The 5 Foods I Never Eat

While there many foods which I leave out because I know they don’t support my health I like to be flexible.  I try not to be too dogmatic especially when eating at a friend’s house, although most of my friends check with me when they invite me over for dinner.

I also follow the 70%/30% principle which says “I eat the foods which support my body best 70% of the time and 30% of the time I eat the foods which give me pleasure“ even if they are not ideal.  I believe we are meant to have pleasure in our life.  Over the years the foods which give me pleasure and the ones which support my health are becoming the same.

I also travel in Asia each year which is so awesome.  I have to be flexible when traveling in order to have fun.  My intention is to have my body working as well as possible so if I eat something which isn’t ideal my body can handle it.

Below is the list of foods I avoid and the reasons why.  These are the worst of the worst. I really want you to transition away from these 5 foods as soon as you can. You will feel better!

Sugary Drinks Including Fruit Juice

Liquid sugar calories are the most addictive “food” in our diet. Liquid calories drive up your appetite and your waist size more than anything else.  You are literally pouring on the pounds.  Sugary drinks include, soda, diet soda ( these contain neurotoxins which mess up your brain), energy drinks, iced tea with sugar and even fruit juice. Yes,even fruit juices are liquid calories and should be avoided.

Orange juice, apple juice  and other fruit juices are loaded, and I mean LOADED, with sugar. One serving of OJ (an 8-ounce glass) contains 22 grams of sugar, apple juice 28 grams of sugar. By comparison, 8-ounces of Coke or Dr Pepper contains 29 grams of sugar. Pretty close right? Would you ever let your kid drink a soda at breakfast? I know  soda is not on  your healthy drink list.  In terms of sugar, fruit juice and soda must be looked at as one and the same.

Drinking juice in small quantities is fine but eating a piece of fruit is a much healthier choice. The American Pediatrics Association recommends that children ages 1-4 consume no more than 6 oz of juice per day. That is less than one sippy cup. Water it down, or, even better, teach your child to enjoy plain water and reserve juice for a special treat.

Soda contains phosphoric acid which is known to interfere with the body’s ability to use and absorb calcium, this is one of the main reasons why cola consumption is so strongly linked to osteoporosis.

One more thing, if you live in the US and drink Mountain Dew and some other citrus-flavored sodas and sports drinks, then you are also getting a dose of a synthetic chemical called brominated vegetable oil (BVO), which was originally patented by chemical companies as a flame retardant. This ingredient is banned in Europe and Japan

Since studies have shown sugar is more addictive than cocaine, it would be very wise to begin your transition away from sugary drinks right now.

Processed Foods and Anything with Artificial Food Colors, Dyes and Preservatives

Sometimes eating food without chemicals is hard especially when traveling.  I don’t know exactly what goes into all the food in a restaurant.  But I am conscious to not order things with too many sauces and choose places which focus on local fresh food.  At home I read every label to make sure they haven’t put any chemicals into the food.

More than 3,000 food additives — preservatives, flavorings, colors and other ingredients — are added to US foods, including infant foods and foods targeted to young children.

Many processed foods like boxed mac and cheese, candies and kids cereals contain contain red 40, yellow 5, yellow 6 and/or blue 2, the most popularly-used dyes in the United States. Research has shown this rainbow of additives can cause behavioral problems as well as cancer, birth defects and other health problems in laboratory animals. Red 40 and yellow 6 are also suspected of causing an allergy-like hypersensitivity reaction in children.

Based on research showing toxicity and hazardous health effects, these dyes are banned in Norway and Austria. In 2009, the British government advised companies to stop using food dyes by the end of that year. The European Union also requires a warning notice on most foods containing dyes.

Many preservatives including BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) and BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) which are commonly found in breakfast cereal, nut mixes, chewing gum, butter spread, meat, dehydrated potatoes, and beer, just to name a few have been know to cause cancer in rats and may be a cancer-causing agent in humans as well. In fact, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services, National Toxicology Program’s 2011 Report on Carcinogens, BHA “is reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.” It may also trigger allergic reactions and hyperactivity, while BHT can cause organ system toxicity.

MSG used to be something we only expected to find in Chinese food but it can show up hidden in lots of foods within ingredients, so look out for the following on your food labels: Autolyzed Yeast, Calcium Caseinate, Gelatin, Glutamate, Glutamic Acid, Hydrolyzed Protein, Monopotassium Glutamatem, Sodium Caseinate, Textured Protein, Yeast Extract, Yeast Food, Yeast Nutrient.

It is often found in Flavors and Flavorings, Seasonings, Natural Flavors and Flavorings, Natural Pork Flavoring, Natural Beef Flavoring, Natural Chicken Flavoring, Soy Sauce, Soy Protein Isolate, Soy Protein, Bouillon Stock Broth, Malt Extract, Malt Flavoring, Barley Malt, Anything Enzyme Modified, Maltodextrin, Pectin Enzymes, Protease, Corn Starch, Citric Acid, Powdered Milk, Anything Protein Fortified, Anything Ultra-Pasteurized

Dr. Russell Blaylock, a board-certified neurosurgeon and author of “Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills” explains that MSG is an excitotoxin, which means it overexcites your cells to the point of damage or death causing brain damage to varying degrees and possibly even causing the worsening of learning disabilities, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease plus more.

These are the other know negative effects of MSG based on the research on MSG  by Dr Mercola: highly acidic, numbness, burning sensations, tingling, facial pressure, chest pains, breathing difficulties, headaches, nausea, weakness, fatigue, obesity, kidney failure & more.  When my son was young, if he ever ate MSG his ears would turn bright red.

I recommend reading every label even in the health food store.  If an item has ingredients you would not find in your pantry or have no idea what it is, don’t buy it. 

Hydrogenated and Partially Hydrogenated Fats/ Trans Fats

Always eating food with the right oil can be challenging when eating out and traveling but I do my best. While I can’t control the oils used when I go out to eat, I never use these oils in my house and I never buy anything which contains any of these oils.  The only oils I cook with are coconut oil, olive oil (low heat), ghee and sometimes organic butter.  I only use extra virgin olive oil in my salad dressings.  Stay away from the other fats.

Let’s talk about fats for a minute, we need to eat fats to function properly. Essential fatty acids need to be included in our diet because our body can’t synthesize them.  Good fats are not bad for us. Let me explain.

Fats  (omega 3, 6 and 9) are good for our body but the wrong fats are hard for our body to process.   We have been told for decades how bad fat is for us, causing clogged arteries, heat disease etc.  Trans fats, which are listed as partially hydrogenated oil have been proven to increase blood levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL), or “bad” cholesterol, while lowering levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL), known as “good” cholesterol.  Trans fats are one of the main causes of the diabetes and obesity  epidemic in our country. These type of fats have been proven to cause inflammation and heart disease.

Companies hydrogenate fats to improve the flavor and texture, to increase the shelf life and because it reduces costs.   You find these trans-fats in almost every cookie, cracker, biscuit, chip even some chocolates.

I check the fats in everything I buy.   Even so called healthy vegetable oils, like canola oil (rapeseed), vegetable oil, safflower oil, corn oil are not good to eat.   These plants are naturally high in polyunsaturated fat and mono-saturated fat which is not a bad thing.  The problem is the oils are mostly made from GMO plants and the process they go through leaves you with an oil that is full of inflammatory compounds.  These oils are extracted using solvents which have such a foul taste and smell they have to be boil, bleach and deodorize to remove the solvents. These oils are some of the most toxic foods there is and unfortunately they are advertised as being healthy.

In addition these vegetable oils are very unstable when heated so they oxidize creating free radicals which is the opposite of antioxidants.

 Animal Protein Containing Hormones and Antibiotics

I never eat chicken, meat or animal products including milk and yogurt unless it is antibiotic and hormone free.  Eating “conventional” meat and chicken affects our health on so many levels.  It is one of my cardinal rules never to put this type of food into my body.  If I go to a restaurant where they don’t have free range chicken or antibiotic free meat I will order vegetarian or fish if they have some wild salmon or other wild, local fish.

Factory farms rely heavily on antibiotics and hormones to fatten livestock and to compensate for unsanitary and crowded conditions in industrial-size farms.

One of the reasons I am so against antibiotic feed animal protein is factory farms is because these antibiotics affect our own intestinal flora.

This year, scientists may have finally figured out why small doses of antibiotics “promote growth,” as the industry puts it: They make subtle changes to what’s known as the “gut microbiome,” the teeming universe populated by billions of microbes that live within the digestive tracts of animals. In recent research, the microbiome has been emerging as a key regulator of health, from immune-related disorders like allergies and asthma to the ability to fight off pathogens. While the studies are not yet conclusive it seems the antibiotics in meat affect our intestinal flora which results in weight gain and host of other health problems. 

I will be doing a Webinar on DIGESTION in a few weeks which I will let you know about.

Another reason I don’t eat conventional meat is the antibiotics and hormones are very hard on our liver.  The liver is the gateway to the body.   The liver must try to cope with every toxic chemical in our foods and environment.   When the liver gets overloaded with toxins, one of which is antibiotics and hormones in meat, these toxins get stored in our fat cells to protect our body from them.  When you have these excess toxins in your fat cells it is very hard to lose weight.    I prefer to have my liver working and rebuilding my body, keeping me young and healthy instead of fighting with these chemicals.

The amount of hormones found in American beef is enough to cause the European Union to ban imports of U.S. beef, for purposes of protecting human health.  The arrangement, originally signed in 2009, bans beef from cattle treated with certain growth-promoting hormones. The European Union will continue to import high-quality US beef from non-hormone-treated cattle.

Hormones, which are fat-soluble molecules, can be stored in fat tissue and accumulate to potentially harmful levels, according to registered dietician and “Prevention” magazine editor Gale Maleskey. Breast lumps, some of which can become cancerous, are caused by imbalanced hormone levels, and eating a diet high in hormone-supplemented meats may add to the problem.

Be sure the chicken or meat you are buying says antibiotic and hormone free, both are important.

Artificial Sweeteners

I never ever eat anything with artificial sweeteners.  It is one of the worst foods you can put in your body.

If you are using artificial sweeteners to lose weight studies have found that artificial sweeteners can:

• Stimulate your appetite
• Increase carbohydrate cravings
• Stimulate fat storage and weight gain

Another study¹ has shown that saccharin and aspartame cause greater weight gain than sugar.

In addition artificial sweeteners contain neurotoxins which are really bad for your brain. Aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal, NatraSweet, Canderel, Spoonfuls, DiabetiSweet) have been shown to have side effects ranging from hallucinations to seizures to brain tumors, it is hardly worth consuming for the sake of saved calories.

Sucralose otherwise known as Splenda, is scary too. Recent research suggests that Splenda can enlarge both the liver and kidneys and shrink the thymus glands. Sucralose, (Splenda) reportedly can cause skin rashes, panic, diarrhea, headaches, bladder issues, stomach pain, and those side effects don’t even sum it up.

If you are still using artificial sweeteners I highly recommend you get rid of them immediately even if you don’t make any other changes in your diet. 

I hope this list helps to guide to becoming a healthy happier you!