By Dr. Joe Morreale
The disease epidemic in this country is largely a result of the American diet. The diet that we are genetically meant to eat does not exist today. Our genetic code has changed .05% in the last 10,000 years but our diet has done a 180 since then. We went from eating lean meats, fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, and other wild growing foods to a diet of grains and fatty meats.
It was not until the agricultural revolution that degenerative diseases started to be found in our fossil record. This is important to understand because as human beings we are not designed to live on a grain diet. In fact, the high grain diet we eat actually contributes to diseases found in our body.
The key players to our diet are the fatty acids, or more commonly known as fats. We understand that there are a few different major categories of fats in our food. Saturated fats and trans fats are considered the unhealthy fats. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are considered our good fats. However, this statement is only partially true.
To fully understand the problem with the western diet, we have to look at one of these fats closer to learn more about where our food has gone horribly wrong. The polyunsaturated fats considered to be one of our good fats is under intense scrutiny in the medical community today. Polyunsaturated fats include omega-3, omega-6, and omega-9. These fatty acids are used by our body for a wide range of things such as hormone regulation, cell repair, energy, and disease processes.
Omega-6’s and omega-3’s are the biggest problem in our diets. We were designed to eat a 1:1 ratio of these fats or worse case scenario a 3:1 ratio. The western diet is easily 20:1 in favor of omega-6. Omega-6 is an inflammatory fatty acid and omega-3 is an anti-inflammatory fatty acid. This is significant because the inflammatory fatty acids are responsible for inflammation, which leaves us chronically inflamed.
The inflammatory buzzword is being thrown around the news and media frequently today. Inflammation is commonly thought of as swelling due to trauma. It results in bruising, discoloration, and pain. Although this is true, it is easier to understand when you think of the word inflammation as disease.
These disease causing fats are omega-6 fats and we consume 20:1 of them in our diet. It is easy to see why we have such a disease epidemic in this country. The medical community is trying to combat this with the supplementation of fish oils, largely composed of omega-3 fats. This is an attempt to balance our diets. Unfortunately, it is nowhere near enough because the sheer amount of oils consumed in America’s diet is astronomical.
The only way to fight this is to become educated on this topic. Stay clear of fad diets and eat for health and well-being. Consume more fruits and green vegetables, lean range fed meats, nuts, and wild fish. Stay away from fatty meats, fast foods and sugary foods. Also, remove peanuts, corn, other seed oils, and grains from your diet.
Grains are high in omega-6 disease causing fatty acids and are a major contributor to the poor quality of our food. Grain feeds are commonly fed to live stock because it is cheap and it fattens the animals up quickly. This yields bigger profits for the food manufacturers but poor nutrition value of our food. You really are what you eat. If your livestock are fed a grain, hormone, and antibiotic diet, your meat is exactly that. Then you consume that meat and your cereals, breads, and fried foods as staples in your diet. This leads you to become chronically inflamed.
We live in a society where heart disease, cancers, systemic diseases, inflammatory diseases, and metabolic diseases are sky rocketing. We are a sick nation and the only way for us to change that is to change our way of thinking. We have to understand that the food we eat is the only fuel our bodies get. Treat your body well – you have to live with it for a lifetime.
Thanks for joining us. Remember, you can catch this show each week on Lakefront TV and on Heartbeat Radio for Women, at heartbeatradiousa.com. We’ll see you next time.