Continuing in our series, today we will look at food.  I think we’ve all heard about how high sugar, processed flours, and other insulin producing products create short term energy right before a crash.  However, there are other ingredients that are added to food that also rob your body of energy and set you up for disease by throwing off natural body systems.  If you read ingredient labels, you know that the ingredients added to prepared foods can be long and confusing.  If you don’t read the ingredient labels, you need to start, as this is where the road to health and energy begins.

Pure, clean, God created food doesn’t come with a label.  When we start messing with it however, the FDA gets involved and requires an ingredient list.  I’m thankful for that!  However, I’m not thankful that the FDA allows a lot of toxic junk in our food that has been connected to disease and even death.  If you are reading this outside of the USA, you may be in much better shape than we are, since many of the ingredients in our food may have been banned in your country.  Let’s break down the offending categories.

1. Preservatives.  Preservatives kill bacteria.  That’s why they are added to food on our grocery store shelves.  Their purpose is to extend shelf-life.  The problem is, our bodies are made up of more bacteria (good) than cells.  We are in fact, walking bacteria!  So what happens when we ingest bacteria killing preservatives?  Exactly. We are killing our selves.  Sounds logical, right?  Preservatives are the long words that are hard to pronounce.  If you were to try to replicate the recipe in your kitchen, and you don’t have a bottle of it in your kitchen, it’s a “No buy.”  An imbalance of good to bad bacteria in your body affects your hormones, which affects your sleep and your energy.
2. Artificial Anything.  Artificial means it’s created with chemicals.  In this case, chemicals that don’t belong in a human body.  Chemicals that don’t belong in your body are foreign invaders that send your body into high alert.  This creates inflammation, and inflammation has been found to be the root of disease.  When your body is on attack, it doesn’t want to sleep, and self survival comes before creating sustainable energy.
3. Glutamates…also known as Excitotoxins.  Similar to artificial ingredients, these flavor enhancers are created in chemistry labs to create cravings and addictions to processed foods.  The role of these additives is to play with your brain!  They are toxic…sometimes even more so than artificial ingredients.  However, they are allowed to sound healthy, like “Natural Flavors.”  Do you have a jar of  “Natural Flavors” in your cupboard? No?  It’s a “No Buy.” For a listing, and a deeper explanation, Dr. Russell Blaylock’s article is excellent.
4. Added Sugar.  When the low fat fad began a couple decades ago (funded by the sugar industry) sugar, along with all of the above mentioned fake ingredients, started to be added to virtually everything.  The result?  An increase in obesity and Diabetes.  Know your names of sugar…it goes by many aliases.  You cannot count on the numbers listed under Nutrition Facts, because they are typically in-accurate.  Make sure you read the ingredient label.  Sugar throws off your hormones, causes sleep disruption and shuts down your own energy production.  This includes alcohol. 
5. Fats.  Related to the low fat fad mentioned above, once traditional fats became the villain,  poor quality plant based fats started being produced.  These include Canola Oil, Vegetable Oil, Soybean Oil, etc.  Remember when people thought that Crisco and Margarine were good healthy alternatives?  We know now that this was false.  And yet…they are still on grocery store shelves.  You want good fats in your diet, such as Olive Oil, Avocados, Walnuts, Coconut Oil, etc.  Dr. Mark Hyman speaks to this subject very well, and his information will help guide you deeper.  Again, bad fats equal inflammation. Inflammation leads to disease.  This means that sleep and energy will be affected.
6. GMO’s.  The purpose behind genetically modified food is to yield larger crops by making the plants hardier.  Sounds good, right?  Problem is, the way they are made to be hardier is to enable them to be sprayed with toxic chemicals that kill all of the weeds around them, but they keep living.  This seems scary doesn’t it?  The dandelion is dead, but the corn stock lives on.  These products are bred with the toxins in their DNA so to speak.  That ends up in you.  Whether it’s directly from the plant, or the meat or dairy from the animal that was fed the plant. Despite claims by the chemical companies to the contrary…they are finding these toxins in people during autopsies.  This spells our word of the day….INFLAMMATION.  Your body is smart.  It knows that this stuff doesn’t belong in it.  This is a good site for reference.  However, here is my rule of thumb.  Did God create it that way?  No?  Then it doesn’t belong in my body.
7.  Organic.  Yes, I know it can be expensive, but don’t let this discourage you.  First, if you are on a budget, go to the EWG Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen list.  Make sure you buy the Dirty Dozen in organic, and for the rest, soak or spray with a mixture of 1/3 vinegar to 2/3 water.  This will get rid of 98% of the pesticides on the outside of the produce.  Pesticides and insecticides in your body spell… (I know you’ve got this)

So, here’s the easy solution.  Strive to just by products that don’t have labels on them, and are sold as God created them.  Add 1/2 of your body weight in ounces of clean, pure, filtered water (which doesn’t leave much time to drink pop, juice, beer and other extracurricular beverages,) and you are well on your way to reducing inflammation, disease, shedding weight, getting a good nights sleep and allowing your body to create it’s own energy.

Dehydration creates fatigue

Stay tuned next week for…

Exercise