Home::Happy Life::Healing Starts With Eating Real Food: No More Fast Food
Healing Starts With Eating Real Food: No More Fast Food
Are you overweight? Often fatigued? Doctor nagging you to change what you eat? Spend too
much time consuming fast food?
The vast majority of fast food should be outlawed -- or would be if I ruled the planet. The food is stripped
of most nutrition, rarely fresh, often pre-packaged in bulk quantities at a production plant before being shipped to the
restaurant. Thus, most of your fast food was prepared from frozen, canned, or dehydrated materials and
reheated -- or worse, stuck under a heat lamp.
The "food" itself is mostly fats and simple carbohydrates, seasoned with salt and sugar... resulting in high
calories and carbs and low nutrition, which will leave you wanting more about 30 minutes after finishing your
meal... and the cravings will start anew. Don't forget what this stuff does to your blood sugar levels and spiking/tanking.
In fact, fast food should be rebranded as fast-way-to-die-food.
What's the Harm in Fast Food?
Fast food -- yes, the so-called food at McDonald's, Wendy's, Pizza Hut, Subway, Burger King, Arby's, Papa John's,
KFC, Chick-fil-A, In-N-Out Burger, Domino's, Taco Bell -- should be considered slightly better than biowaste. Please stop
eating these high-calorie, nutrient-deficient "foods."
These establishments use the lowest quality ingredients (because of profits) -- which means more toxic chemicals, more
antibiotics, more hormones, more pesticides -- as well as the worst additives in sugars, salts, and inflammatory oils.
The food quality is some of the lowest in the land.
In fact, even the main ingredients (such as factory eggs, meat, cheese) are diluted with chemicals fillers and
preservatives. In one study, a fast-food hamburger had a meat content is only 2.1 to 14.8 percent. Please do not
even mention the completely chemical "meatless" burgers, which are the scariest.
(Read more here.)
What's the harm in fast foods? Consider these ingredients:
- Sugar (one of the most harmful and addictive compounds in the world) -- it's in everything, from sauces and dressings
to batter and bread.
- Fats (and not the healthy kinds) -- multiple types of harmful fats and oils are in all fast foods, from trans fats
to toxic oils to unhealthy fat from factory meats.
- Sodium -- often used as both a seasoning and a preservative, be prepared for a sodium spike: one fast food meal
can include as much as 1,300 milligrams of sodium -- more than half of the daily recommended intake --
which can result in high blood pressure and cardiac issues.
- Harmful Chemicals -- in many forms, though especially in the meatless choices. Some of the chemicals in fast foods include
propylene glycol (stabilizer), sodium nitrate (preservative), synthetic food dyes (coloring), ammonium sulfate, fillers (such as cellulose,
potassium bromate), and traces of pesticides (from non-organic produce).
Please start carefully reading and analyzing labels.
A 15-year study of more than 3,000 people found that eating fast food is
linked to weight gain and insulin resistance. (Read more here.)
What's the Good in Real Foods?
Real foods are either raw foods or serve as raw materials for a more elaborate meal made from scratch. In most cases,
you should consider buying organic or as close to organic as possible; some local farmers and ranchers follow organic
procedures but don't bother with the label.
Real food is eaten in its most natural state and can contain these benefits:
- unprocessed
- free of harmful chemical additives
- rich in nutrients
- low in refined sugars
- contains beneficial fats/oils
- higher in fiber
- may contain antioxidants
In addition, eating fresh (or fresh-frozen), real food is healthier for your body, brain, heart, skin. Buying real food,
especially from your local farmers and ranchers, builds community.
The closer you can eat food in its natural state, the better. Studies show the positive benefits from eating diets
based on whole, real foods -- in reducing risks for heart disease, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome.
When you do buy prepared foods, many experts (including Michael Pollan in his book Food Rules) suggest the
Five-Ingredient-Rule, which states you should avoid buying any packaged foods with more than five ingredients -- and
especially do not buy if you cannot pronounce the ingredients. (The idea is that the more ingredients and additives,
the greater potential for harm and low nutritional values.)
Note about oils: Please ONLY use coconut, olive, or avocado oils in your cooking, baking. It's been shown that
many seed oils are extremely harmful, causing inflammation, including: canola, corn, vegetable, sunflower,
safflower, soy, cottonseed, grapeseed. (Most of these are also GMO.)
Best Real Foods That You Should be Consuming
Unless you have an allergy to one of these foods, consider incorporating these foods and enhancing your
diet -- starting in their raw (unaltered) form before adding to recipes.
Super Foods:
- Farm-fresh eggs. Second-best, organic. (Rest of labeling is complete BS.)
- Sustainably wild-caught salmon, trout.
- Leafy, green vegetables, farm-fresh or organic (to avoid harmful pesticides and herbicides).
- Berries, including blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, farm-fresh or organic (to avoid chemicals).
- Nuts and seeds. Add to meals and snacks. We love macadamias, almonds, pecans, walnuts, sunflower seeds, and hemp seeds.
- Farm-raised meets and poultry. No factory/supermarket meats, which often contain hormones, antibiotics, and
other issues. Farm-raised meats are fresher, healthier, better tasting.
- Cruciferous vegetables. Especially love broccoli and kale, but also cauliflower and Brussel sprouts. Farm-fresh or organic.
- Sweet potatoes and other healthy, complex carbs. Farm-fresh or organic.
- Healthy Fats. Butter or Ghee from grassfed dairy cows. Avocado, olive, or coconut oils.
Final Thoughts About Healing With Real Foods
The food we eat has a major impact on our physical and mental health. We know certain foods are bad and unhealthy for us.
We know food can be a trigger for us -- or it can be a comfort food when we are triggered. We know sugar is addictive and that
many of us are addicted.
While it is very important to clean up your pantry and focus on what you're eating, it's also important for healing to:
- Attempt moderate exercise daily
- Lower stress levels/stressful situations
- Maintain proper hydration (and water is best, simplest, healthiest)
- Schedule periods of rest
- Establish and keep regular sleep patterns/duration
- Clear old traumas, hurts (via talk therapy, psychedelics, meditation, spirituality, breathwork, etc.)
- Find your true people and build positive relationships/community
Finally, it goes without saying that healing comes in many modalities -- and the more of these you can start
incorporating into your life, the better, faster, and healthier your healing.
Additional Resources About Healing Foods
Dr. Randall S. Hansen is an educator, author, and advocate, as well as founder and CEO of
EmpoweringSites.com,
a network of empowering and transformative Websites, including EmpoweringAdvice.com.
Dr. Hansen's latest book, Triumph Over Trauma, is available in paperback and ebook versions.
Dr. Hansen has been helping empower people to achieving success his entire adult life.
He is also founder of EnhanceMyVocabulary.com,
MyCollegeSuccessStory.com, and
EmpoweringRetreat.com.
He is a published author, with several books, chapters in books, and hundreds
of articles. Dr. Hansen is also an educator, teaching business
and marketing at the college level for more than 25 years. Learn more by visiting his personal Website,
RandallSHansen.com. You can also check out
Dr. Randall Hansen on LinkedIn.