The Queen of Health

Healthy Children, Healthy Adults: You Are What You Eat!

by Tami Hulcher

(This article was published in the Signal’s Fall Health Magazine 10/00)

Good nutrition is a personal choice that we make every day. What you put in your mouth will eventually end up creating your blood cells, tissues, and bones. If you eat processed foods, fast foods, high fat foods and lots of junk, you are putting "dead" foods in your body. There is little or no nutritional value in dead foods.

Think your vitamins will help protect you? Think again. According to Dr. Ian Smith (Time Magazine Apr. 2000), "There is insufficient scientific evidence to support the notion that taking megadoses of dietary antioxidants can prevent chronic diseases." In a recent study at Yale Haven Hospital, researchers evaluated 257 common brands of vitamin products. The study deemed less that 20% (49 out of 257!) to be only "adequate". Vitamins are isolated, fragmented, chemically extrapolated and synthetic, even "natural" vitamins. Some are made with incorrect ratios of nutrients. There are approximately 10,000 phytochemicals in a fruit or vegetable. Why take out one, put it in a vitamin, and leave out the other 9,999?

What about fat, sodium and sugar? Our children (and we) are getting way too much of these "ugly" additives and substances.

FAT: dietary substance most strongly linked to cancer. One third of all cancer deaths are related to poor diets. (Some studies indicate as high as 50-65%). Our average fat consumption should be about 45 grams per day to remain at 20% fat consumption.

School cafeterias meals average 38% calories from fat. That’s just one meal.

TRANS-FATTY ACIDS: deadly hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils that are processed industrial oils. These synthetic fats disrupt the body’s metabolism and alter the cell’s permeability. This allows viruses, toxins, and parasites to invade more easily.

Trans-fats, hydrogenated oils and partially hydrogenated oils are found in most processed foods from margarines, butter, salad oils, cookies, cakes, breads, potato chips, etc.

SODIUM: a person should not consume more that 2400 mg per day, 1800 mg being ideal. School cafeteria foods average 1479 mg sodium in one meal! Processed foods contain very high amounts of sodium, as does almost all fast foods.

SUGAR: An average American child consumes 275 pounds of sugar per year. Sugar causes oxidative stress to the body, is hard to burn off, and can suppress the immune system for 6 hours! (AKA: corn syrup, fructose, sucrose, glucose)

Our children are experiencing a health crisis!

*40 million children have high cholesterol levels.

*25% of 12 year olds have high blood pressure.

*By the age of 12, 70% of American children have beginning stages of hardening of the arteries.

*Childhood obesity is an epidemic! Not only is it bad for self esteem, it is a precursor of many diseases including diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

You can make a difference in your own life and the lives of your children. Make healthy eating a priority in your household. Read labels.

EAT MORE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. The National Cancer Institute recommends 5-9 servings of fresh, raw fruits and veggies. The American Cancer Society’s poster is 30 fresh, raw fruits and vegetables. According to Dr. Benjamin Spock, " A plant-based diet will reduce the risk of obesity, heart disease, and diet-related cancers." Sadly 95% of most Americans don’t eat enough.

Ola Loa, which means "long life" in Hawaiian, is dedicated to health education, nutrition and wellness. We want to educated as many people as possible on improving the quality of their lives. We are living people and we need live food to build healthy cells, tissues, and bones.

If you would like more information on changing to a more nutritional diet, we have products for you that have third party independent medical research and is backed by thousands of doctors, researchers, RNs, dieticians, nutritionists, Olympic Gold Medal athletes and cancer survivors, to name a few. Tami is available for lectures for schools and PTAs, Health Nights, non-profits, and businesses looking to educate their employees. (Ola Loa, Inc. 661 251-6970 email: mahaloangel@earthlink.net)