FRP Week 1 Flashcards
What is Epigenetics?
Food may influence genetics, but genetics are only part of the story. Your relationship with food now can influence how your genes are expressed.
Epigenetics, also referred to as epigenomics, is a field of study that looks at how our environment and behaviors can influence how, where, and when a gene is turned off or switched on. The genes you have may be fixed, but how they are expressed can be influenced by your choices. Regardless of the genetic hand you’ve been dealt, your food and lifestyle choices today offer hope and opportunity for improved health. Those positive epigenetic changes also have the potential to be transferred on from parent to child, so the choices we make today may also influence the health of the next generation.
What is Bio-Individuality?
Bio-Individuality respects that every person is unique and has specific nutritional needs to function at their best. We do not believe there is one perfect diet, nor are we in favor of excluding entire categories of food, unless allergies, access, preferences, or medical needs require it.
When you take into consideration the number of items that influence a person’s nutritional needs, it becomes easy to see the wisdom in a bio-individual approach. From where your ancestors grew up and the foods they ate to how you were born, where you grew up, what activities you enjoy, what industries dominated your town, where you work, how well you sleep, and how you manage stress are just a handful of the factors that can shape the nutrient profile your body needs. And that didn’t even count the tremendous diversity in need generated by what you ate growing up and what you eat now.
Your nutrient needs are as unique as your fingerprint
What is Nutritional Therapy?
Science: Governed by scientific principles of how the body utilizes nutrients to function
Art: Contextualized through the human and social experiences that either help or hinder our success
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Knowledge: understanding information related to your goals
Ability: Having the resources to take the actions needed to achieve your goals
What are the 5 Foundations of Health?
- Nutrient Dense Diet
- Sleep
- Stress
- Digestion
- Blood Sugar Regulation
What is our innate wisdom?
An internal force that drives us to survive and thrive. Communication from the body about what it needs or doesn’t need.
The modern disconnect is that we either don’t recognize or don’t know how to respond to the body’s messages
What is biodiversity in relation to food?
People are primarily eating processed foods with wheat, corn, and soy. Our ancestors were eating a wide range of foods, especially plants.
Apple example: There used to be 17,000 different varieties of apples in North America. Now there are only 4,500 varieties. And usually only a few of those available at the grocery store. Every variety offers different micronutrients, polyphenols, antioxidants, and other beneficial compounds.
How to repair the lost connection?
Challenge your transactional relationship with food that prioritizes gratification and efficiency over nourishment and intention.
What is a cash crop?
Despite finally acknowledging the need for subsistence farming, the agricultural mindset of the colonists was largely economic with the primary goal of turning a profit. The colonists quickly discovered that growing tobacco was the key to the wealth they desired—it was a crop that could be grown for its profit rather than its usage, otherwise known as a “cash crop.”
By 1705, the Virginia Slave Codes were established and by 1720, the colonies of Virginia and Maryland were slave societies, with booming plantations. The plantation model stretched into the Carolinas where indigo and rice were the central cash crops, and in the 1790s, the deep south became focused on cotton as the king commodity.
What are the key changes in agriculture?
By the early 1900’s approximately 41% of the population in the US was employed in the agriculture sector, with most being small rural farms that grew a diverse array of crops.
In just 100 years, that number to just 2% in the US workforce being agricultural in nature. The number of farms decreased by 63% and many transformed into mechanized, commercialized, and specialized operations focusing on one major commodity.
Industrialization
From 1793 to the late 1800’s consumer goods production became industrialized and mass produced by machines in factories rather than by small craftsmen. This caused many people to leave farming for other jobs.
The following technological advances also contributed to people leaving farming:
-electric grid improvements & development of the light bulb
-migration to cities
-steam engines and mechanized farm equipment
-refined flour mills
-industrial canning
-pasteurization
-cottonseed oil deodorization
-national grocery chains
Impacts of industrialization & urbanization
Farmers were governed by the sun and could choose when to nourish themselves, hydrate, rest, etc.
Factory work changed that with work starting early morning and going into late evening with little to no breaks
In 1830 the average number of hours worked per week or manufacturers was 69.1 hours.
In 1929 after workers attempted to organize and legislation was passed, the average was 50.6 hours per week.
a quick breakfast and packable or purchasable lunch became a necessity.
dinner became the main meal and was increasingly dependnt on convenience food as more women entered the workforce.
people could no longer honor their hunger cues.
Grape Nuts Cereal Example
“fully cooked pre-digested breakfast food”
“the system will absorb a greater amount of nourishment from 1 pound of Grape-Nuts than from 10 pounds of meat, wheat, oats, or bread”
Manufacturing
Campbells, Pillsbury, Jello, Quaker Oats, Post, Kelloggs, Coca Cola, the National Biscuit Company (now known as Nabisco), and Nestle just to name a few, were all in full swing by 1910. Even meat was being butchered and processed in massive factories such as Armour, Swift, Morris, and National Packing in the early 1900s.
In the span of about 25 years, over 100 bills were created attempting to regulate the safety of foods produced in these factories. The mounting issues came to a tipping point when Upton Sinclair’s fictional expose about the Chicago meat packing industry called The Jungle was released in 1905.
1906 Pure Food & Drugs Act
When the investigation confirmed the horrors Sinclair described in his story were true, the Food and Drug Administration began its role as a consumer protection agency with the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act. This act was largely penned by Dr. Harvey Wiley, a chemist who led a brave group of young men dubbed The Poison Squad as they voluntarily tested chemicals and adulterated foods on themselves. Prior to this law being established, companies did not have to disclose ingredients, even narcotics like morphine, heroine, and opium were being included in “soothing syrups” given to babies!
Seals of Approval
Dr. Wiley continued his crusade for food safety by taking a role as Director of the Bureau of Foods, Sanitation, and Health for Good Housekeeping Magazine. Under his direction, the magazine’s “Tested and Approved” seal became a gold standard for safe, high-quality food and goods. This seal was in many ways the forerunner of the sanctions people often use to guide their food choices today.
Today you might see “organic” or other seals of approval
