Nutrition

Without food we die, but the quality of the food we eat has a profound effect upon our health and wellbeing.

There are some very simple guidelines and these are surprising to many people. Human beings have eaten and remained healthy on a wide variety of foods, including - all animals plus their fats and organs; milk and dairy produce; fruits, nuts, seeds,vegetables and latterly grains of different kinds.

How come many of our foods are now making us sick? There are now more than 100,000 chemicals in the food chain including herbicide, fungicides, growth promoting hormones, flavour enhancers, preservatives and so on. None of these were present a hundred years ago. Some have not been tested and none have been tested for the effect they have when used together. Our immune systems have not evolved to deal with these substances and so it is not surprising that many of us are becoming ill.

The very best food for us is the food which our ancestors ate. The closer to the ground it is when we eat it, the better it is for us. The poor quality soils on which much of our food is now grown together with its processing destroys much of its nutritional value. Avoid processed foods and eat a wide variety including meats and fats, dairy food and fuit and vegetables. If you can grow some of your own or buy organic, do so.

Foods to avoid are soya foods (with the exception of fermented soya ie. sauce) because soya depresses thyroid function and is very heavily processed in aluminium vats. Artificial sweeteners except Stevia, a herbal sweetener. All processed foods and hydrogenated fats and refined oils.

A note on cholesterol. If we have insufficient cholesterol in our bodies it will be made from carbohydrates by the liver. Heart disease is not caused by high cholesterol but the aggressive promotion of statins is making the drug companies very rich. Artificially lowered cholesterol can cause intense muscle pain, severe depression and difficulty walking. It also causes a depletion of an enzyme called CoQ10 which provides all the body cells with energy. So read the insert in your statin pack.

For more information on healthy diets go to www.westonaprice.org/