develop, and after eating the SAD diet for 20, 30, or 40 years people are often shocked to hear the doctor tell them some bad news all of a sudden. And then they wonder how this could have happened. After all, they tried to exercise, and they believed that they were eating what they knew to be a healthy diet. They just didn’t know.
So after you are diagnosed as a diabetic, this is when a doctor will tell you that you should take some medication (typically Metformin) to lower your blood glucose numbers. There is no reason to panic. Take the medication. It’s intended to help you. But of course, your aim should be to try to reverse diabetes if possible, not just live with it. But for now, lets talk more about what diabetes actually is.
Diabetes dissected
Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) is an autoimmune disease where the body attacks the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas and kills them. Unfortunately T1DM cannot be reversed, it’s permanent. I have only heard of one man who was able to reverse his T1DM thanks to a medical breakthrough with the help of lab-grown stem cells. However, this is not yet widely available.
T1DM accounts for only 5 to 10 percent of cases of diabetes worldwide. The majority of people with diabetes have type 2.
Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is a disease that is caused by something called insulin resistance. What is insulin resistance? This is when your body is not able to transfer glucose (sugar) into your cells with the help of insulin. The organs and muscle tissues put up a “resistance” (an impaired response) to the insulin, and won’t allow it to pull the sugars into them, from the bloodstream. So the level of sugars in your bloodstream remains high all the time.
What causes insulin resistance?
Your liver will create glucose (blood sugar), and your pancreas will secrete insulin as a transport mechanism for that glucose. Insulin has the job of taking that sugar and putting it into tissues (muscle, organ, etc.) so it can be used as energy. The problem is, the tissues say “no thank you, we don’t need it” to insulin. So the sugars just keep circulating in the blood.
But what makes the tissues say no? It is believed that insulin resistance is caused by the storage of unhealthy fat in tissues that are NOT designed to store fat.
So insulin resistance is mainly a dysfunction of your muscle and liver tissues. In essence, the injection of the insulin is blocked (by inflammation) so it cannot enter the tissues where it is needed.
Inflammation of the body is obvious when you see someone who’s overweight, but it actually starts much earlier than that, when your internal organs become inflamed from fat. Yes, a person can have a fatty liver and/or cardiovascular disease before (or even without) showing any outward signs of being unhealthy. They might even feel totally fine, without knowing what’s going on inside.
In fact, the moment your metabolic system begins to slow down, that’s the very first instance when your body begins to break. This we will discuss more about this in part ii of this series.
So what kind of foods should be avoided to prevent this from happening?
All processed/refined sugars, refined grains (white breads) and vegetable oils (unhealthy fat) should definitely be avoided. And also it’s wise to severely limit your intake of red meats, alcohol and dairy products.
What this means:
No refined sugar (soda pop, candies and artificial sweeteners)
No refined grains (white bread, donuts, cakes)
No diary (milk, cheese, butter)
No oils (conola, coconut, olive, etc.)
No red meat (pig or cow)
Natural carbohydrates (like rice, yams and potatoes) are not necessarily bad in and of themselves, but processed foods in general are not healthy. In other words, your food will be far healthier if you cook it yourself at home, as opposed to eating a lot of pre-cooked, pre-packaged foods.
For everything you buy, you should always read the ingredients. Watch out for chemicals in the ingredients as well. The fewer the ingredients, the better. You want to eat whole/natural, plant based foods in abundance, eat dark green leafy vegetables, and avoid processed/packaged foods as much as possible.
Most of the food you eat should look the same way it does in nature. Naturally, everyone will want to eat an occasional cookie or pie. No harm there, but it should be very seldom, not a daily or weekly thing.
Of course you cannot totally avoid all fat, and neither should you (nuts and some vegetables like avocados and olives contain healthy fats), and these are essential, but you should avoid all processed oils that come in bottles as much as you possibly can.
That’s too extreme!
Most of you might look at this and think it’s quite an extreme take. But honestly, I consider the alternatives to be extreme: taking medications for your entire life to manage preventable diseases, or getting your rib cage sawed open so doctors can suck the plaque out of your arteries or do bypass surgeries! What about losing your eyesight, your toes or having diabetic neuropathy in your legs? Those alternatives sound VERY extreme to me.
Additionally, there is now a new study that reveals that you could even trigger T1DM in children if you feed cow’s milk to a baby before the age of 1 year old—and remember this disease cannot be reversed.
If you become diagnosed as T2DM, most doctors will simply give you a medical textbook treatment. This means simply managing the disease, without any focus on the real cause or educating you on what disease reversal even looks like.
You will be given a prescription medication (probably Metformin[a]) which temporarily lowers glucose production in the liver, and it also lowers blood sugar by increasing the body’s sensitivity to insulin, but this is not a cure. It only serves to stabilize your glucose level on a day-to-day basis when your blood sugars are too high. The doctor will also give you a glucose meter, so you can test your sugar level yourself by taking a tiny blood sample.
This is all fine and good if all you want to do is manage the disease. But what if you could prevent or even totally reverse diabetes, wouldn’t you do what it takes?
A new kind of treatment
The standard western diet of daily eating refined sugars, refined grains, unhealthy fat from oils, meat and dairy products is literally killing people. But what can a diabetic person do to be healthier?
The very first thing you need to do is be more active! Yes, exercise. We’ve all heard this before. But why is it so important? Because muscle tissues are very demanding of sugars in order to function, and the more muscle you have in your body, the less sugar will be floating around in your bloodstream. Muscles soak it up, and strengthening your muscles will help to lower glucose. So try to build muscles in your arms (lifting and pulling heavy things) and in your legs (walking more will help). Weight loss is also usually helpful for diabetics. If you often sit down while working, try standing up instead. This burns more calories. If you want to talk on the phone, or play a mobile game, go outside and walk around while you do these things. It isn’t that hard to be more active. Just remember the goal is to build muscle, so this means you should look for ways to do some form of regular resistance exercising.
Secondly, Hippocrates said it best when he said “let food be thy medicine.” Instead of continuing to constantly eat all kinds of process food products (i.e. man-made garbage) choose to eat mostly whole natural foods, foods that grow in trees and in the ground. Most of your foods should be biochemically alive. It should contain seeds that can still grow a new tree if planted.
Unhealthy food on the other hand are sterile, and dead. And it can last for months without expiring, because it contains almost zero nutritional value.
A diet full of fresh fruits/vegetables, legumes, lentils, nuts, healthy grains and oats are what you should eat often. All packed with nutrients, right from the earth. Stop clogging your arteries with needless excesses of processed vegetable oil, red meat and dairy (which contains unhealthy fat) and the endless array of toxins, coloring and chemicals that get added to pre-packaged foods like pastas and breakfast cereals. Gradually replace all of these with good, better options.
Stories like this one here should be shown on television, in movie theaters and at colleges and universities. Because type 2 diabetes can be beaten if one is proactive about their health and knows what to do. The closer you are to diagnosis the easier it is to achieve success, but even being a diabetic up to 10 years and its still possible. It’s less common beyond that, but with hard work and meticulous effort it may still be possible.
By making more informed choices about what you put in your body, you food can become your medicine as Hippocrates so elegantly stated. That is why I decided to change my diet so that I only eat a whole foods plant-based diet. You can learn more about this diet here. You can do it too.
Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food.
Hippocrates, Ancient Greek physician
TL;DR Summary
Processed foods contains a lot of sugars, salt and unhealthy fat. This would include artificial sweeteners refined grains (white bread) and vegetable oils (which are liquid fat).
When we eat both sugar and fat at the same time, our bodies will burn the sugar and store the fat.
This buildup of unhealthy fat in our cells is what we believe leads to insulin resistance, which is the cause of type 2 diabetes, and diabetes is the leading cause of numerous other health problems that will show up.
The solution? Be more active! Exercise often and eliminate as much processed food as possible, including oils, refined sugars/refined grains and stick closely to a whole foods plant based diet.
Disclaimer: the information provided on this web site is for educational purposes only, and does not substitute for professional medical advice. The author of this blog is not a licensed dietitian or medical professional. Please consult with a licensed medical professional or healthcare provider if you are seeking medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment. We are not responsible for any decisions that you choose to make.
Footnotes
[a] Metformin is the most widely used drug to manage T2DM. Metformin puts little if any strain on the organs, it doesn’t cause weight gain, and comes with the added benefit of being the most affordable diabetes medication on the market. It’s been prescribed to more than 120 million people worldwide.
