Simple Natural Food Weight Loss Tips

YOU start life as an embryo, receiving your food from the blood stream of your mother; then
as you feed yourself, your blood distributes what you eat to make bone, muscle cells, and all the other component parts of the body. What you eat affects your size, rate of growth, how you feel, your appearance, and, indirectly, your behavior pattern and happiness. How well food is changed into vital substances depends upon whether the food was grown on fertile soil, harvested at the peak of development and brought into your kitchen immediately, prepared and served to retain vitamins and minerals, and eaten in a happy atmosphere.

Foods are divided into 5 groups: proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, and have 3 main uses in the body:

1. To provide materials for building and repair

2. To regulate body processes

3. To provide heat and energy

Protein is the main substance of all living tissue and is used not only in the building, but also in the repair of the vital parts of all tissue. Necessary for the proper functioning of the organs, it is a part of glandular secretion and blood, as well as a part of the many chemical changes that take place in the body. All proteins are broken down by digestion into amino acids before being absorbed. High protein foods are lean meat, liver, fish, eggs, poultry, cheese, milk and soybeans. Other foods supplying appreciable amounts of protein are nuts, sprouts, legumes, whole grains and seeds.

Vitamins regulate or are helpers in all body processes. Even though our knowledge of them is comparatively new, it has been known for centuries that certain foods could prevent or even cure certain diseases. The vitamins now known are believed to be essential nutriments. They are quite widely distributed and in eating a variety of unprocessed, unrefined foods, especially raw foods, you should get a good assortment of them.

Vitamin A is important for growth and repair. It protects the body against infection, keeps

the skin healthy and is important for vision. Vitamin A is fat-soluble and is stored in the liver. Some im­portant sources are:

Green Leafy Vegetables Yellow Vegetables Animal Sources

and Fruits

Turnip greens Carrots Liver

Spinach Sweet Potatoes Egg yolk

Kale Apricots Yellow cheese

Broccoli Cantaloupe Butter

Beet greens Pumpkin Cream

Mustard greens Yellow peaches Cod liver and other

Alfalfa Tomatoes fish oils
Asparagus
Dandelion greens

Vitamin B is made up of a large number of separate vitamins. The B vitamins dissolve in water and are not easily stored, so they should be obtained each day. When these vitamins are lacking in the diet the nerves, the heart, digestion, tissues, skin, and general morale are adversely affected. Vitamin B is easily destroyed by heat, air, and light. It should not be overcooked, or cooked in a large amount of water and the water then discarded. Eat as many foods high in this vitamin as you can in their natural state, such as:

Lean pork Fish Peanuts

Liver (beef or Chicken Green leafy vegetables

pork) Green peas and beans Molasses

Lamb Whole-grain products Food yeast

Milk Soybeans, soybean meal, Sunflower seeds

Eggs flour, grits

Vitamin C is necessary for the tissues of the body. It is also water-soluble and some is needed each day, as the body stores little of it. Bleeding gums may be a sign of Vitamin C deficiency. It as­sists in the healing of wounds and keeps up the body’s resistance. The important sources of this vitamin are: citrus fruits, wild rose hips, strawberries, cantaloupe, raw green foods, potatoes (both white and sweet) and tomatoes.

Vitamin D is needed to make use of calcium and phosphorus in building strong bones and teeth. It is called the “sunshine vita­min” because the sun’s rays can change some of the oils in your skin into Vitamin D. Nursing mothers especially need Vitamin D to pro­tect their teeth and bone structure. It is found in a few foods such as egg yolk, butter, oily fish and fish-liver oils.

Vitamin E is important for the heart, blood vessels, and the re­productive system. It is found in wheat germ, unprocessed, as well as in the germ of other seeds.

Vitamin K appears to be important for blood coagulation and a good source is gelatin.

Minerals are a necessary part of all body cells and fluids, and are essential to life itself. Calcium and phosphorus are the most important. The greatest part of the calcium in your body is found in the bones and teeth. Calcium is best used when phosphorus and Vitamin D are present. Important sources of calcium are milk and milk products, greens, dried peas and beans. Calcium is also very important to the body fluids, regulation of the beat of the heart, and in soothing the nervous system. Phosphorus is more widely distrib­uted among foods so that one is not apt to get too little of it. Iron is required in smaller amounts. With the help of copper, iron com­bines to form hemoglobin, the red cells in your blood. Liver is the best source, but leafy green vegetables also have iron, as do mo­lasses, dried peas, beans and soybeans, prunes, eggs and oysters. Iodine is especially needed by the thyroid gland to make thyroxin, a hormone needed to regulate many of the body’s functions. Sea foods and foods grown on iodine-rich soil are the best sources.

The so-called “trace minerals” (because only traces of them are present), are extremely important. Liver, whole grains, seeds and leafy vegetables are good sources.

Refining and processing of food destroys most of the vita­mins and minerals in food. Overcooking of food is so detrimental to vitamins, that one cannot afford to chance eating the largest part of one’s food cooked.

Carbohydrates are divided into two main kinds, sugar and starch. All starch is changed into sugar in the body. Sugar may be refined as white sugar and glucose, or be unrefined in the natu­ral forms found in honey, maple sugar, milk sugar, fruit sugars, molasses, and sorghum. Carbohydrate foods are the principal source of fuel food for all peoples, but the large consumption of refined sugars in this country is leading to a downgrading of our national health.

Fats are another fuel food and produce more energy than the same amount of carbohydrates. Fats that have been hydrogenated or saturated are not as beneficial as unsaturated fats. Fats are more slowly digested than other foods, and cooking at high temperature makes them even less digestible. There are satisfac­tory unsaturated oils available, made from seeds, in addition to butter and cream. Fats are also a source of fat-soluble vitamins from natural sources.

The calorie needs of adults are not as great as those for growing young people. However, the need for proteins, vitamins, and minerals in adults does not diminish.

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