Dr. Francis M. Pottenger, Jr., MD

In the 1940s, a medical doctor named Dr. Pottenger wanted to know how processed foods affected our health. He financed his own research, so he wasn’t influenced by any big business interests to come up with certain results. Dr. Pottenger studied 900 cats over a period of several generations.

Dr. Pottenger divided his cats into 5 groups. The first two groups he fed raw food and they remained healthy throughout the experiment. These cats had good bone structure and density, wide palates with plenty of space for teeth, shiny fur, no parasites or disease, reproductive ease and gentleness.

The remaining three groups were fed processed foods. The first generation of these cats developed degenerative health conditions (arthritis, allergies, diabetes, hypothyroidism, personality changes and most of the degenerative diseases encountered in human medicine) near the end of their life. The second generation cats developed the same health conditions during the middle of their life span. The third generation of cats developed the same health conditions very early in life. The cats died out completely by the fourth generation.

What is most important to keep in mind is that it only took one generation of processed foods to impair the health of the next generation of cats. When the following generations of cats were fed processed foods, the cats became even sicker and at much younger ages.

The same is seen today in humans. Children are being born with chronic degenerative diseases or are developing them much earlier in life. This is a relatively new phenomenon, but nevertheless the trend in humans is following Dr. Pottenger’s experiments very closely. In addition, Pottenger found many of his third generation cats could not conceive, and those that did aborted. Right now, in America, 25% of young adults are sterile and they cannot conceive and miscarriages are on the rise. Have you noticed a rise in Fertility Clinics?

So, why are processed foods not good?

There are forty nutrients that cannot be made in the body. They are essential fatty acid, 15 vitamins, 14 minerals, and 10 amino acids. Collectively these forty nutrients are spoken of as the body’s requirements. From these our bodies synthesized an estimated 10,000 different compounds essential to the maintenance of health. All the forty nutrients work together. Therefore, the lack of any one might result in the underproduction of hundreds of these essential compounds.;

Processed foods place an enormous amount of stress on the body.

Processing takes a lot of nutrients out of the nutrient rich foods.

Processed foods contain refined sugar, extra salt, artificial colors, toxic chemicals and other flavor enhancers.

Processed foods contain unhealthy fats.

Unhealthy chemical additives are added to processed foods so that they stay fresh longer. Chemicals such as MSG can be added.

Processed foods can increase your body’s level of homocysteine which can raise your risk of heart disease. Many processed foods are filled with strange parts and pieces. For example hot dogs contain “edible offal”??

Processed foods are fortified with synthetics. Most of the pantothenic acid, folic acid, biotin, cholin, inositol, vitamins B6 and E are discarded in the milling of breads and the refining of flour for cereals. To make up for the loss of nutrients during processing, synthetic vitamins and minerals are added. These synthetics are not as healthy as their natural counterparts. The amounts of vitamins returned in “enriched” flour are far less than the quantity that naturally occurs.

Much of the goodness is cooked or processed out of our foods. Enzymes are lost when food is heated above 118 degrees Fahrenheit.? We do not benefit from the enzymes and nutrients the foods normally contain. The missing nutrients and enzymes have been discarded in processing and refining foods. Research shows that disease produced by combinations of deficiencies can be corrected when all nutrients are supplied.

What can we do? Eat unprocessed, organic foods whenever possible. Since our old eating habits did not contain enough vitamins, minerals or enzymes for the body to get the complete nutritional intake necessary to maintain health, we may need supplemental nutrition to regain the health of stressed organs.