You know that whole food is
gaining traction when Forbes Magazine promotes it Forbes: The 12
Healthiest Foods On Earth! This
is great news. If you have a family member who loves their processed food and
thinks that you are overreacting because you actually make your food, show them
this article. Forbes is the last place that I would have expected to find such
great news!
The Healthiest Foods On Earth
Jonny Bowden, 07.07.09, 04:00 PM EDT
The most important consideration in constructing a healthy
diet: Eat whole food with minimal processing. These 12 foods do the trick.
What is the best diet for
human beings?
Vegetarian? Vegan?
High-protein? Low-fat? Dairy-Free?
Hold on to your shopping
carts: There is no perfect diet for human beings. At least not one that's based
on how much protein, fat or carbohydrates you eat.
People have lived and thrived
on high-protein, high-fat diets (the Inuit of Greenland); on low-protein,
high-carb diets (the indigenous peoples of southern Africa); on diets high in
raw milk and cream (the people of the Loetschental Valley in Switzerland);
diets high in saturated fat (the Trobriand Islanders) and even on diets in
which animal blood is considered a staple (the Massai of Kenya and Tanzania).
And folks have thrived on these diets without the ravages of degenerative
diseases that are so epidemic in modern life--heart disease, diabetes, obesity,
neurodegenerative diseases, osteoporosis and cancer.
In Depth: The Healthiest Foods On Earth
The only thing these diets
have in common is that they're all based on whole foods with minimum
processing. Nuts, berries, beans, raw milk, grass-fed meat. Whole, real, unprocessed
food is almost always healthy, regardless of how many grams of carbs, protein
or fat it contains.
All these healthy diets have
in common the fact that they are absent foods with bar codes. They are also
extremely low in sugar. In fact, the number of modern or ancient societies
known for health and longevity that have consumed a diet high in sugar would be
... let's see ... zero.
Truth be told, what you eat
probably matters less than how much processing it's undergone. Real food--whole
food with minimal processing--contains a virtual pharmacy of nutrients,
phytochemicals, enzymes, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, anti-inflammatories
and healthful fats, and can easily keep you alive and thriving into your 10th
decade.
Berries, for example, are
phenomenally low in calories, high in fiber and loaded with plant compounds
that improve memory and help fight cancer. Studies have consistently shown that
nut-eaters have lower rates of
heart disease. Beans are notorious for their
high fiber content and are a part of the diet of people--from almost every
corner of the globe--who live long and well.
Protein--the word comes from
a Greek word meaning "of prime importance"--is a feature of every
healthy diet ever studied. Meat , contrary to its
terrible reputation, can be a health food if--and this is a big if--the meat
comes from animals that have been raised on pasture land, have never seen the
inside of a feedlot farm and have never been shot full of antibiotics and
hormones.
Ditto for raw milk, generally believed
to be one of the healthiest beverages on the planet by countless devotees who
often go to great expense and inconvenience to obtain it from small,
sustainable farms. Wild salmon, whose omega-3
content is consistently higher than its less-fortunate farm-raised brethren,
gets its red color from a powerful antioxidant called astaxathin. The
combination of protein, omega-3s and antioxidants makes wild salmon a contender
for anyone's list of great foods.
Another great food: eggs--one of nature's most
perfect creations, especially if you don't throw out the all-important yolk.
(Remember "whole" foods means exactly that--foods in their original
form. Our robust ancestors did not eat "low-fat" caribou; we don't
need to eat "egg-white" omelets.)
There are really no
"bad" vegetables, but some of them are superstars. Any vegetable from
the Brassica genus--broccoli,
cabbage, brussels sprouts, kale--is loaded with plant chemicals called indoles,
which help reduce the risk of cancer.
In the fruit kingdom, apples totally deserve their
reputation as doctor-repellants: they're loaded with fiber, minerals (like
bone-building boron) and phytochemicals (like quercetin, which is known to be a
powerful anti-inflammatory and to have anti-cancer properties). Some exciting
new research suggests that pomegranate juice slows the
progression of certain cancers. Other research shows it lowers blood pressure
and may even act as a "natural Viagra."
Tea deserves special mention
on any list of the world's healthiest foods. The second most widely consumed
beverage in the world (after water), all forms of tea (black, oolong, white,
green and the newer Yerba Matte) are loaded with antioxidants and
anti-inflammatories. Some types (green tea, for example)
contain plant chemicals called catechins which have decided anti-cancer
activity
Finally, let's not forget
members of the Alliaceae family of plants--onions, garlic and shallots.
Garlic has been used for thousands of years for its medicinal properties;
hundreds of published studies support its antimicrobial effects as well as its
ability to lower the risk of heart disease. A number of studies have shown an
inverse relationship between onion consumption and certain types of cancer.
A healthy diet doesn't have
to contain every one of the "healthiest foods on earth," but you
can't go wrong putting as many of the above mentioned foods in heavy rotation
on your personal eating plan.
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