Category: Diet & Nutrition

An Ultra-Processed Diet – we truly “are what we eat”

https://www.wsj.com/health/wellness/ultra-processed-foods-dietary-guidelines-de00ccaa?st=vz6iq81le7e0ew4&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Most of us were taught a very long time ago, that we truly “are what we eat.” Well here we are decades later and it is quite evident what our population has been eating. Specifically, junk and crap foods that have helped to lead our people to have:

  • Nearly 1 in 3 adults (30.7%) are overweight.
  • More than 1 in 3 men (34.1%) and more than 1 in 4 women (27.5%) are overweight.
  • More than 2 in 5 adults (42.4%) have obesity (including severe obesity).
  • About 1 in 11 adults (9.2%) have severe obesity.
  • Nearly 40% of all adults over the age of 20 in the U.S. – about 93.3 million people – are currently obese.
  • Every state in the U.S. has more than 20% of adults with obesity.
  • The U.S. adult obesity rate stands at 42.4 percent, the first time the national rate has passed the 40 percent mark.
    https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/overweight-obesity

And let’s also note the other issues of:

Maybe now is the right time to re-evaluate what we are putting into our bodies, and more importantly what kids are eating today will determine what type of health they will have later as adults. Plant good seeds, not weeds.

Be well, Get healthy, Be wise.

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I teach and offer lectures about holistic health, qigong, tai chi, baguazhang, meditation, phytotherapy (herbs), music for healing, self-massage, and yoga. I also have hundreds of FREE education video classes, lectures and seminars available on my YouTube channel at:

https://www.youtube.com/c/MindandBodyExercises

www.MindAndBodyExercises.com

www.Amazon.com/author/jimmoltzan

Mind and Body Exercises on Google: https://posts.gle/aD47Qo

Jim Moltzan

407-234-0119

Food Label Ambiguity

Labeling on foods can often be misleading, vague, or complicated for the uninformed. I feel that this is a way that food companies can be dishonest by perhaps changing the serving size to be half the portion, making it seem that the fat content is half as much. Food labeling can be like a shell game where if you don’t pay attention to the wording and amounts, it is easy to believe whatever the food companies wish one to believe in order to purchase their products.

It appears to me that the US government (FDA) that regulates the food companies, have more rights than the consumers buying their products. Unless one becomes well versed in the product labeling, which most people are not in my opinion, it is very easy to think that we are purchasing and ultimately consuming healthy food products where in reality we are not.

I am in favor of total transparency on food labeling, as to what the nutritional values are, what actual ingredients are included naturally and what is chemically added in the process of preparing for resale. Then let the consumer decide for themselves if they want to purchase a product that is loaded with whatever additives or preservatives. There is a reason why the shelf life for some processed foods is literally years. Why would I think otherwise that these same chemicals would not end up “preserving” something within my body that should not be preserved?

I have a relative who is a food chemist. Years back he shared with me that one of the most common food colorings, called carmine is a natural red dye also labeled as cochineal extract, E120 or natural red 4, that comes from the female cochineal bug. Even if crushed bugs are not toxic, I think consumers should be able to find this fact more easily than having to research every ingredient for alternative names.

I read food labels constantly when I shop. I choose to monitor how much sodium and other additives are in foods that I purchase and prepare. Anything frozen, processed, prepared in advance or in a can are often the worst for us as they are at least loaded with salt as a natural preservative and often other chemicals to add shelf life. I have dabbled in the organic food labels also. These can be misleading also as there are various classifications for what can be considered as organic. One really has to take the self-responsibility to pursue the due diligence if one wants to better manage what they consume.

References:

https://recipes.howstuffworks.com/food-science/carmine.htm

https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/03/22/organic-101-what-usda-organic-label-means?page=1

FDA’s plan to define ‘healthy’ for food packaging: Better than the existing labeling anarchy, but do we really need it?

I write often about topics that affect our health and well-being. Additionally, I teach and offer lecture about qigong, tai chi, baguazhang, and yoga. I also have hundreds of FREE education video classes, lectures and seminars available on my YouTube channel at:

https://www.youtube.com/c/MindandBodyExercises

Mind and Body Exercises on Google: https://posts.gle/aD47Qo

Jim Moltzan

407-234-0119

www.MindAndBodyExercises.com

www.Amazon.com/author/jimmoltzan

High Cholesterol Levels and Risk of Heart Disease

People in Japan or southern European countries have one-half to one-third the risk of dying from heart disease in comparison with people from the United States or northern Europe, even when their cholesterol levels, on average, are the same. A person with a cholesterol level of 250 mg/dl in Denmark has a two to three times greater risk of a fatal heart attack compared with an Italian with the same cholesterol level.

These numbers can be misleading if only taking into account the total cholesterol level as opposed to the ratio of the “good” high cholesterol or high-density lipoproteins (HDL) included in the total cholesterol figure. For example, the seemingly high total cholesterol level of 240 mg/dl may not be of concern if there is also a higher HDL level such as 35-60 mg/dl and therefore producing a lower ratio. A higher ratio (lower HDL level) could be interpreted as having a higher risk of heart disease whereas a lower ratio (higher HDL level) would equate to a lower risk.

The disparity between various cultures having high averages for total cholesterol levels may not be taking into account the dietary intake of a particular country possibly having more HDLs in their diet. The typical French diet was stated to have much fat, along with meats and eggs. Eggs are reported to be a good source of HDL. The typical Italian diet, or more specifically the Mediterranean diet may also include high sources of HDLs such as fish, nuts, and olive oil. This diet also focuses on less intake of sugars and other processed foods. On the other hand, the typical American diet has many high LDHs (low-density lipoproteins) coming from fatty beef, whole dairy products, potato chips, bakery items, fried foods and other processed meats and foods.

This leads me to believe that the cholesterol numbers don’t always reflect the actual quality of the foods that a particular culture consumes.

So, I think that is someone ingests mostly poor-quality food that contains high amounts of sugar, high amounts of LDHs, low amounts of HDLs, and lives a mostly sedentary lifestyle, their risk of having heart disease and other relative illnesses will dramatically increase.

References:

Edlin, G., & Golanty, E. (2019). Health & Wellness (13th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning

Keck Medicine of USC. (2022, September 1). What Is the Difference Between Good and Bad Cholesterol? https://www.keckmedicine.org/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-good-and-bad-cholesterol/

HDL & LDL: What You Need to Know About Good and Bad Cholesterol. (2021, September 28). Allrecipes. https://www.allrecipes.com/article/hdl-vs-ldl-cholesterol/

Reevaluating Eggs’ Cholesterol Risks
Italians Don’t Die From High Cholesterol

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317332

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I write often about topics that affect our health and well-being. Additionally, I teach and offer lecture about qigong, tai chi, baguazhang, and yoga. I also have hundreds of FREE education video classes, lectures and seminars available on my YouTube channel at:

https://www.youtube.com/c/MindandBodyExercises

Mind and Body Exercises on Google: https://posts.gle/aD47Qo

Jim Moltzan

407-234-0119

www.MindAndBodyExercises.com

www.Amazon.com/author/jimmoltzan

Organic Foods – Know the Labels

Just because food labels say the product is healthy, is it so?

A concise glossary of food-label terminology:

Natural: This means a product is free of artificial or synthetic dyes, coloring, flavorings and preservatives. Items labeled “natural” can still contain GMOs, as well as ingredients grown using agricultural chemicals or synthetic fertilizers.

Free-range: Use of this term only requires that animals have access to the outdoors—no stipulation as to whether they do, in fact, spend any time there.

Cage-free: This designation, typically applied to eggs, means just what it says: The animals cannot be kept in cages. But they can still be heavily crowded into a single barn.

Pasture-raised: This descriptor implies that animals spend their lives roaming outdoors and eating grasses, but there is no federal standard for it, and no regular inspections (Dunn, 2022).

Educate yourself. Don’t rely upon others like the government, the FDA, the CDC, the EPA, schools, the grocery stores and other to watch out for you and your loved ones well-being. Do the work, read the labels, read credible sources. Know what you put in and on your bodies. YOU are your most valuable investment.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/food-label-guide-regenerative-organic-meanings-11648827356?mod=Searchresults_pos7&page=1#comments_sector

References:

Dunn, E. G. (2022, April 1). How to Read a Food Label: A Healthy Skeptic’s Guide to the Buzzwords. WSJ. https://www.wsj.com/articles/food-label-guide-regenerative-organic-meanings-11648827356?mod=Searchresults_pos7&page=1#comments_sector

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I write often about topics that affect our health and well-being. Additionally, I teach and offer lecture about qigong, tai chi, baguazhang, and yoga. I also have hundreds of FREE education video classes, lectures and seminars available on my YouTube channel at:

https://www.youtube.com/c/MindandBodyExercises

Mind and Body Exercises on Google: https://posts.gle/aD47Qo

Jim Moltzan

407-234-0119

www.MindAndBodyExercises.com

www.Amazon.com/author/jimmoltzan

Nutrients in Fruits and Vegetables Have Greatly Diminished

Depletion of vitamins and minerals in the soil have lead to lower nutritional quality in fruits and vegetables.

It takes more quantity of fruits and vegetables we consume, in order to obtain the same amount of nutrients, than we did in years past. So if we need to eat 8 oranges to gain out nutrients, instead of one, we are probably consuming to much volume. Most people in the US currently are not eating the recommended amounts to begin with. And we wonder why are population has become so unhealthy.

Become educated to what exactly you put in and on your bodies. No one else should care more about your own health and well-being that you.

https://abbylangernutrition.com/is-soil-depletion-causing-our-food-to-be-less-nutritious-than-it-used-to-be/

https://myhealthystyleblog.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/how-has-the-depletion-of-our-soils-affected-our-food-supply/

References:

Dunn, E. G. (2022, April 1). How to Read a Food Label: A Healthy Skeptic’s Guide to the Buzzwords. WSJ. https://www.wsj.com/articles/food-label-guide-regenerative-organic-meanings-11648827356?mod=Searchresults_pos7&page=1#comments_sector

Langer, A. (2020, June 6). Is Soil Depletion Causing Our Food To Be Less Nutritious Than It Used To Be? Abby Langer Nutrition. https://abbylangernutrition.com/is-soil-depletion-causing-our-food-to-be-less-nutritious-than-it-used-to-be/

Robinson, K. B. P. A. V. M. (2018, April 14). How Has The Depletion of Our Soils Affected Our Food Supply? Myhealthystyleblog. https://myhealthystyleblog.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/how-has-the-depletion-of-our-soils-affected-our-food-supply/

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I write often about topics that affect our health and well-being. Additionally, I teach and offer lecture about qigong, tai chi, baguazhang, and yoga. I also have hundreds of FREE education video classes, lectures and seminars available on my YouTube channel at:

https://www.youtube.com/c/MindandBodyExercises

Mind and Body Exercises on Google: https://posts.gle/aD47Qo

Jim Moltzan

407-234-0119

www.MindAndBodyExercises.com

www.Amazon.com/author/jimmoltzan

____________

I write often about topics that affect our health and well-being. Additionally, I teach and offer lecture about qigong, tai chi, baguazhang, and yoga.

For more info, contact Jim Moltzan at info@mindandbodyexercises.com, 407-234-0119 or through my site at http://www.mindandbodyexercises.com