The Queen of Health

WE ARE HUNGRY

by Tami Hulcher

What are you hungry for? Dead calories in donuts, candy bars, ice cream, potato chips? Do you hunger for fast food, processed food, "dead" food? Or do you hunger for good nutrition, the truth, and real nourishment?

Are you ruled by your taste buds, or do you make a conscience decision about putting the proper foods in your mouth? What are the "proper foods"? What do you really know about enzymes, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and the food pyramid?

So many questions, what are the answers? Because most of us lack the knowledge, food and diet marketers are enjoying our ignorance! Add to that the thousands of articles, books and media coverage that really confuses us.

We should be hungry for knowledge. We should learn as much as we can about nutrition, and what foods we should be eating and should not be eating.

I give seminars to parents "Getting Your Kids To Eat Right", and am amazed at how many parents are truly uneducated on nutrition. As a concerned mom of three teenagers, I hungered for the truth. So started my research and journey!

I first "shock" the parents with alarming statistics:

40 million American children have abnormally high cholesterol levels.

By the age of 12, 70% of our children have developed the beginning stages of hardening of the arteries.

At least 1 child in 5 in the United States is seriously overweight, and that number is growing.

1 in 3 children will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.

Over 20 million American children are obese.

We then talk about the really bad stuff: fast foods, packaged and processed foods, sodas, aspartame, monosodium glutamate (MSG), partially hydrogenated oils, and food dyes and additives.

I encourage more people to eat as close to nature as possible by eating whole grains, fresh raw fruits and vegetables, less processed foods. We are "live" people and we need "live" food to reduce our risks of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and other degenerative diseases.

Enzymes found in live food keeps us vibrant and healthy! Dead foods, cooked foods, processed foods, dyed foods, bleached foods, fast foods slows us down, increases our risks of disease, and takes years off of our lives. A diet high in processed foods weakens the immune system.

Increase your hunger for whole grains, fresh raw fruits and vegetables. They contain powerful antioxidants that neutralize the oxidative stress placed on our bodies. There are thousands of phytonutrients in fruits and vegetables that cannot be duplicated in a vitamin pill. Enzymes are killed in the heating process, and also in the manufacture of vitamins. The American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association recommend eating 7-9 servings of fresh raw fruits and vegetables daily.

Because obesity is a "global threat" and an epidemic, let me share with you some more alarming statistics. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, for every 40 pounds overweight you are, you increase your chances of:

a heart attack by 360%

cancer by 80%

type II diabetes by 2060%

high blood pressure by 260%

degenerative arthritis by 400%

dying by 110%

If you see yourself, or a loved in these statistics, you should be real hungry for the truth. Proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle is a personal choice. I hope you are hungry enough to make yours today! You are what you eat!

(Tami Hulcher is a health educator, lecturer, motivational speaker, mother of three teenagers, and Mrs. California~America 2002. Her popular lecture series “Getting You and Your Kids to Eat Right” has been seen at many business, churches, hotel/spas, schools and PTAs. She has appeared on NBC’s Today in L.A., KTLA’s Morning Show, KESQ-ABC TV, and has appeared in many publications.)