I am reading the book, Chris Beat Cancer by Chris Wark. I won’t go into the details of it in case you do want to read it, but ONE quote that stood out to me.
“The food on the end of your fork has the power to promote health or promote disease. Choose wisely.”
This book has me fired up. It's been keeping me up at night and thinking about how to better educate the ANCHOR family, and how to take our nutrition program to another level.
Half of Americans are taking one prescription drug monthly.
21% are taking 2 or more.
10 percent of us are taking more than 5 prescription drugs per month.
This f***** pisses me off and fires me up. I guarantee that 95% of these can be avoided with healthy lifestyle changes.
We eat like sh*t. The amount of sugar and processed foods is killing us! Inflammation, joint pain, poor body composition leading to high blood pressure, cholesterol, becoming diabetic, pre-diabetic, pre-cancerous cells and the list goes on and on and on.
The packaging and marketing drives me nuts! I received a picture from an ANCHOR member today for granola. After expressing concerns of stomach issues, I said, "Send me everything you are having for the next 7 days and let’s evaluate." Well, coffee has stevia and flavored creamer. Then, the granola’s second ingredient is canola oil, high fructose corn syrup, vanilla natural (I’m pretty sure if something has to call it natural, it ain’t natural) and then artificial flavor and salt. With the granola, this individual also added vanilla yogurt.
So, the day started with processed junk and sugar (can we even call it food?) But, it's the packaging that gets me even more upset. In bright yellow, Safe for Most Diabetics and underneath it Naturally Sweetened Granola. If a sweetener doesn’t come from fruit, there isn’t anything natural about it (okay, honey… a few other things, but you get my point). If something has to be marketed as “natural” and it's in a PACKAGE, I’m going to guess that it isn’t good for you. These BIG companies are just good at marketing. So, please, please, please, focus on what is on the end of your fork. Will it help promote your health or promote disease?
Our bodies are great healers when given the right tools (nutrition, food, hydration). It really is amazing. So, like I always say, focus on eating from the EARTH!
Get your veggies and fruit in (I like to say 6-8 servings a day of veggies)
Stay hydrated (think half your bodyweight in water)
When you select your meat, choose organic, grass fed
When you select your fish, choose wild caught (BE CAREFUL, read the labels)
Try quinoa, beans and nuts
Green tea, dandelion tea, and many others are so great too! (No, I’m not telling you to give up your coffee). Just add some tea each day.
Focus on the QUALITY of your food. If you eat QUALITY FOOD, you really don’t have to worry about calories. Let the body process and digest food the way it was supposed to. Stay away from packaged food.
If it says low fat, fat free, low calories, low sugar, run the other way!
I’m not telling you to not enjoy your life, but everything in moderation and eat clean the majority of the time. (I’ll wait until a later time to discuss adult beverages and my thoughts on them).
If you ever are not sure or have any questions when it comes to nutrition, please reach out to me.
Until next time,
Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food
Charlene
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