You Are What
You Eat and Drink
Th ere is no such thing as a free lunch.
Anonymous,
often attributed to economist Milton Friedman
In this chapter you will learn
• Some of the common sources of toxins in your food
• Th at synthetic chemicals in your food are linked to aging and disease
• Th at your body cannot function properly without high-quality fuel
• Th at sugar in high quantities is not the harmless substance
people believe it to be
• How thousands of synthetic chemicals find their way into the
foods you eat
• How plastic, yes plastic, in your food disrupts hormones
• Th at the fats you choose can mean the difference between good
health and disease
• Th e importance of choosing pure water over tap water
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Most of us have heard the old adage “You are what you eat,” but
have you ever considered that you are what you eat, drink, breathe,
think, and do? Every food you eat, every beverage you consume,
every breath you take, every thought you think, and all the actions
you take in life are creating you. Th is may seem hard to believe but
it is true, as you will soon discover in the next two chapters.
Consider that the foods and beverages you consume will be broken
down by your body into vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino
acids, fatty acids, and simple sugars, all of which your body will then
use as raw materials to create new liver cells, skin cells, brain cells,
bone cells, or whatever your body needs to replenish at that time. But
what if you eat foods that your digestive tract cannot break down
into the building blocks it needs? Or what if the foods and beverages
you consumed had very little nutritional value and therefore very few
building blocks for healthy cells and tissue? Worse yet, what if these
foods and beverages were also laden with synthetic chemicals which
your body had to work harder to eliminate but which did not provide
the energy your body needs to do that? Even worse still, what if you
exposed your body to synthetic chemicals in such vast quantities that
it had to struggled to keep you disease-free?
Now consider that the air you breathe determines whether every
cell in your body will be adequately oxygenated or whether those
cells will have to overwork to eliminate foreign airborne particles or
chemicals that your body may not have been designed to handle.
Every thought you think aff ects your health and well-being. If
you think positive, life-affi rming thoughts your body will create “feelgood”
hormones that will give you greater energy, balanced moods,
and overall healing ability. On the fl ip side, if you think negative,
stressful thoughts much of the time, your body will create stress
hormones that send messages throughout your body to divert its
energy into protecting you from danger—even if that danger is really
self-imposed. Th ese stress hormones are beneficial in truly stressful

life-and-death situations, but when they are released over long periods
of time, they damage your body, as you will soon learn.
Th e things you do every day affect your sense of well-being. If you
work at an offi ce job all day and return home to slouch on the sofa in
front of the television, your lack of physical activity will prevent your cells
from getting adequate oxygen. Your body’s lymphatic system (comparable
to a street-sweeping system inside your tissues) will be sluggish and
ineffective at removing waste buildup from your body. Slouching in front
of the TV will also affect your posture, in turn affecting the alignment
of vertebrae, muscles, tendons, nerves, and blood vessels. Over time, this
pattern may create back or neck pain as well.
Th eseare just a few of the ways that what you eat, drink, breathe,
think, and do affect you. You will learn more about the effects
throughout this chapter. You will also learn about the many toxins
you are exposed to and the impact they have on your body, mind,
and emotions. You will begin to understand how to make healthier
choices for your life, the result of which will be improved physical,
mental, and emotional health.
THE LINK TO
AGING AND DISEASE
Aging is one of life’s certainties. Like it or not, we are all aging. It
makes no difference whether we are young or old, we are aging.
Perhaps the largest factor that determines the speed at which we age
is our exposure to toxins. Toxins act as free radicals (highly reactive
molecules that bind to and destroy cellular compounds, even our
genetic material) in our bodies. We encounter toxins in our foods,
beverages, air, cosmetics, personal hygiene products, home, workplace,
car, stressful thoughts, emotions, and more. Our exposure to
toxins affects all aspects of our health.
Let’s talk about free radicals for a moment. Th eyare derived from
our environment, foods, and beverages or are produced within our

bodies. Th eyinclude radiation; air pollutants; fungicides, pesticides,
and insecticides; anaesthetics; pharmaceutical drugs; over-thecounter
(OTC) drugs; petroleum products; excessive sunlight; fried,
charbroiled, and barbecued foods; alcohol; coffee; sugar; chemical
solvents found in furniture, carpets, paint, and office equipment;
and stress hormones.
Free radicals have numerous eff ects in our bodies. Th e way
they damage cell walls may predispose people to heart disease and
stroke. Th e way they disrupt internal mechanisms of cells may lead
to genetic damage and a predisposition to cancer. Th ey cause reduced
immune function leading to increased susceptibility to infection,
cancer, and rheumatoid arthritis. Th ey speed the aging process and
destroy the proteins in skin, which leads to a loss of tissue elasticity
and increased wrinkling.
You are exposed to many different toxins in an average day.
Th e food and beverages you eat and drink are often full of sugar,
synthetic chemicals, and hydrogenated fats. You may be eating
excessive amounts of trans fats or animal protein that have a negative
impact on your kidneys. Th e soap, skin-care and hair-care
products, and perfumes and colognes you use are typically loaded
with toxic chemicals you absorb through your skin or lungs. If
you are frequently stressed out, your body secretes hormones that
wreak havoc on your body over time. If you use pharmaceutical
or over-the-counter medications, they often contain chemical fillers,
heavy metals, and substances that have to be filtered by your
body’s detoxification systems. Depending on your lifestyle, you may
be adding further toxins to an already overloaded system. Th ese
may include household cleaning products, building and furnishing
materials in your home, cigarette smoke, recreational drugs, or
excessive alcohol consumption.
Our bodies have developed sophisticated detoxification
mechanisms over many thousands of years to eliminate most of the
Chapter naturally produced toxins they encounter on a regular basis. Th e
Industrial Revolution and its resulting synthetic chemicals found in
places such as food, water, soil, air, household and workplace materials,
and medicine have created a new dilemma for the human body. Our
bodies simply cannot handle the onslaught of synthetic chemicals we
throw at them. We may be able to handle some of these toxins but over
time, the large amount consumed, drunk, inhaled, or absorbed by the
average person greatly exceeds his or her body’s capacity.
YOU ARE WHAT
YOU EAT AND DRINK
Let’s say that you just bought a beautiful new vehicle. It looks fabulous
and you are so proud to own it. What would happen if you
used poor-quality gasoline as fuel? It contains residue and useless
by-products of the drilling and refining processes. Over time, that
gorgeous new vehicle would get poorer and poorer gas mileage, it
might start having engine knock and excessive wear, and eventually
the engine would likely malfunction.
Your body is similar to a vehicle in that it requires high-quality
fuel to function properly. By high quality, I am referring to food that
Nature provides that is loaded with plentiful amounts of vitamins,
minerals, fi bre, enzymes, and many other building blocks to great
health. Th ese are the things holistic health practitioners are talking
about when they refer to “nutrition.”
Before we discuss what high-quality fuel for humans consists of,
let’s take a look at the standard North American diet— something
that is more adequately referred to as “no-trition.” Th e average
person eats large amounts of fatty foods; animal protein; sugar;
and packaged, prepared, or fast foods. While this may be average, it
is by no means normal. To help you understand what I am suggesting
here, let’s take a look at these dietary excesses and shortcomings
one by one.

A SWEET LIFE?
To misquote Shakespeare: sugar by any other name would taste
as sweet. Sugar may taste sweet but it is hardly the harmless substance
many people believe it to be, especially in high doses. Th e
average North American consumes 149 pounds of sugar every
year. Stack 149 one-pound bags up in your kitchen and you’ll have
a good idea just how much that is. You will barely have room for....