Alternative Eating

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

We are what we eat. It's a common phrase we hear when talking about food. And when we really think about the possible consequences of ingesting good verses poor foods, and clearly witness the results in others, we know this statement to be true. But, even with this knowledge, the majority will still make poor choices a lot of the time. Why is that?

We breakdown the foods ingested, to replenish energy stores and repair cells in the body. We make our major meal/food/energy choices about three times a day on average and even more times by those taking smaller meals and regular snacks. Therefore, we have multiple opportunities to make better energy consumption decisions. Still, the majority will repeat the same poor choices, even when presented with healthier alternatives. And even if we're making the right decisions some of the time, it's unlikely we'll be able to keep making better decisions over a sustained length of time. The problem isn't our lack of knowledge. It isn't lack of choice either. Improving self-discipline, will help matters but it's not enough. What's ultimately required, is better self-restraint and education, coupled with a consistent delivery of mindful decision making.

Making poor choices on the short term might not show up immediately in our appearance or our performance, or even have any immediate detrimental effects - but making poor choices over the longer term, most definitely will have implications. Consistently making either the right or wrong choices will determine how well we perform, age and tackle injury or illness. We can clearly witness results in those that train for sports, recovery or weight adjustment. Some people can literally transform themselves into somebody barely recognisable from the puny, weak, sick or overweight person they once were, because they made conscious good choices - instead of bad ones. And the most positive fact: because our cells are constantly regenerating themselves - it's never too late to start making better choices. This is true. If we start making better food choices right now - today, we have the opportunity to improve our health and potentially create even better, future versions of ourselves.

The Essential Truth

It's already been well established, that taking in the best nutrients is key for maintaining optimal health & peak performance levels, but making the right food choices is not only going to reward us with the best energy sources - it's also going to help keep us alive. 

That previous sentence may have seemed pretty obvious, but without certain essential ingredients, we will not survive. Eating/drinking isn't solely about taking on board fuel sources for energy. There are 8 essential amino acids (9 for children) that our body cannot synthesise on it's own. Therefore, these nutrients will have to be obtained from our food sources.

The Eat Well Plate
We're told to eat a healthy balance of starchy carbohydrates, fresh vegetables and protein-rich foods. This is sound advice - but maybe some of the information we've been given, about which food sources are the best for our health, has primed our thinking to support false ideals. 

From Caveman To City Dweller

When the sea levels stabilised at the end of the ice-age, leaving vast expanses of dramatic landscape to emerge as the ice retreated, humans have progressively adapted to a newer way of life. Man's control over fire, had not only helped ward off predators, it also helped us to break down food easier through cooking. Less time used up for chewing and digesting food, allowed us more time to establish non-nomadic ways of living from a period claimed to be somewhere around 10,000 BC, which is when the first signs of agricultural farming were discovered.

After many millennia of evolution from being the cave-dwelling Palaeolithic, hunter-gatherer, our Neolithic ancestors eventually learned how to sustain larger communities through agricultural farming. We grew wheat, barley, spelt and other grains for making bread and porridge-like meals plus we farmed animals like chicken, cattle and other livestock for aiding us with farm work and providing us with food sources. Human beings have become so good in the production of our food from advances in technology and through scientifically enhancing the way we farm, that we now have super robust, genetically modified grains, filling even denser expanses of farmland, and many more farmed livestock animals combined, than there are people currently living on the planet. The irony about this modern-day growth-spurt in agriculture, is that the majority of the grain is grown for feeding the farm animals. This is not turning out to be a very efficient system - it's certainly not looking very sustainable - and on deeper investigation, it's not proving to be the healthiest option for us either. 

An Unsustainable Solution

Livestock production requires a lot of energy. We're running out of space to keep all the farm animals and grow their food. We're over-farming, genetically modifying and potentially creating more intolerances and illness in people and cattle to sustain a growing world population. So what's the solution? Rather than having so much meat or diary, how about switching for vegetarian or vegan alternatives? In fact there are so many healthy alternatives to meat/diary and better alternatives to over-farmed grains like wheat, that more and more people are switching to a more plant-based diet and giving up produce that comes from meat sources altogether.

Apparently, the environmental factors involved by giving up so much agricultural land for the feeding and growing of farm animals/livestock, mean that we are already unable to sustain the current population's appetite for eating meat and diary. Meat and diary have certain nutrients that our bodies need. Important nutrients and vitamins like Calcium, Iron, Vitamin B and proteins can be taken from meat and diary. But according to the following documentary entitled Cowspiracy, we are able to produce far more plant based protein-rich food sources per acre than we currently have allowable for livestock production. Yet still we have so many meat eaters - and so many being told they need protein-rich meat sources to grow muscles.

The Meat v Vegan Myth
We can live without meat and meat products. There's a misconception that only a diet containing meat will provide us with all the essential amino acids required to live. However, we can see from reliable sources that this fact is untrue and 'complete-protein' food sources can be obtained from a purely vegan or plant-based diet. Calcium from dairy can be sufficiently obtained from other plant-based food sources, so we can cut-out diary altogether, potentially giving even greater health benefits. And another common misconception that vegans suffer with iron deficiency because their diets lack nutrients only obtained in sufficient quantities through ingesting meat, can more clearly be attributed to plants with higher levels of phytates. For example, legumes, which can be a staple ingredient in vegan diets are high in phytic acid, which hinders iron absorption - something that can be reduced through cooking and/or soaking plus counteracted by eating more iron-rich vegetables and super-greens like spinach.

Bigger Issues At Heart 
There's much more than just our own selfish health benefits to consider here. By avoiding meat, there'll be important implications on the environment. Lowering the water consumption and reducing land mass for sustaining all this livestock, will immediately have a positive effect in reducing carbon dioxide, plus other greenhouse gasses like methane, being released into the atmosphere. The health of the nation and the planet are hanging in the balance while we continue along a path to ruin. We all need to make a conscious decision to alter this course towards catastrophe - and this outcome could be avoided or at the very least, slowed down, simply by changing our eating habits.

Please note - the link to this video was working -- DiCaprio himself said it would be free to watch. Apparently, this is now not the case. So please click here for alternative option.