100 Million Years of Food by Stephen Le

Cesarean births may reduce the transmission of helpful bacteria from mothers to infants via vaginal secretions, so mothers should discuss with doctors the pros and cons of C-section deliveries and consider the use of swabs to apply vaginal smears to newborns. 3 Other options include spending more time in rural settings such as farms and traveling to developing countries.
    9. COOK AT LOW HEAT
    When a side of beef is roasted, a slab of salmon seared, a sliver of bacon fried, or a cube of tofu sautéed, a chemical process known as the Maillard reaction results in delicious browning of the cooked food (similar to caramelization). However, fatty or protein-rich foods cooked under high heat generate AGEs (advanced glycation end products). AGEs are also produced naturally in the body, but the concentration of circulating AGEs can be elevated through intake in industrialized diets. Like teenage pranksters, AGEs wreak havoc by binding to cell receptors, cross-linking and hence changing the shapes and functions of body proteins, and generally promoting oxidation damage and inflammation. Possible adverse health effects of AGEs include hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis), anemia, Alzheimer’s disease, cataracts, cirrhosis, bone brittleness, muscle stiffness, loss of grip strength, slower walking speed, kidney disease, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and lowered life expectancy. 4
    Concentrations of AGEs can be altered enormously by different cooking techniques. Raw foods contain the fewest AGEs. Cooking using traditional, low-heat methods (boiling, steaming, stewing) produces slightly elevated levels of AGEs. High-temperature, dry methods of cooking (broiling, roasting, deep-frying, grilling) and food processing rack up the greatest yields of AGEs. Noxious AGEs are also highly prevalent in hamburgers, soft drinks, crackers, cookies, pretzels, doughnuts, pies, Parmesan cheese, pancakes, waffles, and other processed foods. 5
    10. REMEMBER: FAD DIETS DON’T WORK
    Foods are one of the few things that we can easily alter in our lifestyles, and it’s commonly believed that foods comprise the basis of our health—i.e., “You are what you eat.” Not surprisingly, people gravitate toward various kinds of miracle diets and “superfoods” in the hopes of achieving a quick fix to health problems like obesity, diabetes, and cancers. However, eating more meat, or more dairy, or more fruits and vegetables, or more raw food, or less fat, or following any other dietary alteration has rarely provided relief from chronic diseases. There are two reasons for this lack of a quick dietary fix: 1) Our bodies are designed to thrive on a wide variety of foods, in the form of time-tested traditional diets. 2) The major factor underlying chronic disease is disruption in our physical lifestyles, particularly the absence of movement, so adjusting our diets to compensate for the lack of physical activity rarely achieves our desired goals. The final message: Eat good food, keep moving, and let your body take care of the rest.

 
    BIBLIOGRAPHY
    Please note that some of the links referenced in this work are no longer active.
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