Plant-Based vs Plant-Made

I cannot stress enough how important it is to eat raw, unprocessed, “original” food! Or at least food that has been very little processed (nuts, cooked vegetables...) This is what your body is designed to recognize, designed to break down and designed to use to fuel and to regenerate every part of you. Think about it: What did our ancestors eat? What did your great-great-grandparents eat before the food industry tempered with our “original” food? They ate mainly fruits, vegetables, nuts and some bread and meat if/when it was available. To eat meat, it took a lot of time and effort as they had to go hunt or raise and slaughter the animal by hand. Meat was not readily available as it is in today’s world. Same with bread, they had to make it themselves. Compared to our modern life these days, they lived much healthier lifestyles with a lot of healthy food and much more physical activity …and less high blood pressure, less skin diseases, less obesity, much less cancer…!

Plant-based food contains naturally occurring minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates, proteins and fats which your body needs in its original form. You are what you eat! Your body literally absorbs what you put in it. So, if you eat what your body is designed to process, you are supporting it to keep you healthy and energized. But if you are feeding it with “strange” and unknown plant-made substances, you are straight up damaging it. The food industry manufactures all kinds of edible products in laboratories with chemicals and acids, adds artificially created vitamins to make their products sound healthier, also adds things we can’t even pronounce to prevent their “food” from spoiling quickly. I bet you have never wondered why the shredded cheese in your fridge doesn’t grow mold after several weeks, have you? Well, they add Natamycin to shredded cheese to prevent it from molding. Sounds delicious? You are basically eating a bacterium grown fungus inhibitor which was originally discovered for medical purpose and is used as medication to treat vaginal and topical yeast (fungus) infections. Tests have shown that it causes DNA damage (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19514938), may cause damage to sperm cells (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20026162) and may disturb your gut flora (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16819463). (I always think it’s funny how they call it “may” harm this and “may” cause that. I am pretty sure it “does” cause all kinds of things…) A balanced gut flora is absolutely vital for absorbing nutrients and keeping you healthy. So many people don’t even know what they are eating and then they wonder why they develop health problems like asthma, candida, cancer… over time. This is only one additive that in my opinion does not belong into our bodies. Shredded cheese also contains cellulose made from cotton and wood pulp to keep it from caking… There are more than 300 substances that are banned for use in the food industry in European countries. Only 16 (!) of those are banned in the US. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy about what you put in your body, doesn’t it!?!

But, there is also good news: Your body is naturally designed to heal itself. It has the ability to regenerate and reverse certain damage to a certain point. Your entire body rebuilds itself within about 10 years and a lot of it even within the first 2 years. Every cell in your body eventually dies and is replaced by new cells.

Your DNA renews itself every 2 months

Your skin rebuilds itself in 1 month

Your liver rebuilds itself in 6 weeks

Your brain rebuilds itself in 1 year

Your blood rebuilds itself in 4 months

Your bones rebuild themselves in 3 months.

All this happens based on your body using the foods you eat. Therefore, every day is a new day to build a new body, to build a healthier and stronger body.

Also, what you physically put into your body has an effect on your mind. The electric impulses – your thoughts – “flow” best in a healthy and hydrated environment. Certain “happy” hormones are released based on the ingredients of the foods and liquids you put into your body and how all the ingredients and bodily processes play together. Support your body with raw and unprocessed foods and plain water or unsweetened tea as much as possible and have processed foods only every now and then, maybe on the weekends. The absolute best you could do is to grow your own fruits and vegetables and nuts if possible (e.g. walnut trees would be easy to grow in Michigan climate). If you can’t, try buying organic. It usually is a little bit more expensive but look at it as a direct investment into your health. I would rather invest in my health now, than spend tons of money on hospital bills and medication later.