A Change in This Lifetime

A friend of mine recently wrote in an email that she and her husband had “learned so much about food and nutrition!” They are a well-educated, highly respected couple who are known far and wide for their intelligence, accomplishments and generosity. Health concerns had compelled the husband to learn more about nutrition and the result was life changing.

In August 2007, following his annual physical and its routine tests, it was determined the husband was pre-diabetic. Not wanting to become diabetic he asked the medical doctor what he should do. Of course the doctor said, "Lose weight." The husband replied, "Fine! How much?" When the doctor responded, "We'll start with thirty pounds", the patient’s kneejerk response was, "Not in THIS lifetime!" He just couldn’t imagine how that was going to happen.

Though he was dubious that he could actually lose that much weight, he immediately began work on losing weight by attending the Diabetes Directions classes at Saint Francis Hospital, in Poughkeepsie, NY, a program for pre-diabetics and diabetics that have been referred by a doctor. He was a star pupil and to date has lost thirty-eight pounds in a slow but steady way.

How did he do this? Making better food choices and exercising on a regular basis.

It is critical to learn about nutrition to determine what changes you as an individual need to make. It is a mistake, perhaps a deadly mistake, to assume that your knowledge of nutrition is adequate, and there is nothing you need to learn. It is a mistake to assume that your diet is healthy and you do not need to make any changes. (There are many places that offer nutrition programs: holistic health counselors, nutritionists, continuing education courses, the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in NYC, as well as hospitals and health centers.)

You probably learned about nutrition in school when you were a kid, maybe as a Girl or Boy Scout, or maybe from your parents. Well, much has changed. The American diet has been compromised by the food industry that is often more motivated to make a profit, and less driven by concern for your health.

A few generations ago the food was healthier. Here are some reasons:
1. All food was organic because there were no pesticides or herbicides. Now, conventional farming utilizes 2.5 million tons of pesticides yearly. Pesticides are toxic to humans and also cause the plant to produce less potent nutrients.

“Research indicates that organic foods have more nutrients than foods grown conventionally.” – Mark Hyman, M.D., author of UltraMetabolism, 2006.

2. Farm animals grazed on grass, their natural diet. Now, cattle enduring feedlot life are corn-fed. This negatively impacts their health requiring them to be given large doses of antibiotics which end up in the food.

3. Chemical additives were not widely used. Today, more than 14,000 additives have been added to food products.

4. Sugar was a rare commodity. In the early 1700’s it is estimated that the American colonists ate 4 pounds of sugar a year. In 2006, the average American consumed 63 pounds of sugar and 75 pounds of corn-derived sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup. This is too much for the human body to handle and causes numerous health problems.

"By 2006, according to USDA sources, industrial sugar use averaged 63 pounds per person per year. In contrast, 75 pounds of corn-derived sweeteners and 2 pounds of honey and edible syrups were consumed that year for an annual total sweetener consumption per person of 139 pounds (excludes artificial sweeteners)."
- From the Agricultural Marketing and Resource Center, article:  sugarcane profile

Your great grandparents did not have to learn much about nutrition because their food was intrinsically healthy. Sadly, this is no longer the case. You need to learn about nutrition from a source that is not influenced by the food industry (or the USDA whose mission is to promote the food industry). To be healthy, you need to eat real food, including lots of clean vegetables and fruits, greatly reduce your ingestion of chemical substances, sugar, HFCS, etc. There many facets of nutrition – too numerous to list here – that you need to be aware so you can eat the food that is best of you.

What’s the solution? Well, you could wait until you are in a health crisis and take your chances, or you could choose the better way of learning what you need to know about nutrition and following through by making the necessary changes to your diet and lifestyle.

Study nutrition from a reliable source that has a good handle on addressing your individual needs and is knowledgeable in modern day food problems that you need to avoid. You will be amazed what you will learn.

Start making the appropriate food choices and you will notice wonderful improvements in your health. Make it happen, now, in this lifetime, while you still have time!