How Do You Choose the Right Foods?

My ex and I had a “discussion” this evening. Her niece was in on the conversation too.

It was very instructional… and eye-opening.

I might need your help… again…

No, I’m not going to ask you to pick sides, but to offer suggestions for us.

Christian chooses the right foods with his healthy morning smoothie

You see, we were talking about Christian, our son, and food. Namely, how do we go about giving him the right foods in spite of the negative programming going on all around him. In the face of all the brainwashing from television commercials peddling their “foods”, his schoolmates and the incredibly bad food choices their parents have made for them, even the teachers, all of whom really just do not know any better, how do we teach him the right foods from the bad foods, allow him to see those right foods choices as good, and not rebel one day?

We talked about how to approach the right foods choices with our son. How to keep him on “our side”. How to keep him honest with some of the wrong foods he’s undoubtedly tried at school, yet might not have told us. Like the oreo cookie he had today. He told us there were oreo cookies at school today and knew they were bad… yet he had them anyway. At first he said he didn’t have one, then my ex gently coaxed him to admit to having it. Instead of scolding him, which we never do with regards to food anyway, she said it’s ok to have one of them every once in a while. But not all the time. And there were better right foods for him to eat so that he could grow bigger and stronger. Unlike oreos and other foods with lots of sugar in them that could prevent him from growing up as big and strong as he could.

We’re always trying to educate Christian on the “why’s” of one food choice vs. another.

I was saddened by this when she told me. Both from the poor food choice, and the fact he lied to her. Obviously she handled it as well as she could. But I feel like I’m blasted from all sides with poor food choices for him that, unfortunately, taste great to a kid that doesn’t know any better.

Did you know that children’s sensitivity to sweet foods is 300% greater than adults? It’s a survival reflex designed to allow them to detect the minutest of harmful substances in food that are “off”, and help prevent them from eating things that might be poisonous. This means when they do taste something that is sweet, all of the “triggers” go off in their brain saying “eat it!… eat it!”

Here’s the problem…

In nature, where “natural” foods are found, there are rarely any really “sweet” things out there. Honey maybe, but other than the inherent sweet nature found in fruits, not much. Yet we’re so “smart”(sic) as humans that we’ve designed an almost infinite amount of these incredibly tasty foods that light up a kids tastes buds like a New York switchboard. Most loaded with sugar, and all being foods are bodies were NOT designed to handle or process properly. Especially in the amounts our kids, collectively as a Nation, are eating them.

Check out this statistic from the NIH (National Institute of Health):

2 year old eating a donut. Is this a right foods choice?

“After 10 years of age, type 2 diabetes becomes increasingly common, especially in minority populations, representing 14.9% of newly diagnosed cases of diabetes in non-Hispanic whites, 46.1% in Hispanic youth, 57.8% in African Americans, 69.7 % in Asian/Pacific Islanders, and 86.2% in American Indian youth.”

Most of the research out there does not give a clear reason why this epidemic in our children is happening. But my God man, if you have even half a brain (not talking to you, but to the “establishment”), you can see that the MASSIVE amounts of processed foods our kids are eating are killing the little pancreas’s of our children. Wearing them out before their time by years and years of massive sugar loads dumped into their systems with only a “not yet developed” pancreas to deal with it. Something has got to give. And the body’s cells and pancreas are the ones to pay the price… along with the child’s health. It is estimated that this early type 2 diagnosis can reduce their life span by 22 years!!! Imagine the wonderful train ride this child, now man, will endure his adult life with the secondary diseases that type 2 diabetes brings on? What kind of quality of life does this child have to look forward to?

Has this child, or his parents, made the right foods choices?

Here’s a key point… this chronic and massive sugar ingestion our kids take in on a daily basis is very sneaky – yet it happens nonetheless. Here’s what I mean.

ALMOST ALL PROCESSED FOODS “ACT” LIKE SUGAR IN YOUR CHILD’S, OR YOUR, BODY. For example, when bread is eaten, it causes your body to react to it’s ingestion in a manner “worse” than when you eat even pure table sugar.

Will your child make the right foods choice?

Get ready to have your world awakened…

Check out this list. It lists common foods and how they “react” in your body by the amount they raise your blood sugar levels after you eat them. It is based on the common 0-100 scale, with 100 being pure Glucose.

I’ll start with table sugar, which is sucrose = 65.

The following common foods are listed that are either above the reading for table sugar, or pretty darn close.
Whole Wheat Bread = 69
Croissant = 67
Rye Bread = 76
White Bread = 70
Donut = 76
Waffles = 76
Kellog’s Cornflakes = 84
Kellog’s Rice Crispies = 82
Shredded Wheat = 67
Quaker Puffed Wheat = 67
Bagel = 72
Water crackers = 78
Graham crackers = 74
Rice cakes = 82
Soda crackers = 72
Wheat thins = 67
Melba toast = 70
Shortbread cookies = 64
Baked potato (plain) = 93
Mashed potatoes = 86
French Fries = 75
Corn Chips = 72
Jelly Beans = 80
Pretzels = 83

This is not even close to being an all-encompassing list either…

Were you surprised by some of these foods? How many of these are you or your children eating on a regular basis?

HERE’S THE KICKER… If you or your child is eating food that comes in a box, or has a manufacturer’s label on it, it likely will raise your blood sugar levels significantly.

God and nature intended we eat foods that are “green and colorful”, not brown, white, and beige. I don’t make the rules for the foods our bodies need to function optimally. I’m just trying to help better interpret them for you.

So hopefully I’ve opened up your eyes a bit as to the insidious nature of processed foods, and manufacturer’s Machiavellian ways to line their pockets at your health expense.

It’s amazing how much we can learn every day… and how much there is yet to learn.

Take Charge!

P.S. Want to: Learn the “Easy” way to get and stay in shape? Discover the secret to quick fat loss? How to exercise less and get better results? Discover the secret to ripped abs without doing endless crunches? Then be sure to get my “Amazing Fat Burning Formula” HERE.

P.P.S. If you like this post, and think it will help others, please help me help others by clicking on one of these “Share and Enjoy” links below.