HOME-COOKED MEALS VS CONVENIENCE FOODS
With the arrival of convenience foods in the 1950s and fast food in the 1960s, Americans were offered a cheap and convenient alternative to home cooking. It also began the American love affair with high-fat, salt-laden meals accompanied by soft drinks. Today more than 90 percent of Americans get less than two daily servings of fruits and vegetables.

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Before the industrial revolution, the human diet was still largely plant based. It consisted of foods that could be hunted (rabbit, fish, deer, etc), gathered (nuts, seeds, berries, etc) or grown (grain, vegetables, farm animals for meat, milk, and eggs). Foods were unprocessed and eaten while fresh.  However, with the industrial revolution a major shift began to take place. The population shifted from farms to factories and began to rely more on buying food than providing their own. Food was now grown, shipped, stored, prepared, and eaten. Food became a commodity, subject to mechanization and automation.

• Processed Foods – We all are familiar with refined flour: excessive processing has created this ‘new food’ that is actually highly deficient in valuable nutrients as the best parts of the grain was lost – the germ, the bran, and the fiber.
• Depleted Soil – In order to put nutrients back into the soil, techniques such as crop rotation and soil fertilization with organic matter (compost, manure, lime, etc) were used. Today, synthetic inorganic fertilizers are used which contain fewer and fewer nutrients to replenish the soil, eliminating nutrients vital to humans. Hence, we are seeing widespread deficiencies in trace minerals among our patients.
• Early Harvest – Most foods were ripened on the tree or vine before being picked or harvested.  These vine-ripened foods absorbed more nutrients from the soil. Today foods are often grown far from the point of sale. To preserve freshness, crops are picked before they are ripe or forced to ripen quickly under unnatural conditions. Other crops are sprayed, gassed, and fumigated in order to delay ripening during shipping. Either way, we are missing out on those last stages of ripening which allow for the formation of more vitamins and absorption of minerals.
• Chemical Warfare – The use of insecticides, pesticides, and herbicides on most of the crops grown in America has led to many insidious health problems. Traces of many carcinogens (cancer causing agents) in the food and water supply are derived from chemical insecticides.  Heavy metals, such as Mercury, Arsenic and Lead are often found in those chemical agents and hence end up in our foods.

Nutrition Basics Part 1

In your lifetime, you will consume approximately 70,000 meals and from that you will eliminate about fifty tons of waste products. The foods you choose to eat in those meals can either build up your health or tear it down. The food choices you make, whether they are good or bad, accumulate over time. The choices you make affect how you feel, what diseases you may or may not get, and consequently even your health care cost.

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Under-eye puffiness can also result from fluid retention, which ironically can be exacerbated by dehydration, so making sure you’re drinking enough water every day might help reduce that swollen look.

You can also try the old potato trick, which seems to work better than cucumbers. Potatoes contain catecholase, which is actually used in some cosmetics as a skin lightener. Placing a half-moon slice of potato underneath each eye for about 20 minutes while you’re resting can help reduce the swelling and brighten dark under-eye circles.

Another key to maintaining a youthful appearance and brighter, clearer skin is regular exercise, though not in excess, as excessive exercise can also cause wrinkles.

Last, but certainly not least, a good night’s sleep and properly addressing emotional stresses are essential keys to maintaining or regaining your optimum physical appearance.