Your Healthy Eating GuidelinesWhen compiling your healthy eating guidelines the first thing you should start with is eliminating the 'dangerous four':1. Sugar 2. White Flour 3. Processed oils 4. Dairy products/excessive animal protein How many of you start your day with coffee, your favorite sweetener, a bowl of cereal with milk, or maybe a cinnamon pastry? And then for lunch maybe you have pasta and a meat dish with extra cheese and a side of bread before cooking up a steak and some kind of potato topped with cheese margarine or sour cream for supper, followed by a chocolate cake, just before you settle in on the couch for the night. Although that menu that I just described might sound great it's loaded with the big four and most likely will send you on your way to sickness and disease. SugarUnless you become conscious about
eating right
and why the big four are so bad for you, you can easily expose your body to them every day, usually several times a day. For example, sugar is in almost all processed foods like cereals, cookies and just about everything else that comes in a box or that is pre-made. When it comes to what to include and what not to include in your healthy eating guidelines just eliminating sugar will go a long way to restoring your health. Sugar not only makes you fat,it makes you look old and causes disease. Every time you expose yourself to sugar you're causing chaos and wreaking havoc in your cells, cardiovascular system, immune system, nervous system and to your hormones. When you eat more sugar than you can burn off it has to be stored somewhere and that somewhere is your liver, in the form of glucose (glycogen). Your liver is only so big so when it can't store any more glycogen it has to return it to the bloodstream in the form of fatty acids. These fatty acids are then stored as fat in the most inactive parts of the body like the belly, buttocks, breasts and thighs. The excess sugar in your body creates an acidic environment and it's in this environment that sickness and disease thrive. How does your body try to neutralize the acidity? By robbing precious minerals such as calcium from your bones and teeth to help restore balance--that's why so many of us are deficient in calcium. Here's a tip:When looking at food labels don't just look for the word 'sugar', look for words ending in 'ose', for example: dextrose,fructose,glucose,maltose etc.White FlourUnfortunately, white flour is just as bad as sugar, and again, it's found everywhere, from breads and pastas to cookies, cakes, rolls and buns. Since the body metabolizes flour into sugar it causes the same problems as sugar, no matter what form the white flour is in so you'll want to take a careful look at flour when looking at your healthy eating guidelines. Whether it's pizza or a breakfast cereal that you love to eat regularly, cutting white flour out of your diet will instantly make you healthier and help you control your weight. Processed OilsSome oils are essential to maintaining good health and should be included in your healthy eating guidelines--processed oils don't fall under that category. Most people eat a high fat diet--the problem is it's the wrong kind of fat. The molecules in essential fatty acids(EFA's)--which again is good fat--have a certain shape which allows them to fit together and to perform their special functions in our cell walls. Most of the oils that you find in the supermarkets are processed oils so their molecules have the wrong shape and actually damage the cell wall. When your body tries to make cell walls from trans fats--which are found in processed oils--the cells become brittle and damaged, and this is when you can develop some very serious health problems. Trans fats are found in canola, safflower, sunflower, soybean and cottonseed oils. You should also avoid hydrogenated oils like margarine and vegetable shortening. Oils that you'll want to consume should contain EFA's like a good flax seed oil, a good bottled fish oil, and coconut oil. Dairy products/Excessive Animal ProteinI don`t want anyone to get the (wrong) idea that I advocate a meatless diet, because I don't. I love meat but I limit my consumption to a couple times a week. Those of you who eat meat and consume dairy products almost every day are most likely overweight or are headed that way. Lower protein diets trigger our bodies to burn more calories whereas high protein diets cause your body to store fat and increase your body's acidity level--which, as previously mentioned, leads to calcium deficiency and disease. You`ll also want to watch the amount of eggs you consume in a week when looking at healthy eating guidelines. Most of your protein should come from plant-based foods and meat should be thought of a condiment instead of the main meal. And when you do eat meat try organic, and therefore less toxic, meat. Think about this:100 calories of raw vegetables like spinach, broccoli, or kale has more protein that 100 calories of sirloin steak. You should also consider beans and legumes because lentils and grains are great sources of protein.Milk Doesn`t do Your Body GoodConsider this when it comes to milk and your healthy eating guidelines. Milk is full of dangerous hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, herbicides, PCB`s, dioxins, viruses and excessive bacteria. We`ve been duped into thinking that we need milk for calcium when the truth is milk helps to promote Type-2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Stop drinking milk and you`ll not only be generally healthier but you`ll lose weight too. Final ThoughtsThese healthy eating guidelines will arm you with a little more knowledge on how to better your health by making better choices. I know that eliminating all four will be hard but if you start with number one and see how much better you look and feel, well, that should give you all the motivation you need to scratch the next one off the list.
|
