Category: Health

Hello there, hope everyone had a great week so far! It is almost the end of January. We are seeing more and more people around the Savannah exercising and trying to get in shape because Carnival is approaching and they want to look their best.

What about friends and co-workers trying new “diets” that promise “quick” weight loss results without exercising? There are so many “diets” out there that would be nearly impossible to name them all!

But people are so desperate to lose the weight fast for an upcoming wedding or to play mass. They are willing to do anything for a “quick” fix including starving themselves. Unfortunately, they do not realize that their health is at serious stake here and that these diets do not work.

THE YO-YO DIETING EFFECT

What this mean exactly? It means that after you are done with the diet, you go back to your old eating habits. It is not surprising that most people who follow fad diets regain all the weight back (Plus more!) within an extended period of time (1 to 5 years). According to an UCLA Researcher Report:

“You can initially lose 5 to 10 percent of your weight on any number of diets, but then the weight comes back…”We found that the majority of people regained all the weight, plus more. Sustained weight loss was found only in a small minority of participants, while complete weight regain was found in the majority. Diets do not lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits for the majority of people.”

Dieting does not work

So unless your purpose is to regain all the weight you are attempting to lose (And gain even more) forget about diets!

UNHEALTHY WEIGHT LOSS

When you start hearing about calories restriction programs you can be assured that it is unhealthy. The truth is that when you are eating healthy and exercising, you do not have to worry about counting calories. You will lose the weight naturally.

What does it mean to eat healthy? It means you are eating a balanced diet of lots of fresh fruits, vegetables and legumes. They are fantastic for your body. They can help reduce illnesses and provide you with amazing energy throughout the day. It is something the body needs and approves.

Fad diets on the other hand, can be extremely dangerous because they lack essential nutrients, causing the person to go through periods of dehydration, weakness, fatigue, nausea and mood swings (Because they are hungry!). It can also lead to eating disorders.

IT IS ALL ABOUT MARKETING

There is a reason fad diets and programs exist: Money, money and more money! They do not care about you or your health, as long as there is an audience willing to try their gimmicks they will continue selling their products. Please do not waste any money on programs that promise you quick weight loss because you will be putting yourself in harm’s way.

If you have any issues with weight, the solution does not lie in wasting money on expensive/imported products or counting calories, the solution lies in finding out why you are overweight, changing your perception and vision about food and your relationship with it and then learning how and what to eat again.

VEGANISM IS NOT A DIET

Erroneously, many people think veganism is a “diet” but it is not. Veganism is a way of living or in other words…it is a lifestyle. Most vegans (I say most because we have quite a few junk food vegans) eat a healthy diet full of fresh fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes.

We do not worry about whether our food will makes us “fat”, instead we are concerned about what we put inside our bodies and the impact it will have in our overall health.

We have one body ONLY and it is the same body that hopefully will let us reach until we are 100 years old and beyond. Why poison it with unhealthy foods that will result in shortening our life span or suffer preventable illnesses such as diabetes, cholesterol and heart disease?

The focus shouldn’t be in losing weight, it should be about being healthy. Because when you are healthy and you are eating consistently the right foods, you will lose the weight normally without dieting.

There is no quick fix or miracles; it requires a complete lifestyle change. Serious discipline and commitment; it is a process and a very individual one.

Very few people are willing to make this change because that’s how humans generally are, we do not want to change. However, sometimes those changes bring with themselves so many unexpected benefits that can help us live rather than survive.

It seems cliché but we do have one life to live and one body to do it all. Let’s make the best out of it.

Generally speaking, people seem to assimilate and understand (To a certain extent) that others choose not to eat meat but what they can never fully understand is why anyone (in their right mind) would be willing to give up on that gooey little friend called cheese.

Dr. Neal Barnard in his book “Breaking the food seduction: The hidden reasons behind food cravings“ describe cheese as an addiction with similar effects to crack cocaine. No joke. Cheese is extremely addictive because it requires huge amounts of casein to make just one block.

Casein is the main protein present in cow milk and (In coagulated form) in cheese. As a result casein becomes concentrated when in solid dairy form and it unlocks the opioid receptors in the brain, which are linked with the control of pain, reward and guess what? Addiction.

Scientists say cheese is as addictive as Crack Cocaine

Is there any wonder why pizza is the number one most addicting food? Take for example a popular Pizza franchise. Back in 2009, their sales numbers were decreasing dramatically. An organization called Dairy Management came to the rescue and since then, this Pizza company has shown a tremendous increase on sales. The secret? More cheese. 40% more!

One of their pizza slices contains more more than two-thirds of the day’s maximum recommended amount of saturated fat. In just ONE slice, there is 430 calories and almost 1000mg of sodium. And who eats just one slice of pizza?

Conspiracy to make you eat more cheese

Let’s talk about some other reasons our gooey little bud isn’t as healthy as you might think:

CHEESE IS LOADED WITH FAT, SODIUM AND CHOLESTEROL

When you are eating that super cheesy pizza, remember the cheese you seem to be enjoying so much? Well it is 70 % fat and mainly saturated which is horrible for your body.

Remember, number one cause of death in Trinidad & Tobago is heart disease. There is a serious issue with obesity, cholesterol and diabetes as well.

A lot of cheeses are made with rennet, which is made from an enzyme that comes from calves’ stomach linings. To get this enzyme, manufacturers have to kill newborn calves.

This also means that before you eat cheese, it has to pass through a baby’s stomach before making it to yours! And yes, there is rennet-free cheeses but they are not Vegan, it still loaded with fat and cholesterol.

CHEESE IS THE PRODUCT OF ANIMAL RAPE

Many people naively believe that cows produce milk at any moment of time. The obvious fact is that cows (Like any other animal) would produce milk only when they are pregnant or nursing.

As I explained in previous blog posts, a cow’s natural lifespan is around 20 years, but cows used by the dairy industry are typically killed after five years because their bodies are wear out from constantly being pregnant or lactating.

They are standing on concrete flooring for the entire day without having the chance to go out and enjoy green pastures. What the dairy and egg industry does to the cows and chickens is called animal slavery and horrific abuse. Do you really want to be part of all of this and at the same time let your health deteriorate?

But what exactly farmers do in order to get the milk flowing? They artificially inseminate cows over and over using tools called “rape racks” If you have no idea how this process is like, please take a look (Viewer discretion is advised):

How cows are impregnated

Because people are hooked to cheese, the manufactures have a “need” to produce more milk so they inject hormones to the poor cows to get them to produce even more milk. These hormones are of course passed to humans when they consume any kind of dairy. The cows suffer beyond comprehension and your health as well.

CHEESE, LIKE MOST DAIRY IS MUCUS-FORMING

Do you really want to stop getting those horrible flu-like symptoms or any kind of “virus”? Ditch the cheese and the rest of the dairy and start living! I cannot remember the last time I had any kind of flu-like symptoms! It has been YEARS.

Contrary to popular belief, people can live without cheese but if you insist on having a bit on occasion please check your options for Vegan cheeses. Nutritional yeast is also an amazing alternative (You can find it in any health store).

You can enjoy a life disease-free and at the same time, allow animals to have the opportunity to live theirs in peace. Please make that choice today, make a choice of no longer participating in the torture, abuse and death of animals. Make a choice where your health comes first. Make a choice to LIVE.

We all know that Trinis loves chicken. They bake it, broil it, bbq it, stew it and particularly fry it. As mentioned in my last blog entry, obesity is rapidly increasing in our country to terrifying levels along with heart disease.

It seems like it is very common for everyone these days to see a 30 something year old person dying of a heart attack. Loved ones say with resignation: “Yeah boy, he died. He was young. God called him home” and then go back comforting their blues with a bucket of fried chicken.

In every corner in our country there seems to be an outlet selling it and people desperately buying it. Of course, these local and international franchises do not care at all about the health of the population. At the end of the day everything is about the Mighty Dollar, just a business.

Next time, when you hear someone ordering a chicken leg or tight from one of these places you can simply see it as someone ordering…well just a piece of chicken like a regular day in T&T.

Or after taking the “Blue pill” from the Matrix, you can start seeing it for what it is: The torn limbs of a sentient being. Whose life was taken away senselessly so that a person who say they cannot “live” without meat, can consume it.

A little while ago, I was in town when I observed a regular pick-up truck outside one of these popular outlets. Two guys in the back of the truck had this huge plastic covering whatever was inside in the back part of the truck.

To my amazement, there were big bags of chicken parts. One of the guys, carried one of those bags (and almost dropped it and dragged it a few times) Took it to the back door of this outlet leaving a long trace of blood along.

The people who were inside this fast food restaurant, were completely oblivious about what was happening. The saddest part is that in most cases, even if they see it, they will still buy it and eat it.

STATISTICS

According to Agriculture Minister, Clarence Rambarath, each year Trinidad and Tobago population spends $1.2 billion on chicken to eat. No, it is not a typo. An obscene $1.2 BILLION dollars.

He also revealed that this figure is equivalent to 40 million birds or 66 million kilograms of meat. The population also eats yearly 140 million eggs.

$1.2 Billion Chicken Bill

Did you ever see one of those trucks carrying living chicken? You always know one is nearby because of the strong stench. When you actually get to see the truck, you observe in the hot Trini sun that the cages are covered with excrement. The birds are packed so tightly that they can barely move.

Those same chickens will end up in your dinner plate. When slaughtering, chickens are hung upside down and their throats slit IF they are luck. If they are not they are scalded to death while defeathering.

What happens with the male chickens in T&T? Everywhere else in the world, the male chicks are killed in high-speed grinders because they are worthless to the egg industry.

Now, we can close our eyes and ears and say “Ew I don’t want to hear this!”. But if it is not good for our eyes and ears, why is it good for our stomachs? You don’t care about the animals? Okay, please continue reading.

WHY YOU SHOULDN’T EAT CHICKEN

In the US, fecal contamination in store-bought chicken is extremely common and causes over 1.5 million illnesses per year. Nearly half of supermarket chicken is tainted with feces.

Nearly Half of Supermarket Chicken Tainted by Feces, Testing Finds

Fecal Contamination In Retail Chicken Products

Do you think is it any different in Trinidad? How does it feel to know that when someone eats chicken they are almost guaranteed to be swallowing some actual poop? Horrible isn’t? But it doesn’t end there.

Salmonella is another big concern with chicken. Also hormones being injected to these birds to look bigger and plumper. Think of ALL of this PLUS the same birds (With salmonella, poop and other diseases) being soaked in hot hydrogenated oil for your consumption.

WHY HYDROGENATED OIL IS BAD FOR YOU

But what exactly is hydrogenated oil? Basically, they take natural oils and then heat them to very high temperatures adding a catalytic effect using a metal to give it more density.

In other words, you are eating literal plastic and is poison for your body. enters your blood stream and the body cannot utilize it. So instead it clogs your arteries which of course will lead to the number one cause of death in Trinidad and Tobago: Heart disease!

I hate to say it but you are paying big bucks to big companies to basically kill you. You might say is all about the taste, who cares! Really? Is the taste of the limb of a tortured animal worth your life?

Think about that for just a second. I say it’s all about your health, life and your ability to enjoy it disease-free! We were not meant to consume these horrendous foods that are being marketed to us on a daily basis.

If you tell me right now that we were born to eat meat (Chicken included), then I dare you to jump at the next cow, chicken or pig you see and without any tools whatsoever but just your bare hands… kill it and eat it ALL.

Blood, nose, ears, eyes, lips, tail, guts, butt, etc without discarding anything and without washing it, season it or cooking it in any shape or form. Just old plain raw animal flesh and organs. If you were really born to eat meat (Like most carnivores), that’s exactly how you would eat it.

Chicken is one of the most abused animals in the planet and because of the way they are treated in farms and factory farms, they are full of diseases and bacteria.

HOW WE CAN MAKE A CHANGE

We put their diseased flesh inside our bodies and then wonder why we are always sick? Let’s not look too far, it IS our diet! Contrary to popular belief, we can perfectly live a long and HEALTHY life with what nature has already provided for us. Vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. These foods will prove to be a tremendous source of health and energy in your life. I promise you that!

Please keep away from consuming dead animals, your body is not a graveyard. It is never too late to change your lifestyle!