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Why Are Processed Foods Bad For You?

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Andrea Nakayama, Functional Medicine Nutritionist and my Functional Nutrition teacher, likes to say that the four most important factors in our diet are quality, quantity, diversity, and timing.

Focusing on quality for a moment, think of it as real food vs. the ultra processed food that is a staple of the American diet.

It’s not just that there’s a big difference in quality when you compare processed foods with organic foods, animal products raised on pasture or in the wild, and whole foods — even so-called “healthy” processed options, i.e., sugar-free, gluten-free, low-fat, or organic, don’t stack up to real food.

But why are processed foods so bad for your health?

Listening to an interview with microbiome expert Tim Spector the other day, I learned why processed foods are so detrimental. It’s because of how they affect our gut microbes.

Our gut is home to trillions of microbes, known as the gut microbiota. The exact number of microbes can vary depending on a variety of factors, including diet, lifestyle, and genetics, but it is estimated that there are around 100 trillion microbial cells in the human gut.

The gut microbiota plays a critical role in our health, with functions ranging from aiding in digestion and nutrient absorption to modulating the immune system and protecting against pathogens. Some specific roles of the gut microbiota include:

  1. Digestion: The gut microbiota helps break down complex carbohydrates, fiber, and other components of our diet that our own enzymes cannot digest.
  2. Nutrient production: Certain gut microbes produce vitamins and other nutrients that our bodies need, such as vitamin K, biotin, and folate.
  3. Immune modulation: The gut microbiota helps regulate the immune system, preventing it from overreacting to harmless substances and triggering inflammation.
  4. Barrier function: The gut microbiota helps maintain the integrity of the intestinal lining, preventing harmful substances from passing into the bloodstream.
  5. Pathogen defense: The gut microbiota helps protect against pathogenic bacteria and other harmful microorganisms by competing for resources and producing antimicrobial substances.

Since the gut microbiome plays such a crucial role in human health, what’s bad for our bugs is bad for us! Disruptions to its composition or function have been linked to a range of diseases, including obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, and even neurological conditions like depression and anxiety.

Which brings us back to food quality. It turns out that processed foods are detrimental in multiple ways:

    • They are absorbed more quickly, so our brain doesn’t register fullness as quickly and we tend to overeat them.
    • The refining process triggers bigger spikes in blood sugar (think increased body fat, energy crashes, and diabetes).
    • There is little fiber remaining in these products, which means they don’t nourish our microbes with their favorite food.
    • There are many chemicals added for taste and texture. Things such as glues, emulsifiers, and gums are unnatural and tend to stick the microbes together.
    • Our microbes don’t know what to do with artificial sweeteners, which are derived from paraffin and the petroleum industry. Our microbes in turn produce weird substances trying to break these things down. They are not inert or harmless!

In the interview, Mr. Spector concluded that quality is the most important factor when it comes to food.

So eat real food, avoid the processed stuff, and you’ll be well on your way to a younger-feeling, healthier you.

Agelessness: It’s a Matter of Trust

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The definition of “aging” from the medical dictionary is sort of grim. It says it’s “[t]he gradual deterioration of a mature organism resulting from time-dependent, irreversible changes in structure that are intrinsic to the particular species, and eventually lead to decreased ability to cope with the stresses of the environment, thereby increasing the probability of death.”

Really!? Is there any hope for those of us who want to stay energetic, fit, and attractive as the birthdays pile up?

I’m here to say that I believe you can feel great, full of youthful energy, and confident in your appearance for the rest of your life. And that it’s not a matter of having great genes. 

Science tells us that genes can do only so much. They can be involved in cases of extreme longevity, but they are only somewhat involved in the typical aging process. That means…

How you take care of yourself is what makes the most difference.

And it’s not just about how you eat, sleep, and exercise. There’s a very important component that I want to point out—and this is a theme that runs through all of my offerings. We are spirit beings having a human, material existence. There is a consciousness, a Universal Intelligence, at work in every cell of your body. 

Your physical vessel is a beautiful temple of the Divine, an absolute sacred space. It deserves to be treated with the utmost love, respect, and care. In the words of Wayne Dyer, “If you don’t take care of your body, you don’t have anyplace else to live.”

It was Albert Einstein who said, “The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.” What if you trusted that the Source of energy, the Intelligence that made and sustains your body, is friendly? 

If you believe that the Universe is friendly, then whatever shows up in your experience is asking for your attention and will ultimately benefit you.

What if you believe that your body wants you to be a vibrant, sexy goddess with the energy to make an impact on whatever you touch? That your body is a vessel for the ultimate expansion of human consciousness? And that caring for it is a sacred responsibility?

If it doesn’t feel that way for you right now, I invite you to consider that learning to trust the Intelligence of the body holds the keys to health, vibrancy, and beauty.

Trust (dictionary.com)

n. reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc. of a person or thing; confidence; confident expectation of something; hope.

When it comes to your body—or your mind or thoughts or emotions—you might have found your confidence slipping, especially if you’re gong through menopause or even beyond it. Is there a way to develop enough trust to be able to rely on your physical vessel, to have an expectation that you really can age very, very well?

Here’s a helpful framework I have found to cultivate more trust. I call it—well—T.R.U.S.T., which stands for…

        • Tune In
        • Release It
        • Upgrade
        • Slow Down
        • Transform

So how does it work?

Let’s look at the first step, which is Tune In. What do I mean by that? 

Tuning in is a way to honor yourself and your body’s intelligence and gain valuable insight. It’s presence. It’s awareness. It’s learning to listen.

It’s about being conscious of the sensations occurring in your physical body and being willing to feel them. This knowledge will help you make informed decisions about what you eat, how you exercise, how you handle your emotions, how you interact in relationships, and what you choose to do when you have a health challenge. 

How to tune in?

You can start by doing a simple body scan, noticing what’s there without analyzing or judging. Where in your body is something feeling out of whack? What about locating positive sensations like love, appreciation, or kindness, and taking some time to simply be with the energies that are present?

Do you have a meditation practice? It doesn’t have to take a lot of time in a day, but a regular meditation practice can be life-changing. I once heard Eckhart Tolle say that meditation is simply becoming aware of the inner energy field of the body. It’s a simple way to touch the sacred every day.

Another very accessible meditation style is known as HeartMath. It’s basically about breathing into the heart space and activating a positive, renewing feeling to bring about coherence in the system. There is a free course available at https://experience.heartmath.com. 

Some people prefer to use journaling to access their inner being. Journaling is very beneficial for the mind and spirit. There are many different ways to incorporate this practice into everyday life, but one of the most accessible is called stream of consciousness writing. This is where you just start writing and let it flow for a set amount of time. It’s a great way to uncover useful insights.

Many people have found that prayer is particularly supportive in getting in touch with their values, their reason for being, and their vision for their future. Prayer is a way to be in direct spiritual communion with Source energy.

And the last one I’ll mention—this one is a favorite—is bodywork. Biodynamic cranial therapy is particularly useful for tuning in to what is going on inside of you. All traumas, big and small, lodge in the tissues of your body and affect the natural rhythms of the body. The human body strives for health, and the presence of a good therapist brings presence and safety that helps your body’s intelligence emerge to balance those natural rhythms.

In the next post, I’ll explore what I mean by the “R” step: Release It. For now, remember…

By tuning into your body’s messages, you can begin to trust in your body and its Intelligence. That can help you make healthy living a habit, and that will make the ageless future you want to create a reality for you.

And I can help you with this! To book a free 30-minute consultation click here.

How Do You Eat?

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Have you ever tried your hand at making a mandala? I hadn’t, until a friend of mine invited me to an online workshop to learn how.

What I came up with was a handful of contrasting emotions that I attempted to portray in the design.

Come to think of it, these are all feelings I’ve been ping-ponging through my whole life. But at least some of them, I think, have been heightened since we’ve been hunkered down with the pandemic.

Have you thought about what happens in your body when you feel unsafe or alarmed?

Usually when I’ve talked with women entrepreneurs about their health questions, most of them tell me they just want to know what to eat.

Should they be keto? Paleo? Vegan? Low FODMAP? Low fat raw? What about nightshades and grains?

Maybe you’ve tried one or more of the above or some other that I didn’t mention. There’s certainly no shortage of opinions, recommendations, and scientific data available to consider.

However, it strikes me that almost everyone I know is in a state of high-alert right now. With fear of Covid-19, physical isolation, having to wear masks, work schedules disrupted, school schedules disrupted, and so many other activities curtailed, most of us are affected in one way or another. Not to mention all the other things going on in our world.

Whenever there’s a constant aggravation of our nervous system, the body gets stuck in a fight-flight-or-freeze state.

In that case, you can be eating all the right foods, taking all the right supplements, and doing all the things – and your body won’t make good use of them. You may not absorb the nutrients from your food or you may develop sensitivities you didn’t have before.

In the sympathetic fight-or-flight state, your body prioritizes survival above all else. Because of what occurs with the energy generators in the cells – the mitochondria – your energy is sapped, and your cells don’t repair themselves as well.

The body must be in a calm, healing state in order to make proper use of the carefully-chosen foods you put into it.

To access your healing parasympathetic state before you put anything into your mouth, put my TRUST formula into place:

  • Tune in to your body’s sensations and simply notice what you feel.
  • Release any tension that you detect with some gentle breaths and a calming mental suggestion such as, “Shoulders, relax. Belly, relax.”
  • Uplevel your stress-handling repertoire by exploring tools and techniques such as mindfulness, meditation, and tapping.
  • Slow down and really pay attention to your food, savoring each bite as you chew slowly and thoroughly. The adage, “Liquefy your solids and chew your liquids,” points to the fact that digestion benefits when foods are in contact with the saliva and digestive enzymes in the mouth for an extended time.
  • Thankfulness is a great antidote to stress. When sitting down to eat, pause in gratitude for the plants, animals, farmers, grocery stores, and all else that made your meal possible.

The more you can calm your nervous system, the more your energy will increase, the better your digestion will function, and the more likely you’ll be to make the exact right dietary choices for your body.

As for me, I need to focus on the “delighted, peaceful, confident” feelings of my mandala as I sit down to my made-with-love healthful meal. That’s the best way to get all the benefits.

 

A Healthy Body Is the Sexiest Thing You Can Wear

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That quote was shared by my client RoseAnn after she found real solutions for the nagging health problems that had been plaguing her for years before we worked together.

A healthy body, especially as you get older, is not just a result of winning the genetic lottery. It’s a celebration of your body’s intelligence and capabilities. It’s an honoring of its continual ability to heal itself and to deal with toxins, oxidation, and inflammation.

The media glamorizes celebrities who have access to the best physical trainers, nutritionists, and plastic surgeons. But looking good – or “sexy” – is not the same as thriving n a truly healthy body.

If you want clear, glowing skin, better sleep, and the strength and energy to happily go about your day, it is possible for you. Even if you have chronic health complaints now, creating new habits will bring amazing transformation in the way you look and feel.

There’s nothing sexier than being in a body that delights in all the ways it means to be well.