When attempting to create a healthy diet and sticking to it comes a lot of frustration. The meal plans, the off the wall miracle berry of the month, the eat only (insert whatever here) diet, and the list never ends. Most of us try dieting by eating less of the unhealthy food that we eat. It’s a plan that ends up slowing our metabolism and in the long run leaves us feeling worse and most of the time heavier than we began. Also, most of the time diets are all about what to eat, when to eat, and how much to eat and leaves us feeling very restricted and more importantly unsatisfied. While keeping calorie intake down is always important when eating it isn’t the only piece of the puzzle. In fact it is the smallest piece of the puzzle because too little calories is just as detrimental to your health and weight loss as too many calories.
Would you like to have more energy, lose weight, feel better, and just be healthier? Are you finding it difficult to shop for what is healthy for you and your family at your local grocery store? Most people do and with good reason! We all know that the food we eat is what fuels our life. The choices you make about what to fuel your body are affecting you more than you think. Even though people understand this, it is still difficult to decipher what is and isn’t good for you. In this section, instead of wasting your time showing you a list of healthy food to include in your diet like some diet plans, I am going to show you what is dangerous to your health so you know what to stay away from. So the next time you shop for yourself you will know what to eliminate from your diet and the possibilities will be endless for you! Not only will you feel better, have more energy and lose weight by eliminating these parts of your diet, you won’t have to starve yourself to do it! Just imagine of what you can do with more energy!
1. Hydrogenated Oil (Trans Fats)- Any oil, fatty acid, or fat in general that starts with the word Hydrogenated must bestayed avoided! (Anything fried has hydrogenated oils.) These substances are responsible for endless amount of inflammation throughout your body as well as a producer of free radicals in the body. Both of which can lead to conditions likeheart disease and cancer. Hydrogenated oil has a half life of about 52 days in your body. So after 156 days (about 5 months) you still have 1/8 the hydrogenated oil in your body. How much did you have today….. or five months ago?
2. High Fructose Corn Syrup- This is a very high glycemic index substance which means when it is introduced to your system spikes your blood glucose levels abnormally high and your pancreas responds by secreting an overly large amount of insulin. As a result much of this sugar is stored as fat and not metabolically burned off. The result is overweight and a very tired pancreas and eventually diabetes and well as any other disease associated with being unhealthy and overweight.
3. Bleached and or Enriched Grains- this one is tricky because even if your bread says that it is 100% whole wheat on the front the back panel may say something else. When grains are bleached and enriched it is too removed as many natural enzymes as possible to add shelf time to be sold. What does this mean for you? It means that all the nutrients are stripped from the grain along with the enzymes and then random very small assortments of “vitamins and minerals” of the lowest quality are “enriched” back into the bread. The result is bread with very high caloric amount and almost no nutrient value!
4. Dangerous Preservatives, Additives, Colorings, and Other Chemicals- Preservatives, additives, colorings and other chemicals can be found in most packaged, refined, fried and fast foods. Examples that you may find in your cereal may include excitotoxins (neurotoxins) like MSG (monosodium glutamate).
5. Soy Products- Soy can be easily converted to estrogen by the body. Estrogen was just introduced to the list of carcinogens by the American Cancer Association. Definitely not the perfect protein like advertised. If you are a fan of soy milk switch to almond milk and thank me later!
6. Dairy and Wheat Gluten- Although these two do not by any means need to be removed from your diet completely, they should be only a small part of your diet and eaten with moderation. DAIRY AND GLUTEN SHOULD NOT BE ON THE FOOD PYRAMID! Limit the amount of dairy and gluten (grains) in your diet and see how great you feel in a very short amount of time! Try goat cheese and almond milk instead to reduce the dairy in your life.
7. Artificial Sweeteners- All of these have adverse side effects. Some are carcinogens while the less deadly cause diarrhea. If you need to something to add a sweet taste use agave nectar or stevia, they have no side effect, are completely natural and have fewer calories than sugar. Examples are: Sucralose (Splenda), Saccharin (Sweet’N Low), Aspartame (NutraSweet and Equal), Acesulfame-K (Sunette or Sweet One), Sorbitol, Mannitol
8. Anything that has a lot of ingredients listed on the back. If you turn over a product and it takes longer that 15 seconds to read the list of ingredients just put the product back and walk away. Odds are most of those ingredients aren’t good for you and in fact hurting you in more ways than one! Remember the best foods are the ones without a label.
Whenever possible it is always better for you to eat organic! However, organic isn’t always readily available and for those of us on a budget we all know how expensive going organic can be! So here is a handy chart of the dirtiest to the cleanest fruits and veggies. You can use this chart by deciding for yourself which fruits and vegetables to buy organic and which ones may be a little safer to not go organic with.
