A processed food is anything that is altered from its original state. So technically any cooked food is also processed. The example I used in my last post of sauteed potatoes is actually an example of processing a food.
In fact from the moment a fruit or veggie is harvested they begin to oxidize and start to slowly lose their nutritional value. But that's another story. Most of us do not live on a farm where we can eat the fruit or veggies we pick within moments of plucking them. Let’s stick with real world dynamics...
For example, if you take a fruit and cook it, you have altered its chemical composition. Heat does that to food. You have lowered its vitality and its usefulness to the human body and increased the aspect of harm it will cause the body. The cooked fruit is no longer as compatible to the biological human experience as it previously was. But if all you do is take a plantain and just steam it, that's not too bad, relatively speaking.
Unfortunately, some people can not leave it at that. Especially food companies. They cook it, add additives and/or chemical preservatives, sometimes add processed sugars, bag and seal it with nitrous oxide; send it on its way. Guess what, it may taste great, but the food is now a mere shadow of what it was in its original unprocessed state. Most of its vital energy and companion nutrients have been processed out of it. Processed foods are broken up, rearranged, have chemicals and preservatives added to them.
Your liver has to deal with all this added toxic junk, and that's what it is, because trust me, those chemical additives are not food. Your liver is one of the organs that has to work its way through this abuse. It performs over 500 different functions, the main one being that of a filter. What is filter metrics 101? You need to keep it unclogged. If you keep continually overloading your liver with junk eventually it will function in a compromised manner. That is bad for your whole body. When you finally overwhelm your liver the chemical residues that it was filtering out will accumulate in your body and cells. That in turn will have a intoxicating exogenous effect on the body. Welcome to loss of health, and diminished well being. Which is where most Americans over 40-45 years of age are at. We are aging faster biologically than we are chronologically.
For any of you that are on a fixed income, or maybe just plain frugal, when you eat processed foods, you are not getting the same value dollar wise and neither is your body getting the same full nutritional value of the food when you consume foods that are heavily altered. Also, to make matters even worse, your body has to expend more energy to get less. Remember there is a finite amount of energy your body has. The average SAD uses about 70% of its energy to process a meal. You can get that down to around 15% if you food combine and eat the proper quantities and proper foods at the correct times. I do not know anyone who could not use that extra energy for some other endeavor. But if you’re okay with the trade off of taste versus disease, then just keep on eating like that.
Yet with all that, not to worry, you can still certainly eat cooked foods and still thrive. Keep in mind I am talking mostly about food you cook in your kitchen. Not stuff you buy frozen in the store to heat up when it is dinner time. Though I would recommend anyone serious about dramatically improving their health, eat no more than around 1/3 of their diet cooked.
The gentlest way to cook a food is to lightly steam it. The next most innocuous manner would be to boil it. Be aware though that when you boil food you leech a lot of the vitamins out of it. Then you have other different methods of cooking such as crock pots, baking, broiling, etc.
The general rule of thumb is the closer the cooked food is to burnt with less water content the more harmful and less nutritious it is to your body. In fact, microwaved and charcoaled and charred burnt food is mutant food. In some cases the body does not even recognize them as food sources anymore.
The body takes food intake a lot more seriously than most of us do. The chemical and cellular processes that it undergoes when it’s time to digest food is truly astounding. We take it for granted, but in truth the most intimate physical relationship we all have is not with our husbands and wives but with food and the planet that gives them to us. You’re putting something in you that becomes you. It shapes your cells, influences your genetics, is a factor in how you look and feel, and can even be a factor in molding your intellectual and spiritual views.
When you shop at a supermarket you should be getting the bulk of your food at the produce department. If you are not, then chances are you’re not eating in a way that is promoting health and longevity.
We do not need another diet book. We will thrive when we have a mindset of the discovery of the truth that there are certain biological elements that exist that cannot be changed. We need to resolve ourselves that this is how God made us. He made us perfect the first try. He did not need a redo. We are the same today as we were when He created us in the garden. The diet that He gave us then works now too.
If you challenge that, then all I ask is that you do the Genesis 1:29 diet for 2 months. If you do not see some fantastic positive changes with your health, then you will be only one who has ever told me that.
A word of caution and warning. If you are on meds or in a health crisis, do not do the Genesis 1:29 diet. You need to consult your doctor then. In fact you probably should not do it either at all or only with expert advice and guidance. But if you are relatively healthy you should be able to do it without any major issues.
Also, even if you do not take meds and are not in a health crisis, and even if you are young - if you’re not sure about doing it or hesitant, or over 40 years old, I would get a blood test done and consult a health expert first before commencing.
