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.

Over time I have come to understand that there are many fundamental problems with the way food is made and delivered to us today.

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)

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.

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!

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).

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!

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Additional Resources

• 7 foods that should never cross your lips
• Why Microwave Popcorn Is An Absolute Health Nightmare
• Why Microwave Popcorn is Bad and What to Eat Instead
• PFAS: Man-Made Contaminant the “Forever Chemical”
• Why you need to know about PFAS, the chemicals in pizza boxes and rainwear
• PFCs: Global Contaminants: PFCs Last Forever

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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!

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Additional Resources

• What happens to the body when you stop eating meat?
• Vegan Protein: A Simple Guide to Getting What You Need
• Q&A on the carcinogenicity of the consumption of red meat and processed meat

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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.

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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.