Jordan Rubin, author of “Perfect Weight America” lists the “Dirty Dozen” food items that we all should avoid for better health.
- All Pork Products – Pigs are omnivores, which means that they consume both plants and animals. Pigs will scavenge and have been known to eat any kind of food, including dead insects, worms, tree bark, rotting carcasses, garbage, and even other pigs. Pigs harbor a range of parasites and diseases that can be transmitted to humans. These include trichinosis, Taenia solium, cysticercosis, and brucellosis. Pigs are also known to host large concentrations of parasitic ascarid worms in their digestive tract. The presence of these diseases and parasites is one of the reasons why pork meat should always be well cooked or cured before eating. Religious groups that consider pork unclean refer to these issues as support for their views. Another reason not to eat pork is that factory hog farms are some of the worst polluters in America’s history.While I’m not a vegetarian, I’ll think twice before buying any more pork.
- Shellfish and crustaceans – Lobsters, crabs, shrimp, clams, mussels, oysters, crayfish and scallops are bottom scavengers or filter feeders. You are what you eat! Even though I love shrimp, I don’t eat it after doing some research. See Shrimp Facts in my pages.
- Processed meats and hydrolyzed soy protein – Processed meats contain nitrates for flavor, color and as a preservative. Steer clear of breakfast links, hot dogs, Salisbury steaks, bologna, sausages, salami, and lunch meats of all kinds. Nitrates can turn into nitrites which have been found to cause cancer and tumors in test animals. Hydrolyzed soy protein usually contains a significant amount of genetically modified soy. According to the FDA, hydrolyzed protein is used to enhance flavor and contains monosodium glutamate. When added this way, the labels are not required to list MSG as an ingredient. Yum. If you do want to get some got dogs or lunch meats Applegate Farms is good. They make grass fed, no nitrate, all beef hot dogs called The Great Organic.
- White flour – White flour is white because the wheat has been stripped of the wheat germ, bran, and half of the healthy fatty acids and then bleached. Enriched white flour just means that a few isolated and synthetic vitamins and minerals have been added back into the flour. Look for sprouted whole-grain breads or flour as a healthy alternative. I personally don’t do any gluten. Go to youtube and search “These Grains Aint The Same” for a silly but good explanation. Try incorporating quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth, and millet into your diet for a nice variety.
- Hydrogenated oils – During the hydrogenation process, hydrogen gas in injected into oil under high pressure to make the oil solid at room temperature and prevent the oil from becoming rancid too quickly. The process produces trans fats. The consumption of trans fats increases one’s risk of coronary heart disease by raising levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol and lowering levels of “good” HDL cholesterol. Health authorities recommend that consumption of trans fat be reduced to trace amounts. If the ingredient list contains the words “shortening”, “partially hydrogenated vegetable oil” or “hydrogenated vegetable oil”, then the food contains trans fat. Even if the label says “zero trans fat”, the FDA allows manufacturers to have less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving and still legally use the term “zero trans fat”. So much for truth in labeling.
- Pasteurized, homogenized skim milk – Check out my post by Health Ranger on Raw vs Pasteurized milk.
- White sugar – Sugar–including sucrose, corn sweeteners, honey, and molasses–is, in a sense, the number-one food additive. The average American eats up to three pounds of sugar every week. Of course, few people actually go through that much actual table sugar, but it is found in almost all of the processed foods we eat. It turns up in some unlikely places, such as pizza, bread, hot dogs, boxed rice mixes, soup, crackers, spaghetti sauce, lunch meat, canned vegetables, fruit drinks, flavored yogurt, ketchup, salad dressing, mayonnaise, and some peanut butter. Carbonated soft drinks are the worst offenders in the American diet. Liquid stevia, xylitol and palm sugar and a much better choice! Raw honey and pure 100% maple syrup is okay for those who do not struggle with candida.
- Soft drinks – Soft drink are empty calories with little or no nutritional value, considering most are made with high-fructose corn syrup. Studies demonstrate that phosphorus, a common ingredient in soda, can deplete bones of calcium. The stimulant properties and dependence potential of caffeine in soda are well documented, as are their effects on children. And a federally funded study of nearly 3,200 Americans 9 to 29 years old conducted between 1971 and 1974 showed a direct link between tooth decay and soft drinks. Numerous other studies have shown the same link throughout the world, from Sweden to Iraq. If you drink one can of soda per day, you will consume 55,000 extra calories in one year, or 15 pounds of weight gain. I find soft drinks too sweet for my taste now that I mainly drink water or teas.
- High-fructose corn syrup – Manufacturers use HFCS because it’s cheap. You’ll find it in soda, fruit juice, baked goods, canned fruits, dairy products, bread, cookies, gum, jam, jellies, pickles…you get the picture. The problem with HFCS is that the body handles fructose differently than all other sugars. Fructose does not stimulate leptin, the hormone that tell you “I’m full”. In fat, it reduces ghrelin hormone levels, which tell you “I’m still hungry”. Fructose propels the liver into fat-promoting mode by activating the formation of enymes that lead to elevated levels of “bad” cholesterol and triglycerides. Beware of Agave, test results support the point that t ALL agave is quite high in fructose, ranging from 59 to 67 grams of fructose per 100-gram sample!
- Artificial sweeteners – As many as 194 million Americans regularly eat and drink sugar-free products. Whether or not artificial sweeteners are “safe” for our health, why consume an artificial product when a natural one if available? Plus, if they worked, why are so many Americans fat?-These artificial sweeteners are used in abundance in almost every “diet” drink, “lite” yogurts, puddings, and ice creams, most “low-carb” products, and almost all “reduced-sugar” products. Heck, even most protein powders are loaded with artificial sweeteners too (just look on the ingredients and you’ll usually see one of them).Splenda is probably one of the worst offenders of claiming to be “healthy” as they say that it’s made from real sugar. Don’t be fooled! It’s still an artificial substance. What they don’t tell you is that Splenda is actually a chemically modified substance where chlorine is added to the chemical structure, making it more similar to a chlorinated pesticide than something we should be eating or drinking.
This is one of the biggest misconceptions that I see all of the time and it saddens me to see so many people poisoning their family with dangerous artificial sweeteners like splenda, while falsely thinking they’re doing something healthy.
The truth is that artificial sweeteners are not even close to being healthy, and as you’ll discover in a minute, can easily be just as bad for you, if not worse, than sugar or corn syrup. Most people think that they are doing something good for themselves by choosing the “diet” drinks or “lite” yogurts compared to the sugar-laden versions, but the problem is that you’re exposing yourself to a whole new set of problems with the artificially sweetened drinks and foods……….- by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
- Artificial flavors and artificial colors – Food additives have been linked to behavioral problems in children. They have also been associated with allergies and skin rashes. The word “Artificial” in this house is a bad word. I don’t want to eat anything conjured up in some lab.
- Excessive Beer, wine and alcoholic drinks – I personally steer clear in this area. You can do your own research. You will find that beer is fattening and wine is super high in sugar even before they add some, and they both feed yeast. Enough said for me….
Purely Balanced 