The low fat diet has been extremely popular for decades and is still strongly promoted by doctors and even the American government. As shown by the Fat Head documentary, it’s a load of bologna and many of us are suffering the serious consequences of our unhealthy fear of fat.

A Misconception About Fast Food

Fast food is undoubtedly an unhealthy and arguably unethical food choice, but not for the reasons you may think. Conventional wisdom tells us that fast food is high in saturated fat and is a major cause of today’s obesity epidemic. However, saturated fat is far from the nutritional villain that it’s made out to be and fast food is no more to blame for obesity than any other type of restaurant food. In fact, many people are overweight as a result of the food that they buy in the grocery store and eat at home.

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Alcohol is a significant part of the modern lifestyle, and even though most of it’s health risks are well known, many people still drink alcohol in excessive amounts and on a regular basis.

As a byproduct of yeast fermentation, alcohol is classified as a mycotoxin which means that it’s a toxic substance produced by fungus. Other common sources of mycotoxins include mold spores, antibiotics, and hallucinogenic drugs. Many of us have experienced the toxicity of alcohol in the form of a hangover, and as such, the damaging effects of alcohol shouldn’t be much of a surprise.

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Even though it’s well known that we can’t survive without food, most people grossly underestimate the importance of good nutrition. Although a majority of the population is overweight, many of these people are also malnourished, and as a result, suffering from poor health and disease.

The symptom chasing approach of modern medicine makes it easy to rely on medication and overlook the importance of a truly healthy diet. As a result, many of us are living with poor health and just barely surviving on a poor diet rather than enjoying the vibrant and disease free life that good nutrition can provide. The documentary Food Matters does an excellent job of explaining exactly why this is.

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Are you overweight, tired, anxious, depressed or irritable? Do you have allergies, digestive issues, or aches and pains? If you’re like most people, then the answer is probably yes. Instead of focusing on what causes these problems, most people turn to quick fix remedies that may temporary relieve symptoms, but allow the problem to persist and potentially develop into disease.

Many of us are eating unhealthy diets, are consistently exposing ourselves to excessive stress, and are disregarding the need for rest. This leads to the physical and mental symptoms of poor health that burden so many people on a regular basis and is also why we have such a high prevalence of diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and autoimmune disease. Instead of acting on this obvious correlation between lifestyle and poor health, we’ve accepted the consequences as a normal part of aging and continue to compromise our health and our lives with unhealthy habits.

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If you think it’s an exaggeration to say that something as common as sugar or refined carbohydrates can ruin your life, perhaps you should give more consideration to the excessive amounts of it that many people are consuming and the harmful effects that it can have on one’s health.

It only takes a quick look through most major grocery stores to notice the overwhelming selection of processed and packaged foods and the much smaller selection of natural whole foods such as unrefined meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Much of this processed food contains unhealthy amounts of sugar and refined carbohydrates as well as unnatural additives that are potentially harmful. Because processed foods are cheap to produce, have a long shelf life, and are specifically designed to taste good, they’re favored by both the food industry and the general public. The overwhelming abundance and availability of these foods is a clear indication that they’re a staple of the modern diet, and this is very likely to be a major factor in the prevalence of many life altering health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, depression, heart disease, and cancer.

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Despite incredible advances in technology and medicine, people are dying at an alarming rate from preventable diseases and are having significant problems with obesity, fatigue and depression. Anyone with half a brain would figure that the advances we’ve achieved should help us live longer, healthier and happier lives, but they haven’t. How can this be?

Our health and well being are dictated by requirements that have resulted from millions of years of evolution. No matter how smart we are, we’ll never be able to change this fact, at least not for another few hundred thousand years. That’s about how long it would take us to start adapting genetically to the unhealthy lifestyle habits that are so common today. Many of us have lost site of the evolutionary factors that brought us to where we are now and have let modern society entice us into a lifestyle that we’re simply not equipped to handle.

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While the media frenzy surrounding the so called swine flu pandemic is causing many people to panic, we have much more serious problems to worry about such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Despite the fact that these diseases are killing people in much larger proportions than any pandemic we’ve had in modern times, many of us have grown numb to their frightening prevalence.

In a single day, more people die in the United States alone from any one of these diseases than the total number of people who’ve died worldwide from the recent outbreak of swine flu. What we should really be concerned about is not a pandemic of swine flu, but rather an epidemic of poor health!

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Although there are many different forms of heart disease, atherosclerosis is the one that typically inspires most concern. It’s characterized by hardened arteries that restrict the flow of blood to the heart and is caused by the scar tissue created through the repair of cellular damage within the arterial lining. The scar tissue associated with atherosclerosis is susceptible to rupturing and can cause a blood clot that may further restrict, or even completely block, the flow of blood to the heart.

The materials that accumulate in the artery wall in response to cell damage are collectively referred to as plaque. As one of these materials, cholesterol earned it’s bad reputation simply by being at the scene of the crime.

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The prevalence of disease is at an all time high, and unfortunately, it’s become synonymous with modern society’s perception of aging. Do you know that the two leading causes of death, heart disease and cancer, were barely even a concern just a century ago? What’s happened since then?

Frightening Statistics

According to a 2005 National Cancer Institute statistic, 1 out of every 3 people will develop cancer, and according to a 2005 American Heart Association statistic, 1 out of every 3 people will develop cardiovascular disease. If you’re lucky enough to be part of the remaining third, you’re still not free from danger because chances are good that you’ll develop an autoimmune disease.

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Although cardiovascular exercise is extremely popular, it’s a less effective way to exercise in most cases and can even be counterproductive.

The three primary reasons for the popularity of cardiovascular exercise are health, weight loss, and athletic conditioning. Each of these goals have unique characteristics that make cardiovascular exercise a questionable choice for achieving them.

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