CHOICES SHAPE YOUR FUTURE
By Judith Ashton
You are what you eat. If you eat junk food, you construct your cells with rubbish. No wonder there is so much chronic illness globally, followed by medical prescriptions to try to heal the symptoms. It’s an unending, tragic revolving door of cause and effect which doesn’t deal with root causes until it’s damage limitation or sadly too late for some.
Ref: Recent report on dangers of ultra-processed food in The Lancet by Dr. Philip Baker & Prof. Carlos Monteiro. As far as I’m concerned this is old news, but cynically yet again let’s ‘Follow the money!’
Ultra processed food isn’t only big business… it’s MASSIVE, pushed by global corporations for HUGE profits by advertising + marketing. It’s cheap, highly processed and mostly non-nutritious and societies everywhere have literally swallowed it whole.
It’s all part of the disconnect… people are so far removed from their food sources and have bought into fast, cheap, processed convenient food as the way forward and subtle, insidious marketing messages tell us, “fast food is cool”, “ saves time” and all the actors look happy. Most ads are food ads and many people don’t know what real food looks like. Packaging is designed to be enticing, eye catching and mouth watering.
Marketing is everything…. More myths, more profits, more “Happy meals!”
Plastic, landfill, pollution and what’s more it’s slowly killing us! Packet, tub or a tin…. It’s somewhat processed.
Once again, a few enlightened scientists are jumping up and down and shouting from the rooftops just how bad this stuff is after years of pushing it. Even the food pyramid used to push stuff that they now tell us is bad for us. What? Yes! True!
Ultra processed food is literally killing people. Food is categorised into 4 types: 1) Unprocessed or minimally so : fruit/veg/ meat eggs etc. 2)Processed: Oils/ sugar/ salt/butter etc 3) Processed : cured/ cooked meats/cheese/bread/ salted nuts etc 4) Ultra processed: Supermarket breads/ready meals/fizzy drinks/ crisps etc.
Ultra processed is defined as having at least 5 ingredients you don’t have in your cupboards: dyes, emulsifiers, preservatives, additives, sweeteners. Notwithstanding all the long chemical words and E numbers.
All the stuff people are addicted to: sausages, crisps, pastries, ice cream, sweets etc is full of ingredients not meant for the human body. If you were a zoo keeper, would you give it to an animal? Definitely not! There’s you answer… Why eat it yourself?
Foods that are made in huge factories are on the rise… full of cheap ingredients, sugars, unhealthy fats with little or no fibre or protein and are a great health risk. No wonder so much type 2 diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, depression, early deaths and cancers.
I’m amazed that often schools or hospitals still have such poor-quality food on their menus. It’s equally shocking that places like swimming pools and hospitals have vending machines that are full of total junk and fizzy drinks. None of which promote health despite being in a hospital or sports facility. Ironic eh!?
Jamie Oliver, celebrity chef and advocate of healthy school meals was criticized by parents years ago, when they did not like being dictated to! Personally, I cringe when I see very young children being given junk food as a treat. A pre-schooler in a buggy chomping a bag of crisps is a depressing sight as it so bad for their health and development. Much of this stuff is full of tastes that are designed to be addictive to the palate and kids start to crave it and reject what is really nutritious. Fresh fruit and vegetables are not options they are essential ingredients for growing and renewing healthy cells.
If you have a chronic health condition, the first thing to improve could be your diet. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine said, “Let food be your medicine and let medicine be your food.”
There has been so much written about the benefits of good nutrition, Why it has taken governments so long to embrace this basic truth? We need to think for ourselves and make healthy choices. You choose what you put in your body and stay as close to natural as possible.
A healthy diet is a choice and starts at the shopping trolley. What do you choose to take home or leave behind?
Christmas is coming, so think very carefully about so called “treats” for kids. The confectionary shelves are very enticing but they are not healthy. Buyer beware.
