This should be fun to explain 🙂
Let me start by listing the 3 subjects that is directly related to our illnesses in our modern society:
- Food
- Environment
- Exercise
Food:
Processed foods lack nutrition, bacteria, and anti-oxidants. Nutrient density of food start to decline with the advent of over-farming the land. Over-farming land using bulk artificial fertilizer decrease certain micro-nutrients that are vital to health (ie. iodine, selenium). Also, refining certain foods (think: white bread) might make it more digestible, but robs the vitamins, minerals, and fiber in it.
Where the vitamins and minerals are necessary for a functioning glucose metabolism (think: B vitamins), and fiber ensure a slow-release of Glucose while digesting something like grain. So if you remove the fiber, you will have a sky-rocket of blood sugar followed by a tall spike of insulin, which then result in a “crash”. This crash of blood glucose level will signal the body that it doesn’t have enough energy, and therefore you will feel hungry again after eating the white bread or any other processed carbohydrates.
Another problem with easily digestible carbohydrates (FODMAP‘s) is that it makes an environment for bad bacteria. They rapidly ferment, causing gut flora dysbiosis (imbalance in good/bad micro-flora). Where bad microflora will constantly make endotoxins -or- signal the body to gain weight. The former is because our body uses fat as a way to store and sequester fat-soluble toxins. And the later is because our gut is totally dependent on microbes for digestion, such that both the gut and microbes communicate to form a symbiotic relationship. For example, in periods of starvation the gut-lining would secrete fructose to feed it’s bacterial residents. [I credit Amanda Harig for bringing up the subject of FODMAP’s].
You can also look at the ingredients of processed foods to get an idea of how they may harm you. Processed foods tend to be made with the primary agenda to make money, not primarily to benefit the consumer. So you will find the cheapest ingredients in processed food that has the sole purpose to pleasure the tongue, but not to benefit the body. We have a natural inclination to eat more when food tastes good. So when you eat “Junk” food, you will have the tendency to overeat a nutritionally un-balanced food. That’s why people become unhealthy on junk food. Note that obesity is only one manifestation of the unhealthy affects of junk food. Other people may be genetically wired to stay thin while eating junk food. But their illness may manifest in other ways. For example, autoimmune disease, cardiovascular disease, and low energy are other manifestations.
When you read the ingredients in processed foods you will find things like High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), artificial flavor & colors, and unstable, easily rancidifying polyunsaturated fats (PUFA) from vegetables.
An abundance of HFCS as well as other sugars from processed foods will cause disease no matter what. This is because glucose needs certain enzymes, vitamins and nutrients in order to be processed by the body. If any of those aforementioned are missing, then the body will not be able to metabolize glucose efficiently. This leads to low energy levels after eating a high carbohydrate meal, and those low energy levels (glucose levels) will signal the body that it isn’t getting enough food to function. Therefore you will be left with hunger shortly after eating, in this circumstance. Note that heavy metal exposure, namely mercury, blocks many enzymes from functioning. Heavy metals are another factor that makes glucose metabolism inefficient.
Examples of PUFA’s include like cotton seed oil, soy bean, rapeseed, canola, etc. The problem with these PUFAs is that they rob your body of anti-oxidants so that the PUFAs can remain stable in your body. So how does the food industry fix this? By “hydrogenating” it to a more stable form. This is called a “trans” fat…
Now there are two types of Trans fats that you should be aware of. Fully-hydrogenated vegetable oil & Partially-hydrogenated vegetable oil. Fully-hydrogenated vegetable oil is chemically identical to saturated fat (Although I will still avoid it), and Partially-hydrogenated vegetable oil is the heart-killer. The reason why Partially-hydrogenated oil is so deadly is because the body does not recognize and and therefore does not know what to do with it. Such that when it becomes part of our body/cell membrane, it will not allow the cell membrane to function properly. That’s one reason why the arteries/vessels will become rigid in a person who consumes plenty of Partially-hydrogenated oil. This rigidity increases a person’s risk of cardiovascular problems, and not to mention a permanence in our adipose tissue, refusing to leave the body. That’s why transfat also causes obesity.
[Coming back to the subject of Bacteria]: There’s a reason why pro-biotics is hyped as a digestive aid. That’s because the natural pro-biotics in our food help us digest our food. Without a diverse ecosystem of bacteria in our gut, we not only suffer poor digestion, but also a poor immune system. However, the immune system becomes tolerant of neutral/beneficial bacteria when there is a vast diversity. However, for the person who chronically abstains from contact with bacteria, his immune system will become super sensitized. To the extent that a person’s immune system will react to allergens that are normally benign. This is seen as allergies, food intolerances, and even autoimmune diseases. This condition is seen prevalently 1st world countries, but scarcely in 3rd world coutries. Sadly, 3rd world counties suffer from the converse; proliferant outbreaks of cholera, malaria, etc.
Note that anti-biotics will not only destroy pathogenic bacteria, but also the benign bacteria in your gut. Not a good bargain. I do not deny that anti-biotics saves multitudes of people’s lived. But when people take anti-biotics for the common cold, that’s pushing it. Repeatedly using anti-biotics gives pathogens a chance to out compete benign bacteria for residence in the gut. So it is of utmost importance that a person takes probiotics after anti-biotic treatment.
Notes on GMOs: All GMOs aren’t necessarily bad. A good example are most commercial banana’s, which are genetically modified organisms through selective growing. Whereas the original banana were too choked-filled with seeds to be edible by normal human beings:
(wild banana on the right, GMO banana via selective cultivation on the left)
raqibzaman 