The Three White Evils

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There is a group of foods that most people love to eat and in fact, eat several times a day. Generally these are just as addictive to us as many of the drugs that we have trouble with as well. These foods have a few things in common; they are stripped of almost all nutrition, they are loaded with calories and they partner up with each other to create foods that compromise the health and wellness of us all.

Although the name may be new, these foods are very familiar to all of us. In fact most of us eat the “three white evils” every day and usually more than once.

They are:

• White flour
• White salt
• White sugar

With the industrial revolution in Europe and America in the 1800’s, came the invention of more complicated and efficient devices for pulverising the wheat berries into fine white flour and the refinement of the sugar cane into white sugar. This made these common foods more palatable to the Western taste buds.

So what is so bad about white flour, white salt and white sugar? Let’s take a closer look at these common foods.

 

Flour

Australians and New Zealanders love many different foods made from refined grains in the form of white flour products. We have an emotional attachment to the fine light white flour for breads, pastas, pastries, pizza crust, pies, cookies, cakes and desserts of all kinds. Many of us love these products made with refined white flour, even more than we love sugar-laden foods. Furthermore, since World War II, grains were bleached, gassed and coloured into mere remnants of their original form and then roasted, toasted and iced with sugar. Add in chemicals and preservatives, stuff into a big box with an animal character on the front with a clever marketing slogan and we have one of the most palatable, popular foods adorning breakfast tables across the world. We call these completely adulterated grains ‘cereals’, but these types of cereals have about as much nutrition as the cardboard box that contains them.

Refinement, pulverisation, sifting, cooking and packaging of whole grains cause the loss of enzymes, or the ‘life force’ in foods, along with the loss of nutrients, including vitamins and minerals.

Refined grains or fragmented foods, offer poor nutrition, leaving the body still hungry for good nutrition. Thus we overeat and we overeat the wrong foods. Australians and New Zealanders are often overfed and undernourished. Why? Because we eat too many of the processed, refined and preserved foods that are low in nutrients and high in calories, high in fat, high in sugar, high in salt and we eat too few of the foods that are nutrient and fibre-rich.

Refined grains cause our bodies to make excess mucous that accumulates in our noses, sinuses, throats, bronchial tubes and our lungs, causing us to sniff, blow, drain and cough, often leading to more frequent colds and respiratory problems. They also cause the calcium to be depleted from our bones, increasing our chances of getting osteoporosis.

Refined grains are broken down in our digestive system and absorbed very quickly into the blood stream. This upsets the blood sugar levels, exhausting the pancreas and/or the adrenal glands, triggering hypoglycaemic and diabetic reactions. Refined grains are just as bad for people with diabetes as white sugar.

In fact, refined grains are just plain bad for all of us and we pay a hefty price for eating them - premature diseases and early deaths.

 

Salt

The human body needs salt! Not only does salt help control your fluid balance, it also controls the way your muscles and nerves work. Our bodies automatically regulate how much salt, or sodium, there is present. If levels are too high we get thirsty and drink, this speeds up the elimination of salt through our kidneys. Many of us eat up to 4000+ milligrams of salt every day.

Most people have no idea how dangerous salt is to their health and over all well being. Even if they do, most people still eat way too much of it throughout their lifetimes. About 65% to 85% of the salt we eat comes in the form of processed foods for example; canned foods, packaged foods and bread. In fact, bread is probably one of the biggest bad guys when it comes to salt. If you don’t believe it, just read the labels. You will discover for yourself how much salt you are eating and probably don’t even know it.

Salt triggers your thirst instinct so that you will drink water. Water is the body’s way of diluting this toxic substance as quickly as possible to minimise salt’s harmful effects on your body. First your body dilutes the irritating salt crystals with fluids. Your body then wisely shunts the diluted irritants away from vital organs in your body, like your heart and lungs, and stores the diluted salt in your feet, ankles, legs, hands, and even tissues around your eyes. That’s why your eyes, hands, feet, ankles and legs may be puffy when you get up in the morning, especially after feasting on foods high in salt the day before.

It is also a well-known fact that salt causes the loss of elasticity and the constriction of blood vessels. Constricted blood vessels cause high blood pressure because your heart has to work extra hard to pump your blood through those stiff and constricted blood vessels. Salt is thought to also cause kidney stones, asthma and stomach cancer.

Salt contributes greatly to weight gain and obesity. It is also a contributor to osteoporosis; it triggers the leaching of calcium from the bones, just like coffee, white flour, white sugar and soft drinks.

 

Sugar

Australians and New Zealanders eat a lot of sugar. As a matter of fact, statistics report that the average Australian eats from 50 to 70kg of sugar every year, translating into 30 to 50 teaspoons of sugar a day. A can of soft drink alone has 10-14 teaspoons of sugar so it wouldn’t take much more sugar to add up to 30 to 50 teaspoons a day.

Sugar is detrimental to health and wellness. It causes many problems in the body, some of which are:

• Loss of tissue elasticity and tissue functioning causing premature aging
• Interference with the body’s ability to effectively process fat and cholesterol, increasing the risk of atherosclerosis, hypertension, heart disease and strokes
• Sugar, along with white flour, causes wear and tear and ultimately the malfunction of the pancreas
• Because white sugar and white flour are absorbed very quickly into the blood stream, the pancreas is forced to send large quantities of insulin into the blood to balance the large quantities of sugar. When this happens over and over, day in and day out over a lifetime, the pancreas gets worn out. The result is hypoglycemia and diabetes, along with fatigue, headaches, irritability, mood swings, nervousness, anxiety and even mental disorders
• Sugar is highly correlated with the growth of cancer cells. Cancer, such as cancers of the breast, ovaries, intestines, prostate and rectum, is thought to thrive on sugar
• White sugar is correlated with a compromised immune system, as the glucose molecule competes directly with vitamin C molecules for access to the cells. If there is a large oversupply of glucose in the system, the vitamin C loses out, with the end result of a lowered immune function

We’re not saying don’t have any of the white evils at all. However, if your diet is devoid of the “real food” we are deigned to eat and you’re getting way too much of sugar, flour and salt,  the result is a poorly functioning body, a lowered standard of living and a shorter life.