Who Knows What to Eat These Days?.

We see so many articles these days about food being linked to disease, I have no idea what's safe to eat anymore. Sometimes it sounds like pretty much everything kills or maims us! :-)

Beef & Pork = Heart disease and cancer
Fish = Mercury poisoning
Eggs = Too much cholesterol
Cheese = Too much salt and saturated fat
Tofu / Soy = Alzheimer's, shrunken brain, too much estrogen
Carbs = Weight gain
Sugar = Weight gain & inflammation
Juice = Too much sugar
Oil = Too much saturated fat
Raw spinach = E coli
Chicken = Salmonella or bird flu if not cooked well enough
Raspberries & apples = If not organic, dangerous pesticide levels
Tap Water = Aluminum & copper (lead to brain diseases)
.. And so on and so on!

Reading all these studies can drive us crazy!

I used to be a fanatic about diet. At my worse I was a raw food vegan. It was impossible to eat anywhere and it really annoyed my friends. Then I loosened up and for 3 and 1/2 years was an ovo-lacto (eggs/dairy) vegetarian. My main motivation was that I didn't like eating flesh of animals who were slaughtered. I thought the adrenaline released when the animal was killed might linger until I ate it and then the extra adrenaline and fear hormones might affect my peace of mind.

Plus tons of studies link problems with meat: red meat = cancer and heart disease; pork = heart disease; fish = mercury poisoning, neurological problems.

I felt good being ovo-lacto, but then I read a large study that linked tofu to brain atrophy over time (shrinking brain). It was so convincing that I researched it for 3 weeks and concluded I should cut soy out of my diet and bring fish and poultry back in. A friend of a friend who is a vegetarian physician has also cut soy out of his diet for the same reasons.

Plus I was no longer able to deny that meat was an important and natural part of the human diet. In fact, scientists believe that had apes not started eating meat, their brains wouldn't have evolved to the size that enabled us the intelligence to become humans.

All this added up and I gave in. Now I just try to eat my 5 servings of fruits and veggies each day, some cheese, eggs, fish, poultry, nuts and whole grains. And I stay away from too much processed, fatty, junk, or sugary foods. That seems to be the evidence based diet.

But my point is that I don't know what's safe any more. If I read every study that comes out I'll go crazy! There was a huge study, nicknamed the "China Study," that is hailed as the largest epidemiological study on nutrition ever conducted.

It concluded that animal foods are detrimental to our health. Who do I believe? Other studies contradict it!

I guess I have to go with how a diet makes me feel. And I'm sure it's different for each person. Some people can't stand certain foods while others love them.

I feel just as good eating meat as I did when I was a vegetarian. But I definitely feel bad when I eat heavy food like Mexican, Italian, pizza, hamburgers, donuts etc.

So I'm thinking now that we just need to make sure we get enough fruits and vegetables each day, some healthy forms of protein, and whole grains while avoiding what we know is junk food. However, who knows what's right?