The Healthiest Foods On Earth

[babylonsister]

The Healthiest Foods On Earth
Jonny Bowden,
The most important consideration in constructing a healthy diet: Eat whole food with minimal processing. These 12 foods do the trick.


What is the best diet for human beings?

Vegetarian? Vegan? High-protein? Low-fat? Dairy-Free?

Hold on to your shopping carts: There is no perfect diet for human beings. At least not one that's based on how much protein, fat or carbohydrates you eat.

People have lived and thrived on high-protein, high-fat diets (the Inuit of Greenland); on low-protein, high-carb diets (the indigenous peoples of southern Africa); on diets high in raw milk and cream (the people of the Loetschental Valley in Switzerland); diets high in saturated fat (the Trobriand Islanders) and even on diets in which animal blood is considered a staple (the Massai of Kenya and Tanzania). And folks have thrived on these diets without the ravages of degenerative diseases that are so epidemic in modern life--heart disease, diabetes, obesity, neurodegenerative diseases, osteoporosis and cancer.

The only thing these diets have in common is that they're all based on whole foods with minimum processing. Nuts, berries, beans, raw milk, grass-fed meat. Whole, real, unprocessed food is almost always healthy, regardless of how many grams of carbs, protein or fat it contains.

All these healthy diets have in common the fact that they are absent foods with bar codes. They are also extremely low in sugar. In fact, the number of modern or ancient societies known for health and longevity that have consumed a diet high in sugar would be ... let's see ... zero.

more...

http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/07/healthiest-foods-nutrition-lifestyle-health-healthiest-foods.html?feed=rss_news

[lordsummerisle]

1. Interesting, thanks n/t

[paulsby]

2. sports scientists been sayin' this for a loooooong time

but good to see the mainstream is pickin' it up.

[firehorse]

3. All these healthy diets have in common the fact that they are absent foods with bar codes

Exactly, all unprocessed foods.

[angrycarpenter]

4. I grew up on southern cooking and thrive on it.

It kind of fits the bill. Beans, corn, greens, rice, potatoes, salad. About a 5 to one ratio of vegetables to meat. I have never eaten a lot of processed meat, I think it may be one of the most unhealthy things out there.

[sam sarrha]

5. lets not forget about the regional genetics developed to survive such atrocious diets

[salvorhardin]

6. Nutritionist

[druidity33]

7. on the Greatest...

and then not...

i rec'd it.

and i'm kickin' it.

I dig it.

:)

[Wakingupnow]

8. Dr Weston Price "nailed it" 75 years ago.

The OP is right on in pointing out that the consumption of unprocessed foods are the healthiest. Dr Weston Price, a dentist from Ohio, studied the "why"s of dental problems and, without any government grants, went all around the world on expeditions over several years and observed the dental conditions of indigenous people of all racial types. He found a common thread: if the people had eaten the foods that were there gathered or grown in unprocessed form WITHOUT refined sugar or flour, they had no tooth decay or gum disease,and the children grew up with beautiful faces, straight teeth, and great smiles. This was regardless of what specific foods they had! Not coincidently, they did not show signs of degenerative diseases like heart disease or cancer. Once introduced to what Dr Price called "foods of commerce," they would show rapid signs of deterioration with dental cavities, gum disease, and the next generation of children would have crooked teeth! It was as if the faces failed to grow to their full size but the teeth developed full-sized, creating the illusion that there were "too many teeth for the mouth" instead of there being "not enough mouth for the teeth." This didn't happen over thousands of years. No, it could happen in less than a single generation! In Dr Price's classic, "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration," Dr Price displays photographs of families in which the oldest child has a lovely smile and her three siblings, born after the parents moved from a rural agricultural area into the city, all have narrower faces with crowded teeth. Similar photos from many places on Earth were similar. In these times, it is nearly impossible to find human groups who have not now "enjoyed" the "benefits" of soft drinks, candy, sugar, and processed flour foods.

The Price-Pottenger Foundation in Santa Monica, CA ( www.ppnf.org/ ) is a great resource for finding out more about Dr Price's work as well as Dr Frances Pottenger who did excellent research on the impact of diet on physical development. By applying some of their nearly-century-old concepts, it is possible for us to re-create the perfection that Nature provided us before we humans, with the help of a profit-centered food production system and corporations, led us down this path that we've been on. It's not the genes that have changed. The genes are just a blueprint, and the physical changes are showing what happens when a blueprint is great but the contractor has defective building materials and the finished product is insufficient.

[bvar22]

9. Cool!

We went big on Beans and Berries this year.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=268x2601

[diamidue]

10. What about seaweed?

and coconuts (milk, oil, meat).

I disagree about the cruciferous vegetables, but everything else sounds about right.