Staying Healthy in a Junk Food
World
By Philbrook F. Sargent
When we are in a hurry and hungry our health will generally take second place. Today, we can protect our health and still partake of our favorite fast foods! How can that be justified? The food we eat certainly has a controlling factor on our health, but the key is getting the proper vitamins, minerals and fiber. If we supplement with the proper daily intake of various fibers, they will bind with much of the fat from the junk food.1 When we eat fatty foods the body calls upon the gallbladder to secret bile acid produced by the liver. Bile acid emulsifies the fats and either goes back to the liver or depart forever via feces. What is so important to our health is to insure that the later always occurs. Only when we have sufficient fiber present can we be sure these fatty foods are handled by our system effectively. The National Cancer Institute determined that AmericaÌs daily intake of dietary fiber ranges from 9.1 grams to 13.8 grams. They suggest that 25 to 35 grams of dietary fiber a day is needed by adults as well as children for proper health. The American Dietetic Association agrees with these numbers.2
Dr. Dennis Burkett, the discoverer of BurkettÌs lymphoma, a form of cancer in children, advanced theories, for which he was ridiculed at first, about how fiber in the diet could prevent many common disease. Today his theories have been validated by researchers in the forefront of medical science. Using humor to make his point, Dr. Burkett would say, "countries with large stools are the ones with small hospitals, and the countries with small stools have large hospitals," and "when compared on world standards, America and England are, we might say, constipated nations."3
Many people say, "I get all the nutrition from the food I eat." Well consider these nominal facts:4
+ 6.6 mg of beta carotene: 2.5 mangoes; 8.5 cups
cooked Brussels sprouts; 66 peaches. Sane bet: 1 whole
carrot.
+ 1,000 mg of vitamin C: 8.5 cups cooked broccoli; 14
oranges; 42 tomatoes; 55.5 cups asparagus. Sort of sane bet: 6
guavas.
+ 800 - 1,500 mg of calcium: 11-20 cups raisins;
17-32 sardines; 186-349 dried prunes; 73-136 hamburgers. Sane bet:
2-4 cups plain low fat yogurt.
+ 400 I.U. of vitamin E: 3 lbs almonds; 10.3 cups
olive oil; 36 cups sweet potatoes; 3,333 cups spaghetti. Sane bet:
There is noneÛsignificant quantities of E are hard to come by
naturally.
+ 200 mcg of selenium: 16 fried eggs; 28 slices white
bread; 12 cups puffed wheat; 160 bananas. Semi sane bet: 10 oz.
cooked flounder.
We are better off to use vitamin and fiber supplements then count totally on the food we eat.
_________________________
Notes:
1. Kamen, Betty. New Facts
About Fiber. Nutrition Encounters, Inc.1991. p. 5.
2. Kamen. op. cit. p. 7.
3. SerVass, Cory, M.D. Dr. Dennis Burkett: A
Passion for Preventing Disease. Saturday Evening Post. Mar/Apr
'95. p. 54.
4. Remedy. Apr/May '93. p. 17.