Food Addictions

 If you are a fledgling with vegetables, you may be hungry due to food addictions. We have many food additions that prompt us to eat unhealthy items again and again. Large fast food corporations understand this very well and use it to exploit our weaknesses. Therefore, eating from fast foods chains is extremely unhealthy, even if they are vegan or vegetarian.

We can also be addicted to whole foods such as starchy carbohydrates like corn, rice, or potatoes. My special weakness is for fried salty foods like potato chips. But compared to fast foods, how unhealthy are these items?

Fried foods are especially unhealthy not only because it adds calories to the food, but heating food to such a high temperature destroys nutrients and creates carcinogens, or cancer causing elements such as benzenes, acylamides, and acrolein. Fried foods provides high calories with low nutrition, carcinogens, and may cause food addictions, making it easier to gain weight and develop illnesses in the future.

So what is the best methods for food preparation? Raw foods have the most nutrients, and if I am going to cook something, I usually steam or water sate the vegetables, then add seasoning afterwards (ie. frying the garlic and onions in virgin coconut oil by themselves, then adding the steamed vegetables).

In order from best to worst for food preparation: 
Raw    (best, most nutrients, enzymes)
Steam
Water Sate
Boil
Broil or Grill
Fry     (worst, high calories, least nutrients, loaded with carcinogens)

Starchy carbohydrates and sugars are also extremely addicting. Ask anyone who can't survive without their coke or white rice at every meal. Starches and sugars signal your body to store fat and mess with your insulin levels causing sugar highs and crashes and making way for diabetes in the future. It is better to replace white sugar and white rice with healthier sugars (agave, maple, stevia, dates, coconut sugar) and whole grains (brown rice, wild rice, quinoa, etc) and having portion control so they do not make up most of your diet or meal at any given time. Sprouting grains also provides more nutrients and enzymes to grains. Get more out of your food!

I want to be in charge of my life and not be controlled by external or internal forces, and for me, this includes food addictions.

(I welcome your comments or stories about  this topic. Please send me your story and I'll post it.)