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The Importance Of A Natural Organic Diet And Eating Real Food
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If you are looking to fight disease, live a longer, healthier life, and get your body to perform optimally, what you need is to give your body all-natural, organic nutrients via real food. You might be asking, “What is this real food stuff? What have I been eating all this time? Imaginary food?” We get your point, but the truth is, many Americans eat junk, not real food from Mother Earth.
Even professional athletes can make pretty unhealthy food choices and stupid lifestyle decisions. This happens because of peer pressure, and the fact that most times they are very young and feel that they are invincible — “just once won’t hurt.” However, “just once” soon turns into “just on the weekends” and later on, “I can stop anytime I want.”
The typical American diet of fast food, junk foods, high sugar and refined carb foods makes the body more prone to joint deterioration and muscle injuries. Who knows how many talented athletes have had to drop out or had their careers cut due to an unhealthy diet?
Although it is true that, with hours of exercise each day, the damaging effects of poor dietary choices take much longer to show than in a person who spends most of their day behind a desk, sooner or later, poor eating habits will catch up with everyone. Those who take a more natural, whole foods approach to their diet find that it gives them an edge in everything from weekend sports games to working overtime.
The sad thing about America today is that so many people have been raised eating packaged, processed foods that they no longer understand what we mean when we say “real food.”
Let’s take a look at the signs that will tell you that what you are eating is real:
- It can have variables in quality, taste, color and texture
- Spoils fairly quickly (between 1 and 7 days)
- Requires preparation before it can be cooked
- Was grown without (or minimal) chemicals
- Has not been genetically altered
- Contains no antibiotics, growth hormones, or other types of drugs
- Has no artificial anything
- Has no chemical preservatives
- Lived a normal lifestyle before slaughter
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Processed foods, however, are easily identified by the following:
- Are always uniform in color, shape, taste, and texture
- Can stay “fresh,” literally, for weeks or even months
- Cooks very quickly, is convenient, and needs no prep before cooking
- Are colored or flavored with chemicals
- Grown with chemicals
- Often contains at least one genetically modified item
- Were given antibiotics, growth hormones, or other drugs
- Contain artificial flavors, colors, fillers, and other artificial chemicals
- Contain chemical preservatives
- Lived an unnatural life in a cage and fed an unnatural diet before slaughter
Everyone will benefit from eating high-quality, clean animal protein, especially if you are an athlete or have a physically demanding job. This means eating animals that lived as natural a life as possible, such as walking in fields, eating grass or insects, and not being given tons of antibiotics or growth hormones. If we are talking about fish, you want to consume wild caught fish, not factory farmed fish. Animals that live and eat a natural diet optimize the nutrition of the meat you will later eat. Most factory farmed animals are fed GMO foods that have glyphosate contamination. This toxic chemical, as well as the GM corn or soy the animal was fed, along with any antibiotics or hormones goes into their meat, which you will also later eat.
When people say that you are what you eat, they really mean it!
If you want your body to be filled with chemicals, pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics, eating factory farmed meat is the quickest way to get there!
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Keep in mind that energy does not really come from sugar. True, if you eat a candy bar before a big test or your next workout, you will have a bit of a boost of energy. However, soon afterwards, you will also have a big fall out as your blood sugar drops. If you truly want some natural energy, eat a bit of organic fruit such as an apple, a pear, citrus fruit, or some berries (not juice). These will give you a smaller spike of blood sugar, but it will last longer and there will be no dramatic crash afterwards.
For all day energy, eat some complex carbs with a bit of healthy fat and a small amount of protein. For example, eggs, walnuts, flax oil, olive oil, avocados, almond butter, and sweet potatoes are all very easy for the body to digest and will give you sustained energy all day long.
Don’t forget that after a long day at work or post-exercise, you need some amino acids to help replace the nitrogen in the body and allow your muscles to build themselves back up. This is where vegetable carbs, chicken, pork, beef, or eggs come in. You can also add whey protein to your diet by adding some to vegetable juices or smoothies.
Many athletes like as Ray Allen and LeBron James have started taking this kind of nutritional advice to heart, and they are getting results! The thing is, you don’t have to be an athlete to get the benefits of a natural organic diet made up of real food.
Try it for 30 days. Just 30 days! Make out a plan and a grocery list for each week to cover 30 days. If, after that time, you don’t feel any difference, you can always go back to your old diet. Quitting sugar is going to be the most difficult part but those cravings disappear after about three days.
READ ALSO: How to Find Healthy Food in Supermarkets Video
We know you are going to feel so amazing, so full of life and energy and clear-headed thinking that you will never, ever even consider going back to your old way of eating. We have never known anyone who has regretted taking this challenge, and you won’t either!
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