Over the past century, we have seen mammoth advances in medical technology. We have more doctors, more pharmaceutical medicines, and more hospitals than ever before. We also have the least healthy generation of Americans in history. The number one culprit is unfortunately that which we eat.
The processed food and fast food industries are serving it up less quick but still full of what we cannot metabolize effectively. Americans are gulping it down, and wide spread obesity and chronic disease is the grim end result. From there, the masses are driven into the "waiting offices staffed with ready hands" of the highly profitable pharmaceutical industry helped along in the doctor-patient relationship. We are offered pills that alleviate our symptoms while the simple underlying causes are ignored.
The choices us consumers have is to purchase either organic, processed, fresh, frozen, canned or bottled. If a restaurant chef makes it for us your specifications, taste and even healthy constituents are at greater risk of being compromised. Therefore, cook it at home and only buy two days worth of fresh veggies or meat that will not go into the freezer only to be removed two months later because you forgot it was in there! Remember to use portion control wisely for your weight gain or loss's sake and the longevity of your foods vital nutrients still good after, lets say, four days later, c'mon ! Stop the leftovers habit, I think fresh is wiser but costly.
Soon it will be that time of year when much of the United States peoples will have soup as the staple part of the dinner menu. It can be as hearty as chowder or runny as a won ton, but it will be hot, delicious, and easier to digest and maintain healthy weight distribution and proportion. The more vegetables and less salt or animal stock added to the soup, the healthier the altered American diet can be.
This less meat more vegetables concept has worked for me, doing wonders for a once 160 lbs on a 5'6" frame nearly eleven years ago. I thought I might add though that when I weighed in at that, I needed a serious overhaul. Dieting really was not what I needed. I found NOT watching my bad cholesterol intake from eating foods with high trans-fat content was my biggest problem.
Once I started reducing, the intake of LDLs (low density lipids) found in the saturated fats and Tran saturated fat components of many prepared, frozen, processed or boxed entrees and appetizers at the grocery stores, I began going down in pants sizes. I went back to preparing and eating most of the foods from scratch with lots of natural herb seasonings and tons and tons of garlic in almost everything. Even pancakes!
I began drinking green tea everyday, now just three times a week, since having maintained a svelte 120lb and only have the stress-sac in the middle of my abdomen increasing a bit. Since none of my three children conceived ever made it to term, I do not have a 'pooch' (no offensive ladies, could not find any other word) or stretch marks or varicose veins yet on this last one (as birthing but DNA inheritance is factored in with this condition), I may end up with anyway. I also suffer from an ovarian cyst that remains functional but slightly debilitating. Its continued growth over the last 15 years has been shrouded in mystery regarding the correlation between mistreated endometriosis and cyst growth until my case burst wide open in June of 2006.
curious . . .