Diet and Exercise Best way to Fight Cancer

Newly diagnosed cancer patients should be told to diet and exercise, amid mounting evidence that shedding the pounds is the best way to fight the disease, global experts have advised.

A daily brisk walk of just 25 minutes was found to almost halve mortality among breast cancer sufferers, while a waistline larger than 35 inches increased death rates by one third.

Results from a slew of trials showed “powerful” and “groundbreaking” evidence of the benefits of a slim waistline, with weightloss and exercise helping even those with advanced cancer.

Even those who took little exercise before diagnosis saw major benefits, experts told the world’s largest cancer conference, in Chicago.

"This is absolutely ground-breaking. These were women with late stage ovarian cancer. They were able to exercise and willing to and having very favourable results."

Melissa Irwin

Health watchdogs the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence last night said they would consider the evidence, which could result in fresh advice to millions of Britons, with two in three adults overweight or obese.

Experts said losing 5 per cent of body weight – which could mean as little as ten pounds – could lead to a 20 per cent increase in breast cancer survival. 

Leading oncologists said a cancer diagnosis offered a “window of opportunity” to convince patients to make lifestyle changes which could prolong their lives. 

They said those receiving a diagnosis should be warned to lose weight and take more exercise, even if such conversations were “sensitive”. 

One expert at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual conference, launching the first trial into high intensity exercise for prostate cancer patients, said the NHS should prescribe personal trainers for those diagnosed with cancer.

Obesity is linked to more than 10 types of the disease, including breast, bowel and ovarian cancer.

But until now, much of the emphasis has been on preventing weight gain to reduce the chances of developing the disease, rather than raising the issue in patients with cancer. 

Prof Melinda Irwin, Associate Director of Cancer Prevention for Yale Cancer Center, said diagnosis was a time for patients to make lifestyle changes. 

She said: “After treatment, weight loss is the most powerful thing you can do. It’s the next best pill to treatment and it’s free and has no side effects.”

Prof Irwin said doctors needed to be “sensitive” in raising the issue with newly diagnosed patients, but should not duck the issue. 

“Every woman diagnosed with breast cancer should be being counselled about weight loss and weight management, and about the role of exercise,” she said. 

“Diagnosis offers a window of opportunity, and diet and exercise can have a profound and powerful effect.”

Yale research led by Dr Irwin tracking almost 5,000 breast cancer sufferers found that three hours brisk walking a week was linked to a 46 per cent fall in mortality.  Even when women took up such regimes after decades of sedentary living, death rates fell by as much as 33 per cent. 

The observational study could not prove that the exercise caused the gains. 

But a raft of studies by Yale released in Chicago this week will reveal direct evidence about the mechanisms activated via weight loss and exercise. 

Dr Irwin said she was particularly excited about results from the first ever randomised controlled trial looking at the impact of exercise on ovarian cancer.

More than half the women in the six month trial had advanced disease.  

But those enrolled in a walking programme, doing at least 20 minutes a day of exercise saw “profound changes” in key biomarkers which reflect cancer progression.

“This is absolutely ground-breaking. These were women with late stage ovarian cancer. They were able to exercise and willing to and having very favourable results,” she said. The study of 144 women, found the half who were prescribed exercise saw a 27 per cent drop in levels of leptin, a hormone associated with cancer, and a 15 per cent decrease in IGF-1, a natural human growth hormone which fuels cancer spread. 

Article in the Telegraph dated 6/6/16

Healthier Fatty Acids Found in Organic Milk

Organic milk contains a healthier balance of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids compared with milk from cows raised on conventionally managed dairy farms, according to a new study.

Add it to the list of things that are bad for you: milk!

The healthier fatty acid profile of organic milk is likely a result of cows foraging on grass, the researchers said.

The scientists took 400 samples of organic and conventional milk from multiple regions in the United States over an 18-month period, and looked for the levels of various fatty acids in the milk. In particular, they looked for the balance between omega-6 and omega-3 contents , essential fatty acids that the human body cannot make from other raw materials and needs to obtain from diet.

The lab results showed that organic milk had an average ratio of omega-6 fatty acid to omega-3 fatty acid of 2.3, whereas conventional milk had an average ratio of 5.8, according to the study published today (Dec. 9) in the journal PLOS ONE. The study was partly funded by two organic farmers' cooperative organizations, which were not involved in the design of the study.

A high ratio of omega-6 fatty acids to omega-3 fatty acids in people's diets has been linked to a higher risk of health problems, such as heart disease . Studies have suggested that the healthiest ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 in the diet is about 2.3.

The results are in line with previous research showing that eating grass and legumes promotes cow health as well as improves the fatty acid profile of organic dairy products, said study author Charles Benbrook, of the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources at Washington State University.
"The impact of fresh grass on the fatty acid profile of the milk is a well-accepted phenomenon. It is rooted in the physiology and metabolism of dairy cows," Benbrook said.

"A conventional farm that provides their cows with access to grass would reap the same benefit in terms of the quality of the milk," Benbrook added.

Organic farmers are required to follow standards set by the United States Department of Agriculture. These rules include providing access to the outdoors, including to pasture for ruminants.

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New Study Suggests Low Vitamin D Causes Damage to Brain

Dec. 2, 2013 — A new study led by University of Kentucky researchers suggests that a diet low in vitamin D causes damage to the brain.

In addition to being essential for maintaining bone health, newer evidence shows that vitamin D serves important roles in other organs and tissue, including the brain. Published in Free Radical Biology and Medicine, the UK study showed that middle-aged rats that were fed a diet low in vitamin D for several months developed free radical damage to the brain, and many different brain proteins were damaged as identified by redox proteomics. These rats also showed a significant decrease in cognitive performance on tests of learning and memory.

"Given that vitamin D deficiency is especially widespread among the elderly, we investigated how during aging from middle-age to old-age how low vitamin D affected the oxidative status of the brain," said lead author on the paper Allan Butterfield, professor in the UK Department of Chemistry, director of the Center of Membrane Sciences, faculty of Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, and director of the Free Radical Biology in Cancer Core of the Markey Cancer Center. "Adequate vitamin D serum levels are necessary to prevent free radical damage in brain and subsequent deleterious consequences."

Previously, low levels of vitamin D have been associated with Alzheimer's disease, and it's also been linked to the development of certain cancers and heart disease. In both the developed world and in areas of economic hardship where food intake is not always the most nutritious, vitamin D levels in humans are often low, particularly in the elderly population. Butterfield recommends persons consult their physicians to have their vitamin D levels determined, and if low that they eat foods rich in vitamin D, take vitamin D supplements, and/or get at least 10-15 minutes of sun exposure each day to ensure that vitamin D levels are normalized and remain so to help protect the brain.

How to Heal Cavities Naturally

NOTE FROM TERRI:  I had the experience of changing from a life-long "problem" dental patient into someone with great checkups, and no gum disease or cavities.  What happened?  I started eating nutrient-dense foods.  Try it, you'll love how your mouth loves you now!

The world is slowly waking up to the fact that, when you give the body what it needs, it can heal things we previously thought were impossible. A fine example of what is often deemed as an incurable health problem is dental cavities, but extensive research is now becoming more public about the true nature of tooth decay and the fact that there are proven remedies that can remedy it.

The lies perpetrated about tooth decay

According to the American Dental Association, the reason we have tooth decay is as follows:

"[Tooth decay] occurs when foods containing carbohydrates (sugars and starches) such as milk, pop, raisins, cakes or candy are frequently left on the teeth. Bacteria that live in the mouth thrive on these foods, producing acids as a result. Over a period of time, these acids destroy tooth enamel, resulting in tooth decay." 

There are a few problems with this theory, including:

• Groups of indigenous people who had fermentable carbohydrates stuck on their teeth all the time
  that did not brush or floss, and were mostly or completely free of tooth decay.
  
• Bacteria do not consume processed sugar or flour because of the lack of nutrients in them.
  
• Foods that bacteria like to eat, such as milk, vegetables, meat, fish and fruit, are not commonly implicated in causes of tooth decay.

So if the modern explanation of tooth decay is not accurate, what is the actual cause of tooth decay? 

What actually causes tooth decay
Tooth decay, as researched by Dr. Weston Price and other dental pioneers, boiled down to three factors:

• Not enough minerals in the diet.
  
• Not enough fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) in the diet.
  
• Nutrients not being readily bioavailable, and your intestinal system not properly absorbing them.
  The presence of phytic acid largely influences this factor.

Over a period of time, if your diet lacks vitamins and minerals from a poor diet and/or contains high levels of phytates (from grains, seeds, nuts, and legumes), the blood chemistry and the ratio of calcium and phosphorous become out of balance, which results in minerals being pulled from bones, causing tooth and bone loss. 

So, the long-standing belief that sugar causes tooth decay is true, but as a result of it depleting nutrients from the body, not because bacteria eat it and produce acid that ruins your teeth. 

The food remedies that can heal cavities and tooth decay
In order to restore the ratio of calcium and phosphorus in our blood, and to enable minerals to bond to our teeth, it is not enough to just avoid eating too many sweet or processed foods. We must also eat health-building foods, containing copious amounts of minerals and vitamins that will build a glassy hard tooth structure. 

Foods to focus on are:

• Coconut oil, grass-fed organic dairy (especially butter), grass-fed meats, seafood and bone broths.
  
• Organic cooked vegetables (soups with bone broth are ideal).
  
• Organ and gland meats, like liver.

Limit foods that are high in phytic acid, like grains, beans, nuts and seeds, as well as limiting processed food intake full of processed flours and sugars that upset blood sugar balance. 

Supplements to consider are:

• The fat soluble vitamins: A, D, E and K. Please use a natural form of vitamin A, or carotenoids, which convert to vitamin A in the body.   You also want natural vitamin E - please do not ever take synthetic vitamin E, as it can hurt your body.  The form of vitamin D to use is D3, cholecalciferol.  Fermented cod liver oil is one good source of vitamins A, D and K, or look for a good quality multivitamin with these forms in it.
  
• Magnesium - required to use calcium and phosphorous effectively. 
  
• Gelatin - if you don't have time to make bone broth, this is a good alternative and is great for gums and digestion.  Be sure to buy organic gelatin, made from healthy, grass-fed cows.

Now go get your pearly white smile back!

Similar Articles

• Foods that Keep your Pearly Whites White
• DIY Homemade Fluoride Free Toothpaste

Sources for this article include:
http://www.westonaprice.org
http://wellnessmama.com
http://www.naturalnews.com
http://science.naturalnews.com


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Sweden Becomes First Western Nation to Reject Low-fat Diet Dogma in Favor of Low-carb High-fat Nutrition

Sweden has become the first Western nation to develop national dietary guidelines that reject the popular low-fat diet dogma in favor of  low-carb high-fat nutrition advice.

The switch in dietary advice followed the publication of a two-year study by the independent Swedish Council on Health Technology Assessment. The committee reviewed 16,000 studies published through May 31, 2013.

Swedish doctor, Andreas Eenfeldt, who runs the most popular health blog in Scandinavia (DietDoctor.com) published some of the highlights of this study in English:

Health markers will improve on a low-carbohydrate diet:

…a greater increase in HDL cholesterol (“the good cholesterol”) without having any adverse affects on LDL cholesterol (“the bad cholesterol”). This applies to both the moderate low-carbohydrate intake of less than 40 percent of the total energy intake, as well as to the stricter low-carbohydrate diet, where carbohydrate intake is less than 20 percent of the total energy intake. In addition, the stricter low-carbohydrate diet will lead to improved glucose levels for individuals with obesity and diabetes, and to marginally decreased levels of triglycerides.” (Source.)

Dr. Eenfeldt also translated an article from a local Swedish newspaper covering the committee’s findings:

Butter, olive oil, heavy cream, and bacon are not harmful foods. Quite the opposite. Fat is the best thing for those who want to lose weight. And there are no connections between a high fat intake and cardiovascular disease.

On Monday, SBU, the Swedish Council on Health Technology Assessment, dropped a bombshell. After a two-year long inquiry, reviewing 16,000 studies, the report “Dietary Treatment for Obesity” upends the conventional dietary guidelines for obese or diabetic people.

For a long time, the health care system has given the public advice to avoid fat, saturated fat in particular, and calories. A low-carb diet (LCHF – Low Carb High Fat, is actually a Swedish “invention”) has been dismissed as harmful, a humbug and as being a fad diet lacking any scientific basis.

Instead, the health care system has urged diabetics to eat a lot of fruit (=sugar) and low-fat products with considerable amounts of sugar or artificial sweeteners, the latter a dangerous trigger for the sugar-addicted person.

This report turns the current concepts upside down and advocates a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet, as the most effective weapon against obesity.

The expert committee consisted of ten physicians, and several of them were skeptics to low-carbohydrate diets at the beginning of the investigation. (Source.)

One of the committee members was Prof. Fredrik Nyström, from Linköping, Sweden – a long-time critic of the low-fat diet and a proponent of the benefits of saturated fat, from sources such as butter, full fat cream, and bacon. Some quotes from Prof. Nyström translated into English from Dr. Eenfeldt:

“I’ve been working with this for so long. It feels great to have this scientific report, and that the skepticism towards low-carb diets among my colleagues has disappeared during the course of the work. When all recent scientific studies are lined up the result is indisputable: our deep-seated fear of fat is completely unfounded. You don’t get fat from fatty foods, just as you don’t get atherosclerosis from calcium or turn green from green vegetables.”

Nyström has long advocated a greatly reduced intake of carbohydrate-rich foods high in sugar and starch, in order to achieve healthy levels of insulin, blood lipids and the good cholesterol. This means doing away with sugar, potatoes, pasta, rice, wheat flour, bread, and embracing olive oil, nuts, butter, full fat cream, oily fish and fattier meat cuts. “If you eat potatoes you might as well eat candy. Potatoes contain glucose units in a chain, which is converted to sugar in the GI tract. Such a diet causes blood sugar, and then the hormone insulin, to skyrocket.”

There are many mantras we have been taught to accept as truths:

“Calories are calories, no matter where they come from.”

“It’s all about the balance between calories in and calories out.”

“People are fat because they don’t move enough.”

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”

"Of course these are not true. This kind of nonsense has people with weight problems feeling bad about themselves. As if it were all about their inferior character. For many people a greater intake of fat means that you’ll feel satiated, stay so longer, and have less of a need to eat every five minutes. On the other hand, you won’t feel satiated after drinking a Coke, or after eating almost fat free, low-fat fruit yogurt loaded with sugar. Sure, exercise is great in many ways, but what really affects weight is diet.” (Source.)

Will the USDA Now Revise Their Guidelines?

The scientific literature implicating the dangers of refined carbohydrates and the benefits of healthy fats has been around for decades now. One probable reason why this study was done in Sweden is that a lot of people were obvious already following such a diet. Currently in Sweden, it is estimated that only 14 percent of the population are obese compared with one-third in the USA.

So will the U.S. follow suit and explore revising USDA dietary guidelines? Not likely.

As the recently published article YOU the Taxpayer are Funding the Agri Business Takeover of our Food Supply points out, the USDA nutritional guidelines favor the heavily subsidized crops of wheat, soy, and corn. The political forces are just too strong in the U.S. right now to allow any dietary advice that would cut into corporate profits and their production of cheap food to dominate world food supplies.

This dietary advice of a low-carb high-fat diet has been around since the 1920s, when the ketogenic diet was developed at John Hopkins Hospital to cure epilepsy in children who did not respond to drugs. With the advent of the USDA diet guidelines, starting with the McGovern Report in the 1970s, fat was condemned and the low-fat diet advice was promoted through the healthcare system. You can see original TV coverage of this report from 1977 in this YouTube clip from The Fat Head movie:

In 2002, science journalist Gary Taubes began writing on the dangers of the high-carbohydrate diet and benefits of a high-fat diet, and his work was published in both the N.Y. Times and Time Magazine. His article title was “What If It Were All a Big Fat Lie!”

With mainstream media now covering the truth about the fallacies of the low-fat diet in the early 2000s, Dr. Atkins and his low-carb high-fat diet, which had been around for many years, gained a huge following. Various forms of the low-carb high-fat diet exist today in the U.S., but they are still considered “fringe” and “extreme.” The low-carb high-fat diet is routinely attacked by the government and medical system, even as pharmaceutical companies rush to make patented drugs that mimic the ketone effects of the diet, particularly in cancer treatment, the largest market share for pharmaceutical companies.

So, while Sweden has taken a huge step forward in following a commission who looked at over 16,000 studies and confirmed science that has been around for many years, don’t expect the U.S. government to do anything similar anytime soon. It is up to you to do your own research to understand the REAL facts about a healthy diet.

RELATED ARTICLES
Saturated Fat Heart Disease 'Myth' 10/22/13
Gary Taubes Interview with Dr. Mercola 
Robert Lustig: Sugar the Bitter Truth 
Weston A. Price Foundation: Obesity and Weight Loss
The Skinny on Fats, by Mary Enig ph.d


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Robyn O'Brien at TedXAustin on GMO's, our food supply and what we can do!

Robyn shares her personal story and how it inspired her current path as a "Real Food" evangelist. Grounded in a successful Wall Street career that was more interested in food as good business than good-for-you, this mother of four was shaken awake by the dangerous allergic reaction of one of her children to a "typical" breakfast. Her mission to unearth the cause revealed more about the food industry than she could stomach, and impelled her to share her findings with others. Informative and inspiring.

About this speaker

Robyn authored "The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick and What We Can Do About It." A former Wall Street food industry analyst, Robyn brings insight, compassion and detailed analysis to her research into the impact that the global food system is having on the health of our children. She founded allergykidsfoundation.org and was named by Forbes as one of "20 Inspiring Women to Follow on Twitter." The New York Times has passionately described her as "Food's Erin Brockovich."

http://allergykidsfoundation.org

http://twitter.com/unhealthytruth

Before we released our speaker's names, we featured a series of Speaker Teasers. Here, Robyn's:

Real food, is that too much to ask;

Big industry, I take to task;

It's time that we reclaim our plates;

from food forced into altered states.

Lustig on Sugar and Chronic Metabolic Disease

Another very important video from Dr. Robert Lustig from the kids obesity unit at UCSF.

I really admire Robert Lustig's clarity, his scientific background and his stand for people's health and continuing to speak out about the obesity crisis, despite mass apathy and media-driven confusion.  

Here are some highlights from this excellent video:

(On whether obesity is just due to behavior)

"How do you explain obesity in six-month-olds?  They don’t diet and exercise.

Obesity is occurring in countries that still have malnutrition.  This looks much more like an exposure, than it actually does, like changing behavior.

There’s really no such thing as behavior.  There’s really just biochemistry.   Biochemicals change in the brain, driving behavior.

In obesity, what is driving that behavior?  I can sum that up in one word:  Insulin.  Insulin does two things:  Drives energy into fat cells, thereby increasing the amount of energy stored, therefore the obesity.  But, the other thing that Insulin does is it blocks the signal in the brain that would normally convey satiety and signalling energy adequacy.  That signal is called Leptin, and Leptin is a hormone that’s made from your fat cells, goes to your brain and tells you you’ve had enough.  But insulin blocks that signal.  So by doing peripheral changes which drive energy deposition and inducing central changes that drive starvation at the level of the brain you can see how that would turn into a vicious cycle of consumption and also disease.  So what we have learned is that Insulin is the bad guy in this story.

Q: So what can families and individuals to do change their biochemistry, or is this not something they shouldn’t be worried about at all?

The question is, what caused the Insulin rise?  If you look at studies from the 1970’s  in terms of how high your insulin went in response to a glucose challenge, maybe 50 microunits per ml.  Now we’re up to 100, 150, sometimes even 250 microunits per ml (for the same test), in kids.  So the question is how come kids are releasing twice or 3 times the insulin they were before.  And that is the crux of the obesity question. 

So, what’s changed during that time?  Certainly our genes have not changed.  But our diet has clearly changed.  And, what makes insulin go up?  Sugar.  But what kind of sugar.?  Well, there are three molecules that constitute the standard sugars.  There’s glucose, which is absolutely essential for life.  It’s so important that if you don’t get any, your body makes  it in order to keep your blood glucose level up.   There’s galactose, which is in milk sugar, which is immediately converted to glucose in the liver… 

And then there’s the last one - Fructose.  Fructose is the sweet part of table sugar.  It’s in sucrose.  It’s in hfcs, it’s in maple syrup, it’s in agave nectar and it’s the thing we seek, virtually every caloric sweetner,  it’s the thing we like.  The problem is that fructose is not glucose, never was, never will be.  Glucose is a 6 membered ring, fructose is a 5 membered ring.  Glucose is regulated by insulin.  Fructose is not regulated by insulin.  Glucose goes to glycogen or liver starch in the liver for storage and that is a non toxic storage form of energy in the liver, which is good, and it’s what you want to make, so you have ready energy for exercise, so if you’re glycogen depleted from either starvation or from severe exercise, you can rebuild glycogen with fructose.  

But, what happens if you’re not.  What happens if you’re at rest… and you take in a large sugar load, say a soft drink or a sports drink, or one of these energy drinks, which has an enormous bolus of sugar.  What happens is that the fructose is not converted to glycogen.  It has no choice to go down to the energy mitochondria, the little energy burning factories in the cells.  They overwhelmed, these mitochondria, and they have no choice but to take the extra energy that’s been provided by the fructose and turn it into liver fat.  Liver fat drives all the other chronic metabolic diseases, by inducing insulin resistance in the liver, liver fat drives cardiovascular disease, lipid problems in the blood, hypertension, diabetes.  And possibly cancer and dementia as well.  So that’s where the problem is.  The overload of Fructose to liver mitochondria, driving chronic metabolic disease. 

....

Q: What do you recommend that the patient who is concerned about the health risks of obesity do?

I can sum it up in three words: eat real food.  Real food has fiber and real food is primarily low in sugar.  … The problem is, when we purify [food] the stuff, that concentrates the dose and ultimately leads to an over-the-threshhold effect, and once you achieved the threshold in the liver for fructose, you start getting disease.  The question is where is that threshold.  And it’s probably different for different people.  It seems to be lower for latinos.  Anything you can do to increase your threshold would be good.   One of those things is fiber and the other one is exercise.  And that’s what we say.  Eat properly.  Eat real food.  Exercise.  And you’re good to go.   And that’s what I espouse as well.  But I do it based on the science.

A couple of points I got from this video that hadn't occurred to me before: 

1. Adding fiber to foods doesn't really work.  Fiber, as it occurs naturally in food, is a combination of soluble and insoluble, and they are together that way for a reason.  Watch video for more details, but basically, foods with fiber added and taking supplemental fiber is not the same as eating food with fiber intact.

2. Making a smoothie out of a fruit destroys the fiber in it.  Eat the fruit, don't drink it, even as a smoothie (goes for juicing too).

  

Chocolate Chip Cookies (gluten free)

We love these, and they're gluten free and egg-free. If you need to make them without casein, just use your favorite butter subsitute instead of the butter.

2 1/2 cups almond flour*
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup agave nectar
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, mix almond flour, salt and baking soda. Cut in cold butter until it makes small crumbs. Stir in agave, vanilla and chocolate chips. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto cookie sheet, pressing down each one with your palm. Bake 9-11 minutes, until golden . Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 20 minutes, until set.

* For these to turn out well, you need very finely ground almond flour, finer than the kinds sold at most health food stores. We buy ours at nuts.com.

The GMO Menace

I hate to be all doom and gloom, but this GMO thing is getting way too real:

1. The evidence is piling up fast that Glyphosphate really does present as big a risk to health as we had feared (or bigger).  

 AND

 2. Monsanto is doubling down, rapidly increasing the numbers and percentages of dangerous crops that are landing in our grocery stores.  

Here's some wonderful, dense science about the glyphosphate threat.  In the video below, researcher Jeffrey Smith interviews Dr. Stephanie Seneff about the dangers of glyphosphate.  They really get into it - connections to autism, cancer, the gut biome, it's all there.  Dr. Seneff is absolutely brilliant and concerned about the future of our planet.  She's so clear, and honest - a breath of fresh air!

I consider it my duty to KNOW about this and to TALK about it, to protect my health, and that of my family, my friends and my clients.  I think it's going to take all of us who are concerned about making our bodies healthy for future generations and the future of the Earth to fix this dangerous situation.  

Also, please remember that we are not powerless in the face of giant Monsanto.  No matter what the government, or big business or your neighbor does...

HERE'S THE GOOD NEWS: You still have the power to choose what goes in your shopping cart, and what goes in your mouth!  Nobody can take that from you. 

Check out my article on How to Avoid GMO Foods for more details.  Hidden bonus:  Some of the same measures you can take to avoid GMO's will help keep your body healthier over all, for the long haul!



RESOURCES

Glyphosate Found to Fuel Cancer Cell Growth, Pose Carcinogenic Threat

How the Farm Bill could undermine the future of GMO labeling by individual states 

Organic farmers go to war with Monsanto in court and lose - but this fight is not over!

Genetically-modified eggplant found to be unsafe for human consumption, environment 

Kale Chips Recipe

“CHEESY” KALE CHIPS 
(vegan, no dairy)

 Looking for healthier snacks, I've become addicted to those great Kale Chips you can buy at the health food store.  

These taste just like them, and are so much cheaper and fresher!  Super-easy to make with a food processor  and a dehydrator, but you can also dehydrate them in your oven. 

1 large bunch of  kale
1 cup cashews, (soaked 2 hours)
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
3-4 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 Tablespoon agave (optional)
2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon Himalayan sea salt

Rinse the kale and dry between paper towels. Remove the stems and tear into bite size pieces. Let the kale air out as much as possible before coating. Blend the ingredients for the cheesy seasoning in a food processor or Vita-Mix until smooth. Transfer kale and seasoning to a large bowl and mix well using your hands to ensure the leaves are well coated. Place the kale on dehydrator trays.  Dehydrate at 118 degrees or in your oven at the lowest temp, with the door a few inches open, for 8 hours or until coating is dry.  Slide onto mesh screens and dehydrate until totally crispy. 

Keeping them Crunchy
Take a small fabric bag, or small piece of cotton cloth and fill it with uncooked rice, tying up with string.  Place it in an airtight glass container or ziploc bag.  The rice soaks up any extra moisture, keeping your kale chips crunchy for days!

How to Avoid Eating GMO’s

Terri Mykland  May 17, 2013

These days, I hear a people saying things like, “oh, you know, all food is GMO (genetically modified), there’s no way to avoid it”.  I wanted to let people know that it is actually possible and not that hard to avoid most GMO food in your diet.  Knowledge is power, we are in charge of what we put in our mouths, and Monsanto didn’t win the last presidential election, so let’s take back our food, OK?

This may seem obvious, but the main tip I have for you is:

WHEN IN DOUBT, BUY ORGANIC

Organic foods in the US are not GMO.  When you are buying some of the specific foods listed below, please also read labels and prefer products that specifically say they are non-GMO.  More foods are becoming non-GMO certified, which is very helpful to consumers.

The first step is to cut as many processed foods as possible from your diet.  This is also one of the greatest things you can do for your health, and will save you money.  Simplify, simplify!  Look for foods as close to nature as you can get them.   Many hidden junk and GMO ingredients hide in processed foods, and it’s hard to know what you’re really eating.  

Here are some of the main areas to work on in your diet:

• Eliminate boxed meals, breakfast cereals, premade sauces and snacks. You'll often find that it's very easy to make your own or find a less-processed alternative you like just as much!
• Cut down on protein shakes and food bars, and make these a last resort, not a daily part of your diet
• Make your own salad dressing.
• Cook oatmeal or eggs for breakfast, a big salad with protein for lunch, and organic/grassfed meats and vegetables for dinner.
• Do not eat anything that contains high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners or is labeled "low fat" – these kinds of processed foods very often contain GMO's, and are unhealthy too! 
• You’ll find, as you simplify what goes in your mouth, that it’s quite easy to flavor your food with spices   and healthy fats, or make your own sauces.  It will taste delicious, you’ll be healthier, and you'll know exactly what you're putting into your body!

Once the processed foods are at a minimum, here’s the scoop on where you'll find the majority of common GMO's:  

WHEAT, RICE, CORN and SOY

Almost all of the conventionally-grown wheat, rice, corn and soy in the United States is GMO.  This accounts for over 90% of GMO ingredients in our food.  Organically grown wheat, rice, corn and soy are not GMO.   So if you eat foods containing wheat, rice, corn or soy, make sure it’s organic.

My first suggestion to you is to eliminate wheat from your diet entirely.  The many reasons for this suggestion must wait for another article -- read the book Wheat Belly if you are curious. 

A major place that wheat, rice, corn and soy are often found is snack foods.  Please scrutinize your snack foods, and replace the junky ones with organic equivalents.  Yes, that’s right, no more Dorito’s – but there are good alternatives - keep looking!   The main changes I’ve made in my own snacking are to buy only organic tortilla chips and rice chips.  That’s not so hard!  Soy is not a really healthy food, so I actually suggest phasing it out of your diet, other than soy sauce.  One other GMO you might come across is sugar from beets.  

Some good snacking strategies, in order of best to worst, are:  

1. Find simple foods to snack on (carrot and celery sticks in the fridge, olives, cooked potatoes, hard boiled eggs, etc.).  Snacks with a little protein will keep you satisfied longer than empty carbs.

2. Discover ways to make your own.  You'll find that if you google just about any snack food and the word "recipe", someone has come up with a way to make your own homemade version.

SNACK RECIPE: Homemade Kale Chips

3. Buy organic snack foods.  These are still processed, but you can generally assume that the people that made them did not use GMO ingredients and had more care for your health than the ones who made your conventional snacks.  Buying organic does not mean you get to skip reading the label, though.  Look for short ingredient lists that you can pronounce!
 

CHECK THE OIL!

Another hidden area where GMO’s can be found is in cooking oils.  Oils such as canola, corn, soybean and cottonseed are almost all GMO, and even if they’re organic, they are not healthy oils.  Please use organic olive oil, coconut oil, sesame oil and avocado oil for your cooking and salad needs.  You can read up on the best ways to use each of these online.

As you can see, avoiding GMO’s takes being conscious of what you put in your mouth, but it is not exactly rocket science.  Pay attention, and keep cleaning up your diet and you’ll be able to avoid eating food that’s been genetically messed with, and avoid eating the vast majority of GMO foods.  

FRUIT AND VEGGIES: The other 10% 

The other 10% of GMO is mostly found on the produce aisle.  Here’s how to work on that:  Get to know the stickers on your fruit and veggies.  Here’s how the codes on the stickers work:

•     Organic:               5 digits, starting with “9”
•     Conventional:    4 digits
•     GMO:                    5 digits, starting with “8”

To determine which fruit and veggies are most important to buy organic due to pesticide concerns, be sure to check out the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen, which is released every year on their website.  Apples, Strawberries, thin-skinned fruit, celery and potatoes are some important ones to always buy organic.  There’s a certain amount of common sense here: if a fruit or veggie has a thin skin, pesticides can often get in easier than if it has a thick one.  

FURTHER READING

Jeffrey Smith Interviews Dr. Stephanie Seneff about Glyphosphate

Extreme Toxicity of Roundup Destroys GM/Non-GM 'Substantial Equivalence' Argument

OTHER THINGS TO WATCH FOR

• Salmon – There’s talk about approving GMO salmon – ask at the counter when you buy salmon.  Please buy only wild caught, never farmed.
• Pineapple – GMO Rose strain, in the process of being approved.  Don't buy pink pineapple!
• Sugar Beets -- All U.S. grown sugar beets are now GMO.  Please watch for sugar from beet origins.  Again, when in doubt, buy organic.
• Roundup-Ready -- One of the prime reasons to avoid GMO's in the U.S. is Monsanto's Roundup pesticide.  "Roundup-Ready" crops represent multiple health dangers to humans.  The following "Roundup-Ready" crops are currently approved: corn, soybeans, canola, cotton, sugarbeets and alfalfa.  Many of these are fed to livestock, which is a major reason to buy organic meat.
• Ladies - This gets beyond food, but conventionally grown cotton, used in feminine products like tampons and menstrual pads, is GMO and may have health dangers.  In my opinion, it is worth it to buy organic tampons, since these are used internally.  The case for buying organic pads is less clear, but you might want to stay on the safe side.

Is Gluten bad for Non-Celiacs?

Should a Non-Celiac be gluten-free?  
This used to get you laughed out of a doctors office but the idea that gluten sensitivity is real has recently received some validation the in research.  Which is great news for all the Non-Celiac’s who have been telling their doctors this for years.  This past Sunday a gluten expert panel spent an hour covering these ideas and more common questions about gluten. 

The panel was hosted by an FDN named Ameer Rosic and featured Dr. Tom O’ Bryan, Nora Gedgaudas  and Steven Wright.  Dr. Tom is an amazing doc who founded the Gluten Practitioner Program.   

For those who want some of the most in-depth training available to date on gluten check out this program on gluten sensitivity. 

No Celiac, No Care?
The burning question that so many of us have:  
"I hear that gluten is bad for you, but I feel fine if I eat a little now and then.  So do I need to worry about completely eliminating gluten?   In other words, if my body was having trouble with gluten, would I be able to tell?"

The more you listen, the more it sounds like none of us can really digest gluten, regardless of whether we have noticeable symptoms.   And trying to wiggle around this, by eating other things like sprouted bread or ancient species of wheat, is not going to fool our gut.  It's still wheat.

If you’ve never taken time to read any of the research studies on gluten then this video can save you about 6 months of your life as it covers most of the highlights.

Sneaky Engineering: Junk food is Designed for Addiction

When it comes to processed food, excessive amounts of sugar and hydrogenated fats  is the rule rather than the exception. It is no secret anymore that there is a very distinct thread linking the increased consumption of such foods, coupled with relentless advertising campaigns and the epidemic proportions of diabetes and obesity in all age groups on a global scale. In fact, if current trends continue, it is estimated that by 2030, more than 86% of Americans will be either overweight or obese. For some people, this picture looks dreadful enough already, but the truth is that it barely scratches the surface of the problem.

Neurobiology research has shown that food can cause serious addiction, the kind that addictive drugs do. Dr Nicole Avena and her colleagues from the department of Psychiatry, University of Florida, report that the consumption of sugar not only alters brain function and behavior, but it also elicits the same type of withdrawal symptoms like opiate drugs do. In other words, sugar affects the opoid receptors in the brain, which are recognized by natural (endogenous or not) opioid substances. On the other hand, foods rich in fat seem to affect the brain in a different way, although they cause withdrawal-type symptoms as well. Many studies show that there is a unique relationship between emotional balance and fatty acids.

For example, a study published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation in 2011 tested the effects of fat consumption in healthy people while experiencing experimentally induced sad feelings. Within minutes the sad feelings were significantly alleviated and the subjects reported improved mood, while MRI scans confirmed the expected brain response. This study is important because it shows that fat actually does not even have to be properly digested in order to modify brain functions. The mere presence of fat in the gut triggers the release of gastrointestinal hormones, which regulate neurological and emotional responses within very few minutes.

The above studies prove that junk food, high in fat and sugar, is so much more than excessive calories. It truly creates addiction on a biochemical and neurological level. It would be naive to believe that the richness of junk food in these specific compounds is an accident. Michael Moss explains in his incredible book "Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us" that the amount of secretive research invested by Big Food Giants in finding the right combinations of the cheapest and most addictive ingredients for their products, is tremendous.

What neuroscience is only now starting to understand and elucidate, food companies knew it all along. And they have capitalized hard on it by selling processed food especially designed to bypass appetite control and neurological security valves of any unsuspected victim. Due to the complexity and interconnectedness of the biological functions in the human body, the overall impact of processed food on human physiology, health, life expectancy and quality of life in this generation is still hard to estimate.

But again the full extent of this slow, but efficient, genocide cannot be not fully appreciated if the impact on the future generations is not assessed as well. Latest research shows that the diet during pregnancy has a significant impact on the nutritional choices of the offspring. It is now confirmed that when the expectant mother follows a high-fat diet, her baby shows a measurable preference for sugar. However, this is not just a behavioral trait casually passed on to the next generation by means of mimicking the behavior of adults. On the contrary, as a result of the maternal diet, the DNA and subsequent expression of genes encoding opioid and dopamine receptors in the brain of the child is altered in a manner that promotes addiction.

This is no surprise, since repeated use of certain drugs has been well documented to cause enzymatic DNA modifications (epigenetic changes) which disrupt neuronal gene programs and support addictive behavior. This scientific fact explains why the kids of obese mothers are heavier with increased fat mass and have elevated insulin and glucose levels in their blood in comparison with control groups. Experiments show that the genetic disruption induced by maternal junk food consumption during pregnancy has long-term effects on the child's behavior and neurological responses.

In a twisted way, the new generation is genetically pre-programmed to be addicted to junk food, even before they are born. This perfect self-feeding loop guarantees long-term profits for the food corporations and chronic debilitating disease for humans, for generations to come. By designing and selling addictive, low quality and disease-promoting products, Big Food has achieved the unthinkable: to create a dedicated army of health-compromised, addicted fans, whose cognitive, biochemical and even genetic potential to break free of their addiction is hijacked before birth.

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References

• Avena N., Gold J., Kroll c., Gold M. 2012. Further Developments in the Neurobiology of Food and Addiction: Update on the State of the Science. Nutrition. 28(4): 341–343. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3304017/
• Van Oudenhove L, McKie S, Lassman D, Uddin B, Paine P, Coen S, Gregory L, Tack J, Aziz Q. 2011. Fatty acid-induced gut-brain signaling attenuates neural and behavioral effects of sad emotion in humans. The Journal of Clinical Investigation. 121(8):3094-9. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=21785220
• Ong Z. Y. and Muhlhausler B.S. 2011. Maternal "junk-food" feeding of rat dams alters food choices and development of the mesolimbic reward pathway in the offspring. FASEB Journal. 25(7): 2167–2179. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3114523/
• Vucetic Z, Kimmel J, Totoki K, Hollenbeck E, Reyes TM. 2010. Maternal high-fat diet alters methylation and gene expression of dopamine and opioid-related genes. Endocrinology. 151(10):4756-64. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20685869
• Page KC, Malik RE, Ripple JA, Anday EK. 2009. Maternal and postweaning diet interaction alters hypothalamic gene expression and modulates response to a high-fat diet in male offspring. American Journal of Physiology. Regulatory Integrative Comparative Physiology. 2297(4):R1049-57. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19657097
• Moss M. 2012. The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food. New York Times. Available online at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&
• Vucetic Z, Kimmel J, Reyes TM. 2011. Chronic high-fat diet drives postnatal epigenetic regulation of μ-opioid receptor in the brain. Neuropsychopharmacology. 36(6):1199-206. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21326195

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Food Rules, according to Terri

By Terri Mykland

This is my big “Eat this, not that” list…

Fruit and Vegetables - Eat LOTS, particularly veggies!  Most of your weekly  shopping should be for vegetables, with a little for fruits and other ingredients.   Try to start each meal with vegetables and have them be at least half of all the food you eat.  

Look at the dirty dozen lists to see what needs to be organic - some basic ones include all the thin-skinned fruits, berries, potatoes, celery, tomatoes.   Prefer organic generally, whenever you can get it, because of the superior mineral profile and better odds that the produce was taken good care of.  Do not buy produce of any kind that's already been sealed in a bag, organic or not.  This is the kind of product associated with the majority of food contamination issues, e. coli, etc.  Don't forget frozen vegetables.  They are almost as good as fresh nutritionally, and are a good fall back when you aren't feeling up to the big stir fry or your pantry is bare.  I always keep some frozen veggies around.

Eggs – Organic only.  Organic eggs have better vitamin A and fatty acids.  Also, conventionally raised chickens are very badly treated.  Eat plenty of eggs, they are great inexpensive protein and healthy fat.  Eating cholesterol in eggs sends the signal to your body not to make more of it, which helps with heart health.

Nuts – Probably not so important to buy organic, because they have such hard shells (hard for pesticides to penetrate), and not much surface area.  Also because we do not eat them in large volumes.  Peanuts aren’t so good for your health as they contain aflatoxins and are an allergen.  I try to limit peanuts.  Nuts in small quantities are a great snack, as they contain lots of healthy fats, minerals and protein.  I carry around little snack-size ziplock bags with 1 ounce of nuts in them, for portion control.   If you’re looking for a substitute for wheat flour in baking, I highly recommend almond flour from Nuts.com and Elana’s Almond Flour cookbook.
 
Dairy- Organic only, full fat preferred, grassfed preferred.  The animal fat in dairy concentrates toxins, so that’s one reason you only want to eat organic dairy.  According to scientists, dairy is one of the foods we may not have evolved to digest well yet. Northern Europeans sometimes digest it better than other ancestries.  If you react to dairy at all, remove it from your diet. Milk is usually the hardest kind of dairy to digest.  Many people digest cheese, yogurt, etc. better than liquid milk.  If you really can’t afford organic, get the kind made with no antibiotics and no growth hormones, and eat less of it.  Try to eat real organic butter – it has great fatty acids and a bunch of other health benefits.  Much better than the highly-processed butter substitutes many people are eating for “health”.  Raw milk is more healthy than organic, but if you're not used to it, you may not digest it so well.  You may also not be able to buy it in your state.
 
Meat – Buy only organic, no antibiotics, grassfed preferred.  Try to use meat more like a condiment than a major part of your meals.  Animal fat is where toxins are highest, so buy  only organic, grassfed, or pastured, no hormones, no antibiotics, please!  Do not buy meat (or anything else) labelled “natural”.  "Natural" does not mean anything, and is used in sneaky ways on poor quality foods.  My suggestion is to emphasize vegetables, eggs, organic dairy and nuts  in your diet, and eat small amounts of really excellent meat.  This is healthy, and saves money too.   If you cook organic or grassfed meat properly, it can be healthy, as the saturated fat in meat is needed by your cell membranes and brain.  Skipping the meat entirely is not a good idea, as you will miss out on critical vitamins such as B12 and lots of other nutrients that are most easily available in meat.  

Please do not eat prepackaged lunchmeat.  If you need sliced meat, go somewhere where you can get organic meat and they slice it for you at the meat counter.

Cooking Meat: Panfry only at low heat, do not "char", as this introduces carcinogens.  Preferable cooking methods include steaming/poaching, sauteeing in water, medium-temperature stir fry in good oil or baking.   Remember that homemade bone broths and organ meats are packed with minerals and other nutrients, and include them in your diet, also.

Fish – Buy Pacific or Alaskan Salmon, wild, which has not been frozen.  This is a delicacy, and does cost money.  It is also available canned, which is a little more affordable.   I eat this as my only fish, as it’s delicious, packed with good fatty acids, and great for brain and heart health.  There are a few other white fishes such as sole, that are healthy, and make great weight loss food.  If you’re thinking about eating any fish, check mercury levels first, and eat wild, not farmed.  These days, I'm buying my canned Salmon from Vitalchoice.com.  It's tons better than what's at the store, and not much more money.

Grains - Avoid wheat flour in particular.  It's a simple carb, turns into sugar, and goes through your digestion way too fast.  Yep, avoid bread, pastry, cookies, sandwiches, pizza crust.  I know it's a big change of lifestyle.  This is probably the biggest one for many people.   Some of us can digest wheat, many of us (especially white europeans!) really cannot.   Many of us find that our healthiest way of eating is actually wheat-free, gluten-free or grain-free.  Figuring out your best diet will be part of your journey to optimal health.  Other notes with regard to grain:  Conventional corn and rice are major GMO's.  So if you buy corn or rice products, make sure they're organic.   Another danger with rice is arsenic.  I trust Lundberg Brand, as they publish their arsenic numbers.

Oils - Your body needs some good fats.  Fats help your brain and your cells, and they do not make you fat - although they do add calories and not many nutrients.  So please add a little fat to your food.  Oil is not a nutrient-dense food - just use enough to cook.  Butter has more nutrients, but does add a lot of calories.  Nuts and nut butters are a good source of healthy fat with fiber and nutrients.  

We could talk all day about oils.  Here's the short version:  Coconut oil, butter and olive should be your daily cooking oils.  Bacon grease and lard are good if they come from organic meats.  None of the vegetable oils should be heated really hot, or they can get damaged and turn into "bad" oils, and of course butter burns easily.  So cook on low heat, and use these oils.  If you must cook at high heat, you can use lard or peanut oil.  

On salads, skip the oils and make your own dressing from nutrient rich  fats like peanut butter, tahini or  cream and acids like balsamic or rice wine vinegar or lemon juice, along with plenty of flavor from organic soy sauce, salt, pepper, stevia, garlic, cayenne, etc.

Never use the following: shortening (crisco), margarine (even the "health" margarines), anything with trans fats in it (read the label).  

FIRST CHOICE: coconut, butter, olive, avocado, macadamia, lard
AVOID ENTIRELY: shortening, all margarine, corn oil
SECOND CHOICE: avocado, macadamia, sesame, organic peanut oil (for high heat)

OK: organic canola, safflower, grapeseed

Soy - I'm not a fan of soy.  Soy products contain estrogen-like substances that can make your body more estrogenic, which means more vulnerable to cancer.  If you've been told to eat a lot of soy to avoid certain cancers, I'd suggest reading further.  Soy is like health junk food.  Not the kind of nutrient-dense food you want to put in your body.  The only soy product in my kitchen is organic wheat-free tamari sauce.  If you do eat soy, buy organic only, to avoid GMO's.

Sweeteners - You may have figured by now that sugar is pretty much out.  We have sugar in our house because when I make pancakes, the girls like to eat them "swedish" style, with sugar sprinkled on them.  That's just about the only time the sugar comes out.  My sweetener of choice is stevia, in packets, without xylitol or splenda or any of that stuff with it.  We also have agave, honey and grade B maple syrup, for other sweetening needs.  Get in the habit of counting grams of sugar in your food, and work toward 0 added sugar, and just add a touch of sweetener when you really desire it.  I add a little stevia to my plain yogurt with strawberries, and also to homemade salad dressings or stir fry sauces sometimes.

Sauces - I want to empower you to stop buying premade dressings and sauces, and make your own.  These are notorious places where extra sugar and salt and junk calories hide out, and your sauces can taste so much better when you make them.  It's super easy.  To make a sauce taste good, add something salty, something sweet, something sour, and optionally, something bitter like mustard.  Add some good oil to make it even better  Common ingredients for my sauces include: tamari sauce,  lemon juice, stevia, agave, maple syrup, garlic powder, dijon mustard, sesame oil, coconut milk, coconut oil, curry powder, tahini, ginger.  I'll try to post some simple sauce recipes that I like sometime soon.  I'm not amazing with spices yet, but if you are, you can add whatever strikes your fancy! 

GMO's - GMO's are something to worry about, and lucky for us, still not too hard to avoid if you you know what to look for.  The main sources of GMO's are corn, rice and soy.  At the present time, "organic" does mean "non-GMO".  So PLEASE buy organic of these three things,  and you will not be consuming GMO's, the large majority of the time. 

Processed Foods - It's important to minimize processed foods in our lives.  The closer you buy your food to how it came off of a plant or an animal, the better.  You will know what you're eating, and it will taste fresh and amazing!   You'll also know that you won't crave it because some food company engineers manipulated your taste buds.  Let's think about what constitutes a processed food.   Here are some common types of processed foods you might not have noticed: 

1. Protein bars
2. Protein shakes
3. Frozen healthy dinners (I don't include frozen veggies in this).
4. Yogurt
5. Kefir
6. Kombucha
7. Iced tea (from the store)
8. Cultured vegetables
9. Ketchup
10. Salad dressing
11. Mayonnaise.  
12. Breakfast cereals
13. Mixes - cake mix, pancake mix, etc.

But many of these are healthy foods, you may be thinking.  Yes, perhaps, but they are still processed foods, and for any processed food, it's worthwhile to think about what it's made of and see if you can make it yourself or buy it less processed.  Buying a processed food is counting on a food company not to put things into it that you might not want to consume, and not to manipulate your taste buds to make you dependent on it.  

EXAMPLE #1: Yogurt.  Do you eat the kind with fruit in it?  Why?  It's awesome to buy plain yogurt, and put in your own fresh fruit and a sweetener if you wish it, and saves you eating old, processed fruit that's already over-sugared.  

EXAMPLE #2: Protein bars (which should be a last resort, not a daily diet workaround).  They can have a lot of fillers, preservatives and extra sugars in them, sit on shelves for months, and definitely aren't fresh food. 

PROCESSED FOOD SUGGESTIONS:

1. When you do buy processed foods, aim for short, simple ingredient lists that you understand, with good ingredients in plain English, not fillers, not excessive salt or sugar or MSG, "natural flavors" and other squirrelly ingredients like that.   
2. Snacks are a common type of food that people buy processed.  Work on finding some snack foods that you can either make from scratch or buy simpler, more real-food brands of.  Be conscious of your snack choices.
3. If this sounds fun to you, make less-processed food experimentation a cooking project.  In my own kitchen, I've been able to make my own mayonnaise, kefir, dried nuts, dehydrated veggie/nut snacks, corn tortillas... all things that previously I bought as processed foods, and now I prefer to make my own most of the time. 

THINK ABOUT WHAT GOES IN YOUR BODY
EAT REAL FOOD!