“It is a dangerous experiment that humans are living on processed, junk, and invented foods that have never before existed as part of our food chain.” - Jesse Hanley.
In the book, “Tired of being Tired,” Jesse Hanley describes much of what inhibits Americans from losing weight. He calls this adrenal burnout. This topic is too large to discuss in a measly blog but I highly recommend learning all about it. The more I read the more I am beginning to think that all of our problems (Obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart attacks, stroke, Diabetes....etc.) is not from our food (except for the foods we will discuss shortly that really aren’t food) but from our levels of adrenaline, cortical and DHEA. Without giving a science lesson it all comes down to stress. I am now officially changing the slogan “Crack Kills” to “Stress Kills.”
Stress can actually cause us to crave and consume all of this “non-food” (for lack of better term). I will give you a crash course on what this food is so that you can at least begin to recognize when this “non-food” creeps into your diet.
1. Processed Foods: “Made from real food that has been put through devitalizing chemical processes and is infused with chemicals and preservatives.” Examples include: hot dogs, instant foods, low fat yogurt with sugar or aspartame, meats containing nitrates, white sugar...and plenty more.
2. Junk Foods: “Contain very little real food—they are made of devitalized processed food, hydrogenated fats, chemicals, and preservatives.” Examples include: White refined flour foods, candy, sugary snack foods, pork skins, “Low-fat foods,” “Low-calorie foods”... and so on.
3. Fake Foods: Made primarily of chemicals and often contain gums and sugar fillers.” Examples include: Hydrogenated oils, margarine, ketchup, aspartame, egg substitutes, microwavable and other imitation food snacks ... etc.
Obviously it would be best to avoid all of these food altogether for health purposes. For sanity purposes, go for the lesser evil. I believe we could all live completely without fake food, and most junk food can be substituted or prepared from scratch. Processed foods are easy to avoid by simply purchasing something similar from a health food store or prepared at home.
Just remember we were not put on this earth to eat any of the food mentioned above. This is only something we adapted over time. If your body is constantly asking for these foods there is something bigger going on here and I can bet you a dozen doughnuts (anyone know how to make doughnuts?) it has everything to do with stress and adrenal burnout. You owe it yourself to assess what is going on in your body and give it the nutrients it deserves.
Alien food out, real food in!
