Are You Filling Up On Real Food or Fake Food?

When you are sifting through the deluge of information about diet and nutrition and which foods are good for your health and fitness and which foods are not good for your health and fitness, a general question to ask yourself is: "Has this food been altered from its original state?"

The alteration of food can occur in many different ways.

Foods are altered through processing.

Processed foods are often cooked at very high temperatures which destroy nutrients by completely wiping out many vitamins and denaturing minerals. These cooked foods are then canned or frozen and often cooked again in home kitchens. Sugar, salt, preservatives, stabilizers, and/or color enhancers are usually added.

Fresh and unaltered foods, like fresh fruits and vegetables, are without question a thousand fold better for you than processed, canned or frozen fruits and vegetables and other canned products.

Foods are altered through refining. Most bread is the end product of pulverizing wheat berries through processing and refining. Uncle Ben’s white rice is a refined food. Instant oats are refined foods. White sugar in any form is refined food. Refined foods are stripped of many, if not all, of their original nutrients. They fill you up with too many calories and not with health-supporting nutrition.

As if processing and refining are not bad enough, foods are also preserved. In today’s world, the preservers of choice are chemicals, and especially salt. Salt is pumped into almost all processed foods, particularly breads—just read the labels. Salt is one of those chemicals that we accept as part of our daily diet, but it is known to be hard on the body and detrimental to human health.

And then there are those foods, or, rather, pseudo-foods, that are completely manmade from chemicals, not made from real foods at all. Read the labels of foods, and you will soon become familiar with the chemicals that you don’t want to put into your body.

To give one example, imitation strawberry flavoring, found in ice cream, jello, juice drinks, candy, popsicles, desserts, cakes and pastries, can be created from over a dozen different manmade chemicals. That is not food. That is a chemical cocktail completely void of any nutrition whatsoever. Yet we fill up on these pseudo-foods every day.

Once a food is altered from its original state, nutrients are lost.

In this world of food and diet madness and confusion, let’s make this simple.

Is a fresh apple better for you than a piece of apple pie? Of course it is. And to take it one step further, is an apple better for you than applesauce? Let’s put it this way. Do you suppose a fresh apple has more nutrients than a product made from an apple that has been peeled, cooked and canned?

Is corn on the cob better for you than canned corn? Once the corn is removed from the cob, cooked, processed, and preserved, then reheated in your kitchen, how many nutrients do you suppose are left in that corn? And what about the corn chip that is created from the original corn on the cob? How good are these processed and packaged and often fried and salted foods?

Is whole wheat and brown rice better for you than refined flour and refined rice? You bet.

Is a fresh, green-leafy vegetable salad better for you than frozen or canned vegetables? You bet.

Are fresh homemade juices better for you than orange juice made from orange concentrate or V8 juice which is not only cooked (cooking kills nutrients), but is canned and loaded with salt and chemicals. You bet.

In today’s grocery store, how many processed, packaged, refined, preserved, and manmade foods line about 90% of the shelves; foods that you love to eat and constantly beckon to you and tempt you? How many of these foods do you fill up on every day?

Furthermore, if we are filling up on altered and manmade foods, then how much space do we have in our stomachs to eat the foods that have the very best nutrition for premium health and fitness? Not much.

Today’s modern world affords us many privileges, not the least of which is the privilege of choice. All year round there is a wide selection of fresh, whole foods from which to choose. If you want a long life with health, fitness, mobility, joy, and purpose, then choose to eat unaltered fruits, vegetables, raw nuts and seeds, whole grains and beans.

Make every choice count. These are the very choices that determine not only the number of your days, but also the quality of your days.

So make your choice—starting today.

Isolated Systolic Hypertension

When the blood travels through the dense network of our circulatory system, it exerts certain amount of force on the walls of blood vessels, which is known as blood pressure. As we all know, the heart does an important job of supplying (pumping) fresh oxygenated blood, that is then circulated through arteries to different parts of the body. When the heart pumps, it exerts force on the blood, thus pushing it through the veins. During this pumping action, the heart contracts and beats. It is obvious that when the heart beats the blood pressure is maximum and when it is in relaxed state (at rest) blood pressure is at its minimum. Read more on high blood pressure.

The maximum blood pressure achieved during heart contraction, is referred as systolic blood pressure. When the heart does not beat and is relaxing, the blood pressure is found to be lowest and is known as isolated diastolic hypertension. For a healthy person the device shows a reading of 120 mm Hg systolic pressure where as the diastolic pressure is around 80mm Hg. Read more on uncontrolled hypertension.

What is Isolated Systolic Hypertension (ISH)
In this condition, systolic blood pressure abnormally increases but surprisingly the diastolic blood pressure is within the normal range (80-90 mm Hg). The reading indicates a sharp rise in systolic blood pressure, which is more than 140 mm Hg but diastolic blood pressure does not deviate from its normal level. Read more on high systolic blood pressure.

Is Isolated Systolic Hypertension Harmful?
A decade ago, this version of hypertension was considered to be a harmless condition and doctors thought that increased diastolic pressure was a cause of concern. Doctors did not give much importance to rise in systolic hypertension. However, today doctors are of the firm opinion that high systolic hypertension cannot be ignored, as it can lead to health issues that can affect the kidneys, heart and may even cause stroke. Read more on acute hypertension.

Isolated Systolic Hypertension in the Elderly - Symptoms
Generally ISH strikes in older adults after the age of 50 and the person affected often complains about frequent episodes of headache. The heart may also produce some abnormal sounds that are not the same as heart beats. Frequent urination and in some severe vision abnormalities are some of the symptoms of persistent ISH.

Isolated Systolic Hypertension - Causes
ISH is classified as an age related disorder and usually does not affect children. With age, there might be some abnormal changes in the pattern of blood circulation or the functioning of the heart, which may lead to ISH. Also, people diagnosed with diabetes or carry too much body weight are susceptible to ISH. This condition can also occur when the arteries significantly lose their elasticity and become stiff. It is observed that loss of flexibility of arteries can reduce normal blood flow. In such a case, the heart has to push the blood with greater force to ensure proper blood circulation to different organs. The extra force exerted by the heart, ultimately leads to what is known as isolated systolic hypertension.

Isolated Systolic Hypertension Treatment
Medications may be prescribed to lower elevated systolic blood pressure. Apart from medicines, making lifestyle modifications that support healthy blood pressure levels, is necessary. The medicine will work when the person gives up leading a sedentary lifestyle. As aforementioned, being overweight predisposes a person to this form of hypertension. So, maintaining a healthy weight is essential to manage isolated systolic hypertension effectively.