Now, I’m not going to argue that excessively exercising or excessively achieving are good things. There are places in life that balance needs to exist.

Take breathing for example. If we hold our breath, carbon dioxide builds up in the blood stream and poisons us. If we breath too much and hyperventilate, we pass out from too much oxygen. We need a balance of oxygen in, carbon dioxide out.

Same with water. We need water or we become dehydrated which is life-threatening if taken to excess. We also can overhydrate and this, too, can cause death if taken to excess.

So when does moderation not work?

When ingesting substances that are poisons to the body. I’m sure that most people would agree that cocaine is a poison to the body in its effects and therefore should not be consumed at all and certainly never in moderation.

In fact, an argument can be made that moderation in consumption of a substance like cocaine can’t even be done due to its addictive nature.

I will argue that ANY substance that harms us or has an addictive nature should NEVER be consumed in any amounts.

Trouble is, we have a food industry that has gone to great lengths to prevent us from knowing about the harmful substances that they put into our foods. If we have any doubts, read the book I’ve been blogging about “Salt, Sugar, Fat” by Michael Moore and also “Unhealthy Truth” by Robyn O’Brien.

Why is this important? Health reasons are primary, but even cosmetic reasons like obesity are caused by ingesting poisons because they alter our chemistry and ability to process foods and fats.

See this very interesting article here:

http://www.aeonmagazine.com/being-human/david-berreby-obesity-era/

Just one quote:

“Yet a number of researchers have come to believe, as Wells himself wrote earlier this year in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, that ‘all calories are not equal’. The problem with diets that are heavy in meat, fat or sugar is not solely that they pack a lot of calories into food; it is that they alter the biochemistry of fat storage and fat expenditure, tilting the body’s system in favour of fat storage. Wells notes, for example, that sugar, trans-fats and alcohol have all been linked to changes in ‘insulin signalling’, which affects how the body processes carbohydrates. This might sound like a merely technical distinction. In fact, it’s a paradigm shift: if the problem isn’t the number of calories but rather biochemical influences on the body’s fat-making and fat-storage processes, then sheer quantity of food or drink are not the all-controlling determinants of weight gain. If candy’s chemistry tilts you toward fat, then the fact that you eat it at all may be as important as the amount of it you consume.”

And another quote about other substances (chemicals) which alter our body’s chemistry:

“According to Frederick vom Saal, professor of biological sciences at the University of Missouri, an organic compound called bisphenol-A (or BPA) that is used in many household plastics has the property of altering fat regulation in lab animals. And a recent study by Leonardo Trasande and colleagues at the New York University School of Medicine with a sample size of 2,838 American children and teens found that, for the majority, those with the highest levels of BPA in their urine were five times more likely to be obese than were those with the lowest levels”

It goes on to talk about other influences such as stress and light exposure that affect our body’s chemistries.

Natural Hygiene takes all of this into account and recognizes that the body has certain parameters that it needs to have met in order to function optimally.

We need sleep, sunlight in the right doses, a low-stress routine, exercise, natural whole raw unprocessed food, pure water, pure air and as pure as possible an environment devoid of chemicals whether that be our homes, cars or places of work.

There are many areas we can exert control over these influences and it starts with the recognition that these needs to be brought down to an absolute minimum to zero and it means we need to stop believing the party line that companies sell us that chemicals are not harmful to us.

Just as pesticides, which are a chemical made from petroleum, are harmful to biological life at a microscopic and insect level, so too, chemicals harm our bacteria and homeostasis.

Animal foods, too, are harmful in even small amounts. BART (Brachial Artery Restriction Tests) performed show that even one high-fat animal or even plant-fat meal can cause nitric oxide in the blood vessels to cause injury to the blood vessel lining and cause inflammation.

As science has improved its ability to see into the body via tests like BART, MRI’s, CAT scans, blood tests and such, we are getting more and more evidence of what really is harmful to us long before it becomes symptomatic.

Even blood flow to the brain is altered when consuming caffeine and nicotine and gluten-containing grains.

And everyone seems to believe that a morning cup of coffee is “not bad” and yet look at what happens to the blood flow in your brain when you drink it. It’s the same as smoking a cigarette. Scary stuff.

The foods to “eat in moderation” are whole, raw, ripe, organic plant-based fruits and vegetables. Even they can be over-eaten.

After that, the only substances to be consumed as beverages should be pure water, pure freshly extracted vegetable or fruit juices or smoothies. Anything else does not belong in the body. Even “natural” teas have often had artificial sweeteners added to them and are listed as “natural flavorings”.

So, be excessive about being selective about what you eat. Because “moderation” is a word that benefits food companies and not you.