Choosing a diet rich of nutrients

8 Characteristic foods in the high-tech diet developed over the past 100 years

One in every four people in North America is a victim of one or more degenerative diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular conditions, arthritis, learning and behavioral disorders, cancer, and peptic ulcers. Yet we seem to forget that there’s a connection between our health and all of these disease – the diet we consume either by choice or fortune.

According to Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D. and Morton Walker, D.P.M, authors of, “Putting It All Together: The New Orthomolecular Nutrition,” the characteristic of food over the past 100 years have become:

1. Dead – modern storage of food only slows down the decaying of foods.


2. Stale – to create foods that remain stable for a long period of time the nutritional value of the food was sacrificed leaving preservatives and nutrient deficient foods.


3. Artifact – foods that say they are something but contain no derivatives of that food, for example tomato soup that contains no tomatoes.


4. Toxic – high tech foods contain a number of chemicals used to create, prepare or manufacture processed foods.


5. Exogenous – these types of foods are grown in other climatic regions in which our bodies are not accustomed to eating. For example colostrum, (immune building nutrients from cow’s milk), a domestic source is more likely to contain the healthy bacteria we need to ward off ailments than a foreign source that is exposed to other bacteria and viruses.


6. Monotonous – processed foods of today depend heavily on only a few ingredients such as sugar, dairy by products or nutrient deficient grains. People begin to develop allergens and sensitivities over time due to these types of food. Allergies can be avoided by rotating the diet with a variety of foods.


7. Overabundant – eating too much of certain foods, such as sugar can lead to obesity – an epidemic felt across the world.


8. Artificially flavored – our ancestors used herbs and plants to mask the awful taste of foods which added yet more nutrients to the diet. Today, foods contain synthetic flavoring which add no known nutritional value, but worse yet make the foods so attractive that we forget to stop eating after the first and second helping

Understanding our diet of today will play a crucial role in the health of our body 5, 10, 20 or even 50 years from now. We know that we eat too much sugar, not enough vegetables or fruits and have very low fiber diets – and yet wonder why we suffer from so many ailments. Choosing the right nutrients is key to maintaining a healthy and youthful body.

Choosing The Good Instead of the Ugly

Good Carb’s – The brain is the only organ in the body that depends primarily upon sugar for its energy. When we consume refined carbohydrates (cookies, cakes, soda, white sugar and flour) our bodies tend to have sugar crashes depriving our brain of its energy source. Whereas if we choose complex carbohydrates such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds and brown rice we maintain a stable blood sugar level fueling our brain and other organs without sugar crashes.

Good Proteins – These nutrients are essential for the health of our skin, bones, teeth, hair, and within the body they maintain the health of enzymes, antibodies, and hormones. Picking quality proteins is key to good health. Combine grains, legumes, seeds and vegetables to help create a complete protein meal. However, more traditional protein choices include fish, seafood, and white meats such as turkey, chicken, and pork (not bacon as Atkins would have it).

Good Fats – Fats have received very bad press for the last three decades. But in reality we need certain fats for good health. Animal fat such as beef is high in saturated fat, and processed foods contain too many trans fats that can clog our arteries. The good fats are monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats such as avocados, olives, old-fashioned peanut butter, fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, tuna, herring), nuts, and flaxseed.