Column #21

What do you think? Remove batteries from your smoke detectors. Disconnect your car’s “idiot lights.” No more annoying false alarms from a spill on a burner. It’s worry free driving without that pesky check engine light being on. For sure that makes life better.

What does this have to do with diet and health? The short answer is “Everything.”

Americans disconnect their body’s alarm systems because doctors and pharmaceutical companies recommend it. The media likes it. The educational system supports it. Sick folks say their drugs make them feel better. Best of all, when taking drugs and undergoing operations, lifestyles remain about the same. The accepted recommendations are to reduce the consumption of red meat, alcohol, and deserts in favor of more fruit and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and fish while partaking in moderate exercise and getting sufficient sleep.

Afflictions such as injuries and infectious diseases involve accidents, pathogens, and bacteria. Chronic diseases are primarily caused by abusive food such as sugar (including high glycemic foods), foods with an overabundance of Omega-6 fatty acids relative to Omega-3 fatty acids, and nutrient deficient and nutrient lite foods. These foods are modern traditional favorites. Therefore, addressing chronic diseases with diet requires major change and discipline.

There is considerable resistance to eliminating abusive foods including habits, addictions, traditions, skepticism, and a lack of emotional support. Major dietary change requires education and willpower. Therefore most folks choose to “rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.” Rather than changing foods, they opt for new labels such as “natural,” “organic,” “fat free,” “nonGMO,” “gluten free,” “brown eggs,” “vegetable-fed,” “cage free,” and other labels which will not provide changes in food chemistry.

The signals our bodies send include weight gain, joint pain, soreness, acne, rashes and itching, emotional swings, dementia, a tendency to get sick easy, intestinal disorders, high blood pressure, and on and on. Every symptom is annoying and the popular answer is usually drugs. But drugs rarely cure chronic diseases when it’s food abuse that causes the disease. They just stop the signals and introduce possible side effects. This is why most medications are required for life.

Sugar and high glycemic foods feed internal fungi that emit mycotoxins which are inflammatory. Joint pain, rashes, emotional disturbance, intestinal disorders, circulatory ailments, diabetes, and many other issues are sugar related. The imbalance of Omega-6 in excess of Omega-3 is inflammatory and causes autoimmune disorders, nerve issues, and mental disorders. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies also cause disease such as anemia, scurvy, rickets, beriberi, and pellagra. Interestingly all these issues are associated with high grain diets!

Even with drugs and operations, chronic diseases can continue in the background until the body dies. Sometimes death is fast, sometimes slow. In both cases the cost associated with treating chronic diseases with drugs and operations exceeds the cost of addressing the signals with low glycemic, properly balanced, nutrient dense foods such as grass-fed and omega-3 meats, wild-caught seafood, green leafy vegetables, and a limited amount of tart fruit.

To your health.

Ted Slanker

Ted Slanker has been reporting on the fundamentals of nutritional research in publications, television and radio appearances, and at conferences since 1999. He condenses complex studies into the basics required for health and well-being. His eBook, The Real Diet of Man, is available online.