(Guide to a Healthy Lifestyle)

Maximize Your Nutrient Intake

There seems to be no shortage of food in most areas of the United States; when you walk down the aisles of your local supermarket or grocery store, you'll find the shelves fully stocked.

Although there are pockets of Americans starving, most of us are not. We have plenty to eat.

That doesn't mean that we have no food problem though. The fact of the matter is that Americans are starving. We are starving for nutrients.

America's Nutrient Dilemma

The typical American diet is calorically dense but nutritionally lacking.

Many of our fruits and vegetables have only a fraction of the vitamins and minerals they had in 1950. The average mineral profile of vegetables such as spinach and cabbage have dropped 80 percent over the last 50 years. You would need to eat 26 apples to get the amount of nutrients present in one apple grown in 1914!

The majority of the foods lining the shelves of the typical grocery store are heavily processed. They contain genetically modified ingredients, artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, and preservatives.

Much of these foods are boxed and packaged, ready-to-eat products. All you need to do is open and heat.

Take a look at the ingredient list. They are full of chemicals which a college graduate would find hard to pronounce. These concoctions are all made in food laboratories and not found in nature.

Others comprise baked goods such as cookies, cakes, breads, potato chips and pretzels, breakfast cereals, and various candies.

Then there is the juice aisle. Lining the shelves are plastic bottle after plastic bottle of various fruit juices and drinks. They are all calorically dense with artificial sweeteners such as high fructose corn sugar.

Even 100% all-natural fruit juices pose a health problem. Although it doesn't contain any artificial sweetener, it is a heavily concentrated source of natural fructose. Too much fructose.

The juicing process itself strips the fruit (apple, orange, etc.) of much of the fiber and a lot of the vitamin and mineral content. Unfortunately, Americans are drinking a lot more juice than I did growing up in the '50s.

I wish I could stop here and say that at least the meat you eat is nutritionally dense. But conventional meat is anything but.

Most of your commercial meat is factory farmed. This method reduces healthy fats such as CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) and saturated fat. And it introduces pesticides, growth hormones, and antibiotics.

Hardly the breakfast - or lunch or dinner - of champions.

This is reason why Americans and the world at large is experiencing the health crisis that threatens to financially bankrupt us.

But there is something every American can do to minimize the health threat and maximize nutrient absorption. You may not be able to implement every strategy, but doing what you can is better than doing nothing but staying the present course.

Maximize Your Nutrient Intake

Ditch the fruit juices - all of them. In their place eat the fruit. It is much more nutritious because you're getting the natural fiber, and more of the vitamin and mineral content. Some fruit should be purchased organic or from a farmer's market in order to avoid pesticides and herbicides. This article will guide you to which fruits and vegetables can be bought conventional and which should be purchased organically-grown.

Increase the amount of vegetables you and your family eat. Americans are not eating nearly enough.

Save the chips, pretzels, and other baked goods for an occasional treat. Eliminate all breakfast cereals.

Replace all ready-to-eat packaged meals with home-cooked food. Believe it or not, but the average home cooked meal is more nutritious than the most expensive meal at many exclusive, up-scale restaurants. Home cooked meals promote a good family atmosphere as well as a healthy weight for you and your family.

Be liberal in the use of black pepper. It contains an alkaloid called piperine which enhances your body's ability to absorb nutrients from food. No matter how much nutrient a food contains, it will do you no good if your body doesn't absorb it.

I use black pepper on as much of my food as possible. I use it on meats, vegetables and sardines and salmon.

Eat the majority of your food raw. Cooking food above 115 degrees Fahrenheit will destroy valuable nutrients. At least 75 to 80 percent of your food should be eaten raw. A food is considered raw if it is not cooked above 115 degrees.

I eat all of my vegetables raw; I eat raw eggs, and if I could obtain it, I would drink raw milk. I also eat plenty of raw nuts such as almonds, pecans, and walnuts. I eat sardines and salmon straight from the can. I do, however, cook my meat (chopped meat from organically-raised, pasture-fed cows.)

Studies have shown that organically grown fruits and vegetables contain more vitamins and minerals than their conventionally-raised counterparts. For this reason I recommend eating as much organically-grown produce as you can afford to.

Naturally all of your eggs, meat, and dairy products should originate from animals who have been pasture-fed (free-ranged) on organically grown grass and herbs. This will eliminate GMOs (genetically modified organisms), hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides from contaminating them.

Another important factor is the state of the health of these animals before slaughter or milking. Factory-farmed animals are sick and disease-ridden. In contrast, animals raised according to the way God planned them to be raised are happy, fulfilled, and contented.

Final Thoughts

Powerful forces are at work to maintaining the status quo of food production. Market share and billions of dollars are at stake.

Don't look to the government to do the right thing because they are not doing it - and won't. There are major conflicts of interest between government agencies who are supposed to be looking after the welfare of the American public, and the food producers themselves.

Your health and that of your family will have to be your job and priority. By implementing the steps that I have outlined, you will not only dramatically improve your health and that of your family, but you will help change food production in America.

These strategies will also affect money hungry food producers where it will do the most harm - in their pocket books. Financial incentives that come about from refusing to purchase certain food products is a guaranteed way that you - Joe and Jane Average Citizen - can get their attention.

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