Return to Article index

Article 9. Myths and Hype

Has there ever been a time when we were peppered with so many buzz words such as free radicals, antioxidants, bad and good cholesterol, triglycerides, or been warned of the dangers of saturated fat, urged to adopt a high-carbohydrate diet, drink lots of skim milk since apparently we never outgrow the need for it, etc. etc.

If you believe every pronouncement of the “health establishment”, and its simplistic philosophy, then consuming fat will make you fat, lowering your caloric intake will lower your own weight, and ingesting anything containing cholesterol like egg yolks will result in your having high cholesterol.

The more strident the imperatives, the more suspect they are, as to source of information and intended benefit. Official governmental guidelines, such as the Canada Food Guide, do little more than lull the public into a false sense of security, a complacency that is highly unwarranted at a time when the health of people has never been more seriously compromised, when allergies and food sensitivities, chronic fatigue syndrome, PMS, candida, asthma, ear infections among children, and cancer - across the generations - and many other such diseases and disorders are rampant. These are the “maladies of civilization”, brought on by increasing toxicity in our food supply, a poisoning of our environment, stressful life styles that we seem unable to avoid, and related factors.

A User’s Manual for the care and feeding of homo sapiens

Do you remember the time when you were a first-time car owner? You studied the manual, made sure the oil was replaced with the seasons, that it was greased and lubricated, windshield wiper fluid appropriate to the season was used, the proper gasoline was pumped in, and so on. You took pride in it, because you wanted it to last and not break down.

Ah, would that we took equally good care of our bodies! Unfortunately, newborns don’t arrive with a user’s manual, to be studied and carefully applied by the parents, with good care becoming part of everyone’s life. And by the time youngsters get to school junk food is dispensed freely, and patterns have been established rather firmly. Alas, usually on the side of consumption of junk and non-foods. All this is done under the benevolent eye of the governmental health protection agency which, in fact, seems to legislate the production and distribution of junk food, ensuring that no home should be without it!

The following are some simple reminders of a common sense approach to food preparation and consumption, and an attempt at debunking some myths. Alas, given the climate we live in some of the suggestions are almost impossible to follow.

- Do use - food that is fresh and unprocessed, preferably organically grown.
- Avoid - stuff that is processed, refined and above all, requires a label to tell you what it is! Stuff that is    produced on an assembly line is not food.
- Check - the processes that have been used in food production (e.g. hydrogenation)
- Ignore - quantitative approach to food where calories seem more important than substance
- Select - stuff that you can recognize as having grown in or on something, be it plant or animal
- Prefer - seasonal ingredients from your own locality.
- Study - your body type to find out what is best for you.
- Listen - to your body. It will tell you what it does not want: allergies, food sensitivities and constipation are   reminders of that.

TOP

Here are some popular myths that need debunking:

Avoid drinking fluids with meals
The only thing to avoid drinking, at all times, is ice cold drinks. Our digestive system balks at taking in anything that’s either too hot or too cold. The latter will strongly inhibit good digestion. Drink water at room temperature or warmer, add a squirt of lemon or lime juice and voilà, you have a very pleasant drink. Or brew a herbal tea which you take in small sips, warm, right through the meal. Don’t drink any soft drinks. They are harmful to your health.

Recipe: for a 6-cup teapot use: 1 Tbsp crushed coriander seeds, 4-5 slices fresh ginger, 1 teasp fennel or anise seeds, a sprig or two of fresh mint. Pour boiling water over contents, let steep 15 minutes, then keep adding boiling water.

Avoid saturated fats
Just not true. Much of the myth surrounding this subject has been created by food processing companies which want us to buy their products, their “heart-smart” margarines (sure-fire prescriptions for heart disease), refined “lite oil” (mistrust anything that badly misspelt!), and other plastic fats that the human digestive system cannot adequately deal with.
The best medium in which to cook food is ghee* (clarified butter) which contains butyric acid, a substance essential to good heart health. In Ayurvedic medicine two tablespoons of ghee (made of unpasteurized cream) are said to prevent heart disease.
Anything you cook in ghee will taste much better than using oil. Next best is extra virgin - first pressing - olive oil and unrefined coconut oil. Avoid canola and other refined oils.

Avoid Avocado Pears
Avocados stand out among the “complete” foods as containing most nutrients we need in the course of a day. Furthermore, they are important cholesterol reducers. Avocados are best eaten by themselves and not mixed with other stuff like proteins.

Avoid Eggs
Utter nonsense again. Egg yolks contain much needed lecithin essential for metabolizing fat. Avoid super market eggs in favour of free range ones. The former are infertile and dead. Do avoid “egg-beaters” and other artificial stuff.

Avoid spices
Many a physician’s directive includes this pronouncement, without any further elaboration. The plant kingdom contains an arsenal of herbs and spices that have enormous nutritional and medicinal properties. Many ethnic cuisines are mindful of this factor, whereas in western cultures we tend to ignore this element. In recent times Western medicine has begun to study some of these old herbal substances with some startling results. Among the most valuable and useful of such spices is:

Turmeric - the yellow powder that gives curry its colour (but none of the hot spiciness). Turmeric has strong antioxidant and anti-carcinogenic properties highly valued in ayurvedic medicine. A cousin of ginger (along with cardamom), it is inexpensive, easily available and extremely versatile. Use it in almost any kind of savoury cookery from soups and stews to stir-fries. While fairly bland on its own, it tends to bring out the good flavour of anything it is put with, principally potatoes.

Avoid Coconut
Again, a piece of misleading advice based on caloric considerations than substance. The whole of the plant is a veritable arsenal of beneficial products, from the water in the young seed to the oil made of the mature plant, used in food preparation and medicines. Of particular value to us (and because it is easily available) is Coconut milk with its anti-carginogenic and anti-fungal properties. Many Asian cuisines (principally Sri Lankan, Thai and Malaysian) use it as their base. Buy it canned (check labels to ensure it contains no preservatives) or make your own.

Avoid Invisible Characters
Yes indeed! Among them I count herbicides and pesticides that are used to ensure a long shelf life of fruits and vegetables (non-organic produce). Especially where fruit is concerned which should, preferably, be consumed raw, you should be very concerned about what you cannot see: namely the chemicals in which these items were doused. Rinsing them in water is not enough. Use a vegetable wash available in health food stores, or peroxide, or unpasteurized apple cider vinegar.

Don’t kill your food...
by using methods that destroy nutrients and food energy. High cooking temperatures and especially microwaving will do this: so get rid of the infernal machine. Why scorch your food from the inside out when you can gently warm it from the outside in, using something more conventional, like a hot plate. You don't have to rub little sticks together to produce fire, like our ancestors did, although .... it was and still is the best method!

Edith Carter

---