Me Eat Junk?
When I meet people they are interested in what I eat, and love to hear if I do eat something that is on the "not so healthy" food list. It seems as though a Health Coach is assumed to eat well, which we usually do as a matter of fact. My clean eating is 85%:15% although I try to go for 90%:10%. You won't see me walking around with a soda bottle in my hands (diet or not), or bags of chips and candy bars (only 70% cocoa). I rarely eat a bagel, a deli sandwich or fast food, in fact I only eat out at quality restaurants due to fear of where the food, especially meat, is coming from. If you looked at what I ate 10 years ago, the basics are pretty much the same, but there are changes I have made based on the food industry today. I do eat more organic than I ever did, buying as close to home as possible with frequent visits to the farmer's market and other locals. 60% of my diet is raw vegetables, the rest is lean clean protein, legumes and hearty grains. I only eat red meat once every couple of weeks, which is from a reputable local family butcher that gets his meat from 2 humanly treated cattle farms in Nebraska, or farmer's market meat vendors. I try to practice no meat days, incorporate fish 2 - 3 times a week . I am not perfect, I have my moments, but the majority of the time I try to "stay clean".
What is out there?
Since the 1970's our food industry has made some huge mistakes! First, they wanted us to eat less fat, which caused us to eat more sugar. Then they tried to make eating more convenient, but they increased the salt, sugar and fat in many prepared and fast foods. Next, because everyone wanted to eat more conveniently and quickly, they produced more fast food and chain restaurants so you can eat fast and hurry up to where you are going (that's another blog). What this results in is no one eating "real food" anymore. They are eating "food like substances". Could this be the reason for such chronic illness and obesity in adults and children? Could many of the controllable illnesses today be due to inflammatory foods which has taken over the diets and health in our country? Some chain restaurants may buy cheap poor quality animal protein, increasing salt, sugar and fat content to make food taste good. Next, look at the processed boxed foods in your grocery store, READ THE LABELS! People are eating chemicals, not food. The problem is, the standard American thinks it tastes good because their taste buds have been use to eating food laced with salt, sugar and fat, Oh My! Did you realize you may have been had???
The New York Time's Article
I just read a great article in the NY Times Magazine,The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food by Michael Moss, that is adapted from "Salt, Sugar and Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us", published by Random House this month. Let me quote about Lunchables, please read:
"With production costs trimmed and profits coming in, the next question was how to expand the franchise, which they did by turning to one of the cardinal rules in processed food: When in doubt, add sugar. “Lunchables With Dessert is a logical extension,” an Oscar Mayer official reported to Philip Morris executives in early 1991. The “target” remained the same as it was for regular Lunchables — “busy mothers” and “working women,” ages 25 to 49 — and the “enhanced taste” would attract shoppers who had grown bored with the current trays. A year later, the dessert Lunchable morphed into the Fun Pack, which would come with a Snickers bar, a package of M&M’s or a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, as well as a sugary drink. The Lunchables team started by using Kool-Aid and cola and then Capri Sun after Philip Morris added that drink to its stable of brands. Eventually, a line of the trays, appropriately called Maxed Out, was released that had as many as nine grams of saturated fat, or nearly an entire day’s recommended maximum for kids, with up to two-thirds of the max for sodium and 13 teaspoons of sugar."
How can we fix this?
Please help our children, don't allow the largest food companies to brainwash us anymore with packaging and advertising, pretending some of this food is "healthy"! It is a money making industry, they are not looking out for what is healthy and good for our nation, even after they were approached to look at the obesity epidemic in our country years ago, money was more important (see referenced article with regard to April 1999 meeting of top corp CEO's).
I am just sayin.........yes, we need to be responsible for ourselves but this should be against the law.