"Health Tips" Rewritten

Walgreens, a chain store which sells varieties of products and also sells drugs via their internal pharmacy issues the following "health tips" accompanying literature for prescription medications:

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"How to Make Heart Healthy Meals

Eating heart healthy meals doesn't mean giving up on taste. Here are some tips on how to make "health" a special ingredient in your recipes:

Cooking Methods

• Use low-fat methods and remember not to add butter or high fat sauces
• Bake, broil, microwave, roast, steam, and poach
• Using a nonstick pan stir fry or saute using a light cooking spray or try a small amount of canola or olive oil. For oil less cooking use reduced sodium broth.
• Grill seafood, chicken, or vegetables
• Chill soups and stews for several hours and then remove the top solid fat
• Limit salt in stews, soups, and other side dishes - use spices and herbs to add flavor
  

Milk/Cream/Sour Cream

• Cook with low-fat (1-percent fat) or fat-free types of milk or evaporated milk, instead of whole milk or cream
• Instead of sour cream, blend 1 cup low-fat, unsalted cottage cheese with 1 tablespoon fat-free milk and 2 tablespoons lemon juice, or substitute fat-free or low-fat sour cream yogurt.

Flavorings

• Use low-sodium boullion and broth instead of regular boullion and broth.
• Use a small amount of skinless boneless turkey breast to add flavor instead of adding fat
• Use skinless chicken thighs instead of neck bones
• Oils/Butter
• Use olive oil cooking spray to lower fat and calories
• Use a small amount of canola or olive oil instead of lard, butter, or other fats, which are hard at room temperature
• In general, diet margarines are not well-suited for baking. Instead, to cut saturated fat, use regular soft margarine made with canola oil."

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Where do we begin? We will go through the entire list of bolded words and discuss why ideologies like the ones presented here are making people sick, instead of healthy -- especially because this mentality about eating food is rampant among health professionals, communities, and individuals. People sincerely believe that eating low-fat and fat-free foods are healthier, when in reality, those very foods are the culprit behind many of our modern health afflictions such as diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, and obesity. The only way you will manage your health effectively is to eat natural, whole fat foods.

1. 1. Anytime you see the words low-fat or non-fat, you are being deliberately misinformed about false dangers of whole fat foods. Low fat or non-fat foods often (except in the case of natural foods like fruits and vegetables, which are seldom referred to as non-fat or low-fat) were whole fat foods that have had the natural healthy fats removed (and subsequently, important proteins and enzymes necessary for digestion and health). Low-fat and non-fat foods will cause health problems such as weight gain, diabetes, and heart disease because they are not whole foods and the body cannot properly absorb them.
2. 2. We continue to see reports of non-stick cookware being toxic. The type of cookware you use is very important. Use stainless steel with a magnetic attraction point, enamel ware, ceramic, or cast iron. Anything else should be discarded from your kitchen.
   
3. 3. Light cooking sprays are unhealthy, period. The only thing you should use to cook with as far as oil is concerned is pure, raw oils that are unfiltered, and cold-pressed. Cooking sprays are full of chemicals and toxins and should be avoided.
4. 4. Canola oil is produced from rapeseed oil. Derivatives of this plant have been used in biological weapons of war such as toxic mustard gases, and in modern times is considered an industrial oil. Chinese and Indian people used rapeseed oil for cooking, but it was always in a completely unprocessed form (unlike most of what you will find on the modern market today), and it was never considered a high-quality health oil fit for human consumption.
5. 5. Removing the solid fat from meals made is not a good idea. Provided you are preparing healthy meats in your meals, you are removing the good, natural fats, proteins and enzymes by doing this. We've already discussed what this does to health, and it is not a beneficial thing to do.
6. 6. Limit salt. All humans need salt for health. One of the main reasons we are seeing such a problem with sodium is all the processed foods people eat, which are loaded down with more than necessary amounts of salt. If you start eating more whole foods and home-prepared meals, adding a moderate amount of salt for flavor and health is a really good idea. Then you won't have to worry so much about having too much salt in your diet because you have eliminated processed, packaged foods which are loaded with too-high amounts of sodium.
7. 7. Evaporated milk is not a whole food. Avoid using it. Use real, whole cream or milk (preferrably raw).
8. 8. Most yogurt you can purchase in the store is pasteurized, and many brands are full of chemicals and sugar. Non of these substances are healthy. Avoid yogurt, in general. Home made yogurt with whole dairy can be very healthy.
9. 9. Anything that reads "low sodium" should be suspect, and this is because in all likelihood, it is a processed food of some type. Just stick to whole foods and adding natural sea salt to your recipes. Regular or low sodium boullions are also processed foods and should be avoided. Instead, use natural, organic, hormone-free beef, chicken, or turkey broth (best is from meat you have cooked in your own kitchen). You can buy reasonable broths from health food stores that are healthy as well.
10. 10. Do not ever replace any natural, whole fat with anything - especially not margarine, other fake butters, canola oil, or cooking sprays. This is just common sense! If you are eating industrial meat, dairy, and other conventional fat foods consistently, you will develop health problems. Try to keep in mind that meat and dairy have received a bad reputation by health professionals and communities because by and large, what our population eats are these varieties. Most people don't consume the natural, organic, grass-fed, pasture-raised, humanely treated meat and meat products. Those products will never cause you health problems. If you become more conscientious about this, you will realize that you have been lied to about meat and meat products.

It is absolutely amazing that these type of beliefs persist regarding health and weight management when we continue to see record numbers of patients with heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and other problems - particularly disturbing is how much these issues have trickled down into the younger populations of children and adolescents. It should be obvious to many people that the way we have been eating and living for the last fifty years has had a negative impact on our overall quality of health, and that lifestyle changes are drastically needed if we are to reverse these numbers, repair our crippled health care system, and make a brighter future for our children.