Since the days we went to grammar school, we have been shown colourful charts listing the number of calories, proteins and vitamins in hundreds of different foods.
Remember the sign near the blackboard showing a glass of milk, a loaf of bread and a nice red beefsteak? Next to each picture were a lot of figures which we could add up to give us the total carbohydrates and minerals contained in what we ate. We were taught, from schooldays on through our adult life, that these charts were our best guide to health. Now is a good time to ask: “Have we been misled?”
My belief is that such charts are helpful. But .. . they are also missing two of the most important facts of dieting. Two facts which can cause the entire chart to be meaningless and misleading.
No chart ever says anything about the correct temperature of foods. And they never list any order in which to eat the items.
Have the experts who draw these charts forgotten that the value of each food will change due to temperature and position in the meal?
To prove the seriousness of this charge, let’s go back and take another look at that schoolroom
chart which starts off showing a glass of milk. . . .
Milk has vitamins, protein, carbohydrates, etc. But what the chart does not show is that if you drink milk cold, it has a different effect than when you drink it warm. There is no mention of the fact that if you drink milk at room temperature it will be digested more completely—and your body will receive more of the vitamins, protein and carbohydrates. Just changing the temperature can change the whole count and totals on those so-called “perfect” charts.
Feed a new-born infant on cold milk, instead of lukewarm milk, and you will have sad proof by checking the condition of the baby’s skin, scalp and nails. Both types of milk will nourish, but the warmer kind will do a tremendously better job.
Nowhere on the magic charts do they tell you whether to drink your glass of milk before your meal, while eating, or afterward. Again, the vitamin and calorie count, etc., will be changed. This change in food value can occur because the value of the milk will depend on how thoroughly it is digested and assimilated. It will depend on whether the milk runs into conflict with other foods which you are eating at the same time.
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DO CHARTS ON HEALTH HAVE ANY VALUE ?
Posted: January 27th, 2011 under Arthritis.
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