Carbs, Fats and Oils in the Standard American Diet

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Carbs, Fats and Oils in the Standard American Diet

JoAnn Guest

Dec 15, 2004 12:00 PST

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Carbs, Fats and Oils in the Standard American Diet

 

From 1980 to 1990, the availability of information regarding nutrition

has taken a quantum leap forward. It is now required by the Food and

Drug Administration to fully disclose product information on all food

labels.

 

Some conscientiously comply with this law with great detail and

integrity, while others generally comply but also mislead.

 

For instance,

a loaf of bread advertised as whole wheat bread may instead have

unbleached whole wheat flour or a snack may be labeled as zero transfats while

hydrogenated oils are listed in the ingredients.

 

Unbleached whole wheat flour is a finer flour, stripped of its bran, which is

much more

difficult to digest than unrefined whole wheat whole grain flour. It can take

2 to 3 times longer to go through the digestive tract thereby allowing

the accumulation of toxins in the body.

 

If the bran remains with the grain, the elimination process is helped

greatly, reducing toxic buildup.

 

The growth of health food stores from

small cooperatives to large retail supermarkets points to a desire by

more and more people to eat better foods free from herbicides,

pesticides, fungicides, hormones, and genetic engineering.

 

 

Because nutrition is not emphasized in medical school curriculums, it

may not be given an important role in many solutions to medical

problems. However, there is a growing awareness by medical doctors and

other health professionals that the disease process can be greatly

reduced by proper nutrition.

 

While a person's mental and emotional states have just as great an

impact on harboring or discharging a disease, it is vitally important

for the body to have the proper balance of nutrients to help arrest the

disease process. Analogous to this, even an expert mechanic cannot get a

jet fighter plane to fly using gas intended for automobiles. Yet, we

make this same mistake in our own diets.

 

 

The Standard American Diet (SAD) clogs arteries, damages joints,

slows down our nervous system, decreases our mental alertness, produces

stones in our kidneys and gallbladder, and very often leads either to

chronic disease or early death.

 

Pure whole foods, in correct combinations, will eliminate most of these

problems.

 

 

In 1981, worldwide sales of fats and oils were over 40 billion dollars.

By 1992, it is estimated that world production of 80 million tons will

bring in 60 billion dollars.

 

In the industrialized nations of the world, actual fat consumption is

approximately 1500 calories (160 grams) per day or 60 kilograms per

year.

 

The average consumption of sugar is 120 pounds per person per

year. The average person weighs 150 pounds or 70 kilograms.

 

Imagine the stress on the system that consumes almost twice its weight

in fats and sugars per year.

 

 

Sugars are carbohydrates that can convert into fats. They include all

refined sugars, and syrups; for example glucose, dextrose, fructose,

galactose, table sugar (double sugar sucrose), maltose (in beer),

lactose (in milk), and dextrins.

 

All those concentrated sources of

sugars are rapidly digested, with the excess sugars turning into fats.

 

 

The building blocks for saturated fatty acids and for cholesterol are

two-carbon acetate fragments. When glucose breaks down, it throws off

energy, producing 'acetate fragments'.

 

The normal process is for the body to burn off these fragments into

carbon dioxide and water. If there is an " oversupply " of these fragments,

the body turns the excess acetate fragments into " saturated fatty " acids

and cholesterol.

 

This increases blood-cholesterol levels.

 

The body does this as a protection from the toxic effects of excess

acetate which is more toxic than excess fat or cholesterol. This is a

one-way conversion. The fats cannot be reconverted to sugars, but must

be burned off through activity.

 

 

Starches are sugar molecules bonded together. Starches turn into sugars

when enzymes break their bonds. Refined starchy foods are responsible

for gross fat production; for example, white flour, white rice, pasta,

cornstarch, tapioca, and most commercially prepared breads and breakfast

cereals.

 

The slower absorbing less refined complex carbohydrates like organic potatoes,

figs, and whole grains contain minerals and vitamins. These

help " convert " complex carbohydrates to 'fuel', slowing down the " conversion "

into sugars, allowing the body to 'spend' its fuel at the same rate it is

being 'produced'.

 

In a healthy active body, no " fat " is produced.

 

Because the more refined carbohydrates lack vitamins and minerals, they

tend to " absorb " too rapidly and 'overload' the blood with glucose.

 

 

In mild cases, the body becomes hyperactive, as with young children. In

extreme cases, it can lead to dangerously high levels of sugar in the

blood (hyperglycemia) and subsequent coma and death.

 

 

written by Rodney Julian

 

Published September 1990

 

http://www.fetalogos.com/articles.htm#thymus

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_________________

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

DietaryTi-

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Genes

 

 

 

 

 

 

AIM Barleygreen

" Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future "

 

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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