Foods to Avoid for Health
Unfortunately 90% of the foods available today at our
standard supermarket are or contain harmful ingredients which we
should be avoiding completely. If you read the labels you will find
ingredients such as sugar (high fructose corn syrup, glucose,
fructose, etc.), artificial sweeteners, high salt content, MSG (mono
sodium glutamate), preservatives, food colorings, harmful oils, and
more. Furthermore, some of these ingredients are labeled with
scientific names which make identifying them, more challenging.
Date: 02/10/05
Source: Sofia M. Pico, LMT, RM,
Fortunately there is help. A book titled “A Consumer’s Dictionary
of Food Additives” Fifth Edition, by Ruth Winter, M.S. is available
at Whole Foods Market or at your local book store. This book is a
valuable reference and gives you all the facts about the relative
safety and side effects of more than 8,000 ingredients that end up
indirectly in your food as a result of processing and curing, such
as preservatives, food-tainting pesticides, and animal drugs. For
example, drugs used to tranquilize pigs have actually been known to
sedate diners.
For now here are some ingredients and foods that should be
avoided:
#1 SUGAR
We all know some of the guises of sugar such as sucrose, fructose, maple
syrup, molasses. But what about dextrose, turbinado, amazake,
sorbitol, carob powder, and high fructose corn syrup? As a result of
all sorts of sugars poured into more products every year by the
makers of processed foods. North Americans - for example - eat about
23 teaspoons of added sugar every day. But that only includes
refined, processed sugars, honey and maple syrup. What those 23
teaspoons, translated into 92 grams of sugar, do not include are all
the other added sugars we're getting daily from:
• corn sweeteners - the main ingredient in pop (soda), and
• fruit juices.
Add up all those sugars and some people are eating more than half
their body weight in sugars every year. It’s a serious concern
around the world. A report released recently by the World Health
Organization (WHO) urges people to limit their daily consumption of
free sugars to less than 10 percent of their total energy intake
(Diet Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases; TRS916).
"Free sugars" in this report include:
• sugars naturally present in honey, syrups and fruit juices, and
• refined, processed sugars from cane, beet and corn added to foods
by the manufacturer, cook or consumer.
In North America, however, this report prompted a harsh reaction
from the sugar lobby.
The World Health Organization’s 10 percent sugar recommendation
adds up to approximately 12 teaspoons of a sugar a day based on an
average 2000-calorie diet. It is so much less than North Americans
eat now. Although we are eating way too much sugar, consuming less
sugar is not that easy as it would seem. Cutting back to 12
teaspoons a day is going to be tough. A can of baked beans, for
instance, lists white beans, water, molasses, sugar, fructose, brown
sugar. Lots of sugars! Of course, you would like to have these beans
with a hot dog which lists such ingredients as pork, chicken, beef,
water, salt, dextrose. It means more sugar! The bun contains another
half-teaspoon of sugar. And with that hot dog you would like to have
a dash of ketchup (a third of ketchup is sugar)… Another example: a
health snack – granola bar has two teaspoons of sugar. One little
Fruit Rollup, Mellon Berry Blast has about 3 teaspoons of sugar,
mostly in form of cheap corn syrup.
The WHO report recommending we eat less sugar provoked loud
criticism from the sugar lobby in the U.S. and Canada. The sugar
industry and the American government are really upset about it.
Randall Kaplan of the Canadian Sugar Institute says that there’s no
scientific proof sugar is what is making us fat or giving us
diabetes (!) Although presently it cannot be proved scientifically
that sugar along is to blame, there’s plenty of evidence that it is
the key contributing factor. Junk food is everywhere. No matter
what, in every store that you go to there is a little section of
chocolate, candy and chips. Sugar is all over the place and it's
hard to resist it. Sugar is harmful to human health! Unfortunately,
many people are actually addicted to sugar, and this includes
grains, which are rapidly broken down into sugar in your body.
In order to free yourself of the physical addiction, complete
avoidance of all sugar and grains is necessary. Complete abstinence
resolves the biochemical addiction, however, it will be very
important to eat every two hours during this transition to avoid
symptoms of hypoglycemia. This is usually necessary for several days
to several weeks.
Sugar-Cancer Association
Nutritionally oriented doctors have known about the refined
sugar-cancer association for decades. More than 70 years ago, Dr.
Warburg won the Nobel Prize in medicine when he discovered that
cancer cells require glucose (sugar) for growth; they consume as
much as 4 to 5 times more glucose than normal, healthy cells. In
fact, cancer cells are unable to multiply rapidly without sugar.
The cells that are dividing (multiplying) the fastest have the
highest requirement for energy (to sustain such accelerated growth).
Therefore, cutting out the source (sugar) is similar to cutting off
the blood supply - though not quite as drastic, it's certainly a
step worth taking. It is simply astonishing that this simple
knowledge - sugar feeds cancer - hasn't become the basis for Rule
One in any cancer fight: Stop eating sugar immediately.
Obviously giving up sugar is not the cure for cancer. But this
tactic should be recommended STRONGLY to anyone with cancer or,
actually, ANY other illness or disorder. You wonder if one of the
alternate sweeteners, such as stevia or xylitol, might also feed the
cancer cells in the same way sugar does. Stevia won't, because it is
zero-calorie. Xylitol could be more of a quandary. It does contain
calories (about 40% less than sugar), and it is labeled a
'sugar-alcohol.' Apparently that status causes a slower release into
the body and less absorption. For that reason, it would be less of a
problem as it is not as strong as refined carbohydrates.
How much less would be controversial, since the sugar-cancer cell
growth issue itself is a tough one. However, keep in mind that the
body also breaks down carbohydrates into glucose, so a diet that is
heavy with high carbohydrate foods can also fuel cancer cell growth
as well as other health problems that are known to be linked to
excess blood glucose, including:
• obesity
• diabetes
• heart disease
• an overgrowth of pathogenic intestinal flora
• gout
• panic attacks
• hyperactivity, and
• depression.
The following foods are so bad for your body that there is no any
reason to eat them. Not only do they have zero nutritional value,
but they also give your body quite a dose of toxins.
Doughnuts - These "foods" are:
• fried in vegetable oils, therefore, high in trans fat
(store-bought doughnuts contain 35-40 per cent trans fat!)
• high in sugar (an average doughnut contains about 200-300
calories, mostly from sugar, and few other nutrients)
• full of white flour (in most varieties). Nutritionally speaking,
eating a doughnut is one of the worst ways to start off your day.
It will throw off your blood sugar and won’t stay with you so
you’ll be hungry again soon. You are better off eating no breakfast
at all...
Soda - This kind of drink, both regular and "diet," is:
• high in sugar (one can of soda has about 10 teaspoons of sugar -
150 calories)
• high in caffeine (30 to 55 mg of caffeine per one can of soda)
• loaded with artificial food colors and sulphites
• filled with harmful artificial sweeteners like *aspartame -
NutraSweet, Equal (in the "diet" varieties).
One of the simplest and most
profound health improvements you can make is to
eliminate soda (pop) from your diet.
Nutritionally speaking, drinking soda leads to nutrient
deficiencies, osteoporosis, obesity, tooth decay and heart disease;
yet, the average American drinks an estimated 56 gallons of soft
drinks each year (!) Especially threatening is the consumption of
soft drinks among children. Unfortunately, schools often make
marketing deals with leading soft drink companies in exchange for
their students’ health (most school hallways are lined with
soda-filled vending machines!).
French Fries - Nearly all commercially fried foods are:
• high in trans fat (potatoes cooked at high temperatures in
vegetable oils)
• high in free radicals harmful to the body
• high in acrylamide (up to 82 mcg per serving), a potent
cancer-causing chemical formed as a result of unknown chemical
reactions during high-temperature frying or baking.
Nutritionally speaking, consuming foods that are fried in
vegetable oils contributes to aging, clotting, inflammation, cancer
and weight gain. One French fry is worse for your health than... one
cigarette, so you may want to consider this before you order your
next ‘Biggie’ order.
Chips - Corn chips, potato, tortilla, and other chips are:
• high in trans fat (present in most commercial chips)
• high carcinogenic acrylamide (up to 25 mcg per serving).
Fried Non-Fish Seafood - Shrimps, clams, oysters,
lobsters, and other seafood are:
• high in trans fat
• high in carcinogenic acrylamide
• high in mercury
• contaminated with parasites and resistant viruses (they may not
even be killed with high heat).
Eating these scavenger animals gives you with every bite a
quadruple dose of toxins.
* Aspartame - the technical name for the brand names,
NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, and Equal-Measure - is the common food
additive found in thousands of products such as diet soda, yogurt,
and over-the-counter medicines. However, this sugar substitute – in
fact, a chemical poison (neurotoxin) - should never been approved
for consumption as it poses a public health threat.
Aspartame accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions
to food additives reported to the US FDA. A few of the 90 (!)
different documented symptoms caused by the components of aspartame
include: headaches/migraines, dizziness, seizures, nausea, numbness,
muscle spasms, weight gain (it actually increases appetite!),
rashes, depression, fatigue, irritability, tachycardia, insomnia,
vision problems, hearing loss, heart palpitations, breathing
difficulties, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, loss of taste,
tinnitus, vertigo, memory loss, and joint pain.
** Sucralose - a relatively new artificial sweetener sold
under the name Splenda™. It is a high-intensity sugar substitute
which is 50 percent sweeter but less toxic than aspartame. It is
non-caloric and about 600 times sweeter than sucrose (white table
sugar), already used in a variety of products (in the United States,
approved for the use in 15 food and beverage categories).
However, sucralose is NOT proven safe; it does NOT provide any
benefit to the public (only for the corporations making and using
sucralose); it does NOT help with weight loss (on the contrary: it
my stimulate appetite); it has NOT been shown to be safe for the
environment, and, finally, there are NO long-term (12-24 months)
human studies on sucralose (similar to several years ago for
aspartame). Its regular use may contribute to serious chronic
immunological or neurological disorders.
For more information visit
www.reducetriglycerides.com
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