Nutrition
The truth about the nutrition in our pantry
You are what you eat
How necessary are these new exotic foods to an otherwise
healthful diet filled with real whole foods? Do people need to
supplement their lunches with pitaya and baobab? A new warning
that a diet rich in regularly produced fruits and vegetables (you
mean like carrots, broccoli, bananas?… like our whole foods
supplements) is probably sufficient for health and energy and that
unusual foods (think “superfoods”) can be unpredictable and even
possibly harmful. Many of us don’t think about the way it could
impact the absorption of our regular meals, or how it may interact
unfavorably with your daily medication. Some would argue that
because of serious soil depletion, toxic pollution, and fast
moving pace in our lifestyles that in the modern world eating
regular old farmed food just isn’t enough to be healthy anymore. I
get that, we need to bridge the gap. So yes, supplementation is
key. But that doesn’t mean we need to bridge the gap with some
special, amazing foods from a far away land.
We were just talking the other day, myself, Dr. Mitra Ray, and my
friend, Linda, about these foods from other countries and one of
those is quinoa . So let’s talk about that because many of those
that jump on the Transform 30 diet think “gluten-free =
quinoa”. Obviously it is a nutrient-dense, gluten-free
grain. That’s why my family originally used it. It comes from the
Andes, where it has grown alongside potatoes, with roaming llamas
and alpaca for thousands of years. Guess what? My family doesn’t
use quinoa at all anymore. With the huge demand in Europe and the
United States to have more healthy, gluten-free grains,
quinoa—which is very high in protein—has become very popular,
especially among foodies. Quinoa, which you may not know, although
gluten-free contains saponins which are anti-nutrients. You have
to soak and rinse your quinoa before cooking, they cause little
holes in the lining of our intestine and increase its
permeability, causing the leaky gut issues impacting your
wellness. Something those that have always grown it intuitively
knew, but we did not.
Quinoa is now so popular, Bolivians cannot afford to buy it, and
the quinoa-growing region of the country is also the most
malnourished because those who grow quinoa for export now purchase
refined grains to eat from the store. In Peru, quinoa now costs
more than chicken. As well their own soil now faces decreased soil
fertility, as farmers mine their soil to grow quinoa year after
year to meet our demand, instead of using traditional methods of
rotating their crops with animal pastures to restore fertility and
prevent erosion. Asparagus production for export in Peru as well
has led to water shortages that locals need.
In India, farmers have seen groundwater levels drop, and have been
forced to go further down for water. From 180 or 190 feet, and now
even as far down as 550 feet. And the water is getting dirtier,
and is polluted more and more with pesticides and chemicals.
Then we get into that which rises to buying local. Transportation
costs of food is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse
gas emissions. A basic diet of imported products can use four
times the energy and produce four times the emissions of an
equivalent diet from domestic and local foods.
And many of our own precious resources have been “wildcrafted” to
almost an extinction in their natural habitats, and this includes
considering the growing essential oil business that I love.
Simply put, the richest nations in the world for the most part,
are eating their way through ecosystems all over the world, and
without a concern for where our future is going. If you want to be
organic, you want to be engaged in the “green” discussion, then
you have to admit that you are still a consumer, even if you are
eating gluten-free quinoa and fair trade chocolate.
Over-consumption and sustainability are not compatible to this
lifestyle, no matter how eco-friendly we try to be about it. So we
need to stop feeling like it’s our right to eat superfoods every
day, on demand.
The people who grow it for us often don’t have enough to
eat at all because of it. And we need to think globally starting
now. That brings me to the
Juice Plus+ farm to capsule initiative. Juice Plus+ starts
with farm fresh produce that, whenever possible, is carefully
grown by midsize family farmers for the best quality nutrition. To
avoid shipping the fruits and vegetables long distances, which
would compromise their nutritional value, The Juice Plus+ Company
locates juicing and drying facilities as close to its farmers as
possible. And when that’s not possible, they use a process called
Individual Quick Freezing (IQF) to lock in the nutrients of each
fruit and vegetable before they have time to degrade. This also
allows for a consistent supply of Juice Plus regardless of the
growing season. Think about the foods, and the vibrations that you
get from it. Why it feels so much better to eat something you grew
in your Tower
Garden, instead of purchased at the store from the organic
farmer in Chile. I know that I am one to talk, because I love my
hemp milk so much… but at some point we have to reduce, and now
may be the time.