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Our SAD Diet and Our Aching Bellies

Posted by Kathy Rytman on May 22, 2011

Is it ironic that the acronym for the standard american diet is SAD?  The SAD diet is one that is high in saturated fat, refined carbohydrates and lots of sugar.  The six major food culprits that put internal stress on our organs are
 
- Refined wheat flour: cakes, cookies, pasta, and bread
- Pasteurized dairy
- Refined sugar: all forms
- Caffeine: coffee, chocolate, tea, and soda
- Alcohol
-Artificial sweeteners
 
These foods are nutrient deficient and clog our filtering organs.  They weaken our immune system and add to the overgrowth of yeast and parasites in our body.
 
There is a startling range of health issues traced back to eating refined flour and sugar. I myself believe whole grains are a great source of nutrients but the nutrients are lost when grains are processed and refined into flour.  After the bleaching to make a pretty white flour, your are left with a calorie rich, nutrient empty substance.  Add in the refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup and you get some lively fermentation going on in your digestive system. Remember making paper-mache in school?  We mixed white flour and water.  It can be used for glue.  It turns rock hard.  That's what happens when you eat it.  It is unnatural and your body cannot digest it.  There are breads made with whole grain flours such as spelt, millet or brown rice.  They are available at health food stores.  Try a variety of them to find what you like. 
 
In the US, the average person consumes 150 pounds of sugar a year.  Sugar immobilizes the immune system by 33 percent.  Sugar causes the pancreas to malfunction.  The pancreas is designed to handle in a life time the amount of sugar that many Americans eat in a month.  Sugar robs our bodies of minerals.  Sugar causes many health conditions such as IBS, gall stones, kidney stones, heart disease, cancer, hypoglycemia, diabetes, arthritis, and aging skin.
 
Mothers milk is a powerful food designed to feed and rapidly grow a babies brain while slowly growing the body. Humans are the only species that consume milk into adulthood. Milk is pasteurized and homogenized to protect you from Salmonella and E. coli.  However, this leaves the milk indigestible.  Humans lack the enzyme to break down the sugar in cows milk. This affects your health by:
- creating an allergic reaction causing bloating, gas, and indigestion
- repeated ear and sinus infections
- too much mucus
- asthma
- IBS
- cysts and lumps in the thyroid and breasts.
 
Although milder, caffeine manipulates the same neurotransmitters in the brain as amphetamines, cocaine and heroin.  That is why it is so addictive.  Because the effects of caffeine vary so much, it is hard to determine what a safe level is.  Caffeine is dangerous for people with high blood pressure and anxiety disorders.   ( I have to admit, I too enjoy a nice cup of joe once in a while and struggle with this addiction.)
Caffeine and alcohol along with nicotine are addictive drugs and should be transitioned off of slowly to avoid detox side effects. 
 
Artificial sweetners debilitate your health.  You can go online and find lists of 92 health symptons believed to be caused by consuming foods with aspartame.  Aspartame is tne main ingredient in NutraSweet and Equal.  Please if you must have a sweetener and a little raw honey doesn't do it for you, real sugar is better than artificial sweeteners.  Some of the symptoms are:
- headaches
- rashes
- seizures
- depression
- neurological disorders.
10 percent of aspartame contains methanol and wood alcohol which is a deadly poison! There is a great book written by a doctor called Aspartame, Is It Safe?  Aspartame harms the brain and nervous system.