C-U-NO Guiding Principle 2

What’s Really in the Food We Eat Day-to-Day?

Let’s look at our SECOND PRINCIPLE “U”:   Eat foods that are UNALTERED.  AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, EAT FOODS AS THEY WERE CREATED; BEFORE HUMANS CHANGED THEM INTO “SOMETHING BETTER.”

Unaltered foods are called ‘whole foods’. A whole food could be something that hasn’t been processed before you process it in your kitchen; like the fresh veges that you’ll use in preparing a meal. Or a whole food could be something that has been minimally processed before it arrives in your kitchen, like honey as opposed to sugar, or butter as opposed to margarine.¹

"Most of us buy processed food to save time" - I know this is true of me sometimes.  What we don’t know however is that these foods can be a cause of health problems in the long term.  If you want to nourish yourself and your family properly get back to a focus on foods that haven’t been highly processed (unlike the food in the photos below).

         

There are 365 days in a year, if we can eat nourishing food for at least 300 of those days that’s got to be good for us. I know most of us agree that we want to eat good, fresh, wholesome & tasty food that gives us plenty of energy for the hours ahead, doesn’t cost the earth and doesn’t take hours to prepare. Right?

Our future health is affected by what goes into our food trolley. If you’re experiencing allergies to foods, check the labels.



When faced with buying our food supplies what gives us a clue about what’s good? Here’s how to recognise those highly processed foods, or foods that may be contributing to allergies, aches and pains and general tiredness. I’ve had to be ruthless here and we’ve decided to leave on the shelf whatever contains the following:

• Hydrolysed anything – hydrolysed soy protein, hydrolysed wheat protein. ²
• Hydrogenated anything – hydrogen is attached into an oil to make it a solid.  If the words “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated” appear in the list of ingredients, look for another brand.
• Flavouring (including “natural” flavourings) –  often contain MSG
• MSG or glutamic acid –  The ingredient that causes MSG reactions in MSG-sensitive people is manufactured/processed free glutamic acid.  This chemical is found in processed foods -- but it is not found in unprocessed or unadulterated meat, fish, or vegetables.³
• Reconstituted anything – Fruit juices are often re-constituted, this means they’ve been cooked, concentrated and then had water re-added to bring them back to normal concentration.  Reconstituted fruit juices do not offer the high nutritional qualities of their freshly squeezed counterparts.
• Enriched anything – mostly associated with wheat or soy flour ingredients.   11 vitamins and minerals removed from the original whole-wheat then 4 synthesised vitamins plus 1 mineral put back in to “enrich”.  If you want the best nutrition from a wheat-based ingredient, shop only for whole-grain wheat, not enriched wheat flour or simply “wheat flour.”
• Gelatin – In NZ gelatine is made from the animal protein mainly derived from pig or beef skin.  A good alternative is agar-agar, derived from seaweed.
• Soy derivatives – Nearly 60% of the world’s soy crop is now grown from genetically modified (GM) plants. In Argentina, 98% of the soy crop is genetically modified – in the USA 94%. Last year New Zealand imported 7 million kg of soy flour and meal from Argentina. In NZ, food must be labelled as genetically modified if it contains GM DNA or protein, or altered characteristics from the genetic modification. Soy protein isolate is a highly processed form of soy added to many things called ‘healthy’.
• Low or no fat items – the body requires the right oils, not the highly processed oils we find in clear plastic bottles.  Manufacturers use omega-6 oils for long shelf life.  Omega-6 may be good, but it’s the balance between the Omega-3 and Omega-6 that’s critical.  It’s now proven that minimally processed butter, and good coconut oils, or a good, FRESH olive oil is the best.
• Talking about heart problems and artery inflammation Dr Dwight Blundell says, “There is no escaping the fact that the more we consume prepared and processed foods, the more we trip the inflammation switch little by little each day. The human body cannot process, nor was it designed to consume, foods packed with sugars and soaked in omega-6 oils.” ⁴
• Maltodextrin – is a fine, white powder often used as a thickener or filler. As well as in pharmaceuticals as a binding agent you'll find it in tinned fruits, snacks, cereal, desserts, instant pudding, sauces, and salad dressings.  Made from highly processed corn, rice or potato starch.
• Numbers – This is where it pays to buy The Chemical Maze app (if you have a Smart Phone), and/or the book at http://www.chemicalmaze.com/

I try to avoid “numbers” as much as possible, which means I pretty much know what products to avoid (this has taken a while and a little education on my part).  Some of the numbers that are currently in my kitchen are:  the emulsifier 471, which is a type of fatty acid, not known to be harmful, but may be GE if processed from animal products, but better than another emulsifier or stabilising agent derived from propylene glycol (477).   Sodium bicarbonate, 500, a raising agent, pretty much okay.   Glycerol or glycerin, 422, a thickener, okay, but can cause headaches, but better than carrageenan (407) which often contains free glutamic acid (MSG) known to be associated with allergies (1422), a modified food starch and thickener, which apparently can cause low growth rates in test rats – well that is in my sour cream - I didn’t know that. Oh, and another baddie in my salami, sodium nitrite, 250, - gulp - which is a colour fixer and preservative.  That’s about all I have (might have to kick out the salami though).

Along with the salami go shellfish, crab, crayfish, shrimp and prawns.  Shellfish & crustaceans are the ocean cleaners which clean up contamination from algae, chemicals and dead matter – a bit like pigs on land.  For better health go for fresh fish with scales and fins, or tinned ‘wild-caught’ salmon as opposed to farmed salmon.

You may now be thinking, “Well, what can I buy then?”

• Go for unprocessed as much as possible. For example, fresh, raw nuts as opposed to roasted & salted.  Tasty dips with vege sticks as apposed to a bag of chips.
• Home baking or buy minimally processed goods like Ryvita crackers which contain only Wholegrain rye flour, Sesame seeds and Salt. That’s a whole lot better than a cracker that’s made with wheat flour (white flour), hydrogenated oil and a variety of numbers.
• Fresh meats as opposed to processed luncheon meat, salami, etc. Well farmed grass fed beef, lamb, and free range or organically grown chickens…No to barn raised beef!
• Fresh, good oils as opposed to canola or the highly processed oils.
• Fresh fruit and veges. Buy organic if you want to eat the skin, otherwise peel. Pesticide residues are found in the skins of fruit and vegetables, but then so are lots of good nutrients. It’s a balance.
• I’m sorry, but the truth is that if you’re keen to find nutritious food you just have to search for it. You’ll find some good things, to your taste, if you look and make yourself aware of ingredients. If you’ve got allergies in the family you have to be super-strict.
• Rachel Tomkinson of www.betterbods.com has given me permission to include the following small chart. I think it’s a help to keep this with us when we’re shopping online, or in the supermarket (why not print it, cut it out and put in your wallet).

                                   

Most foods containing the above are highly processed and are not nutrient rich.  When our bodies are missing certain nutrients we can still feel hungry or unsatisfied after a meal – you know what that’s like – you just feel like you want something more, something sweet maybe?  When we eat a meal that contains all the nutrients we need we feel satisfied.

Gaining extra kilos can result from our bodies needing better nutrition.  We look for it, but can’t gain it from the food we eat, so we eat more - searching to meet the body’s needs, and gaining weight. You can lose weight  by switching to eating whole foods and increasing your intake of green leafy vegetables. Dr Libby has a lot of good information about this in her delicious online recipes and on her blog. http://www.drlibby.com/recipes/healthy-recipes/

More about this though in the next newsletter - Saying No to Cravings and Addictions. Until then, like you, I’m really not being fanatical and OC (obsessive compulsive) just trying to be wise. Life is precious and health irreplaceable so I'm choosing to be aware and to serve my family, as much as possible, with foods that’s are UNALTERED.

Penelope

www.happyandhealthy.co.nz

Sources:
¹ http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/fats_and_cancer.html#.U4P7Wijry-0
² http://www.gnolls.org/3089/what-are-hydrolyzed-soy-protein-and-hydrolyzed-wheat-protein-and-why-are-they-in-everything/
³ http://www.truthinlabeling.org/)  and  http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html
⁴ http://preventdisease.com/news/12/030112_World-Renown-Heart-Surgeon-Speaks-Out-On-What-Really-Causes-Heart-Disease.shtml

C-U-NO Guiding Principle 1

A Controversial Health Principle?

Last week someone who had read the last Happy & Healthy newsletter said to me, “That article was worth reading. It was well explained and I’ve printed it out to read again.” Thanks, that was very encouraging. But didn't you have some questions like, “Why on earth don’t they eat pork?”

Last week I was explaining the C-U-NO set of three, very simple principles that can help us make all sorts of decisions about what food to buy from the supermarket, vege shop, farmers’ market, bakery, online and so on. Over the next couple of weeks we’re going to look at these three principles in more detail.

Just a note though, please do hold these principles lightly. They’re not to make us feel bad if we don’t keep to them every single day. C-U-NO is a set of guiding principles, not another "have-to". My intention is to gather research and give information so that you can decide what’s best.

Just to re-cap on the 3 principles/guidelines:

• "C" EAT ONLY THE FOODS THAT WERE CREATED FOR FOOD – remember this one with the letter ‘C’ for “Created for food.”

• "U" AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE EAT FOODS AS THEY WERE CREATED; BEFORE HUMANS ALTERED THEM OR CHANGED THEM INTO “SOMETHING BETTER.”  Remember the letter ‘U’ for Unaltered.

• "NO" AVOID EATING TO FULFILL CRAVINGS AND ADDICTIONS.  Remember, say ‘NO’ to cravings and addictions (more about this one in a couple of weeks).

This week I’m focussing on "C" Created for Food.  This principle is probably the most controversial as generally most people would agree with the other two. People know that food which is highly processed and contains lots of additives is not healthy for you, and most of us would understand that it’s also good to be able to say no to addictions.

The question is: are there actually any sound, scientifically backed reasons behind this principle “C”?

Lets take eating pork for example, because it’s a well-known food that some people eat and others don’t. Does pork fall into the category “Created for Food?”  We don't think so.

If you’re not a kosher Jew, a strict Hindu, a practising Muslim, a vegetarian, a vegan or allergic to porcine products you are probably happy to eat pork, ham and bacon and various other meat products containing pork. Nutritionally pork fits the bill but there may be some sensible reasons to reconsider despite all the advertising to the contrary and despite the fact that pork is a well-priced meat.
 

• Contamination with pathogenic bacteria. According to an investigation by Consumer Reports¹, 69% of all the raw pork samples tested — nearly 200 samples in total — were contaminated with the dangerous bacteria Yersinia enterocolitica, which causes fever and gastrointestinal illness with diarrhoea, vomiting, and stomach cramps. Pork mince was more likely to be contaminated than pork chops.

• It was noted that many of the bacteria found in the pork samples tested were resistant to a number of antibiotics. This is a real concern.

• Other contaminants are also found in pork. In the US study 20% of the samples taken, traces of a growth stimulant called ractopamine were found². Ractopamine is banned in many parts of the world, including China and Europe³. However, NZ pig farmers can use ractopamine.

• Pigs are scavenger animals and will eat almost anything making them very susceptible to dangerous infections. About 70% of NZ farmed pigs are kept under cover in pens, hence the need for antibiotics.

• In the US, three of the six most common food-borne parasitic diseases of humans are associated with pork consumption. These include toxoplasmosis, taeniasis (caused by the pork tapeworm Taenia solium) and trichinellosis⁵ (caused by the roundworm parasite Trichinella spiralis which is transmitted between pigs, rats, cats and sometimes humans by consumption of meat from infected animals).⁶ 

• Much work has been done towards eradicating this parasite from the farmed swine population in the NZ such that the corresponding incidence of parasitic infection in humans has markedly decreased.

• The last confirmed case of trichinosis/trichinellosis in pigs in New Zealand was in 1997⁶
  These days it’s unlikely that you could become infected or die from a parasitic infection passed on via farmed pork.

• NZ farming practices for pig raising are one of the strictest in the world. However, “Each week approximately 700,000kgs of pork is imported into New Zealand – about 40% of the pork products consumed in NZ.  None of the imported pork from USA, Canada, Australia, Europe or China has to meet New Zealand’s high standards – the only requirement is that imported product must be processed or at a frozen temperature that meets our food safety standards.  This means that imported pork can be produced using growth hormones and/or antibiotics extensively to boost production levels.” ⁷

• Finally, if there are parasites in pork even cooking for long periods is not enough to kill many of the retroviruses and dormant parasites (cysts) that can be found in the fibres of the meat.

Not trying to scare you, just pointing out the "cliff" – we should all have a healthy fear of the edge.

I suspect the scientific principle that underlies the fact that many people avoid eating pork is that the digestive system of the pig is a very simple, speedy, high-acid digestive system.  Pigs are gluttons and will continue to eat whenever food is presented.  Their stomach acids become diluted because of the amount of food they take in.  This dilution allows parasites and various bacterial diseases and viruses to pass through the stomach wall straight into the flesh.

When there are obvious concerns around pork (even though the advertising says its safe), I don’t know about you, but I want to err on the side of caution especially when there are such good alternatives available in NZ when it comes to eating meat.

  VS.

Therefore my “C” recommendations are: 

• Prefer to eat beef, lamb, goat, venison rather than pork.

• Buy grass-fed, organically grown meat if you can. Maybe you know someone who owns a farm or even a ten acre block. Perhaps you could join with others and buy a share in a heifer, steer or lamb. Then watch it grow and share all the roasts, chops, steaks, and good quality saussies.

• Search out and enjoy fresh, unprocessed, non-packaged meats rather than processed ones (more about that in the next newsletter).

• Avoid the outer fat on your meat; that’s where toxins and chemicals tend to be stored.

More “C” meat info about fish over shellfish and chickens over vultures next week!

Funny isn’t it; we are more aware of (and more cautious about) the plants, berries and seeds we shouldn’t eat, but we are not nearly so aware when it comes to the meats of various animals, fish and birds.

Again please, please do hold these principles lightly. They’re not to make us feel bad if we don’t keep to them every single day. C-U-NO is a set of guiding principles not another have-to. For instance, Rodney and I may go out for breakfast and have some bacon with our eggs on the odd occasion.

Healthy living seems to be an ongoing process in my experience. Three steps forward, one step back… Maintaining good health pays off.

We are so wonderfully made,
Penelope
www.happyandhealthy.co.nz

The C-U-NO Guiding Principles

Healthy Eating Frustrations
Two or three weeks ago I had a good conversation with a friend which gave me a clue to a frustration I think many people would identify with.

She told me, “It’s so annoying trying to provide your family with healthy, real food - you start using something you think is healthy only to find out that it’s not quite as 'healthy’ as you think.”  In her case this was rice milk and all the additives in it (my answer to this one is at the end).   She said, “I just want someone to tell me about the good stuff.  I haven’t got time to research everything all the time.” 

Another friend spoke to me about her frustration of trying to eat “healthy” on a tight budget. Everyone has a concept that healthy food is expensive. We have a family of eight adults in our household and we know what it’s like to try to eat healthy without breaking the bank.   Here’s a great little site that’s helping me with my real-food budgeting.  http://dontwastethecrumbs.com/real-food-menus/



“Making healthy food is too time-consuming.  I’d rather buy something quick when I’m on the go.  I have in my mind that I’d like something healthy, but I usually fall for a muesli bar – high in sugar.”

Okay, these can be some of the really frustrating things about healthy eating, especially if you want to feed yourself and your family with good nutritious food.  This is where the rubber meets the road and it’s played out in the issues of time and budget and an understanding of how our bodies work.

If anyone was to ask for advice about healthy eating I’d say, “Let me introduce you to the C-U-NO principle - See, You Know!”

The C-U-NO principle helps me make all sorts of decisions about what to buy from the supermarket, the vege shop, the farmers’ market, Happy & Healthy, the bakery, and so on…  It’s really simple.  Most of the time I remember to check everything through my  C-U-NO filter.

C – is for “Created for food.”   I only buy food that was created for us to eat.  For example, in our family we have a preference not to eat shellfish (ocean cleaners), but we do eat fish with scales.  We prefer not to eat pig or hog-meat products, but we do eat beef and lamb (cloven hoofed) and especially if it’s good ol’ NZ grass-fed and organically grown (where possible).  We do eat the normal range of poultry-type birds like chicken, turkey, duck…  We eat a meat or fish dish about 3 times a week.



U – is for “buy Unaltered.”  Basically this means I don’t buy most of the so called “foods” that would have been unrecognizable to my great grandmother in her time; that is, I don’t, very often, buy highly processed items (refined carbohydrates). We buy wholefoods and make a lot of stuff from scratch. BUT, if I haven’t made any sweet treats to keep in the freezer to pull out at an opportune time I buy a good shortbread.   Yes, they’re made with white flour and sugar, I know, but they do only contain flour, butter, sugar and salt (if you get a good brand like Kohi or Walkers).  I do use lots of herbs and spices in our tasty meals and we grow & eat a lot of fresh veges, especially greens and smoothies..


NO – means No!  “Say No to addictions.”   Well actually this is the bit I find the hardest (when it comes to chocolate my will-power is fine, it’s my won’t-power that concerns me).  My friend says, “I do have a little trouble with this ‘say NO to addictions’ thingy… I have dispensed with sweet drinks and other bad-for-me things, but I still crave them! Why? It seems more than gluttony, or lack of will power.”  Yes, maybe it is – addictions can seem all consuming.  Perhaps what we eat affects what we crave.  I’ll look into that in a subsequent newsletter (stay tuned).

Oh, and with regard to rice milk, the Australasian brands are made using only water, organic brown rice, organic sunflower oil and sea salt (unlike the American brands in the report my friend read which raised concerns).  We buy the Signature Range brand of Organic Rice Milk from Countdown. But you can also make rice milk or almond milk easily and very cheaply at home if you have a super-speed blender.
 For a rice milk recipe click here .

I dare say C-U-NO has raised a number of questions for you, like...  "Why on earth don’t they eat pork?  What’s wrong with refined foods?  So HOW do you break an addiction?" This week is just an introduction and I’ll expand on each of the 3 principles over the next three weeks.

The GOOD STUFF is to be found in the file marked "C-U-NO”, so why not try it as a guide, it may just become your friend.  As always, here’s to wise health,

Penelope

www.happyandhealthy.co.nz