Go for the Fast and Skip the Fast Food
by Dr. Edwin Chun
In today’s hustle and bustle society, there are so many things competing for our time. From the minute we turn on our computers and/or television, our brains are getting bombarded by carefully planned strategic ads made by professional advertisers whose main goal is to get us to spend our hard-earned money.
One of the things they know well is that many of us are pressed for time because of work, kids, caring for our home, chores etc. They like to use this to get us to buy things that make our lives easier. One of the main things that takes time is food. Shopping for healthy food and preparing it does require time and an understanding of nutrition, and many do not choose to make it a priority in their schedules. As a result, to fill this void in our society, there is a giant industry known as fast food.
Now you can get anything you want within minutes and not even have to get out of your car. If you see some of the advertisements for these monstrosities of bad health such as the bacon double cheese onion ring burger etc., you can figure out why obesity is a growing epidemic in our society after the number one killer which is heart disease.
Fast food ads are designed to get your attention and that’s about it. By stacking up a bunch of fat, salty processed items in these foods, they try to get control of your brain. They know that eating these kinds of foods, even though they are unhealthy, releases tons of feel-good happy chemicals in your brain just like drugs. With no care for your health, they want to get the attention of your brain. The more junk they pile up the more you may notice and be tempted to try.
That is why these fast food creations keep growing by adding additional unhealthy items such as bacon, an extra hamburger patty, egg, nacho cheese, etc. For example, cheese on top of the pizza is not enough. Now they have to put it into the crust as well to add more fat, salt and calories to your meal. To the people eating this stuff, what are you going to do to burn off those extra 500-1000 calories for eating one meal? Are you going to the gym an extra hour this week? Most people don’t and that is why sickness continues to increase in their lives.
Nobody is saying to deprive your family and kids of meals, but learn to prepare easy healthy options that are low calorie and full of nutrition. Big salads with veggies, nuts and seeds have tons of fiber, vitamins and minerals that will fill you up. Fruits are everywhere and filled with vitamins and fiber as well. Looking for protein that is low calorie? Start looking at lentils and legumes. Big pots of soups are easy, just throw in whatever vegetables you have around, tomatoes, potatoes etc., and grab some whole wheat bread or brown rice with it and you have a simple healthy meal you can feed your family without all the processed ingredients and artery clogging fat and blood pressure raising salt that fast food offers. A famous doctor that provides treatment to cancer patients said this about the American diet, "The western diet is pretty much a fast food, highly processed, industrial factory farmed, GMO, high salt, high fat, high sugar, high calorie, low nutrient diet." That’s why we see so much obesity while people are really starving inside of nutrition." -Dr. Sunil Pai, M.D.
Let’s look at the some of the ingredients of some popular fast food items: (From an article by Jillian Michaels, “Everyday Health”)
Most of us don't think of the food we eat as poison, but some of the ingredients commonly found in processed foods can be considered toxic. By "toxic," I mean chemicals or highly processed ingredients that aren't good for you or can cause harm to your health. I'm talking about refined grains, trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, and all the other artificial junk you can't even pronounce on the ingredient lists. Any food that has been canned, dehydrated, or had chemicals added to it is a processed food, and these foods make up about 60 percent of the average American diet. They've taken over, and we have to FIGHT BACK. Know which toxic food ingredients to avoid:
1. Palm Oil
When a regular fat like corn, soybean, or palm oil is blasted with hydrogen and turned into a solid, it becomes a trans fat. These evil anti-nutrients help packaged foods stay "fresh," meaning that the food can sit on the supermarket shelf for years without ever getting stale or rotting. Eating junk food with trans fats raises your "bad" LDL cholesterol and triglycerides and lowers your "good" HDL. These fats also increase your risk of blood clots and heart attack. Avoid palm oil and other trans fats like the plague, and kiss fried foods goodbye too, since they're usually fried in one of these freakish trans-fatty oils.
2. Shortening
Ditch any food that lists shortening or partially hydrogenated oil as an ingredient, since these are also evil trans fats. In addition to clogging your arteries and causing obesity, they also increase your risk of metabolic syndrome. Choose healthier monounsaturated fats, such as olive, peanut and canola oils and foods that contain unsaturated omega-3 fatty acids instead.
3. White Flour, Rice, Pasta, and Bread
When a whole grain is refined, most of its nutrients are sucked out in an effort to extend its shelf life. Both the bran and germ are removed, and therefore all the fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Because these stripped down, refined grains are devoid of fiber and other nutrients, they're also easy to digest — TOO EASY. They send your blood sugar and insulin skyrocketing, which can lead to all sorts of problems. Replace processed grains with whole grains, like brown or wild rice, whole-wheat breads and pastas, barley, and oatmeal.
4. High Fructose Corn Syrup
The evil king of all refined grains is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). The amount of refined sugar we consume has declined over the past 40 years, but we're consuming almost 20 times as much HFCS. According to researchers at Tufts University, Americans consume more calories from HFCS than any other source. It's in practically EVERYTHING. It increases triglycerides, boosts fat-storing hormones, and drives people to overeat and gain weight. Adopt my zero-tolerance policy, and steer clear of this sweet "poison."
5. Artificial Sweeteners
Aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal), saccharin (Sweet'N Low, SugarTwin), and sucralose (Splenda) may be even harder on our metabolic systems than plain old sugar. These supposedly diet-friendly sweeteners may actually be doing more harm than good! Studies suggest that artificial sweeteners trick the brain into forgetting that sweetness means extra calories, making people more likely to keep eating sweet treats without abandon. Nip it in the bud. Scan ingredient labels and ban all artificial sweeteners from entering your mouth.
6. Sodium Benzoate and Potassium Benzoate
These preservatives are sometimes added to soda to prevent mold from growing, but benzene is a known carcinogen that is also linked with serious thyroid damage. Dangerous levels of benzene can build up when plastic bottles of soda are exposed to heat or when the preservatives are combined with ascorbic acid (vitamin C). Don't risk it.
7. Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA)
BHA is another potentially cancer-causing preservative, but it has been deemed safe by the FDA. Its job is to help prevent spoilage and food poisoning, but it's a major endocrine disruptor and can seriously mess with your hormones. BHA is in HUNDREDS of foods. It's also found in food packaging and cosmetics. BHA has many aliases. You can look them up. Or you can follow my advice and DITCH processed foods altogether.
8. Sodium Nitrates and Sodium Nitrites
No that's not a typo. These two different preservatives are found in processed meats like bacon, lunch meat, and hot dogs. They're some of the worst offenders, and they're believed to cause colon cancer and metabolic syndrome, which can lead to diabetes. Protect your health by always choosing fresh, organic meats.
9. Blue, Green, Red, and Yellow
The artificial colors blue 1 and 2, green 3, red 3, and yellow 6 have been linked to thyroid, adrenal, bladder, kidney, and brain cancers. Always seek out foods with the fewest artificial chemicals, especially when shopping for your kids. Look for color-free medications and natural food products that don't contain artificial colors like these.
10. MSG
Monosodium glutamate is a processed "flavor enhancer." While glutamates are present in some natural foods, such as meat and cheese, the ones exploited by the processed-foods industry are separated from their host proteins through hydrolysis. The jury is still out on how harmful MSG may be, but high levels of free glutamates have been shown to seriously screw with brain chemistry. Don't fall prey to chemical flavor enhancing. Just play it safe and flavor your food naturally.
Processing food makes it easier for the food companies to prevent food from going through the natural process of oxidation and decomposition. Food was meant to be eaten fresh or it will undergo changes that cause it to break down and undergo bacterial decomposition. To serve fresh food would be too difficult and costly for the food company. That is why they prefer to process food and make it fast so you don’t really have too much time to think about what’s in it but rather you see it and it triggers an emotion in you and then you want it and buy it, later suffering the health consequences of it after enjoying its drug like effects. Adding chemicals to preserve the food is their way to make it so the bread and fries and desserts can sit around for weeks and look like they are new. Many of these chemicals in your food are not good for your health and increase the chance of diseases. Many of these items have not been studied long term in human health and they are adding new things to the processing menu like genetically modified foods that make you the guinea pig when you eat it.
It’s not that eating these things will give you a disease right away, but the truth is they begin to alter a good healthy body by disrupting your DNA, altering healthy cell function by putting too much fat, salt and sugar into the body. Over time the body begins to break down and you get disease.
There is an easy solution for better health. Let’s take the word fast food and remember that evidence based science has taught that it is not necessary to eat three times a day. A few years ago, a top scientist won the Nobel prize for discovering and confirming that when the body goes through periods of not eating, i.e. fasting, the body will clean out dead and diseased cells and find alternate means of getting protein from the dying cells. The body actually eats away the dead and sick cells to renew your body and make it healthy. It has been known for centuries that fasting can heal the body of diseases of the body and even the mind. Now it has been proven again in science. Did you know that even after 3 days of fasting and not eating anything but drinking water that your body STILL has glycogen which is sugar stored in the muscles? That’s 3 days of not eating and there is still sugar that the body can use as fuel! That’s how much extra energy is stored in the body so that we don’t have to worry about eating three times a day, especially if the choices are going to be unhealthy. This is what should make you realize that you don’t need that fast food meal. You can skip it and get to dinner or breakfast or lunch, and studies show you will be healthier in the long run. Learn to skip fast food and go straight to the fast for better health for you and your loved ones.