The Quarantine Diet: The Junk Stops Here
I have a friend who is an Instacart shopper. She does it to help make some extra money for her family and when all of this quarantine business started, she told me I wouldn’t believe the crap people were suddenly eating.
Yeah, I know no one wants to hear this but this is exactly THE WORST time to eat like a teenage boy.
I hear you. We’ve done our share of pizza, tacos, and chips, too, but this health crisis is the wake up we need to turn this ship around. Junk food and heavily processed food is the opposite of what we all need right now. The typical American diet (both by choice and by our food supply chain) and how we live (stressed and tired) is why we have been hit so hard with this new virus. Our bodies aren’t properly armed to defend against what is coming at us right now and until that changes, this probably won’t be going away any time soon.
I’ve been listening to the discoveries and insights of Zach Bush M.D. for a couple of years now and he has his finger on the pulse of why this is happening and what we need to do about it. His vast knowledge about gut health is and how it relates to our individual physical and mental well-being is worth seeking.
The state of our food and the state of our health are connected. I didn’t understand this, either, for many years of my life and if there is a silver lining to all of this, I hope that this knowledge becomes not only well-known but also a catalyst for monumental change.
Here are the misconceptions I used to have about food.
If it’s on the shelf, it’s safe to eat.
There are many MANY items in that box of cereal, that package of meat, and that loaf of bread that aren’t listed in the ingredients.
Pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, what the animal ate, chemicals that are used to process the foods, heavy metals, and so much more. Mass production of food is a process. This process is meant to bring food to stores as fast as possible with as little cost as possible. This means cutting corners, adding fillers to make the real ingredients go further, and adding chemicals to keep the food from going rancid or spoiling. Does that sound safe to you?
Many companies don’t care about the health of its consumers, rather, putting their cares solely on making sure it meets demand while making a worthy profit. The short and long-term ramifications are of no concern by the food manufacturers. If that was the case, ALL food would be organic and chemical free. And the sad thing is is that the governing bodies that are in place to look out for us look the other way. Don’t get me started or this will be a much longer post.
What we eat only affects our weight, not our overall health
For so many years, I only thought about food in these two ways: does it taste good and if I eat too much of it, will it make me gain weight? Seriously, that was my criteria. I didn’t at all make the connection to the food I put in my body to the way I was feeling.
I thought nothing of the long term effects of what I was eating. Maybe that was youth or maybe it was ignorance. Probably both. What I didn’t understand until much later in life was how my body actually processed and used the food I ate.
We chew and swallow, hardly thinking about all that happens after that. The stomach acid goes to work to break down the food along with digestive enzymes and healthy bacteria. It then passes along to the small intestine where the food is broken down even more by bile, pancreatic juice and more enzymes. The nutrients from the foods are then absorbed through the intestinal wall to be used as energy for our cells. The mitochondria in our cells use those nutrients as energy which fuels our body. The parts of the food we don’t or can’t use leaves our body as stool. Bada bing. Bada boom.
What part of the Dorito chip can our bodies use? Let first look at the ingredients.
The Nacho Cheese flavor contains: Corn, vegetable oil, maltodextrin, salt, cheddar cheese, whey, monosodium glutamate (MSG), buttermilk, Romano cheese, whey protein concentrate, onion powder, corn flour, natural and artificial flavor, dextrose, tomato powder, lactose, spices, artificial color (yellow 6, yellow 5 and red 40), lactic acid, citric acid, sugar, garlic powder, skim milk, red and green bell pepper powder, disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate.
What possible benefits could come from consuming these ingredients? The GMO corn has been sprayed with chemicals. The vegetable oil is processed with chemicals and contain high levels of Omega-6 oils, when consumed at a much higher rate than Omega-3s, it becomes an inflammatory in the body. The MSG is a flavor enhancer that is debated on its health implications. Artificial colors are linked to hyperactivity, cancer, and allergic reactions to name a few.
Not a whole lot. The body processes these foods into their simplest form, usually carbohydrates, which means glucose is released into the body. Insulin is then secreted by the pancreas to help process the increased levels of glucose. If the glucose isn’t burned off through exercise, (let’s face it, no one is eating a bag of Doritos before they hit the gym), it gets funneled into our fat cells to use later. That is if you have no other glucose in the body to use as energy which unless you consume absolutely zero carbs, those fat cells aren’t releasing a thing.
The rest of those chips that can’t be used by the body then hangs out in our bowels, void of the necessary fiber to help move things along. In the short-term, it causes gas, bloating, irritated bowels, constipation and in the long-term…things like colon cancer.
This is the deal. Food brands want you to come back for more. They are going to produce it in a way that creates a craving while at the same time lining their pockets with large profit margin. That usually means addictive ingredients produced at the lowest possible price. If you can get a two burger meal with fries and a large drink for around $5, it can’t be high quality ingredients. EVER.
The majority of the food industry is not looking out for us. It never was and never will until we stop buying the crap they are selling. We have to be our own health advocates but it takes waking up to what food is truly doing to our bodies.
I probably sound like a broken record if you’re a loyal reader but eating better quality food is even more important now because all those crappy ingredients are feeding the bad bacteria in our gut. They multiply and overtake the good guys, the ones we desperately need to fight off infection and help our cells communicate making the typical American diet the perfect breeding ground for this virus. Our immune systems are shot. Between the overuse of glyphosate, antibiotics and crap food, we never had a chance.
If we don’t care about what we are eating during this health crisis when strong immune systems are what are going to get us all out of this sooner than later, then we are a lost society. Perhaps permanently.
And maybe the bigger underlying question here is why do we turn to crap food in time of crisis? We’ve all seen the memes and funny videos of what people are eating and drinking. I mean, why are we “coping” during a stressful time with the EXACT opposite of what we should be eating and drinking? For one, we are marketed to day and night that we are supposed to want these things to calm us down, to fill the holes left by crappy marriages, shitty friendships and dead-end jobs, and to make us feel good again.
Our immune systems need us now more than ever. The question we must as ourselves is how are we showing up? This isn’t meant to be a guilt trip but a wake up call. From one friend to another. I care about you and want us all to beat this thing now and forever.
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You can listen to Rich Roll’s interview with Zach Bush here, starting at minute 34 or so where he talks about the food industry and other shortfalls we find ourselves in. It’s truly enlightening and if you’d like to know more about what Dr. Bush has to say about gut health, immune systems, food and more, search Rich Roll’s podcast with his name and you should find a few more interviews with truly important information.