#you shouldn’t need to prove fat people have exactly the same risks as thin people for us to be allowed to have medical care

[boneless-mika]

Getting the vibes that to most of you bodily autonomy is only for thin people

[downtowns-universe]

The Lion’s Den

Characters: Chris, Jack

Words: 4050

With shaking hands Chris turned his key. The lock clicked. He realised he was surprised it still fit, even if there was no reason for them to distrust him.

Yet.

He entered as quietly as he could, listening for sounds that indicated someone else was in here. It stayed quiet. It appeared even the keeper wasn’t present at the moment.

Good, he thought, stepping from the hallway into the main room. This will make things easier.

The local hunters’ chapter was located on the outskirts of a smaller town, in a farmhouse owned by its keeper. Because of its remote location, there had been talks in the past about relocating closer to the city, but that would also mean increasing their visibility. And with an organisation such as theirs, secrecy was key.

The room hadn’t changed in the months he’d been away, he observed, shining his flashlight around. There was still the bar in the corner, comfy chairs in front of the fireplace, and the dart board that was mainly used for throwing knives. The walls were decorated with an array of different weapons, most of them too old to still be functional. There were a couple of picture frames, depicting hunters with their prey. They’d always made Chris uncomfortable: they did this out of necessity, not for pleasure. In the light of recent developments that feeling had gotten even stronger.

He’d spent many evenings here, talking to his fellow hunters. But recently he’d been avoiding the place. What if he acted weird, and they could tell something was off? He was a terrible liar. But in the long run, staying away would also start to get suspicious. He had to show his face every now and then. If he didn’t, they might come to check up on him – and who knows what they would find. No, it would be better if he interacted with them on his own terms.

Then there was also the matter of the deal he’d made. Dai expected him to be useful, to deliver information. Chris wasn’t sure as to what kind of information exactly, but he figured this would be the place to start looking. He’d already relayed everything he personally knew – the things he didn’t, he hoped to find in here. The chapter possessed records of its members, their hunts, and any known creature that had been spotted in this region, both past and present. These records were accessible by all hunters, but the keeper also maintained a personal collection.

It was this last category Chris was interested in. After all: what use would the data of one regional hunter chapter be to someone like Dai? But information about the higher-ups, the overarching structure? That would be sure to pique his interests.

He opened the door to the library as quietly as he could, and walked between the shelves to the back door. They had books on many creatures, neatly arranged alphabetically. Chris had spent some time reading up on them in the past, to prepare himself for hunts. He wondered whether Tharryn would be interested in these books, or if they contained information he already knew. Perhaps he’d even point out inaccuracies – he knew from experience that these books weren’t always right, sometimes they merely contained folk tales and remedies that proved to be ineffective when standing eye to eye with the creature. Because of this, some of the books had annotations scribbled in the margins, others simply had “DON’T DO THIS” scrawled across the pages in big, fat marker.

The door in the back of the room was locked, and he knew his key wasn’t going to fit. It would be great to have Jack here now, Chris thought while he rummaged in his backpack for his lock picks. He would have opened the door with just a flick of his wrist, and Chris would have called him a show-off. But all in all it was probably for the best that he hadn’t tagged along. He couldn’t risk him getting face to face with some hunters. Even now that the place was empty Chris still wouldn’t have felt comfortable bringing him here. As he knew from experience, Jack held a lot of resentment towards the hunters. There was no way of knowing what he’d do when faced with their hideout, and more specifically the photos decorating the walls. He might decide to burn it all down on a whim.

After some time trying, the lock clicked open and Chris slipped inside. He’d ended up in a small, windowless office, with just enough room for a desk, chair, and a filing cabinet against the wall.

It wasn’t locked. Good.

He started sifting through the files, making sure to remember how to put them back in the exact same order. He wasn’t sure what he’d find, since the hunters as an organisation were only loosely tied together, hard to get a hold of from an outside perspective. Of course, this was intentional, as secrecy was one of its core values, just as it was on Dai’s side of things. The less connections, the better. As far as Chris knew there wasn’t much of a central system of governing, since the chapters tended to disagree about many subjects. The keepers stayed in contact with each other and sometimes met up to discuss things, but mostly everyone just kept to themselves.

Chris leafed through a file listing addresses, and took photos of it. These must be the other chapters’ headquarters. He knew that if he would ever find himself in trouble far from home, the keeper would be able to direct him to the chapter closest to him. He had been using that system in his early days as a hunter, when he was still travelling through Europe. Such a list would be useful in mapping the hunters’ whereabouts, especially when there seemed to be no pattern to the way they behaved.

Chris put the papers down, suddenly realising that he was going about this all wrong. Sure, trying to understand the bigger picture and getting to know their enemy would be of value to Dai, but wasn’t it equally important to find out what your enemy knows about you?

He frantically started putting papers back into their folders, no longer interested in these files now that he’d gotten a hold of the list. Most of the other things appeared to be bills anyway. He needed to get out of this room, since he had no idea when the keeper would be returning.

When everything was returned to its original location, neatly arranged on the shelves, Chris pulled the door closed behind him and let out a sigh of relief when it clicked into the lock. No need to take his lock picks out again.

Back in the library, he moved to a shelf in the back, over by the window. What he needed now wasn’t being kept under lock and key, but instead accessible by any and all hunters in the area. Which might be even more dangerous, he realised.

No longer having anything to hide, Chris switched on the lights. If anyone was going to come in, finding him sitting in the dark would surely be strange. He took some files from the shelf and sat down at the small desk by the window, so he could see people coming, and started to leaf through.

These were the chapter’s records on all known supernatural beings in the area, both living there or just passing through. He had looked at them before, trying to find information on certain things he’d been hunting, but there was way more in there that he hadn’t seen. If there was a supernatural community out there, there was a big chance it had been recorded here. There were files on vampires, werewolves, the fae, and a few other creatures that had made their home in the region. Chris knew that, had they enough manpower, the hunters wouldn’t hesitate to make a move on these communities. But they were spread thin, and other jobs demanded their attention. Besides, it would be challenging to do without attracting attention, and to cover up what had happened to so many people.

After some digging he’d finally found the Natural file – the one he was most interested in now. He’d never really looked at this one before, since he didn’t consider Naturals to be a threat. But he knew there were those who disagreed with him. Some of the other hunters held some… interesting views on the supernatural. They were fanatics, who wanted nothing more than to rid the world of all things magical. They were but a minority, but dangerous nonetheless.

Other hunters were of the opinion Naturals shouldn’t be hunted since they were just human and didn’t pose a threat. In the bigger cities there were even deals in place between the hunter chapters and the Naturals’ organisation, to assist each other in matters of protection and secrecy. Hunts in the city sometimes required a touch of finesse that magic could offer.

Chris didn’t think the hunters in the north would be open to such an alliance. There had been attempts, but those hadn’t progressed past simply leaving each other be. The hunters were simply too proud to ever accept help, and the fanatics would never agree with the use of magic. Chris hadn’t even told them about his energy weapons – acquired via a friend who was into tech, together with his scanner. He didn’t know what their reaction would be and – more importantly – he didn’t trust them.

The file was comprised of a list of locations – meeting places that Naturals were known to frequent – followed by some names and even contact details of what Chris assumed were important figures. There were around a dozen of them, holding titles such as “faculty member”, “senior instructor” or “administrative director”, making him wonder just how many Naturals there were. Jack would probably know, or at least be able to make a well-educated guess. He snapped some pictures of them, both for his own reference and to hopefully give some insight into the extent of the hunters’ knowledge.

The file continued with reports of dealings the hunters have had with Naturals, or hunts in which they were involved; sometimes as a third party, sometimes as the target – Chris quickly skipped over those, once again glad Jack wasn’t here to see it. He leafed through the pages, trying not to look at the included photos, and only briefly read the description when it looked like a demon was involved. But nothing about it seemed to be of particular interest to Dai.

The last part of the file was less structured in nature, mainly consisting of loose photographs, scribbled notes and newspaper clippings with sections underlined in red. Some seemed to deal with strange happenings, others were seemingly unconnected reports, but Chris suspected that there was more going on behind the scenes. Perhaps the people involved were known to be Naturals, but he’d have to go over the list again to check.

He froze when he flipped through the next batch of photographs. It showed a group of people having a smoke on the steps in front of one of the buildings mentioned earlier in the file. Among them, second to the right, was Jack. He looked younger, like the photo was taken some years ago, but it was unmistakably him. Chris turned the picture around, checking for any sort of text written on the back. There was nothing, not even a date. He put it aside, quickly checking the rest of the pile. There were more pictures taken outside this building and other buildings mentioned in the file, but none of them contained Jack. The scribbled notes didn’t mention his name, as far as Chris could tell at a glance. Still, he made sure to take pictures of any notes that mentioned people by name, or otherwise indicated that the person talked about was familiar to them somehow.

Chris noticed that this information concerned him. He’d always assumed the hunters had no interest in the Naturals’ business, as long as it didn’t interfere with theirs. But this showed they’d been monitoring the Naturals, posting outside of their facilities – to do what, exactly? Spy on them? Gather information about their numbers, habits, whereabouts? But for what purpose? Were they planning something, or was all of this purely done as a precaution? And who exactly had been collecting this data?

He didn’t get to think on this for long, as he noticed a pair of headlights turning into the driveway. Someone was coming – probably the keeper, returning from some errand or possibly a hunt. Chris snatched Jack’s picture off the table and slid it into his back pocket. Then he gathered the materials and stuffed them back into the folder, this time not caring about putting it back like he’d found it: everyone had access to it, it wouldn’t draw suspicion towards him. He returned the folder, and switched it with the next one that was on his radar: the one on demons. He spread it out on the table like he’d been studying it for a while and quickly snapped some pictures, while footsteps were approaching in the hallway.

This file was much smaller, he noticed, and assumed that this was a good thing. The less they knew, the better. Once again, there were some pictures of individuals. On a glance, they all appeared human: it seemed like they hadn’t been able to catch any demons in their real forms on camera. The file also contained maps of different cities and towns nearby, with circles drawn onto them. Sightings, it read.

Just when he’d put his phone down, the door opened and a man stepped in. He was in his late sixties, his balding head covered with a trucker hat. He was wearing a denim jacket and muddy boots, like he’d been out in the woods.

“Chris!” he exclaimed, trying – and failing – to inconspicuously tuck the gun he was holding back into his belt.

“Long time no see!”

“Hey, Klaas,” Chris tried to smile despite his nerves.

“Yeah, I’ve been… busy. Thought it was about time to check in and compare notes.”

The keeper glanced down.

“About demons?”

He pulled out a chair, a worried look on his face.

“What do you need that for? Please tell me you’re not planning anything stupid.”

“I’m not. I’d be mad to try and take on a demon,” he grinned. “I’ve just… seen one.”

“Really?”

Chris nodded, rummaging in his backpack.

“Do you have a marker I can borrow?”

Klaas got up and procured one from a drawer.

“When was this?” he asked, still with an undertone of worry.

As the youngest hunter of the chapter, Chris was used to this by now. Klaas was seen as a father figure by most of the hunters, but mostly acted that way towards Chris.

“Couple of months ago – right here,” Chris said, circling the park where he and Jack had faced the demon that had started all of this mess.

“I hope you didn’t engage?”

“I’m still here, aren’t I?” he grinned.

Klaas didn’t seem completely satisfied with this answer.

“Don’t worry, I haven’t seen him since.”

Which technically wasn’t a lie, Chris supposed.

He picked up the stack of photos and started to flip through them.

“I was just wondering if anyone else had spotted him. But I’ve been a bit… distracted.”

“With hunting?” Klaas asked, grabbing the both of them something to drink from a cupboard. “Or just life?”

“Bit of both,” Chris shrugged, studying the faces in the photographs.

“You know how it goes: you meet some people outside of the scene, you have less time for hunting – because what if they find out? And before you know it you have a…” he hesitated for just a split second, “…social life.”

Klaas smiled, sliding a glass filled with some kind of liquor across the table.

“You mean you’re seeing someone?”

Chris looked up.

“No! …Where’d you get that idea?”

“It’s about time,” the old man said, not looking up from his drink.

“I’m not – you know what, never mind.”

Chris directed his attention back to the file.

“This can’t be all. There’s barely anything in here.”

He leaned in closer.

“What do you know about demons in this area?”

Klaas looked at him pensively.

“This guy has really gotten under your skin, huh? What is really going on?”

“Nothing is “going on”! It’s just…”

Chris frantically searched for a story that sounded believable.

“He saw me, that night. The demon. He was coming right at me, but I managed to get away. It freaked me out, okay? I’ve been laying low and avoiding this place, just to be sure I wasn’t followed. Then I got… distracted and figured I would forget about it. But I can’t seem to shake it, so now I’m trying to figure out whether this one demon might have been connected to something bigger.”

“Everything we have on them is right here,” Klaas gestured. “I know you want there to be something more, some secret you’re not allowed to know – but there isn’t. There’s just not a lot of demons around here. They don’t have any meeting places close by, as far as we’re aware. And believe me: if I did know, I’d be telling everyone to stay the hell away from it.”

“Alright,” Chris sighed.

He picked up his glass.

“Let me know if you find anything.”

“You too.”

“That’s what I’m here for.”

Chris quickly leafed through the rest of the pages, which contained further information on what was known about demons. Most of it was rather basic: their magic resembled that of Naturals; they could disguise as humans; and were suspected to travel by portal, even though portal locations remained unknown. He then put everything back into the folder, slid it back into its place on the shelf, and picked out the one labelled “werewolves”.

He knew this was a risk, with Klaas here to watch his every move, but he was fairly certain there wasn’t anything here pointing to Jack. Unlike the one on Naturals, he’d studied this file before, in preparation for a hunt. On two occasions he’d even taken out a werewolf, which, looking back on it now, made him feel uneasy. Jack could never find out – or perhaps he already had, and had simply chosen not to comment on it. Chris wasn’t sure which option he’d prefer.

“Back to werewolves, huh?” Klaas commented.

Chris nodded.

“Haven’t seen one in a while. I’m starting to suspect they’ve moved to a different location.”

He pulled out one of the maps, and pointed at an area that had a lot of circles on it.

“I’ve found tracks here three months back, but there haven’t been fresh ones for a while now. They must know we’re watching.”

Again, not a lie – just simply omitting the fact that Chris had been the one to tell them they were being watched, and Jack passing on that knowledge.

“I was hoping someone else would know anything.”

“I think there have been some recent additions,” Klaas said, now also leaning over the table.

He picked up a file and procured some reading glasses from his pocket.

“Speaking of recent additions,” Chris grinned.

“What can I say, I’m getting older,” Klaas shrugged. “I’m just glad I only need them for reading, and not for shooting.”

“Fair point.”

“Ah, here it is. A hunter spotted a werewolf while he was tracking a crelor just south of here.”

“A crelor? Really? I thought they were rare around here.”

Chris didn’t know a lot about crelors, but he did remember they preferred large, dense forests, something the Netherlands didn’t really have.

“He said he’d been tracking it here from Germany.”

“The hunter is German? What’s his name? I know some German hunters.”

“No, he’s Dutch, actually. Guy I used to hunt with back in the day. But he moved away.”

“Do I know him?”

“I don’t think so. This was before your time.”

“Hmm.”

Chris looked back at the map.

“Where did you say it was again?”

“Right here.”

Jack had been running in that area, Chris knew. Because it was quiet out there, he’d said. But this didn’t exactly sound quiet to him. He should probably let him know. A crelor would probably not attack a werewolf, but a hunter sure would.

“Thanks, Klaas. I’ll keep that in mind.”

He gestured at the shelves surrounding them.

“I’m guessing you don’t have a lot on crelors?”

“I’m afraid not. I’d have to contact a different chapter. Or perhaps Ben could help out. I’ll ask him when he comes by again.”

“I’ll stick to werewolves for now, then.”

Chris downed the rest of his drink.

“I should get going. It’s late.”

“Wouldn’t want someone to get worried,” Klaas smiled.

“He thinks I’m at work,” Chris shrugged. “Which is technically true, I guess.”

Chris picked up his backpack from the floor.

“Thanks for the drink. I’ll try to come around more often.”

“Chris.”

He turned around.

“Yes?”

“Promise me you won’t go after that demon.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

 After Chris had gotten into his car, he just sat there for a moment, taking a deep breath.

“So, did you find anything?”

He jumped, instinctively reaching for his gun, then realised it was still in his backpack.

Jack, over in the passenger seat, raised an eyebrow.

“You should really check if there’s someone in your car before getting in.”

“What are you doing here!?”

“Couldn’t let you go in there alone, now could I?”

“You followed me?”

“Nah, I stayed outside, waiting for someone to arrive. Looks like you had it handled, though.”

“They could’ve seen you!”

“That would be why I was invisible,” Jack shrugged.

“Come on, start the car, in case he’s watching.”

With shaking hands Chris turned the ignition and steered onto the road.

“You could’ve just told me – how did you even get here?”

“My car’s a little ways out, can’t be seen from the road. I’ll tell you where to drop me off.”

Chris stayed quiet for a while, angrily gripping the steering wheel, until Jack pointed out a small dirt road off to the side.

“I still think this was highly irresponsible,” he sighed when Jack got out of the car.

Jack turned around, leaning on the car door to look back at Chris.

“Why? The only reason I didn’t go before is because I didn’t know where they were. Also because I assumed they would all have fancy gadgets like you. Turns out they’re just…” he gestured, looking for words, “…some guys, meeting up in a barn.”

“They’re not–”

“Next time I could just go by myself. They won’t even know I was there.”

“You don’t know that! You do realise I don’t know everything about what happens in there either, right? There could be scanners – perhaps they installed them since the last time I visited. Or what about infrared cameras? You’re not invisible to those!”

“So what? They’d only see a heat signature anyway. It’s not like they’ll recognise me.”

“A heat signature that’s snooping around and then gets into my car! What were you thinking!?”

“There were no cameras, alright? Did you think I would just let you go in there, only to be caught on tape stealing from them? You might not know everything, but I do! It’s what I’m good at!”

Chris took a deep breath.

“I don’t care how safe you think you were: you had no reason to be here tonight. I know you’re trying to look out for me, but I can handle myself. I’ve been doing fine without you for years.”

Jack looked away.

“I know. But I did have a reason to be here. Not that you’d care.”

“You’re right, I don’t.”

Chris turned the car around. He’d ask about it later. Right now all he wanted was to get the hell out of here. Then he remembered something and lowered the window.

“By the way, I got you something.”

Chris pulled the photo from his back pocket and handed it to Jack.

“You’re welcome,” he said, and drove away, not waiting for a reaction.

[melissawsr]

The Problems with Nutrition Science

I know you might feel a bit hopeless after the last blog where I explored why we are all so confused about what to eat.

The bottom line: we are confused because we hear conflicting scientific reports, our government funds bad food and gives us corrupt advice, and the food industry benefits from keeping us confused.

I know this seems super depressing and we can be left feeling like what’s the point—I give up and I am just going to eat whatever I want because no one can agree on anything.

But don’t give in to that. That is EXACTLY what the food industry wants you to feel.

The good news is that the truth about nutrition, the basic guiding principles of how and what to eat to promote health, weight loss and longevity—AND to prevent, treat, and reverse most chronic disease is pretty simple.

I have read thousands of papers on nutrition and tried and recommended various ways of eating with tens of thousands of patients over 20 years. And I’ve seen the effects of food on weight, health, diabetes, gut issues, autoimmune disease, and lots more.

I have read between the lines, not just the headlines in the media, which are wrong about half the time, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.

That’s why I wrote Food: What the Heck Should I Eat?—to help you become empowered and intelligent about food, and to finally be able to answer the question, what the heck should I eat?

There is one more thing I want to cover about why we are so confused: the study of nutrition.

Nutrition science is a very tough field to study. The best study would be to take 10,000 people, randomize them, put them in a controlled environment, provide the food, feed them different diets, and follow them for 10 to 30 years.

That ain’t happening so we have to rely on basic science, smaller, shorter term studies, or population studies, which can’t prove cause and effect.

For example, when you look at meat studies, they seem to show that people who eat meat are sicker and at a greater risk of heart attacks and cancer. But those studies are done by asking people to fill out a food frequency questionnaire every year—what they ate yesterday or last week. Good luck if you can remember. I cover all of this in my book Food, What the Heck Should I Eat?

There’s another problem that makes it hard to interpret the population studies—it’s called the healthy user effect.

During the time of the studies on meat, the prevailing wisdom was that meat was bad for your health. The people who didn’t eat meat were typically more health conscious—they exercised, didn’t smoke, ate lots of fruits and veggies, and stayed away from sugar and processed food.

And people who ate meat didn’t really care much about their health, smoked more, ate 800 calories more a day, weighed more, ate less fruits and veggies, more processed food, and didn’t exercise.

Is it any surprise that they were sicker than the non-meat eaters? Not really!

In my book, I give you the take home, take it to the bank (or take it to the fridge) lessons I have learned the hard way. I wrote the book to help you to become empowered and intelligent about food.

To finally be able to answer the question, what the heck should I eat?

If our government policies, the food industry, the challenges of nutrition science, and the media make us confused and misinformed, how do we get to the truth about food and how do we answer the question nagging all of us:

What should I eat?

Is there a way of eating that will help us feel better, lose weight, have more energy, prevent and treat and even reverse most chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia, autoimmune disease, and more?

This is a high stakes question—it’s not like picking out your bathroom tile. I have come to the conclusion that the answer is pretty simple.

It is based on a few key principles that almost everyone can agree on. I jokingly call it the Pegan Diet—poking fun at the extremes of Paleo and Vegan.

Both camps claim that if you eat what they recommend you will be healthy, thin, and live forever. And if you eat what the opposing camp recommends you will get fat, sick, and die early.

Clearly, they can’t both be right.

Surprisingly, there is a lot in common between the two extreme ways of eating. If we focus on what’s in common, then we can at least set some ground rules and agree on basic principles.

But before we get into WHAT to eat and the controversies about food, I want to ask you a simple question.

What is food?

Check out this label. Can you guess what it is?

Ingredients: Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour [Flour, Reduced Iron, B Vitamins (Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate (B1), Riboflavin (B2), Folic Acid)], Corn Syrup, Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Water, Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable and/or Animal Shortening (Soybean, Cottonseed and/or Canola Oil, Beef Fat), Whole Eggs, Dextrose. Contains 2% or Less of: Modified Corn Starch, Glucose, Leavenings (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Baking Soda, Monocalcium Phosphate), Sweet Dairy Whey, Soy Protein Isolate, Calcium and Sodium Caseinate, Salt, Mono and Diglycerides, Polysorbate 60, Soy Lecithin, Soy Flour, Cornstarch, Cellulose Gum, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Sorbic Acid (to Retain Freshness), Yellow 5, Red 40.

It’s a Twinkie.

Is it food? No. It is a food-like substance with 37 different ingredients, most of which are not food, like calcium sulfate, which is plaster.

What about an avocado?

It’s just an avocado. It doesn’t come in a box, package, or can, and it doesn’t have an ingredient list or a nutrition facts label. It is just an avocado. The avocado is not a man-made processed, colored, extrusion of refined oils, sugars flours, and a host of chemicals.

These are distinctions even a five-year-old can make. Why is so hard for us to figure out? The sad thing is we feed our kids things we would NEVER feed our dog. French fries and soda for your puppy anyone?

Why Food Quality Matters More Than Quantity

We have ALSO been taught that all calories are the same. It’s what our government tells us, what nutritionists and doctors tell us. It’s what the food industry tells us.

All calories are the same—it’s all about moderation.

Nonsense.

The science shows that food is not just energy or calories but information that regulates almost every function of our body.

In a lab, all calories are the same when you burn them. But not when you EAT them. Your body is a complicated biochemical, hormonal soup controlled mostly by what you eat.

Our gene expression, our hormones, our immune system, our gut flora, our brain chemistry, our muscle mass, our metabolism, and more are all changed with EVERY single bite of food.

Food is the code that programs your biology. You can literally upgrade or downgrade your biological software with every single bite.

It turns out the QUALITY of our food matters more the QUANTITY of the food we eat. And it’s a lot easier to control WHAT we eat than HOW MUCH we eat.

The QUALITY of the proteins, fats, and carbs is super important.

Sure, you are getting protein, fat, and carbs if you eat factory-farmed feedlot hamburger full of hormones, antibiotics, along with fries and a soda. But is that the same as eating grass-fed beef, olive oil, and broccoli? Those are also protein, fat and carbs.

Of course not!

If you live on soda and donuts, it will send a very different set of instructions to your body than if you eat real, whole foods and lots of fruits and veggies.

Another simple principle is to ask yourself the question: is this man-made or nature-made? It doesn’t take a nutrition PhD to figure that out.

Is a pop tart nature-made or man-made?

Here’s my rule: If nature made it, eat it, if man made it, leave it.

Before you stick something in your mouth ask yourself:

Is this food? Or is this a food-like substance?

You should NOT eat foods containing ingredients you wouldn’t find in your cupboard.

Anyone have Polysorbate 60, or Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate or Yellow dye 5 and Red dye 40 hanging around in your house? How about butylated hydroxytoluene? Yum!

Didn’t think so.

Every day we find out more about the toxicity of these additives, yet they stay in our food.

There are 3000 food additives on the market. The average American eats 5 pounds of additives a year.

It Matters How Our Food is Grown and Raised

Whether you are vegan, paleo, or just believe in eating healthy, we can all agree we should be eating whole foods, that we should avoid processed foods, sugars, refined oils, food additives or foods laden with antibiotics, hormones, or pesticides.

We can also agree that we should be eating foods that don’t destroy the environment by depleting the soil, draining our aquifers and water reserves, or poisoning our waterways with fertilizers and pesticides.

And that we shouldn’t be eating factory farmed animals because it is one of the biggest contributors to climate change. In fact, our current food system is the number one contributor to climate change.

Not to mention the horrors of animal abuse and the overuse of antibiotics that leads to the development of superbugs killing humans because no antibiotics work.

We also need to ask ourselves—Do our food choices pass the sniff test? In other words, do our food choices make common sense?

Should we really be eating 5 pounds of food additives a year?

Or 133 pounds of refined flour and 152 pounds of sugar a year per person? These are pharmacologic doses of proven addictive substances we never ate 200 years ago.

Should we consume 10 percent of our calories from refined GMO soybean oil—something that didn’t even exist 150 years ago?

Should we really be feeding our kids sugary cereal full of dyes that turns the milk funny colors?

You don’t need an advanced science degree to understand that our bodies did not evolve on this stuff.

Or know that the scourge of chronic disease, which now affects one out of every two Americans could be related to the radical change in our diet in the last 100 years from whole real unprocessed food to our current toxic diet.

And the products of our industrial food system don’t just make us fat and sick. It also damages our brains and robs us of our ability to live full and happy lives.

Kids who go to school with chips and soda for breakfast can’t focus, concentrate, or learn. This creates an achievement gap, which is one of the reasons why the US is 38th in math and 24th in reading in the world.

Those kids end up not going to college and having lower paying jobs and struggling their whole lives.

So, what am I saying?

By eating the right food, we can not only get healthy, lose weight, and live longer but we can reverse climate change, save our scarcest resource—water, and end desertification.

We can reduce poverty and violence, make kids smarter and more successful, and even save our government and economy by reversing the economic burden of chronic disease.

That’s right—it is because food is the nexus where everything comes together.

So then what ARE the basic principles of eating well?

We should not eat processed industrial food and we should eat real whole food that doesn’t harm us, the planet, or the economy.

In my new book Food: What the Heck Should I Eat? I delve into all the categories of real food, because there still is so much confusion about it.

Anyone switching from the typical American diet where 56% of our calories come from processed foods, where the average American consumes 44 gallons of soda a year to a diet of real food—whether it is vegan or Paleo or anything in between—WILL get healthier.

But that begs the question, “What is the best diet for us humans?”

Keep in mind that we are all genetically unique and need to find a way of eating that matches our needs.

But at the end of the day, your body is the smartest doctor in the room—it will tell you what works and what doesn’t—by what happens to your weight and how you feel.

Now even though we’re all unique, there are still some basic guidelines we can follow to achieve our best health.

In my book out February 27, 2018, Food: What the Heck Should I Eat? you will learn exactly what to eat, how to shop and cook, and have all the tools you need to live a long and healthy life.

I uncover the truth about the food we actually eat—what is healthy and not in each group of foods we eat—meat, poultry and eggs, dairy, beans, grains, veggies, fruit, nuts and seeds, beverages, and more and guide to you to a science-based, sensible way of eating for life that keeps you, our planet, and our society healthy. I also address the environmental and social impact of the food we eat.

If you have ever woken up wondering the heck you should eat, this book is for you. Check out the trailer and pre-order at Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, or get it at your local bookstore.

Wishing you health and happiness,

Mark Hyman, MD

[Read More ...] http://drhyman.com/blog/2018/02/01/problems-nutrition-science/