About Fruits and Vegetables

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) says: “Eat more fruits and vegetables.” You’ve likely heard this statement since childhood but when we ask people they confess that they only half listened since they just eat more fruit. To get the correct point across governments should amend the message to “Eat more vegetables and some fruit.” Why?

Fruits are digested into simple sugars that can still contribute to obesity. Shocked? When the rate of obesity has increased 300% over the past 30 years there must be something wrong in what we are doing and sending out a good but not-so-smart message is part of the reason. Truth is people substitute their sugar habits by replacing it with fruits; so it’s no surprise Diabetes has also increased 300% over the same 30 years as well.

The governmental Food Pyramids are also to blame as its design was heavily influenced by ‘Big Food’ companies placing their products in the “eat more of” base of the pyramid. Oh don’t be so surprised to realize that corporations bribed government officials and  researchers into influencing the studies on which the governments  based their decisions. Look again at this pyramid and see how much more factual it represents our true dietary needs, setting aside ‘Big Food’ profits, and make the right choices all over again.

Final thought for the day is about JUICING. Yes the sacred cult of juicing. Since when did mother nature intend for her natural foods to be emulsified before digestion? The simplest reasons for limiting your juicing are as follows:

1. Fruits become highly concentrated sugars so it’s not healthy that way. (think Diabetes)
2. Fiber is an essential part of the maintenance for the digestive tract, so where will you get your fiber if you juice everything?

Juicing has its place as a medicinal activity that adds to or replaces medicines where we can get high concentrations of micronutrients for the more natural treatment of cancer, tumors, heart disease, etc. There is a good rationale for providing your sick body with natural ingredients to boost its immune responses since it provides powerful anti-oxidants, essential fatty acids, phytonutrients and other bioflavanoids we cannot supplement from multivitamins and minerals. Scientists say that there are probably hundreds of micronutrients and we have only identified and/or can package less than 100 of them.  Therefore  “Eat more vegetables and some fruit” is very smart to do.

Medical science views micronutrients in much the same as any other drug so it’s no surprise they will promote ways to cure disease even with natural foods; that doesn’t make it open season for juicing everything. It is also true that medical science does not take the whole body into account when it makes another one of its famous research claims of how this ingredient from that particular food cures this or that disease.

So, again I appeal to your common sense. Eat more vegetables and SOME fruits. Don’t juice your foods to get the correct amount of daily fiber and avoid the side effects of high sugar intake from fruit juices.

In the end “all natural” can only mean: the way nature gives it to you. Try eating it that way as much as possible. It’s really the smarter thing to do.

Food for thought,
docMIKE