This list was compiled by Dr. Weston A. Price. Dr. Price traveled around the world in the 1930’s and 40’s to study the health of people eating their native/traditional diets, and what happened when refined white flour and sugar was added. His book, called “Diet and Physical Degeneration” is a bible among traditional Nutritionists who recommend whole food diets for anti-aging and avoiding chronic disease. See <a title="http://www.westonaprice.org" href="http://www.westonaprice.org/">www.westonaprice.org</a> for more information.

1.    Butter from grass-fed cows (preferably organic raw butter)

2.    Oysters

3.    Liver from grass-fed animals

4.    Eggs from organic free-range hens

5.    Cod liver oil

6.    Fish eggs

7.    Whole raw milk from grass-fed cows

8.    Bone broth (see Weston Price website for information on preparation)

9.    Wild salmon

10.    Whole organic yoghurt or kefir

11.    Beef from grass-fed steers

12.    Sauerkraut

13.    Organic Beets

These foods provide concentrated nutrients needed for cellular health. The cells of the brain and nervous system have a sheath around them, composed of 80% fat and 20% protein. This protects the cell, and allows the transmission of nerve impulses, and a path for regeneration in case of injury. Loss of this sheath is a marker of many degenerative diseases. So, eating the right kind and amount of healthy fats and protein are protective of these cells.

Heart disease barely existed before 1900, when we ate lard (animal fat), real butter, and plenty of animal protein. Margarine requires the use of metals such as aluminum and nickel in order to make the vegetable oil solid in a process called “hydrogenation”. Many other chemicals and flavor enhancers are added. This is not a “natural” food!

<em>“Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food.”  </em>Hippocrates 460 BC

What is “junk” food? Food that has little or no nutritional value. If you want to be slim and healthy, 90% of the food you eat must have nutrients that repair and rebuild the cells of the body. So, skinny is not always healthier. What really determines the health of the body is how many healthy cells you have. Healthy cells withstand attacks from bacteria, viruses, fungus and toxins like chemicals and metals. The health of your cells determines your cancer risk because healthy cells reproduce healthy new cells, not mutants that form tumors.

High quality, nutrient-dense food can be delicious. Think fine French, Italian and Spanish cuisine!  Your mental and physical health are both affected strongly by the foods you eat. Food is your friend, but you have to know how to find the real thing. Junk food only loves you for a few minutes, then lets you down by piling on fat and loading you with chemicals. Real food keeps your body strong and resilient and loves you all of your life.

<strong><span style="color: #008000;">Frankenstein Foods and Additives That Should Be Avoided</span></strong>

Hydrogenated Fats such as margarine and shortening. Hydrogenation extends shelf life but changes the chemical structure of the fat to something the human body has never had to process before. Saturated fats are not a health risk, but trans-fats from hydrogenation or high heat frying are a risk. Coconut oil may be solid, depending the temperature of the room, but it is not a hydrogenated fat and has many health benefits, including some promise as a treatment for Alzheimer’s.

Liquid Vegetable Oils that have been heat and chemical processed. This would include all oils on the grocery store shelf that are not labeled “Unrefined”, “Raw” or “Virgin, cold pressed”.

Artificial Sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose and saccharine. Brand names are Nutrasweet, Sweet and Low and Splenda. Sucralose (Splenda) is sugar chemically bonded with chlorine so that it tastes sweet but does not break down in the body but passes through the intestine

<span style="color: #008000;"><strong>High Fructose Corn Syrup</strong></span>

MSG, Autolyzed Yeast, Flavor Enhancers. Monsodium Glutamate exists naturally in seaweed and was used by the Japanese as a flavor booster. But the synthetic, laboratory-made MSG has been used to cause obesity in laboratory mice and rats, and has been linked to brain lesions. It may also cause uncomfortable symptoms such as headache, numbness and tingling.

Food colorings and flavorings. These chemicals have been linked to hyperactivity in children and may contribute to food addictions and allergies. No laboratory can match the taste of a real, ripe strawberry, but that does not stop food companies from making cheap imitations.

Processed, packaged foods. Check the label. If you see words with several syllables that you can’t pronounce and you don’t know what they are, chances are your body can’t process the additive and anything the body can’t process acts like a poison. Refined flour and white sugar is the least of the health risks for many processed foods.

Eat Real, Be Real

Cravings and Our Chemical World

Sugar, chocolate, bread, ice cream, chips. Cheap, readily available, and even mood-altering. We are surrounded by foods that titillate our taste buds and soothe our jagged nerves (more coffee, anyone?), but pile on pounds.

These foods may also have a nasty kick. After the initial lift, they drop us flat again when our blood sugar drops. Then the cycle of wanting these comfort foods starts over again. Give in to it and you may find yourself a junk-food junkie, with hardly any real food left in your diet at all.

Add in all the chemicals in our environment from industry and agriculture, and the chemicals in prescription medication. What is left is a giant science experiment with us as the guinea pigs.

Have you noticed the odd distribution of fat that some people have these days? The skinny forearms and bulbous upper arms, doughy loaves of thighs and bubble butts? These are probably caused by chemicals. With all the chemically created food cheaply available, some people are hardly eating any “real” food any more. Strawberry flavoring is not made from strawberries. It is made in a laboratory and designed to fool our taste buds into thinking it is eating strawberries. There is nothing healthy or helpful in these chemical flavorings, artificial sweeteners or fat substitutes like margarine. They are Frankenstein foods and cause our cells to make Frankenstein bodies.

Chemicals from food and industry can disrupt hormones, and make us eat more than we want to or need to. In fact, some snack foods may be chemically engineered to keep you eating more, just as cigarettes have addictive chemicals added. So, don’t just blame your lack of willpower. You may be under some powerful influences.

You can help kick a drug or alcohol habit by stopping cold turkey. You can’t stop eating, but you can kick the chemical habit.

This is the time to discover organic and free range. Many people find themselves free of cravings for the first time ever. The human body is very susceptible to habits. Eating natural, farm raised foods can become a new habit that has enormous health benefits.

The result that you may be seeking the most is the loss of pounds and re-sculpting of the body. But don’t be surprised if you find that other health conditions that you considered chronic or “normal” start to drop away.

You can be free of cravings or learn to crave healthy foods. And you can feel better, as well as look better.