Is This a Way To Eradicate Many Diseases?

A family member has decided to become a vegan, meaning he will avoid eating any animal products. He also does not want to cook any of his food, as he says this is akin to processing which changes the structure of food and eliminates nutrients. Actually I should say his diet consists now largely of fruit, so perhaps he is moving towards becoming a fruitarian, someone who believes in eating raw fruit, and perhaps nuts and seeds.

My family member told me that our diets are riddled with dangerous pesticides, that genetically modified foods may not be safe, and that dairy is for baby cows. He pointed out the many additives that are now found in food, for example MSG, and artificial sweeteners, and told me the dangers he has read about them.

Did you know that MSG (monosodium glutamate) is suspected as a culprit in obesity? MSG is added to many foods and it adds to the taste of products. Many people are on watch against MSG in their diets, so now manufacturers call MSG by different names, and it may be called hydrolysed vegetable protein or even natural flavour as well as other names. I couldn't believe it when I heard MSG can be lumped under the term natural flavour! Natural flavour implies wholesome goodness, pure, from the goodness of the earth!

Many are now saying that artificial sweeteners are suspected of causing neurological disorders, like Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Yet, I have heard many say this is a rumour only and is not proven, so I wonder if anyone pays heed to this suspicion. If you are someone with MS, are you going to wait for someone to prove the connection before you remove these substances from your diet? Diet cold drinks contain artificial sweeteners, and these are hidden inside many different foods and drinks and even medicines, and are used as an alternative to sugar to sweeten coffee or tea. Personally, I am going to look out for natural sweeteners, usually made from fruit sugars.

I read somewhere recently that sodium phosphate, perhaps disodium diphosphate too, is known to cause calcification of internal organs when taken for extended periods. I also remember attending a lecture where a doctor mentioned that a precursor to breast cancer seems to be tiny calcifications that appear in breast tissue. And I wonder, is there a link between these phosphates and cancer? I don't know the answer, but I plan to eradicate these substances from my own diet. Many of my ancestors have had cancer. I wonder if cancer is not so much a genetic illness, but, rather, that some people are genetically more disposed to getting cancer if their diet is awry. Likewise, some people remain thin even if they eat unhealthily, but for others, like me, their genetics means that refined carbohydrates in small quantities, and other processed foods, may cause overweightness.

Coffee may be another culprit. I love coffee! But I am trying to cut out coffee. From what I have read, caffeine may not be the only problem, it is coffee as a whole which may play havoc with blood sugar levels. I am switching to drinking green tea, as well as rooibos tea (redbush tea). Rooibos tea is produced in South Africa. It is naturally caffeine free and has five times as many antioxidants as green tea, and I know one can also buy rooibos tea in a concentrated ground form perfect for espresso machines, and it can then be made like coffee, called red espresso, though of course tastes different.

In my own quest for healthy food, I have discovered a seed called quinoa. I wonder why this food is not more widely available. It is one of the few plant foods that contain a complete protein. Quinoa looks like tiny flower seeds, and grows at high altitudes, though apparently there is a sea-level version too. It needs to be washed before it is cooked, as it is covered by a natural pesticide, so birds do not really want to eat it. It is cooked by boiling it in water, and it swells up during the cooking process, with a wheatgerm emerging from the seed, and it is quite pleasant to eat, with a subtle nutty flavour, and can be added to other foods, like vegan wraps, to make a nutritious accompaniment. The leaves can also be eaten. The quinoa plant is naturally drought tolerant too, so may be a good food to grow in famine ravaged areas, and is also frost resistant. Of any food I have read about, if there was a choice to grow one food as the only sustenance, I would choose quinoa.

I wonder if the many cancers and diseases on the rise worldwide may be due to our modern day diets. Would many of these diseases be eradicated if we changed our diets to be more natural, less processed, and to be free of hormones and preservatives and additives? My family are certainly going to move towards trying to grow more of our own foods and eating more healthy foods.