7.
Food
A Victim Of Excessive Human Interference And Meddling
In the preceding chapters we have discussed the old adage -you are what you eat - because every food you eat and every beverage you consume are creating you.
This is so because the foods and beverages you consume are broken down by your body into vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino acids, fatty acids, and simple sugars, all of which your body then uses as raw materials to create new liver cells, skin cells, brain cells, bone cells, or whatever your body needs to replenish at that time.
But what if you eat foods that your digestive tract cannot break down into the building blocks it needs? Or what if the foods and beverages you consumed had very little nutritional value and therefore very few building blocks for healthy cells and tissue? Worse yet, what if these foods and beverages were also laden with synthetic chemicals which your body had to work harder to eliminate but which did not provide the energy your body needs to do that? Even worse still, what if you exposed your body to synthetic chemicals in such vast quantities that it had to struggle to keep you disease-free?
This is what we mean by excessive human interference and meddling in the divine gift of life - food.
This is so because the foods and beverages you consume are broken down by your body into vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino acids, fatty acids, and simple sugars, all of which your body then uses as raw materials to create new liver cells, skin cells, brain cells, bone cells, or whatever your body needs to replenish at that time.
But what if you eat foods that your digestive tract cannot break down into the building blocks it needs? Or what if the foods and beverages you consumed had very little nutritional value and therefore very few building blocks for healthy cells and tissue? Worse yet, what if these foods and beverages were also laden with synthetic chemicals which your body had to work harder to eliminate but which did not provide the energy your body needs to do that? Even worse still, what if you exposed your body to synthetic chemicals in such vast quantities that it had to struggle to keep you disease-free?
This is what we mean by excessive human interference and meddling in the divine gift of life - food.
Traditional Food Processing
Mankind has always processed his food; food processing is an activity that is uniquely human. One type of food processing is cooking.
Traditional food processing had two functions: to make food more digestible and to preserve food during times of scarcity. In the past, this processing was carried out by farmers, cooks andartisans. This type of processing resulted in delicious foods and kept the profits on the farm and in the farming communities where it belonged—food processing should be a local cottage industry.
Most importantly, traditional processing enhances or increases the nutrient value of our foods. For example, making of yoghurt and similar products from fresh milk makes the nutrients in the milk still more available and more digestible.
Traditional food processing had two functions: to make food more digestible and to preserve food during times of scarcity. In the past, this processing was carried out by farmers, cooks andartisans. This type of processing resulted in delicious foods and kept the profits on the farm and in the farming communities where it belonged—food processing should be a local cottage industry.
Most importantly, traditional processing enhances or increases the nutrient value of our foods. For example, making of yoghurt and similar products from fresh milk makes the nutrients in the milk still more available and more digestible.
Industrial Food Processing
Unfortunately, in modern times we have abandoned local artisanal processing in favor of factory and industrial processing, which destroys the nutrients in food and makes our food more difficult to digest.
Furthermore, industrial processing depends upon products that have a negative impact on our health, such as sugar, white flour, processed and hydrogenated oils, additives, synthetic vitamins and an extrusion processing of grains. These are the tools of the food processing industry.
Another big problem with foods of the modern civilization is their so called refinement or purification. We have to eat them as the nature intended us to do. Experiments revealed that animals fed on a diet composed of purified proteins, purified starches, purified fats and inorganic salts, although they may live on these for a time, do not grow and in a short time develop various pathological conditions as a result of such “diet.” If whey, or fruit juice, or vegetables are then added to the diet, the symptoms improve and the animals thrive better.
Except for the organic fresh fruits and vegetables we eat, practically everything we have on our table has had something done to it. Our milk is pasteurized, homogenized, condensed, evaporated, heated; Our sugar is the crystallized, refined and bleached sap of cane that has had all the minerals and vitamins removed from it.
Our cereals are cracked, rolled, hammered, frittered, curled, flaked, ironed, roasted, twice roasted, boiled, and in other ways rendered useless. Wheat is milled, its minerals and vitamins removed, the flour is bleached and chemicalized. Its most important food elements are removed in the milling process.
Our dried fruits are heated in drying, bleached with sulphur dioxide, stored for long periods of time and, finally, stewed and mixed with white sugar before being eaten.
The refining, preserving and cooking processes to which our foods are subjected destroy extraordinarily delicate and tender vital food factors. The refining and cooking processes rob foods of so much of their values that we add salt, sugar, spices, pepper and various other condiments and seasonings to make them palatable. Without the additions of such things they are dull, flat, insipid. Nature has placed delicate flavors and aromas in her foods that appeal to the senses of taste and smell.
Our cereals are cracked, rolled, hammered, frittered, curled, flaked, ironed, roasted, twice roasted, boiled, and in other ways rendered useless. Wheat is milled, its minerals and vitamins removed, the flour is bleached and chemicalized. Its most important food elements are removed in the milling process.
Furthermore, industrial processing depends upon products that have a negative impact on our health, such as sugar, white flour, processed and hydrogenated oils, additives, synthetic vitamins and an extrusion processing of grains. These are the tools of the food processing industry.
Another big problem with foods of the modern civilization is their so called refinement or purification. We have to eat them as the nature intended us to do. Experiments revealed that animals fed on a diet composed of purified proteins, purified starches, purified fats and inorganic salts, although they may live on these for a time, do not grow and in a short time develop various pathological conditions as a result of such “diet.” If whey, or fruit juice, or vegetables are then added to the diet, the symptoms improve and the animals thrive better.
Except for the organic fresh fruits and vegetables we eat, practically everything we have on our table has had something done to it. Our milk is pasteurized, homogenized, condensed, evaporated, heated; Our sugar is the crystallized, refined and bleached sap of cane that has had all the minerals and vitamins removed from it.
Our cereals are cracked, rolled, hammered, frittered, curled, flaked, ironed, roasted, twice roasted, boiled, and in other ways rendered useless. Wheat is milled, its minerals and vitamins removed, the flour is bleached and chemicalized. Its most important food elements are removed in the milling process.
Our dried fruits are heated in drying, bleached with sulphur dioxide, stored for long periods of time and, finally, stewed and mixed with white sugar before being eaten.
The refining, preserving and cooking processes to which our foods are subjected destroy extraordinarily delicate and tender vital food factors. The refining and cooking processes rob foods of so much of their values that we add salt, sugar, spices, pepper and various other condiments and seasonings to make them palatable. Without the additions of such things they are dull, flat, insipid. Nature has placed delicate flavors and aromas in her foods that appeal to the senses of taste and smell.
Our cereals are cracked, rolled, hammered, frittered, curled, flaked, ironed, roasted, twice roasted, boiled, and in other ways rendered useless. Wheat is milled, its minerals and vitamins removed, the flour is bleached and chemicalized. Its most important food elements are removed in the milling process.
Our dried fruits are heated in drying, bleached with sulphur dioxide, stored for long periods of time and, finally, stewed and mixed with white sugar before being eaten.
The refining, preserving and cooking processes to which our foods are subjected destroy extraordinarily delicate and tender vital food factors. The refining and cooking processes rob foods of so much of their values that we add salt, sugar, spices, pepper and various other condiments and seasonings to make them palatable. Without the additions of such things they are dull, flat, insipid. Nature has placed delicate flavors and aromas in her foods that appeal to the senses of taste and smell.
The refining, preserving and cooking processes to which our foods are subjected destroy extraordinarily delicate and tender vital food factors. The refining and cooking processes rob foods of so much of their values that we add salt, sugar, spices, pepper and various other condiments and seasonings to make them palatable. Without the additions of such things they are dull, flat, insipid. Nature has placed delicate flavors and aromas in her foods that appeal to the senses of taste and smell.
Factory Food Preparation—Is Your Food Made by Caring Hands?
Artificial flavors and preservatives are made by chemical companies in factories; they are not being made by the loving hands of a cook. All the artificial ingredients added to the food help the rich get richer and the general public get sicker. The industry has completely processed the life out of the food and then as a concession to the public, thrown in a handful of artificial nutrients. Can you imagine what kind of feeling, what kind of radiation comes from that factory food?
It would be better that an individual did not eat at all than to eat food that has been ‘prepared under a feeling of anger, apathy, resentment, depression, or any outward pressure.’
Think of the vibration that in all this food that is made in factories. Nourishing foods starts with the way we farm—the farmer who farms with wisdom and love for the land, the dairyman who farms with love for his animals, the cheese maker who makes cheese with the love of her craft, the baker who bakes with the love of the final product, the beverage maker who makes the type of delicious and nutritious beverage that should be produced in every town and village. Traditional processing puts not only good nutrition, but the vibration of love into our food.
The situation is really very critical. We have to return to good eating practices if we have to preserve our race.
It would be better that an individual did not eat at all than to eat food that has been ‘prepared under a feeling of anger, apathy, resentment, depression, or any outward pressure.’
Think of the vibration that in all this food that is made in factories. Nourishing foods starts with the way we farm—the farmer who farms with wisdom and love for the land, the dairyman who farms with love for his animals, the cheese maker who makes cheese with the love of her craft, the baker who bakes with the love of the final product, the beverage maker who makes the type of delicious and nutritious beverage that should be produced in every town and village. Traditional processing puts not only good nutrition, but the vibration of love into our food.
The situation is really very critical. We have to return to good eating practices if we have to preserve our race.
“So what exactly would an ecological detective set loose in an American supermarket discover, were he to trace the items in his shopping cart all the way back to the soil? The notion began to occupy me a few years ago, after I realized that the straightforward question 'What should I eat?' could no longer be answered without first addressing two other even more straightforward questions: 'What am I eating? And where in the world did it come from?' Not very long ago an eater didn't need a journalist to answer these questions. The fact that today one so often does suggests a pretty good start on a working definition of industrial food: Any food whose provenance is so complex or obscure that it requires expert help to ascertain.”
~Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals