Tracy Cook, NP-C
Tracy Cook, NP-C
The best-selling series of “Killing __” books provides interesting details of the deaths of famous people with much emphasis on conspiracies, assassinations, politics and greed. What we don’t read about is what is killing average American citizens in large numbers and it is not guns, accidents or drug overdoses. The five leading causes of death today are heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity and stroke.
The good news is that these health-related conditions can be prevented or reversed with simple effective steps, even for us at Robson Ranch. The answer to reversing these diseases is nutrition. The human body is capable of healing itself with what we eat and how we prepare it. Modern technology has allowed the world to produce and distribute more than enough food to feed an ever-increasing population. However, these advances in technology have come with a price. Three of the largest, most influential industries, have ignored or downplayed the negative nutritional effects. It is not a conspiracy, but simply the cold-hearted realities of money and profits.
The health care industry, some of the people we trust most for keeping us healthy, is only just now starting to realize that nutrition is just as important as new drugs and high-tech equipment. Unfortunately, there is little reimbursement for health care to teach nutrition.
Farmers and ranchers are producing larger amounts of food but require wide spread use of fertilizers and pest control products. Antibiotics and steroids are given to the livestock and poultry that end up on our tables.
Food manufacturers and fast food restaurants are producing many processed foods with artificial ingredients designed to maintain shelf life and give food flavor after stripping it away in mass production. Many of us have enjoyed long lives of eating the foods we like, but we don’t have to give up all our favorite foods in order to reverse some disease processes.
According to the Mayo Clinic, one of the most trusted and top-ranking medical centers, disease can be fought with nutrition and gives us guidelines for preparing our food.
* Don’t peel your root vegetables. (potatoes, carrots, radishes, etc.) All the vitamins and minerals are in the skin peel. Wash thoroughly but leave on when preparing.
* Don’t use water when cooking vegetables. The combination of the heat and water cooks the vitamins and minerals out of the food and into the water. (Then we throw the water down the sink!)
* Don’t use oil. There really is no such thing as a “healthy” oil. Oil is oil. All oil has 9 grams of fat in 1 tsp. (even olive oil). Eat olives instead and get the benefit of the vitamins and anti-oxidants they provide and not just the fat.
* Avoid light and air when cooking: Cook with the lid on and don’t use see-through cookware or lids. When nutrients are exposed to heat and then light, they can oxidize. This process makes the vitamins and minerals inactive.
* Don’t cook over 200 degrees-when you cook vegetables over 200 degrees, you lose 50-60 percent of the nutrients.
Talk about conspiracy, politics and greed. This book title should be Killing America.
Tracy Cook is an Adult Nurse Practitioner who owns and operates a private medical practice: Adult Health Services, is a resident of Robson Ranch and a Living Well committee member. For any questions or more information please visit her website www.adulthealthservices.com.