Processed Food and Low-Fat Diets
By Jane Sheppard
With all the conflicting information out there about nutrition,
no wonder most of us are confused as to what to feed our children.
I was a vegetarian for years and advocated a vegetarian diet as
one of the most important ways to increase health. I ate no meat
or dairy throughout my entire pregnancy, and had an exceptionally
healthy baby. It's important to note, though, that I ate plenty
of organic eggs and supplemented my diet with flaxseed oil and natural
vitamins and minerals.
I am no longer a strict vegetarian like I used to be. The more
I research food and nutrition, the more I'm finding that a small
amount of naturally produced animal fat and protein can be a healthy
part of a whole foods diet. Yes, I did say animal, but the crucial
thing here is to stay away from commercial meat and dairy - the
kind you find everywhere in all the grocery stores and restaurants.
The meat and dairy I'm talking about comes from grass-fed animals
raised humanely on family farms without hormones and antibiotics.
The dairy is not pasteurized nor homogenized. It is organic, raw,
whole milk from grass-fed cows. The nutritional value of these foods
is far different than the commercial factory-farmed meat and dairy
that you find in a regular grocery store. In this age of factory
farming and high-tech food processing, finding high-quality food
is increasingly vital to your family's health.
Children Need Fats
Children must have fat in their diets, since fats are needed for
growth and provide the building blocks for cell membranes and hormones.
Fats act as carriers for the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K.
Without dietary fats, carotenes do not convert to vitamin A and
minerals are not absorbed properly. Both cholesterol and saturated
fat are essential for growth in babies and children, especially
in the development of the brain. In fact, mother's milk contains
over 50% of its calories as fat, much of it saturated.
Moderate amounts of healthy fats in the diet do not cause obesity.
The real culprits in obesity and a host of chronic diseases are
refined sugar, white flour products, and trans-fatty acids in the
form of heated refined vegetable oils or hydrogenated oils such
as margarine and vegetable shortening.
The Work of Weston Price
One simply cannot advocate a certain way to eat without considering
the work of Dr. Weston Price. Dr. Price was a dentist in the early
1900s around the time when processed food was first introduced.
He was concerned about the increased, widespread dental disease
and poor health of his patients. He noticed they were suffering
from more and more chronic degenerative diseases and the children
had a greater number of cavities and more crooked teeth than ever
before. He had heard of native people in other countries, untouched
by civilization and processed food, with perfect teeth and exceptional
health. Dr. Price traveled around the world, visiting and studying
these people and their diets. He visited with and examined 14 groups
of native people and found on average less than 1% of tooth decay
and perfectly straight teeth in all the people he visited. The amazing
thing was that not one of these people had ever used a toothbrush.
He found no incidence of any of the degenerative diseases that are
so widespread in our culture.
The important factor in the traditional diets was that all the
foods were natural and unprocessed. There were no preservatives,
additives, or colorings, no added sugar (except moderate amounts
of natural sweets like honey and maple syrup), and no white flour
or canned foods. The milk products were not pasteurized, homogenized,
or low fat. The plant foods consumed were grown in mineral-rich,
pesticide-free soil and the animals were raised on their natural
pasture and not given growth hormones or antibiotics. On his journeys,
Dr Price never once found a totally vegetarian culture. They all
ate some form of animal fat and protein.
Some of the groups Dr. Price studied lived close to racially similar
groups that had abandoned their traditional diets since they had
come in contact with traders or missionaries. They began to eat
the food available in the newly established stores - sugar, refined
grains, canned foods, pasteurized milk and devitalized fats and
oils. In these people, he found rampant tooth decay, infectious
disease and degenerative conditions. Price concluded that race had
nothing to do with these changes. He noted that physical degeneration
occurred in children of native parents who had adopted the processed
diet; while mixed race children whose parents had consumed traditional
foods were healthy and born with wide handsome faces and straight
teeth.
Processed Food
The modern convenience foods of today - sugar and white flour products
with hydrogenated or rancid vegetable oils and factory-farmed meat
and dairy - are key factors in the alarming rate of chronic degenerative
diseases, learning disabilities, and dental disease. These denatured,
processed foods do not provide sufficient nutrients to allow a child's
body to reach its full potential of health, nor the proper functioning
of the immune, nervous, skeletal, digestive, and reproductive systems.
We need to get back to natural, wholesome foods that are prepared
and preserved in a way that promotes health, not disease.
We are constantly challenged in a society that allows the food
industry to bombard our children with advertising of fake foods
in appealing, colorful packages. It's difficult to protect our children
when lifeless convenience foods, candy, soda, and fruit juice drinks
loaded with sugar and corn syrup are common snacks and lunches of
their peers. I struggle with it constantly; allowing my daughter
to occasionally have some of these devitalized foods. But I've taught
her that these things are only occasional treats and that our everyday
diet is natural, organic, whole foods. She knows that these are
the foods her mind and body need to grow and thrive.
Nourishing Traditions
Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically
Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, by Sally Fallon with
Mary G. Enig, Ph.D. (NewTrends Publishing, Inc., 1999) derives essential
wisdom from the traditional diets of the past and combines this
wisdom with the latest independent and accurate scientific research.
Sally Fallon discredits the U.S. nutritional guidelines that favor
the highly profitable and powerful grain cartels, vegetable oil
producers and food processing industry, and she shows that the big
trend toward low-fat diets is based on research that is misrepresented
or incorrect.
Much more than a cookbook, Nourishing Traditions provides a bounty
of solid information about natural, whole foods with a full discussion
about healthy fats, carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and minerals.
Most importantly, this book teaches food preparation and preservation
techniques that will not devitalize foods like commercial food processing
does, but instead enhances the quality and nutritional value of
the food. Included is an excellent chapter on feeding babies. The
recipes are surprisingly easy, but will definitely take time in
the kitchen. Feeding your family a healthy diet is not quick and
convenient, but the results you'll see in shining, vibrant children
will make it well worth the time and effort.
According to Sally Fallon in Nourishing Traditions, "butter
added to vegetables and spread on bread, and cream added to soups
and sauces, ensure proper assimilation of the minerals and water-soluble
vitamins in vegetables, grains and meat." Dr. Price considered
butter to be the ultimate health food. In addition to saturated
fat and cholesterol, butter contains fat-soluble vitamins in the
most absorbable form, factors that help the body absorb and utilize
minerals, and a small amount of omega-6 and omega-3 essential fatty
acids in the proper balance. The omega 3 and 6 essential fatty acids
(EFAs) are essential for health, and without adequate amounts and
proper balance of these fats, chronic health problems are inevitable.
"In summary", says Sally Fallon, "our choice of
fats and oils is one of extreme importance. Most people, especially
infants and growing children, benefit from more fat in the diet
rather than less. But the fats we eat must be chosen with care.
Avoid all processed foods containing newfangled hydrogenated fats
and polyunsaturated oils. Instead, use traditional vegetable oils
like extra virgin olive oil and small amounts of unrefined flax
seed oil. Acquaint yourself with the merits of coconut oil for baking
and with animal fats for occasional frying. Eat egg yolks and other
animal fats with the proteins to which they are attached. And, finally,
use as much good quality butter as you like, with the happy assurance
that it is a wholesome - indeed, an essential - food for you and
your whole family."
More
information about healthy fats for children.
Sources:
The Weston A. Price Foundation www.westonaprice.org
Politically Incorrect: The Neglected Nutritional Research of Dr.
Weston Price, DDS, by By Dr. Stephen Byrnes
Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically
Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, by Sally Fallon with
Mary G. Enig, Ph.D. (NewTrends Publishing, Inc., 1999)
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