How much does our food affect our growing health challenges.

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   aka-djposted 13 years ago

   I've been hearing a lot, from many sources, that as our food is becoming more and more processed, mass produced, stored and distributed, that this is somehow tied to a growth in most deseases. Statistics show, that the rates of many, previously obscure deseases, are now becoming widespread.
   
   I'm talking percentages, not incident rates, being on the rise.
   
   With all the advances in medical knowledge, etc, we should be the healthiest, fittest generation ever.
   We are living longer, but, as a race, but our quality of life is suffering at the same time.
   
   Thought?

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      Cara.Rposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I believe this is true about our food. I had to go on a special diet after surgery and medication did not work.  I did some research and eliminated all processed food from my diet.
      No meat, no dairy, no wheat or gluten. Organically grown fruits and vegetables. Green tea and water. I can eat fish but it has to be fresh water. It wasn't a completely huge change since I already didn't eat meat but now I need to eat fish.
      
      Sounds like a boring diet but it hasn't been. It will be almost a year since I have been eating this way and the benefits surpassed my one goal, no pain.  Not only did my pain go away, I lost over 30lbs that I had gained from the medication they gave me. I have no more aches or pains that would appear for no reason. I also avoid foods that cause inflammation. Like tomatoes and oranges.  I wish I had done it sooner. I turned my body into its own ibuprofen.

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         recommend1posted 13 years agoin reply to this

         And the really annoying thing is that it is all so that a few people can control the production, logistics and sales of all the foodstuffs.  It should be illegal to own more than one step in the process for any one food product, it probably is under monopoly laws - but these are not for the few at the top.  I am in China and the food is grown around here, all goes through local markets and while it obviously will have been grown using insecticides etc it is still otherwise fresh and unprocessed.  I have never been so healthy in my life as I have been since coming here.

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      AngelArsposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      This is all very true. There are many documentaries about it.

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   recommend1posted 13 years ago

   Almost every step of the processing process contains toxic chemicals and known carcinogens.  From the growing of veg in processed fertilisers, sprayed with insect-fungus-etc-icide, the preservative treatments and the packaging.  Meat products get all that first, then they get hormones, anti-bacterial-fungal-biotic treatments and then an additional layer of processing, packaging etc.   The foods that are onward processed into packet meals and pies etc enjoy especially high rates of poisoning.
   
   Go figure.

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      mom101posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      The old adage, you are what you eat, holds true, throughout time.
      
      The gmo factor is just the beginning. I am worried because much of the medicines we use today are derived from plants. If the plant is altered, wouldn't that also mean the medicine would be as well?

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         aka-djposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         A lot of medicine is synthetically made.
         
         Good point, though!

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      aka-djposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      AHA.
      I knew it!

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