The diet we as humans evolved with is characterized by unprocessed or barely processed small animals, seeds, roots and tubers, some seafood when available and wild fruits and in rare cases other humans. We were hunters and gatherers and evolved into sustainable agriculture where we could be assured of a more constant reliable source of food to keep families and ourselves alive under all kinds of weather and seasonal conditions. The problem of converting grasses and other plants into edible foods has always been a challenge. The hoards of Mongolians utilized their horses as converters of grass by utilizing both the milk from the mares and blood from the necks their war ponies. Their being violent may be partly due to the diet they ate. We ate anything and everything that was in the environment we were in, although' preferred foods, such as meats which were hard to get, irregularly supplied, and some of the highly preferred seeds were too time consuming to prepare to be eaten in great quantity. It took upward of 16 hours a day to be able to gather enough food for immediate use and some to sock away for a rainy day. The long term storage of processed foods was not achieved until the first part of the 19th century when Napoleon gave a reward for anyone coming up with a way to preserve food for his armies.
The time lag from harvest to consumption was often almost zero, and the range of plant and animals eaten was much greater than today. Taste was not an issue and the difference between palatability and edibility was not even considered. Finding enough food was the main issue and taste came second. Sugar as we know it today was non-existent except for some ripe treats during the harvesting of wild fruits and or berries once a year. One of the earliest forms of storage was accomplished by the American Indian who combined sun dried wild meats and dried berries with intestinal fat of animals. All raw and enzyme active and they thrived until the advent of the white man who changed their entire diet regime. They are now some of the un-healthest people on earth and may soon become extinct because of diabetes and heart disease all because of a diet that is self destructive rather than uplifting and fulfilling. Many of the concepts for a more natural healthy diet came from the uncorrupted native peoples of Central and South America. (Ama-amA Story).
Today's nutritional guidelines are historically based on intake of vitamin and minerals that are sufficient only to prevent the onset of relatively immediate and outwardly obvious deficiency diseases. These have come into our lives because of research that was done by the United States federal government on what it takes to remain healthy. Not the optimum levels, but the minimum levels necessary to prevent disease. The tests on the foods that are part of the USDA list were tested in the 1940's and 1950's when soils contained relatively high levels of minerals. The soils today are only supplied with nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium all of which make the plants look good but do not contain the necessary micro minerals and many of the other minerals necessary to sustain a person in the state of good health. Updating of the USDA list has not been accomplished and many foods that we eat today are not on the list while many of the foods on the list that we should be eating have been eliminated because we have chosen to live on highly processed empty foods that can easily be eaten without much time spent on preparation.
Times of high optimal mineral and vitamin demand are now beginning to be recognized. As the importance of minerals are being recognized the levels of the vital minerals in our agricultural soils are being depleted. The natural process of rotational agriculture and making sure that organic materials rich in minerals are being placed back into the soils has not been a factor taken into the real cost of producing our food. Short term thinking, with short-term profits, all gone when our soil finally gives out. Nutritional guidelines are not based on the 'normal' vitamin and mineral level, fat type or composition, of the ancestral foods we hunted and gathered from the wild. In addition, today's natural food may not have the same vitamin and mineral content as the wild fruits and other foods our ancestors ate. Storage and processing of some natural foods causes a significant decline in the vitamin content over time. Many foods such as white sugar have no mineral or vitamin content at all and are just pure carbohydrates that when digested require the body to give up its reserves of these key elements just to process it into a usable substance. (Raw Sugar Cane Juice Powder) Over time eating these empty foods causes the body to be depleted with results like osteoporosis raising havoc with the older generation. More and more empty foods, full of calories but lacking any real substance, are being made available in our supermarkets all vying for our dollars by placating our corrupted taste buds. Make no mistake about it food is a big business and we all support its growth by voting with our dollars every time we make a purchase. Walk down the isles of any supermarket and all you will see will be over-processed attractively packaged foods, lacking any enzyme activity and in most cases lacking other key elements that make it a viable choice in providing quality nutrients for your family. In terms of real cost, we are paying more for empty calories and out of balance proteins on enzyme dead foods than we would for real food that needs a little of our time for preparation.
Even the foods that we take for granted, as being healthy may not be as healthy and nutritious as they should be. Take for instance the common tomato. When it is harvested for the commercial market the law dictates that it must be picked green, must be green when it enters the wholesale market and only then can it be placed in a special gas chamber that utilizes an aging gas to cause the fruit to change color. Remember I did not say ripen but said to change color. The same thing is done with bananas. A ripe bananas flavor off its stalk is a far cry from what we think a ripe banana out of the supermarket should taste like. The Vitamin content on 100 grams of this green/aged tomato is only 700 IU's per 100 grams. The same tomato two weeks later that has been allowed to vine ripen has almost 17,000 units of Vitamin A per 100 grams. (about three ounces) So if you were to believe that you could only consume 5000 IU's of vitamin A without experiencing some type of toxicity you might think twice about eating a whole tomato.
The food pyramid has also been given to as a guide but it to has its fallacies. The Industrial food industry has had its influence on the creation and adoption of the well-known highly publicized food pyramid. Even with all of its shortfalls the vegetable and fruit section are about right in their recommendations for daily consumption. As well published and supported the pyramid is and all of the training the children get in school only less than 9% of the US population even comes close to compliance. If it does not taste good, is sweet, is salty, is oily, is cooked, is made from processed flour or corn it is not considered to be edible and is avoided even if it is good for us.
Industrial food is highly attractive, delicious, and displaces whole foods which are more evolutionarily and environmentally correct. Industrial foods are also very addictive because of the lack of minerals and certain vitamins which have not been considered an important part of their formulation. Without these key elements present in our foods the trigger factor of letting the body know when it has taken in enough is shut off and we continue to eat until we are beyond saturation. The range of natural foods is now very much less, and we are conditioned to avoid the most nutritious organ meats. Most of the native cultures relished the organ meats in a raw state soon after they had a successful hunt. It was the hunters who had access to the liver and heart that contains high amounts of antioxidants and other nutritional factors.
Some of the best foods, such as fish and organ meat, are being affected by heavy metals and toxins we have put in the environment. They now collect the pesticides and insecticides in large quantities that make them toxic to any human or other animals that work their way up the food chain. Everything is connected and we as humans are at the top of the food chain and have access to the best foods when and where we want them but at the same time places us in a unique position of receiving all of the toxins that have been collected along the way.
A fairly natural diet can be arranged in the industrial west, but it takes informed choice, many times costs more, is slower to prepare, and is increasingly been seen as 'odd' or 'aberrant', especially by children, who have almost no idea of what foods the omnivorous human animal has evolved with. Our children are in a position where we are placating them with fast sweet foods, just to get them off our backs, with long term adverse health habits and consequences. The cost is not just in the actual expense of the food but in the time we might think that it takes to prepare the food. I have found that the more natural the food the less time it takes me to have it ready to eat. The closer to raw the food is the easier it is to prepare and use.
Most of us cannot answer the question, 'what is natural food for the human animal'?
How do we answer this question? Most of our beliefs about what food even is are conditioned by the country, socioeconomic group, piers and family we are born into. If you were born in rural China, you would recognize frogs ovaries, lizards, ducks feet, rice, dried bean curd, lotus waterlilly seeds and roots, dog flesh, pig flesh, fried grasshoppers, fried water beetles, and dried gourds (amongst a huge range of other plant and animals) as being food. Born in the industrial west , you would recognize fried potato, gravy, fried fish, a stabilized biofoam of wheat endosperm (white bread), pizza, pasta, Twinkies, pies, hamburgers, chicken, crisps and other stabilized and processed plant and animal products as being 'what food is'. Many children-and some adults-no longer recognize what they are eating as being modified seeds, or modified plant oils, modified starches and gums. Most have no ideas as to were there food comes from other than it originates at a restaurant or grocery store.
Urban society is built on the availability of cheap food. Without cheap food, we cannot live and (thrive) in cities. City life is built on the access of stable, easily and quickly prepared food. It has been estimated by researchers that the average American now eats out for more than 55% of the meals eaten. To top it off the industrial food machine now provides a good portion of the balance of the meals as ready to eat and all you need to do is plop them into the convenient micro-wave. Our ability to do uninterrupted, applied work in an industrial/service complex in the interests of the shareholders of the industrial/service machine we are currently bound to requires minimum time to prepare food, minimum time to eat food, no mess, and no fuss. In the agrarian society we came from most of the time spent was in the growing or raising of the foods and in the process of preparing it for times of need or for immediate consumption. It became a way of life and very little time was available for recreational or educational activities. Many of our social activities are based on the consumption of items that are less than favorable in maintaining good health. With all of the research about soft drinks ,either the quantity of sugar consumed or the amount of artificial sweeteners, one would think that the beverage industry providing these items would be concerned. Not so ,consumption continues to go up and it has become part of the national addiction to refill to the hilt at the convenience stores where you can get anything you want to satisfy you sweet tooth. The consumption of alcohol and tobacco as stimulants is a national tragedy causing health problems that should have never occurred and add a real unnecessary cost to our national health care system. Need we not forget ice cream which is a combination of foods that separately are responsible for all kinds of negative health issues.
In the creation of the Ama-amA line of products we have been well aware of all of the issues we have talked about so far. Trying to create a healthy nutrition bar that can be used as a meal replacement has been a difficult task. A product that can compete in the market with other prepackaged items but be nutritious and complete at the same time. Sweet but from natural healthy sources that can be utilized by the body without depleting it of its mineral reserves. Fats, but those that can carry flavor and allow vitamins A,E,D and K to work, but at the same time be good for you providing the essential fatty acids. Proteins in a balanced state so that the excess out of balanced amino acids are not converted into toxins waiting to be coated with fat and stored so as not interfere with normal body functions. Raw, so that the enzymes can remain active supporting the digestive process in the break down of foods so that the component parts can be effectively used to build all of the functional and support systems of the body. Complete so that the normal process of digestion can take place without causing intestinal distress due to an hydrochloric acid build up working on undigested, under-enzymed, under mineralized, under vitamized, over processed foods. We have accomplished that task and are providing products in both a ready to eat format and one that can be prepared at home.
In my opinion, the healthiest diet for the human animal is one we have been eating for the 2 million years prior to urbanization. That is, a wide range of minimally processed plant and animal foods. That means our sugars are obtained from fruits and are therefore accompanied by fiber, gums, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals. Our carbohydrates are derived from roots, tubers, rhizomes, and the endosperm of seeds. It means our fats are obtained from animals, fish, and seeds. Our oils are obtained from the whole seeds and nuts we eat, and from plant sources where the oil is easily extracted, such as grapes and olives. The oils are fresh, and are unmodified, and contain protective phytochemicals. It means protein is from nuts, seeds, animals of all kinds, and perhaps fermented or enzymatically pre-digested non-human animal milk products.
Most of the world's poor people are still rural, eat mainly seed derived protein-with useful additions from small amounts of fish, mollusk, meat, egg, vegetables and roots-and, except for illness derived from smoking, rarely show symptoms of degenerative disease. They eat closest to a 'human natural diet'. It is only when they are exposed to the western style diet do they start having degenerative diseases. Most of our AID programs sponsored by the US government and or the UN consist of over processed foods derived from cows milk, corn or wheat with some soy. The smart Ethiopians when offered surplus food from the Gulf War turned it down. The military MRE's were know as Meals Rejected by the Ethiopians.
Rich industrial/technical societies-chiefly Western societies at this time, although other societies will follow the same path as they too become wealthy-eat furthest from a 'human natural' diet, and degenerative disease is a silent epidemic. Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death in the USA. Sudden blood clots in arteries-strokes- occur in about 500,000 people a year in the United States and for about 150,000 of those people the stroke is fatal. Many times the heart attack is not a heart attack at all but a constriction of an artery by a cramp caused by imbalance of calcium and magnesium. About 2 million Americans daily life is affected by stroke-related disabilities. About 58 million people in the United States have hypertension-a major risk factor for coronary heart disease. Nearly million cancer cases are found in the people of the United States every year. Approximately 11 million Americans have diabetes, the severest forms of which causes kidney damage, limb damage, and other cardiovascular damage. 34 million adults-and increasing numbers of children-are obese, a risk factor in coronary heart disease. 1.5 million broken bones a year have been identified as partially caused by weak and brittle bones due to osteoporosis. It is estimated 20 million Americans over the age of 45 are affected by osteoporosis. It is an interesting note that we here in America have one of the highest rates of osteoporosis in the worked while at the same time have one of the highest rates of milk usage. On the other hand India with the lowest use of cows milk has the lowest rate of osteoporosis. The American experience is the most extreme example of a people afflicted by degenerative disease. But the pattern is the same for all Western societies. Not to mention the problem of obesity in both adults and children. What we consider normal weight is not normal at all but only acceptable as a norm because we do not want to recognize that what we are doing to ourselves in unnatural.
Most people would not contest that a sedentary lifestyle, exposure to carcinogenic chemicals, and an insecure, high stress environment are part of the causation of this epidemic. The proportion of blame that can be attributed directly to the diet the West eats is difficult to quantify. But the evidence from studies on mice (breeds genetically prone to develop heart disease given food with or without important antioxidants) points starkly to the involvement of a highly modified techno-industrial diet in the cause of cardio-vascular diseases. Studies on the particular diets of populations around the world and the incidence of degenerative disease in those populations points to diet and degenerative diseases being strongly linked . Wild animals herbivores, carnivores and omnivores all live a health existence until they are given cooked processed foods. It is at that time that they need the services of a veterinarian.
Why should we be surprised that the kinds of food we evolved with protect us from degenerative disease? Why should we be surprised if a diet that meets-and exceeds-our caloric and protein needs, but does not have the kinds, proportions, and levels of fats, oils, minerals, vitamins, and phytochemicals that are found in abundance in a whole plant and animal food diet is implicated in degenerative disease? Isn't the slow onset of degenerative disease more likely as we move further away from our evolutionarily correct diet? Surely commonsense tells us degenerative disease is less likely the more we eat the kinds and quantities of foods that we evolved to eat over the countless millennia of human evolution? All other things being equal, its just commonsense. It doesn't need 'scientific proof'.
We are confused and bemused by a plethora of studies on diet which contradict each other.
The biggest arguments seem to be over fat. Virtually all fats found in natural foods are basically mixtures of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated 'fatty acids' in different proportions. Beyond the absolute need to take in at least 2-3% of your fat as the omega-6 fatty acids and at least 1-1.5% as omega-3 fatty acids, there is no one 'formula' of various proportions of fatty acids that everybody in the world 'must' follow, except that it should be the fats found in unprocessed natural foods that would have been available to our hominid ancestors. Nor should fats be an 'ideal' percentage of your calorie intake that must not be exceeded. Larger (naturally large, not due to obesity) or more active people need more calories from fat, and that's about it.
If you eat more calories than you burn, you will store them as fat. Fat in itself doesn't make us fat, excess calories from whatever source make us fat. Excess carbohydrate-whether potato or pasta-is converted to fat and stored. No matter how naturally derived, how 'authentic' to our ancestral diet, excess calories are dangerous in the long term. Period.
At times when our ancestors had only limited access to saturated fats from wild animals (whose fat contains the essential fatty acids Omega-3 and Omega-6) they ate more nuts and seeds and vegetables, which contain enough of these essential fatty acids for our bodies to be able to manufacture saturated fats. Our bodies need saturated fats to make 'structural' adipose tissue, and to burn for energy. Whether they ate saturated fat from animals or made it from nut and seed mono/poly/saturated fats, the kind of fat in the tissues of our ancestors was relatively saturated fat. The major form of fat our tissues had available to burn (alongside carbohydrate calories) or store for times of shortage was saturated fat. Again, whether we obtained saturated fat by eating animal fat, or whether had to make it within our bodies from plant derived sources, we ended up in both cases with more or less the same amount of saturated fat both stored and available for burning. Saturated fat is not intrinsically bad, Excess calories - from carbohydrate or fat are. Sedentary people - most of us - needs to cut back on excess calories in saturated fats, in oil intake, and in carbohydrate intake. Or get a lot more exercise.
Humans have consumed saturated fats from animals for countless millennia. Only very recently-in the last few thousand years or so- in the tropics at least, has easily extracted oil from coconuts and palm fruit been introduced to our diet. Very stable oils, such grape oil, olive oil, camellia seed oil, or sesame paste (all of which contain lots of built-in antioxidants and aren't too polyunsaturated), were also introduced. And they were both fresh and 'unpurified'. They were highly valued, and only small amounts were available, so rancidity tended not to be an issue anyway. There was no ability to extract highly polyunsaturated oils from small seeds, or to create the partially hydrogenated vegetable oils that contain 'trans fatty acids' and that are so widely used in the West today. Oil was a very valuable commodity and in short supply.
Our ancestors got the above mentioned essential polyunsaturated fatty acids from the intact leaves, roots, nuts, and seeds that they gathered (some, such as Linum, flax seed, were quite high in the essential fatty acids) and from the organs of the animals they killed, large or small. The rather unstable polyunsaturated fatty acids didn't go rancid because they were eaten in a 'whole food' state. Naturally present antioxidants protected the fatty acids from oxidation. Some wild seeds have quite astonishing levels of antioxidant. These natural antioxidants are largely absent in a highly processed food. The grape seed oils that are used in the Ama-amA products have a huge amount of antioxidants in them which help preserve the products and prevent the oils from going rancid over a short period of time. Unlike other oils grapeseed can be stored for a longer period of time without spoiling.
We need to be aware that the fat profile in grain fed animals is different to grass fed animals. The fat of grain fed animals has less omega 3 essential fatty acids, and more omega-6 essential fatty acids than grass fed animals. If you are reliant on grain fed animal fat to meet a good part of your calorie needs, it may be a good idea to correct the essential fatty acid balance by taking an Omega-3 supplement. Or regularly eat foods particularly high in Omega-3, such as sardines.
In my opinion, the bottom line is to eat whole natural foods to secure the essential fatty acids omega-3 and omega-6 (especially organ meats, nuts, whole seeds, green vegetables, seafood such as sardines) and take an omega-3 supplement if you are not currently eating as naturally aas you would like; don't be concerned about eating fatty animal tissue, but if you don't get much exercise, use fat trimming as an easy means of dropping daily calorie intake; and if you are going to use oils, use stable, predominantly monounsaturated oils such as olive oil, or grapeseed oil. And make sure the oils are fresh, and unprocessed. There is a big difference between cold processed oils, without the use of solvents ,in making sure the nutritional factors are still in place that make it a healthy addition to our diet.
Do be concerned if your calorie intake-from ANY source- regularly exceeds the calories you burn. It makes no difference if you eat 3000 more calories than you need for everyday metabolic or for added exercise you will gain a pound of fat. Be very concerned. Even if you don't 'look' fat, you will be carrying excess stored fat within your body cavity and muscles. Fat is first stored internally and then is expressed as an outward manifestation. (Conversely, but more rarely, some 'big' looking people may have dense bones and lots of muscle, but are carrying healthy amounts of fat. A healthy amount of fat is generally recognized as 15% or less of body mass as fat for men, and 22% or less for women. Women must have more fat stored to be able to ovulate and to feed the babies.)
Because of our life style and our inability or desire to chew our foods well many of the proteins putrefy, oils go rancid and the carbohydrates ferment in our intestine causing no only the obvious intestinal problems but huge amounts of toxins that are not eliminated from the body. The toxins not eliminated are covered with fat and stored in a location so as not to interfere with other body functions. These storage areas are different for men and women but the end result is the same obesity. We have become toxic waste dumps.
In the process of making a change you need to first know what your current status is. We know when we have an ache or pain but many times have no clue to what is going on inside, brewing that may crop up at any time. To find out our current state of affairs there are a number of steps that can be taken. One is to take a good look at our current eating habits and take an inventory of the foods and beverages we are eating. No judgement just an inventory. Once the inventory is taken the process of determining how your current eating habits are affecting your health can be processed. You will now have the information necessary to be able to make decisions on the direction you will need to take to rectify deficiencies or eliminate eating habits that could lead to adverse health conditions. Knowledge is power and we want to put the power of change in you hands. The rest is up to you. Link onto the Health and Nutrition Questionnaire and take the test. There are other ways to accomplish this task by utilizing a variety of new technologies that measure electronically what is going on in the body. Link on to Your Health Your Choice for more information on what technology is doing to help us understand what is going on with over 9000 body functions.
Why do we need to endlessly study the Western industrial diet, as if it were natural to our species?
The white jacketed scientist poring over some laboratory mice is a Homo sapiens, the same animal as you or me. And all Homo sapiens are omnivorous animals that have evolved to eat a wide range of animals-from insects to elephants-and a wide range of plants. And for plants in particular, we have learned even to eliminate or de-nature the toxic chemicals some of them contain, by leaching or cooking. Our guide to healthy eating is simply to see what was available to our ancestors to eat, what they ate, what they avoided, what they relished. The predominantly monounsaturated oils mentioned aside, if it wasn't available to our ancestors, tend to avoid it.
Disease as we know it today did not come about until we started cooking our foods. Even the meats and dairy products were eaten in their raw natural state. Add to that our commonsense and the opportunities to exploit equivalently valuable compounded foods from modern food processing ('Tsurumi' seafood sticks, for example), and we have the basis for a healthy diet in an urban environment. Albeit the lizard, frog, grub, turtle component is no longer available to us-and wouldn't be recognized as food even if it were!
The major difficulties in eating as we have evolved to eat are:
Finding sources of 'certified safe food' animal (incl. sea, and mollusks) meats, seeds, fruits and vegetables
Finding time to prepare them so they are available at home and at work
Finding the determination to eat 'unconventionally'-a wonderful irony!
Finding time to eat slowly so as to completely chew our foods before swallowing.
Finding good unprocessed food that are not unnecessarily cooked or over processed
Finding foods that are mineral rich and do not lack the essential micro minerals that once were present in our diet.
Finding fast convenient foods that are easy to eat and taste good and are good for you
What does the future hold?
Well, in my opinion, there will be a very slow shift to an appreciation of the importance of, and demand for, a 'naturally human diet'. We are locked into a habit that will be hard to break. We are ultimately responsible for our own heath and if we are to have more energy, be without joint pain, see clearly, have balanced sugar levels available for fuel to power our cells, be without headaches be regular in our bowel movements, be without gastric or acid distress, have a reduced chance of the major degenerate diseases then we need to take a good look at the way we eat. We are what we eat and ultimately responsible for most if not all of the health maladies that may afflict us.
The challenge is to make it cheaply, quickly, and easily available to the public. This is the challenge for food technologists-to help with the keeping qualities of food, to help with prepackaging and preparing so as to conserve the vitamin and mineral content. With this concept in mind the Ama-amA line of nutritional and food products has been crated. It is a close to being natural as possible. It is good for the Vegan as well as the Meat eater. No milk or poultry products of any kind in the Ama-amA bars. The proteins are in balance and well assimilated. The Carbohydrates are easily digested and should not ferment in the small intestine. The oils are rich in the Fatty Acids and should not go rancid during digestion. And the transition time from the time you eat to the time you eliminate should be shortened to that of our ancestors to 10 to 14 hours down from about 72 hours experienced by most people today. The two main reasons people visit the pharmacy are for acid and digestive problems plus constipation and irregular bowel function. Both are usually direct results of a diet and eating problems and can be resolved by changing our habits. This is not easily done and many people will prefer to remain in a state of ill health rather than change their eating habits. I have heard the same statement time after time that "I do not have time to chew or change my eating habits and prefer the pill" We all need to make choices and live with the consequences.
In time, we may even have products with a guaranteed nutrient profile-guaranteed to be equivalent, say, to a wild grass-grazing animal. The kinds and proportions of fats, minerals, and vitamins in a wild grass fed animal could be characterized, and the diets of farmed animals partly manipulated to mimic this wild animal profile.
Change will only happen when there is demand. And 'demand-opportunity' will be met by commerce. But demand is also dependent on education. Our web site will host links and data bases that will be available to anyone who wants to go through the self education process. The best-educated members of the global village will be the first to understand the issue-especially as we age- and to make changes in buying patterns. In time, the obviousness of it will become widely appreciated. Change will happen slowly, and in tandem with commerce providing the solutions to easy preparation, fast preparation, and portability of 'evolutionarily correct' food items.
Like everything in life, the decision to alter a lifestyle rarely happens without comment or objection from others around you, and without extra effort or commitment. The most important factor for any change is to make small changes at first and incremental changes over time. Enthusiasm tends to have a short shelf life, and the best approach is to slowly replace a habitual food selection with a different one. For example replace a mid morning donut with an Ama-amA bar with some fruit.. There is relatively little wrong with eating small amounts of highly processed foods from time to time. It is natural to want to eat so-called 'junk food'-after all, it has been brilliantly designed to appeal exactly to our natural senses. It's what percentage of your diet is made up of these foods that counts (and in the long run, that counts very much). Keep it low. In addition, taking regular antioxidant supplements will help meet any extra antioxidant demand these foods may create, as well as help protect from environmental free radicals. We have reintroduced the Super Spectrim Multi Vitamin Mineral supplement to the public in hopes that by providing it as a part of the Ama-amA bar that people will take it, feel the difference and decide that what they are experiencing is a reality of good nutrition. Our foods do not contain all the elements that we need to even digest them properly. Unless vitamins, minerals, micro minerals, amino acids and enzymes are all present when we need them the foods we eat, no matter how good, will not provide us with the building blocks necessary for the proper maintenance and development of body structure, functions and immune systems. The Super Spectrim is a critical part of supplying what the body needs to support the digestive process. It is time proven and fills in the nutritional gaps that we may not even know exist.
The scientific debate on diet and disease is tiresome. Thousands of books are available on the subject. We are not in a position claiming to be experts but have plenty of experience. Everyone has their own opinion as to what is best. In our opinion, as far as the diet component of health is concerned, you will not go far wrong if you overwhelmingly eat an omnivorous, fresh, varied, minimally processed or raw, animal and plant based diet such as our ancient ancestors would have found. Using animal based proteins sparingly in the time of cold. Drink plenty of healthy fruit and vegetable juices and unpolluted water. Avoid the aspects of body polluting foods and beverages that are well known to be harmful. Protect yourself with a good nutritional supplement (unless you eschew ALL processed and modified food and have access to excellent fresh natural foods-a most unusual situation for Westerners, at least). Enjoy the evolutionary process that you will go through and begin to feel and see the difference almost on a daily basis. We here at Ama-amA do not have all of the answers, but are evolving also in the challenge to be able to provide our customers with what we feel to be the highest quality, enzyme active, nutritionally correct commercial food products available in the market today.
We are always open to suggestions from our customers and will strive to meet your current and future needs. This document is by no means complete as we have not addressed physical activity, weight management, mental health, emotional health, or other factors that are all part of the global process of good health. It is a process of growing together and taking control of what we put into our bodies with the goal of living a life with plenty of energy, without disease striving toward clearness of mind and generating creative thoughts. Thank your for your consideration in using our product line as a part of your daily nutritional needs. Eating and using the Ama-amA products will not resolve all of your health issues but are a step in the right direction. One step at a time along while changing your over eating and dietary habits. Even the medical profession today is admitting that diet problems can attribute to over 80% of all illnesses. That certainly changes the odds in our favor if we take control and make the changes necessary to insure better health. The time to change is now and not when you have been diagnosed with a problem that has been fermenting for years and only recently has come to the surface. It is never to late to change and remember we are not the only ones to benefit, but also all of those around us who depend on us to be able to have the attitude, energy, stamina and physical ability to meet our daily challenges. When we get sick it is everyone around who suffers along with us. Let stop being stupid and or selfish and begin to make the changes that we know are necessary. There is a never-ending process of learning and being open for new ideas that can change our lives. Make sure that you keep abreast of the changes on the Ama-amA.info web-site and the new links that will tie you into a word of helpful information that will help you achieve optimum health.
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