The Western Diet

 

I decided I would start my blog with the an introduction to the Western Diet. Before I get started I just wanted to share the top 3 choices that people die from:

• Alcohol consumption = 85,000 deaths per year
• Tobacco use = 435,000 deaths per year
• Poor diet and Physical inactivity = 400,000 deaths per year

A lot of deaths are caused by poor diets. They don't know what's in their food and therefore, they don't know what they are eating. The Western diet is a very common diet but also very unhealthy. I will explain it to you as simple as I can.

 

What is the Western Diet?

Before we get too far we need to know the basics of what it is. The Western Diet is mainly made up of: 

1. High red meat intake (hamburger, steak, bacon, etc.)
2. Sugary desserts (ice cream, brownies, donuts, etc.)
3. High fat foods {basically anything fried} (French fries, fried chicken, etc.)
4. Refined grains { modified grains } (white flour, white rice, etc.)

- FYI: non refined grains are whole grains such as whole wheat, oats etc.

                                   

Hate to break it to you but this is the western diet.

What's so BAD about the Western Diet?

Yeah, you know these foods are not healthy but why is it so horrible?? The western diet not only affects your health, but also your strength, mind, and emotions. It also makes you fat. Carbs (we will get to these in another post) make you stressed, and it shows signs of diseases.

 

In the western diet, there are also preservatives. Preservatives help keep your food good past their due date (we will also learn more about this later), taste better, and look better. When I heard what preservatives do, at first I thought it was wonderful! Then I learned that preservatives create beta-amyloid, which can lead to Alzheimer's disease (a disease that makes you forget everything). Alzheimer's disease is a plague that grows over the brain. Now you are like begging to know how to avoid preservatives!! Additives or preservatives are found in animal products prepared at a high heat. Also, when you see words on a label that you don't know what it is or how to pronounce it, it's usually an additive.

 

                                                         These are practically on fire!!



 

Do you know how to make any of the outlined words? (preservatives!!) And yes! These are found in our everyday morning Pop Tarts! Oh and stay away from ANY corn syrup!

The Western diet also leads to emotional eating. That's eating when you are stressed, when you feel down, or even bored so you turn to food.

PHYSICAL HUNGER V.S. EMOTIONAL HUNGER

You can tell which is which from these guide lines:

1. Emotional hunger comes on suddenly, while physical hunger comes gradually.
2. Physical hunger stops when you are full and emotional hunger tells you, "Just one more piece!"

How can we avoid the Western Diet? 

 

If we eat healthy, we wont crave the Western Diet as much!

 

-My next post will be about the Food Rules!-