Monday, March 17, 2014

seven foods you may want to take a closer look at

Whether you're looking to cleanse or ready to pursue a long-term nutritional regimen that will make you feel like a million bucks, here's a list of 10 foods you should consider eliminating from your diet (and WHY). Later, I will follow-up with a list of foods that you SHOULD eat and why those foods are so nutritionally complete... Though that list may take a while since it's endless... truly. This world is full of beautiful, colorful, fresh foods that will nourish and brighten your mind and body!

So here we go...

1. Sugar
In all forms. Some fruits are okay when blended in smoothies but never in excess. However, cane sugar, fructose, basically any added sugar and even agave nectar spikes your blood sugar causing severe horomone confusion in your body. Insilin levels are elevated when blood sugar is high and your body will store any excess sugar as fat! Eeeek!
*Note - replacement sweeteners (such as Splenda) have been proven to cause long term weightgain. This is because you train your taste buds to crave super sweet foods/drinks and therefore are more likely to seek out sweet, sugary foods everyday. 

2. Gluten
Feeling booated? Gluten causes inflimation in the body. Additionally, It attacks the inner lining of the gut causing it to permeate and leak. It is directly correlated to hyper and hypothyroidism and also arthritis. Gluten is a filler and can be found in nearly all processed (or boxed) foods and even in things like salad dressing so watch out!

3. Corn (GE- genetically engineered)
Did you know that all corn grown in the United States is genetically modified? Ew.
Is your wrinkle cream not making the "cut" these days? GMO causes a whole slew of issues. One of the most notable problems we face with GMO foods is exccelerated aging (pun intended). 
Also, corn, like gluten, is found in nearly all processed foods. It is somewhat of a staple food for people and... Wait for it... Livestock. Yep! It's how we fatten up that boar, cow, chicken, turkey (the list goes on) in order to serve up a fatty tenderloin on your dinner plate. So, just ascorb fattens up livestock (you guessed it), corn will fatten up YOU!

4. Dairy
So sorry folks! That means milk, cheese, ice cream and even yogurt. Dairy has been proven to cause acne, depleat calcium in the body (what?!?! That's right! Causing more bone fractures, milk is not, unlike what we've always been told, good for bone health), and dairy causes weight gain. Get this... Skim milk and 1% milk are worse than whole milk because once the fat has been taken out milk contains double the sugar content in the form of lactose. It is a fact that our bodies store that that as fat.

5. Soy (GE)
Like corn, pretty much all soy is GMO, causing disease and illness but it also contains estrogen mimicking compounds that our bodies treat as just that. When estrogen levels rise in the body so do testosterone levels. This chaotic horomone confusion can make anyone emotionally unstable, create infertility, not to mention deteriorate one's health greatly on so many other levels. Throw your soy out... Like now.

6. Peanuts 
Where to begin... Well, aside from the fact that peanut butter is often packed full of nasty things (like refined sugar, too much sodium, trans and saturated fats) that have been linked to metabolic syndrome, those tasty little nut-like (indeed, they are not nuts but legumes) morsels are some of the most moldy, dirty little tidbits in the food market. Yes, they are heavenly when salted and roasted to perfection making them the perfect comfort food and don't even get me started on how delicious I find peanut butter (practically my kryptonite). Truth be told (if I must), you are better off avoiding most processed peanut products - even those found in health-food stores labeled "raw" and otherwise. I would love to live in denial with this one, but, because I literally gained 10 lbs one summer from eating peanut butter (of this, I am 100% certain), I can safely say that we are better off avoiding most peanut products. This rapid weight gain was perhaps from developing and autoimmune reaction and/or because most peanut products are ridiculously calorie dense! Certain brands  claim their peanuts are from wild cultivation which is in someway supposed to differ from the alternative...? I have no knowledge as to why these peanuts would differ from commercial harvests, but I assume that regardless of the origin, all peanut plants are susceptible to mold.

"The peanut plant is susceptible to the mold Aspergillus flavus which produces a carcinogenic substance called aflatoxin.[13] Since it is impossible to completely remove all aflatoxin, contamination of peanuts and peanut butter is monitored in many countries to ensure safe levels of this carcinogen." (as cited at wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut_butter#Health_concerns)

*sad face*

Moving on.

7. Dairy, Meat and Eggs
For one, the animals that produce these products are fed the former (GE soy and corn), a predominantly grain diet. For those who ingest dairy, meet and eggs, you are also ingesting the residual effects of genetically altered DNA. These contaminants are carcinogenic and cause terrible health problems for the animals on these diets. If you haven't already, watch this documentary, Forks Over Knives. It may change your life, as it has mine. In this film research is described to have proven the numerous health risks involved with consumption of animal-based products. Seriously, watch it!

Aside from causing noticeable weight gain, animal-based foods , along with many over-cooked foods, contain noticeable levels of carcinogenic substances known as HCA's (heterocyclic amines), PAH's (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), and glycotoxins. These become abundant when animal-based products are cooked over a long duration of time, charred, or cooked at high heat. Sadly, however scrumptious this cooking technique may be, charring, even vegetable-based products for that matter (though, not to the same degree as meat), will result in these highly toxic, DNA altering compounds. Moreover, preservatives added to meats and dairy are rated up there along with the former carcinogens - nitrates and nitrites, per the NIH (http://www.nih.gov/).

Some noticeable causes from HCA's, PAH's, nitrites/nitrates and glycotoxins are as follows.
Checkout this chart to help put it into perspective.
 AGEs by food type 1024x646 All About Cooking & Carcinogens
Sources: Uribarri J, et al. Advanced glycation end products in foods and a practical guide to their reduction in the diet. J Am Diet Assoc 2010;110:911-916; Goldberg T. Advanced glycoxidation end products in commonly consumed foods. J Am Diet Assoc 2004;104:1287-1291.
So unless you plan on eating raw meat and dairy, which will likely lead to serious infections, such as food-borne illness: Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli. In some cases these infections are fatal. So, just don't...




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