The Three Problems
1. The Problem with our Food
Since I embarked on my health journey in 2016, a great deal changed in me physically and mentally, and I have learned many things along the way. Perhaps the most surprising thing I came to realize is how our food, healthcare, insurance, and pharma systems are devised. We grow up thinking that healthcare, insurance, and the pharmaceutical industries exist to help us live a better life, cure us in case of accidents, injuries, or illness. We are accustomed to the food industry and what we are told to be acceptable food options.
Our governments cooperate with the food industry by creating a food guideline for us to follow, to have a healthy and balanced diet. This guideline is known as the Standard American Diet (SAD). The SAD food triangle promotes processed grains and carbohydrates as the primary food group and even recommends the consumption of raw sugar in the form of cakes and candy as acceptable.
Fast food such as McDonald’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Dominos, to name a few, has become the norm and daily standard for a vast majority of the population in the USA, and the rest of the world.
Pizza, pasta, noodles, rice, cereals, chips, bread, deep-fried foods, sodas, fruit juices, ice cream, cookies, and cakes, are daily staples for pretty much every household worldwide. Most of these foods are highly processed, grain-based, and high in carbohydrates, all of which, when consumed, convert to glucose (sugar) in the bloodstream. These foods mostly contain refined vegetable oils, which are processed with poisonous chemicals. The consumption of chemically altered oils is a major cause of cancer. Most people are consuming at least three high carb, processed, and sugar-loaded meals a day and then snack on processed foods throughout the day. These sugars, carbohydrates, and chemically altered oils are highly inflammatory to our system, cause many illnesses, weight gain, bad skin, poor sleep, stress, and premature aging.
Over time, the continuous consumption of such foods has a catastrophic effect on our health and bodies. The ingestion of sugars and foods high in carbs triggers excessive insulin release into our bloodstream. Over time, the pancreas, our insulin-producing organ, becomes exhausted and will shut down, causing insulin resistance, aka Diabetes. Insulin is the transportation hormone and is responsible for transporting ingested fuel sources throughout our system to provide energy. Overloading our bloodstream with glucose, which cannot be burned, leads to insulin transporting the excess glucose into the fat cells for storage. The stored glucose, locked away as triglycerides in our fat cells, cannot be accessed as fuel, and therefore causes insidious weight gain.
2. The Problem with Fitness and Training Methods
As with food and the food industry, fitness enthusiasts are purposely misled by the health and fitness industry. The main driver being the mantra’s “no pain, no gain” and “more is better.” The fitness industry’s goal is to us believe that to get fit, lose weight, and build lean muscle, we must work out every day and push ourselves hard.
Sadly, this notion is incorrect. Working out every day at a gym or running 10k a day will only lead to burn out and failure. This type of activity leads to the excessive production of cortisone, our stress hormone, which is pumped into the heart and is a major cause for heart attack and stroke. At the same time, overtraining will result in an increased appetite, increased calorie consumption, and fatigue, which will result in weight gain, not a loss.
3. The Problem with our Lifestyles
Work, life, or family stress can be a killer. Statistics show that the number of stress-related deaths per year is significantly on the rise.
Severe Stress and Depression Increase Risk of Early Death
Similar to overtraining, stress causes the release of cortisol into the heart. Cortisol is the fight or flight hormone, a red alert signal to our brain if something is wrong or we are in danger. Cortisol’s function is just that, to warn us to take care and act! Yet, this protection hormone gets abused all the time. Excessive cortisol production due to stress, lack of sleep, lack of fresh air, lack of movement results in a high risk of heart disease, and or stroke.
Read on about the effects of stress on the heart.
