Tonight I went to the school PTA meeting. We had a guest speaker, who is a Metabolic Nutritionist, Christine N. Hardy MA, CNE (certified nutrition educator). Before our meeting, a parent survey came out to find out what we wanted to learn from her. So tonight the she came extremely prepared with 6 pages of answers to the survey questions. What she discussed were extreme eye openers.
FOODS TO AVOID
There was a list with explanations on why we should avoid these foods.
1. Hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils/trans fatty acids: These would be oils such as soy, corn, sunflower, canola, and peanut oil, also known as polyunsaturated or monosaturated vegetable oils. These have been processed to indefinitely extend thier shelf life. During processing the structure of fatty acids are irreparably damaged in a way that they lose whatever nutritional value they origionally had, therefore becoming toxic in our bodies.
Someone had asked "How bad are those oils really?" Her answer: they disrupt the function of the cell membranes, interfering with the ability to transport nutrients into the cell and lets metabolic wastes out. This process is called "gumming up" the cell membranes, which can lead to auto-intoxication at a cellular level, disrupting the ability of cells to produce energy. She also stated that these hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils interfere with the production of omega-3 and -6 (essential fatty acids), compromise the efficiency of the immune system, increase the size of fat cells, lowering the levels of HDL cholesteral (which by the way is the good cholesteral), increases inflammation and blood clotting, and are implicated in the development of cancer!! HMMM, now let me see here- canola oil isn't as good as we previously thought then, so I must get rid of it now, but what can I use to replace it? Well, I already got that answer from my forum friends at Womans Day, and my workout friends from Curves: Coconut oil. But the nutritionist brought up two others that can be used, virgin olive oil and sesame seed oil.
2. Soft Drinks or Sodas: well what is there to know that we don't know already? It's been said to us many times, often from our doctors or health club trainers, that sodas are empty calories, and too sugary to do us any good. Yet we still crave those Pespi's and Dr. Pepper's. But did you know that most sodas contain 8-10 teaspoons of sugar per can? How about this: even though it says no sugar it still will contain an artifical sweetener that have been linked to neurological problems like headaches and seizures. (try aspartame and acesulfame)
3. High fructose corn syrup: this is just another name for sugar, which I didn't know about until tonight. Another thing I didn't know about sugar in general is that it tends to stick to protiens, forming nonfunctional hybrid molecules that speed up the aging process and tissue destruction. This is not to say that we absolutely have to avoid any kind of sugar, in moderation it's good for us. Just think about fruits and vegetables: they are good for us and also contain sugar, in it's good ole natural form, not a processed form that has no vitamins and minerals. Oh, and one more thing: the processed sugar that is common in packaged foods now will deplete your immune system for up to 5 hours after ingesting it! Makes you think, now doesn't it?
4. White flour products: Basically this is any food that is the color white. White bread, white rice, potatoes, crackers, pasta (though it's really off-white, she still has it on the list). Most of those, with the exception of potatoes, are "bleached" in a sense to make them white. In other words, refined. During the refining process, the b-vitamins, essential fatty acids, fiber, and amino acids that are naturally found, are lost, leaving behind the starch. These products also deplete our storage of zinc, which gives us our taste. So supposedly if we cannot taste anything or we don't have interest in food in general it's because we are zinc deficient. So we already knew that too much starchy foods will make us gain weight, what's the big deal? We get the same effects as sugar. We loose the energy that we need. Go ahead, look it up on the internet. The information is there if you don't believe me.
5. Anything that is labeled low fat or non fat: somewhere we were led to believe that drinking whole milk was wrong. So we started a whole new culture craze with the "non fat" "low fat" diets and food. Dairy that is designated those XX fat lables have been heated up to a degree where all the fat, protien, and vitamins are destroyed, basically leaving water and sugar. Our best bet to get the nutrients from milk- drink organic whole milk. For those of us who are lactose intolerant, like me for example, she recomends coconut, rice, almond, or goat milk. Not soy milk, which surprised me. So I had to ask her why not soy? Soy has become a processed food, and is no longer an organic product, even though it is labled as organic. It's what is done with the soy when they make the different products that come from soy. Ok then, so much for my soy lattes!! Maybe that explains why I have worse cramps when I drink soy milk.
I can go on, but I am really tired, and I need to get a few hours sleep before having to wake up agian.
The outcome of this meeting with the nutritionist will have to come tomorrow, or the next day. It depends on how tired I am (I think I need to stay away from food in general!!)
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