Chapter 6 b
Three "Poisons"

 

When talking about the significance of diet to health, we should pay attention especially to things like so-called damaged carbohydrates, Western fast food, and highly refined food. This type of food, which consists of fat, white flour, and great quantities of sugar, is the cause of many diseases that appear more and more, especially in the Western countries. This kind of nutrition causes, for example, adult diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, constipation and intestinal disorders, cancer and gallstones. These diseases hardly appear in the developing countries where food contains much more fibers and is more natural, but where the Western food culture is more common, these problems are also more common.

   Good examples of the change of diet can be found in the Japanese and the Chinese culture. The Japanese and Chinese do not suffer from cardiovascular diseases and diseases caused by a high standard of living when living in their homeland. However, when Japanese or Chinese have moved to Hawaii to the American food culture, for example, their mortality rate has increased. They have gotten diseases which have been common even in the Western countries only for about one generation (approximately 80 years). One cause of these diseases is food that contains very little fibers and protective nutrients. Pies, sweets, sweetened soft drinks, potato chips, doughnuts, fatty sausages, and meat pies are examples of such food:

 

When I ask my patients, "Do you eat bad food?", many say firmly, "No, I don't." The patient actually means that he does not eat strychnine, lead, or spoilt food. "I have thought that my diet is good and right," my patients often explain as I monitor their diet diary and note that they eat many processed "junk foods".

   What is "junk food" really? Junk is whatever food from which most of the nutrients have been processed, refined and cleaned away. Two good examples of this kind of food are white flour (in America, the most commonly used flour) and white granulated sugar. Food that contains noticeable amounts of these two ingredients must be regarded as junk food, since its nutritive value to the body is non-existing.

   White flour and sugar are found in bread rolls. In addition, fat content of hamburgers is high, which is unhealthy. There are no undigested mass and fibers. There is a lot of sugar, caffeine, and color agents in Coke. There are lots of calories and plenty of sugar in a milk shake and beer. The nutrition value of a typical milk shake is much lower than that of whole milk, and whole milk is also far from the perfect and ideal food. The typical American meal must be regarded as "junk food" in its entirety. (2)

 

The so-called junk food does not contain the most important protective agents - vitamins, minerals, and fibers. There are not many of these important ingredients for the development of body and health, but instead junk food contains many useless or harmful ingredients. Sugar, white wheat flour, and animal fats are such ingredients, for example.

 

Sugar. Sugar is one of those " poisons" that we may use too much. For example, sugar consumption in Finland is 60 kilograms and in the United States 80 kilograms a year per person. Such large figures are difficult to believe, but sugar has been added to many foods and drinks. Sugar can also be called saccharine, dextrose, fructose, and maltose. Sugar can be found in many pastries, buns, sweets and ice creams, canned food for babies, as well as mineral waters and lemonades. For example, in an ordinary 1.5-liter bottle of lemonade, there can be approximately 115 grams of sugar, in other words about 45 lumps of sugar or even more. 

    Sugar is a substance that we do not need in our body. It contains empty calories only and strains our body. Sugar does not contain any important minerals, trace elements, or vitamins that can be found in fruit and whole meal bread. In addition to this, it is one of the largest reasons behind obesity and diseases caused by a high standard of living. That is why much smaller amounts of sugar should be used than are being used at present.

 

White flour. Another not so nourishing foodstuff that we may use too much is white flour and products containing it. (The same kind of "refined" nutrients are also white polished rice, white macaroni, and cornstarch. The majority of the most important protective nutrients have been removed from these.) An ordinary Finnish person eats about 74 kilograms of flour in a year, and up to three quarters of it is white flour that has been refined or from which many important nutrients have been removed. The flour has been refined in order to keep flour better for a longer time but also in order to obtain better baking properties. White bread, buns, hamburgers, doughnuts, pastries, rolls, and pizzas are products that contain a lot white flour.

   What happens then if we eat too much white flour?

   The answer is that using large amounts of white flour is not any more reasonable than using excessive amounts of sugar. Up to 90% of the necessary vitamins, minerals, trace elements, and fibers have been removed from white flour, and what is left is energy, just as in sugar. This kind of food strains our body and is not useful when used to the excess.

    It has also been suggested that a diet of white pasta, white bread, and white rice is one of the largest causes of bad cholesterol. It decreases the amount of good cholesterol, raises the fat level in blood, and produces small and harmful cholesterol particles. Consuming too much can be a real risk from the point of view of cardiovascular diseases.

 

Fat

 

- (Lev 3:17) It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that you eat neither fat nor blood.

 

The third ingredient that we eat too much are animal and milk fats (in other words cream, cheeses, ice-creams, fatty milk, and fatty sausages) as well as hardened vegetable fats that appear in pastries, fried food, doughnuts, chips, French fries, pizzas, biscuits, and some margarines. A normal modern person may get most of his or her energy from these ingredients that are probably the largest cause of cardiovascular diseases. The use of animal and milk fats as well as hardened vegetable fats is quite a recent issue; these ingredients have been consumed for about 50 years only. For example, in the United States, much less of these ingredients were used a hundred years ago, and that is why not many people suffered from cardiovascular diseases in those days. The food at that time contained much grain and vegetables, and that is why they did not have these diseases.

   The next newspaper article from 50 years ago describes this issue. It indicates how, for example in Finland, too fatty food added increased mortality rate caused by heart diseases. However, during the war there was less "luxury food" and subsequently, the mortality rate due to heart diseases decreased:

 

70% Increase in Use of Edible Fats in 50 Years

 

Christmas is approaching fast and when the supply of fatty roast hams seems to reach record levels this year, there is a reason to study the consumption of edible fats in our country a little closer. According to the market research department of the Pellervo Confederation of Finnish Cooperatives, the consumption of edible fats (pork, lard etc. as well as margarine and butter) in our country was in 1901 a total of 19.8 kilograms and in 1953 a total of 33.7 kilograms per person. (...)

  Recently, the conclusion has been reached that the more and more increasing use of animal food ingredients, especially fats, is probably the main reason for the alarming increase in cardiovascular diseases in all the Western civilized countries.

It is certain that diet is the most important factor. We can see it clearly when we, for instance, think about the situation in our country during the war, when our nerves really were strained and when we all lost weight because of the lack of food, such as edible fats. During this difficult and serious time of depression, doctors were greatly surprised by the notable reduction in mortality due to cardiovascular diseases and also many other diseases.

  This surprising fact clearly indicates that overeating and especially the ample use of edible fats is one of the worst enemies to our health. (Newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, 16 December 1954)