Many Canadians have the luxury of being able to choose the foods
they eat, but continue to choose foods high in fat, salt and sugar.
Canadians should just stop overindulging on
foods like the cronut burger, which made more than 200 people at the CNE sick
from bacteria in the maple bacon jam.
By: Meghan Telpner
How indulgent does food need to get before we learn?
More than 200 visitors to the CNE suffered serious digestive upset after eating a deep-fried sugary
doughnut filled with meat and cheese and topped with maple bacon jam. The jam
turned out to be contaminated withStaphylococcus aureus toxin,
bacteria most commonly derived from human sources (infected cuts, nasal
passages, pimples and the throat).
Although bacteria was the ultimate culprit in the cronut burger
caper, the human body is just not designed to consume such a mass of trans
fats, hydrogenated vegetable oils, meat, dairy and sugar at one time.
The CBC reported the intake of one woman who “became sick after
eating the cronut burger, as well as seafood-chowder fries, ice-cream waffles
and a smoothie.”
Some might view this woman’s diet as not bad — at least she had
that smoothie in there, right? And there likely were some omega-3s in the
seafood-chowder fries and a solid dose of protein in the cronut.
But this is not how we should define health. What we put into our
body should not be as extreme or indulgent as a ride on a rollercoaster.
McDonald’s recently released an app that is supposed to help guide
us toward better choices at the drive-through. And Coca-Cola has just released
a “natural” version of the high-fructose corn syrup, caffeine, caramel
colouring and carbonated water so many people are hooked on.
Can it get any more confusing?
We overindulge in extreme foods and then try to balance it with an
iPhone app and a fast-food menu, while being persuaded by green imagery and
flowers that a soft drink company is concerned about our well-being.
From a health perspective, processed “healthier” options do the
same thing as their less healthy counterparts — moving us all toward
degeneration — just at a slower rate. Degenerative diseases, such as heart
disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer, often preventable by lifestyle
modification, are the leading cause of death in
Canada.
Now we have people going to hospital for eating a cronut. We all
know what’s good for us and what isn’t — certainly no one ate the cronut to
achieve vitality or longevity (although they likely weren’t anticipating a trip
to the emergency room). This is a perfect example of what happens when fast
food becomes even more indulgent.
Yet transitioning to healthier options of the same junk food we’ve
been eating is not and will never be the solution. Healthier is not the same as
healthy.
Josh Gitalis, a
clinical nutritionist, explains: “Foods that claim to be healthier than their
counterpart are often prized for being low in calories. But what are those
calories made of? To make foods healthier by processed food standards, this
often amounts to a cocktail of chemicals that the body simply doesn’t
recognize, thereby placing stress on the organs. It may be a start, but it’s
not the solution.”
The only answer is real food. Just eat real food.
It is impossible to cheat the system when that system is the
digestive system, respiratory system, nervous system, endocrine system and
circulatory system.
We enjoy many blessings in Canada, including an abundance of produce,
grains and livestock. Many of us are blessed with the luxury of being able to
choose the foods we eat, yet we continue to choose poorly. We even have free
health care to treat us when we are sick.
What do we expect when we partake in indulgences as the cronut or
when we choose healthier over healthy?
Meghan Telpner is
the author of UnDiet,
Eat Your Way to Vibrant Health. Twitter: @MeghanTelpner. Website:
MeghanTelpner.com.
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