By the time you receive this message, my 86-year old father would had undergone two heart surgical procedures in Barranquilla, Colombia, South America, on the night of yesterday November 28th, 2007: 1) arterial bypass surgery, and 2) a pacemaker insertion. According to the cardiologist in charge of his case, one of his arteries looked like a “chorizo;” I dare you to imagine the analogy. Imagine what 86 years of smoking, not exercising, eating white rice, potatoes, yuca, plantains, chorizos, chicharron (fried pork), occasional pizza on Sundays, fruits loaded with sugar, sugar in just about any drink, arepas and empanadas (deep fried corn dough), alcohol, and a myriad of other sweet treats, and delicious local fried and white-flour and grain specialties would do to your body. I think he’s very fortunate to have made it this far in his life. He also suffers from a kidney condition and high blood pressure. By the way my father is very slim, has no belly and weighs about 160 pounds. He is a practicing medical doctor with specialities in pneumology and radiology.
My father’s heart surgeries got me thinking about what I think is the most terrible disease of modern society: Misinformation. Misinformation is actually a disease and is very contagious; we all suffer from it. We suffer from it due to various causes; a) the media has told us either the wrong information or hasn’t told us the full story on a topic, b) because we associate with people who also carry the disease and further make us sick, c) because we seek the wrong specialist to cure us from the disease, and d) because we simply don’t care about being a victim of the misinformation disease.
Art Heinze, a dear friend and mentor once told me…”there are three type of people in the world: the ones who make things happen; the ones who see things happen; and the ones who simple don’t know what happens.” This is a brilliant thought and fits perfectly in my comments today. I’d add to Art’s thought a fourth category - the ones who don’t really care about what happens. Unfortunately most of the world’s population is in the second, third, and fourth category. Somebody once said…”we are robots programmed to be born, and then to obey, eat, study, work, consume, become old, and die.” We shouldn’t live our lives like robots.
We are surrounded by “misinformation” messages. The media, restaurants, our friends, our family; they all contribute to our information or to our “misinformation” about food and health. We’re bombarded by TV shows, newspaper and magazine ads, lunch and dinner invitations, family gatherings and other social events that linger our ability to think for ourselves. From the moment we are born we see people drinking sodas and sugar-full fruit juices, eating pizzas, grains, processed white flour, high quantities of red meat, processed foods, candies, sugars, and many other foods that I’m sure you know are bad for you. Our brain processes this information simply by telling us that if everybody is eating A, then A must be something we must eat and it’s OK to eat; we believe this (because we are in auto pilot and not thinking for ourselves), and we feel bad if we don’t act and eat like everyone else does.
Just to give you an idea of the multi billion dollar restaurant food industry, the US pizza industry reports the following on its website “…Not only did the pizza industry increase its volume of units between July of 2006 and July of 2007, sales saw one of the most significant rises in a few years. During this period the pizza segment saw a 3% increase in sales in both the QSR** and the CD** segments, which equates to an overall increase of $936,433,802 and brings the total U.S. pizza sales for these segments to $32,150,893,862 according to NPD Crest. This $32.2 billion in pizza sales represents 6.29% of the total ‘eating place’ restaurant sales in the U.S., which according to the NRA was $511 billion in 2006.” I don’t know about you, but I find this numbers very shocking. Pizzas are one of the worst foods we can consume and the industry is proud of reporting $32.2 billion in annual sales and a 3% annual growth. This tells you how “misinformed” our society is in regards to food consumption. Obviously is all about money; the food industry needs to make a profit and sell anything that people would eat regardless of the damaging health effects. If you study Alan Watt, David Icke and Alex Jones’ work, you’d know that their research suggest something really shocking and scary could be happening behind the scenes - population control. We are trading years of healthy life for the convenience of buying a $1 menu meal or a slice of pizza. I invite you to think that for every pizza slice, any fast food meal you eat, or any grain or sugar based meal you eat, you are diminishing your lifespan by a few hours.
The reason I think we all have been victims of the “misinformation” disease is that very likely nobody has told us in school, in the mass media, or in our encounters with “misinformed” family and friends, nor we see in restaurant menus, that “insulin” is perhaps one of the most important topics we have to learn about if we want to be considered part of the first category that I spoke about before - the ones who make things happen.
There are four time-tested, clinically proven gauges of health that you can use to determine your own level of health. They are:
• Insulin levels
• Weight
• Blood pressure
• Cholesterol levels
I will dedicate a few lines to insulin since it’s a very important and misunderstood substance, and you can read about the rest in just about any health publication.
What’s the deal with insulin levels? Sugar and grains cause your body to produce insulin and high insulin levels are the single largest physical cause of accelerated aging. If you want to slow down aging and stay healthy then you need to change your grains for greens. I will quote what Dr. Joseph Mercola says about it: “Well, you need insulin to live, but you probably have far too much insulin floating around in your body. Most adults have about one gallon of blood in their bodies and are quite surprised to learn that in that gallon, there is only one teaspoon of sugar! You only need one teaspoon of sugar at all times — if that. If your blood sugar level were to rise to one tablespoon of sugar you would quickly go into a hyperglycemic coma and die. You body works very hard to prevent this by producing insulin to keep your blood sugar at the appropriate level. This reaction keeps you from dying when you eat sugar. Unfortunately, it turns out that high levels of insulin are quite toxic for your body. Anytime you eat grains and sugars, you are increasing your insulin levels. If you have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, or are overweight, it is highly likely that you are eating far too many grains. When I reference diabetes I am referring to the most common type, type 2 diabetes, which typically occurs in adulthood and is associated with increased weight. Type 1 diabetes is actually a problem with not enough insulin, as the pancreas loses the ability to manufacture it.” If you’d like to read about the importance of insulin and how it relates to many diseases, go here.
It’s really sad that in our society it’s a lot cheaper to buy a slice of pizza or a cheeseburger than to buy a healthy meal. First of all, it’s extremely difficult to find a true healthy meal on the streets. In my experience, the best option is to cook and eat at home. Despite all the literature available about healthy eating habits, and despite someone’s educational level, it’s very likely that changing someone’s eating habits could become a daunting task. The reason for this is that change is an emotional action, rather than a rational one. This is the reason that all diets are effective, but none of them work. A great quote that I found about change is by John Kotter: “Behavior change happens mostly by speaking to people’s feelings. This is true even for organizations that are focused on analysis and measurement, even among people who think of themselves as smart in a MBA sense. In highly successful change efforts, people find ways to help others see problems or solutions in ways that influence emotions, not just thought.”
Research seems to indicate that It’s very hard to change someone’s habits just by throwing rational information to that person; if emotions are not involved in the reason for changing someone’s behavior, all efforts could be fruitless. This explains why is common to see medical doctors and highly educated individuals making really bad food choices. Even more astonishing is the fact that in my experience, it’s almost impossible to find a healthy meal at the cafeteria or restaurant inside a hospital. That tells you a lot about the system and how widespread the “misinformation” disease is - not even hospitals can cure it.
The cure for the “misinformation” disease is in all of us. The fact that you’ve been eating sugar and grains all your life doesn’t mean you have to continue doing it. Control your insulin levels. Be curious, question absolutely everything you eat, find an emotional reason to change - wake up! I love my father very much, and I’m in emotional pain from seeing him suffer from the “misinformation” disease. Perhaps my father could have lived to be 120 years old if he would have cured himself from the “misinformation” disease.
Note: The first edition of my free “The Truth Report” newsletter will be delivered by December 1st, 2007. I’m very excited about this accomplishment and look forward to your feedback.
To Your Success,
Julio Martinez-Clark
