Posts Tagged ‘food’

Phytonutrients your personal pharmacy means that it doesn’t take a hike to the Pharmacy; just a few steps to your garden will help heal what ails you.

phytonutrients

Phytonutrients are compounds that naturally occur in plants and provide a range of potential health benefits. It’s believed that the health benefits come from the pigments in fruits and vegetables that give them their vibrant colors. By boosting phytonutrient intake, it can help decrease the risk for certain chronic diseases, including cardiovascular, cancer, and diabetes.

A study, supported by the Nutrilite Health Institute and presented at the Experimental Biology Meeting, April 25, in Anaheim, California, found that despite the availability of a wide range of foods that contain phytonutrients, many Americans are getting phytonutrients from a relatively small number of specific foods that are not necessarily the most concentrated sources.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise; processed food is the food group of choice. With that being the main stay of the American diet, eating has become risky. There is no understanding of what are the primary foods for the human body to function at peak performance.

The next generation will have no compelling evidence, because this is seldom stated as the cause of ill health. The drop in plant consumption has resulted in many of the chronic health conditions plaguing us.

Produce Intake Among Americans

A previous study conducted by the Nutrilite Health Institute concluded that 8 in 10 Americans have a Phytonutrient gap, which translates to a lack of fruit and vegetable intake. If such great things come in small packages that could result in better health you would think that we would partake of it.

If fruits and vegetables were pharmaceuticals we would have the medical community touting the remarkable results that it produced.

Common drugs accelerates mental and physical decline in the elderly. Yet, changing to a good diet curtails both of these events. Pulling all the research together shows that produce promotes health and longevity.

Phytonutrients offer powerful protection optimizing digestive, circulatory, hormone function, bladder, liver, pancreas and vision function.

With all the health giving benefits produce intake which is the foundation of health is quite low. This is more than an apple a day will keep the doctor away. It literally is the fountain of youth that everyone is so intent on seeking. It is right in front of your nose, the plant food that lines the produce department of super-markets, and the farmers markets that spot the landscape.

A Short List of Potential Live Extending Produce

Beta-carotene – carrots

Beta-cryptoxanthin – oranges/orange juice

Lutein/zeaxanthin – spinach

Ellagic acid – strawberries

Isothiocyanates- mustard

For each of these phytonutrients, however, there is a more highly concentrated food that could be chosen instead:

• Beta-carotene – sweet potatoes
  Sweet potatoes have nearly double the beta-carotene compared to carrots in a single serving.
• Beta-cryptoxanthin – papaya
  A serving of fresh papaya has roughly 15 times the beta-cryptoxanthin of an orange.
• Lutein/zeaxanthin – kale
  By substituting cooked kale for raw spinach, it is possible to triple lutein/zeaxanthin intake.
• Ellagic acid – raspberries
  Serving per serving, raspberries have roughly three times the ellagic acid compared to strawberries.
• Isothiocyanates – watercress
  Just one cup of watercress as the basis for a salad has about the same level of isothiocyanates as four teaspoons of mustard.

Fast food life is more about the way eating habits have shifted, and the way our culture tackles everyday life.

Fast Food

Fast food isn’t only about food, it is about time. This time food is not only bad for your health, but may harm your life in dramatic, but little noticed ways. The idea behind fast food is that time is valuable and if you can quickly order and finish a meal you can move on to more pressing projects.

What was created was a whole new way to keep an active population active. Think again, we are one of the most inactive generations. Exactly what has happened is to disseminate a system for inactivity. Hook line and sinker we buy into the notion that we need more time.

What we bought into is having a greasy fat belly and a membership in the husky club. Eating habits have shifted dramatically over the last few decades, making fast food a multi-billion dollar industry.

Fast Food Nation

Becoming a fast food nation has also seen us become an impatient people. Fast food is instant gratification 

Researchers at the Rotman School of Management have found that the mere exposure to fast food and related symbols can make people impatient, increasing preference for time saving products, and reducing willingness to save.

“Fast food represents a culture of time efficiency and instant gratification,” says Chen-Bo Zhong, who co-wrote the paper with colleague Sanford DeVoe to be published in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science. “The problem is that the goal of saving time gets activated upon exposure to fast food regardless of whether time is a relevant factor in the context. For example, walking faster is time efficient when one is trying to make a meeting, but it’s a sign of impatience when one is going for a stroll in the park. We’re finding that the mere exposure to fast food is promoting a general sense of haste and impatience regardless of the context.”

Fast Food Restaurants

At first sight the fast food restaurants have the secret ingredients that we want high sugar and sodium for our modern day taste buds, low costs, and instant delivery of our order.

It is a symbol of something different from the restaurant industry on the whole.

Restaurants are hyped as a dinning experience, a place to have a time away from the hectic and into the sanguine. A dinning experience that is both food centered and costly. The patrons don’t want to be rushed, but want time to savor both the food and experience.

“Fast food is one of many technologies that allow us to save time,” says Sanford DeVoe, “But the ironic thing is that by constantly reminding us of time efficiency, these technologies can lead us to feel much more impatience. A fast food culture that extols saving time doesn’t just change the way we eat, but it can also fundamentally alter the way we experience our time. For example, leisure activities that are supposed to be relaxing can come to be experienced through the colored glasses of impatience.”

Summary

The fast food industry has overhauled the American culture. At the same time we as a nation put the emphasis on instant gratification, so it is conceivable that fast food is a consequence of our commitment to saving time. We have put the health and time with family on the back burner, for a perceived need established by both the culture and the fast food industry.

The fast food industry serves up unmatched poor quality food at a record pace.

Cooking

Advanced Glycation Endproducts (AGEs) are typically formed when sugars are cooked with proteins or fats. Temperatures over 120°C (~248°F) greatly accelerate the reactions, but so do lower temperatures with longer cooking times produce this reaction.

Even though lower temperatures decrease the amount you are exposed to, it is still a problem. These compounds are digested with about 30% efficiency. Browning reactions are evidence of pre-formed glycations. Indeed, sugar is often added to products such as french fries and baked goods to enhance browning. Exogenous glycations and AGEs are contributors to inflammation and disease states.

AGEs

AGEs are known to initiation retinal dysfunction, cardiovascular diseases, type II diabetes, cancer and many other age-related chronic diseases. Food manufacturers have added AGEs to foods, especially in the last decades, as flavor enhancers and colorants to improve appearance. Foods with significant browning, caramelizing, or with directly added AGEs can be exceptionally high in these pro-inflammatory and disease initiating compounds. A list of foods with high exogenous AGEs includes: donuts, barbecued meats, cake, and dark colored sodas.

Aging

This root causes of the multi-system degenerative diseases of aging are linked to this. AGEs that come from the fusion of sugars with fats or protein. Here is the part that is fascinating, fructose and galactose have about ten time the glycation activity of glucose. Some AGEs are implicated in age-related chronic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.

The endothelial cells of the blood vessels are damaged directly by glycations, implicated in atherosclerosis. Atherosclerotic plaque tends to accumulate at areas of high blood flow (such as the entrance to the coronary arteries) due to  increased presentation of sugar molecules, glycations and AGEs at these points. Damage by glycation results in stiffening of the collagen in the blood vessel walls, leading to high blood pressure. Glycations cause weakening of the collagen in the blood vessel walls, which can lead to micro- or macro-aneurysms; causing strokes if in the brain.

Food Supply

Today’s battleground should be over the state of our food supply, and the versions of health that the U.S. supports. While listening to debates over public or private insurance, we should be thinking of identifying the real health threats. They come from the corrupt system of both healthcare, and our reliance on chemical solutions.

Advanced Glycation Endproducts (AGEs) are dangerous, and have no place in our food chain. These can naturally occur, but it should not be in our processed food. What this means is each generation is exposed to a greater quantity of foods containing Advance Glycation Endproducts (AGEs). Accelerated aging is beginning in pre-adolescents. This generation is showing signs of diabetes, hardening of the arteries, high blood pressure, and metabolic syndrome. The integrity of our nation is at stake. Public or private does not address all our health care issues.