Eating for Energy Blog

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Posts Tagged ‘proteins’

Milk Campaign That Made Me Sick to My Stomach

February 5th, 2010

I have nothing wrong with someone working hard to make a good living and I respect all the hard work that farmers put into their jobs.

But…

I can’t stand when “associations” or “lobbyists” of farmers spend millions of dollars marketing GARBAGE to our youth about the supposed benefits of their product.

The most recent example is a campaign of TV milk commercials developed and paid for by the Prairie Milk Marketing Partnership (PMMP) – that’s a subtle name – touting the benefits of NEVER STOPPING DRINKING MILK!

It’s absolutely absurd.

These milk ads have been specifically targeted toward teenagers, predominantly girls, based on the TV shows during which they air. The sad part is that milk-pushing organizations like the PMMP are marketing bad messages and essentially brainwashing people who don’t know better.

As a result, these youngsters grow up believing a lie – that daily consumption of cow’s milk is actually good for us!

Nothing could be further from the truth.

To show you some of the nonsense that these ads and the website are dispelling, I’ve copied an image from the NeverStopMilk.ca website.

milk

Just in case you can’t read the so-called FACTS ABOUT MILK that this campaign is promoting, here they are listed again. I’ve also added my commentary after each of these “facts”.

The calcium in milk can actually help you lose weight by encouraging your body to use fat as a source of energy.

=> What on earth does that even mean? How does that make sense? I’m not sure how calcium helps you burn more fat? Try exercising a little.

Feeling tired? Milk can give you an energy boost!

=> How?

Milk can make you glow (but not in the dark). Drinking milk brightens your smile and keeps your eyes bright, and the proteins in milk help your hair shine and build stronger teeth.

=> I can’t believe they’re actually allowed to make these claims!

Milk makes you strong. The proteins in milk help to build your muscles.

=> Ah, the oldest trick in the book. This is the one statement that has led millions to believe that we should drink milk.

Milk is natural and contains 16 essential nutrients that nourish your entire body. Drink daily!

=> Opium is natural too. Most foods contain 16 essential nutrients (and even more). But let’s not forget to drink milk EVERY day.

Milk builds strong bones. By the age of 20, 90% of your bone mass will be built. 90 percent!

=> Milk doesn’t build strong bones. If it did, would countries that drink the most milk also have the highest rates of osteoporosis?

Can’t sleep? Warm milk can help you get your zzzzz’s.

=> There are other ways of getting the relaxing mineral – magnesium – into your body before bed. Plus, dairy has been associated with nightmares and increased incidence of bedwetting – mainly because it’s an allergenic food.

What’s My Beef with Milk?

Now, reading this you might be wondering why I keep bashing milk. After all, I totally dismantle it in my book, Eating for Energy, as well as in several other posts on this blog.

The truth is that I don’t have a HUGE issue with cow’s milk itself. I just don’t believe that it does our body good. Once you understand the science of milk and how it interacts with the human body, it just doesn’t make much sense to drink it – certainly not every day.

At the very least, if you drink cow’s milk, make sure it’s raw.

My real issue is with the MONEY-HUNGRY ORGANIZATIONS that are pushing incorrect information on the masses.

What’s been happening is really a mass brainwashing of society into truly believing that milk is good for us. But hey that’s the power of “credibility” and “social proof” – we’ll save these powerful marketing concepts for another post.

In this most recent milk campaign, the PMMP, which includes the 1188 dairy farmers represented by Dairy Farmers of Manitoba, Dairy Farmers of Saskatchewan Inc. and Alberta Milk, is obviously reinforcing this message yet again…

Never stop drinking milk!

That’s pretty powerful.

My hope for you is that these kind of campaigns make you sit up and think. Because it’s only through education and awareness that we can begin to make change.

How about this one…

Think before you drink???

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Posted in Food For Thought

Tags: Believing A Lie Brainwashing Build Muscles calcium Cow Milk dairy eating for energy Energy Boost Farmers Garbage Lobbyists Milk Ads Milk Campaign Milk Marketing Nonsense Pmmp prairie milk marketing partnership proteins Sick To My Stomach Source Of Energy Tv Commercials What On Earth Youngsters

Digestive Enzymes for Better Digestion

October 15th, 2009

Digestion is perhaps the most important function our body performs. Obviously, that’s up for debate but the truth of the matter is that faulty digestion is where most health problems begin.

Think of allergies, auto-immune diseases, candidiasis, constipation, eczema, asthma, and many more.

All of these problems (and tons of others) can be caused and/or attributed to bad digestion.

Bring in the Enzymes…

Our body produces 2 different kinds of enzymes: digestive and metabolic.

Metabolic enzymes are used in every single reaction in the body outside of digestion. These are also critical for helping to breakdown immune complexes and dead cells, and helping to rebuild new tissue.

Digestive enzymes are produced within the digestive tract and are used exclusively to assist in the breakdown of food.

The problem with digestive enzymes is that we only have a limited number of them.

That’s where the importance of eating more raw foods come into play. Raw foods are packed with food enzymes (the 3rd category of enzymes). These enzymes are inherent in every single living food and are there to help the digestion of that given food.

If you eat a raw apple, it’s inherent food enzymes will pretty much take care of the digestive process. However, cook that apple above 118 degrees fahrenheit and you can kiss those food enzymes goodbye.

When we eat food that no longer contains “food enzymes” our body is forced to expend more of its limited supply of digestive enzymes to break down the food.

Over time, this can become a problem as our digestive system weakens and digestion becomes compromised.

Digestive Support Nutrients

So we know that we need to support our digestive system by eating a greater proportion of living foods since they are enzyme-rich.

But what do you do if you occasionally eat cooked foods?

One thing I would highly recommend is to supplement with some digestive aids like digestive enzymes and hydrochloric acid.

In general, you want to choose a digestive enzyme that covers a full spectrum of enzymes. You’ll see the suffix -ase on nearly all enzymes. For instance, maltase digests the sugar maltose. Lactase breaks down lactose. And so on.

However, there are other enzymes that do not end with -ase such as chymotrypsin, pepsin, trypsin, and pancreatin.

I personally use a digestive enzyme at any meal in which the foods are cooked. Since I understand the importance of proper digestion, as well as the fact that I have an underactive stomach (as do most people), I definitely feel that my digestion is much improved with the use of supplemental digestive enzymes.

Hydrochloric acid (HCl) is another digestive aid I use anytime I eat cooked foods, and in many cases raw foods as well.

HCl is naturally produced and secreted by the parietal cells in the lining of our stomach in response to the ingestion of fat or protein. However, when we eat more frequently than required by the body or over-consume fats or proteins, acid production begins to decrease.

And decreased HCl production can lead to faulty digestion, with symptoms like gas, belching, bloating, discomfort after meals, fatigue after meals, and excessive fullness.

As I just mentioned, most people have an underactive stomach. This means that their stomach does not produce sufficient HCl to properly digest their foods.

For this reason, I highly recommend taking supplementary HCl with your meals.

The only contraindication to using digestive enzymes and HCl is if you have an ulcer or other type of gastric inflammation as too much extra stomach acid may further irritate the situation.

HCl is primarily available as betaine hydrochloride. You can take one or more capsules before, during, and after your meals to assist your stomach in producing enough acid.

The combination of digestive enzyme and HCl supplementation will not only help you digest your foods better but they will also improve your energy levels, help slow the aging process, and prevent many chronic degenerative diseases from developing.

It’s very powerful stuff!