Foods to Avoid and Why

My favorite podcast host, Dhru Purohit, interviewed Dr. Mark Hyman (my wellness north star!) on the substances in foods that we all should avoid or limit because they have been scientifically proven to cause or contribute to disease and even death.

FOODS to AVOID:

1. Partially hydrogenated or fully hydrogenated oils (aka trans fats). Made from vegetable oil, these fats are converted to solid form through hydrogenation. Crisco was probably the first trans-fat but now nearly every packaged product in the grocery store has it, to include salad dressing and cereal.

o Created in 1911, trans fats were finally banned by the FDA in 2015 after decades of studies showing how harmful they were. Yet, we still find them all over the supermarket in packaged foods because the FDA still allows trace amounts of trans fats and it gave manufacturers a long time to remove them from their products.

2. High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). When not attached to fruit, fructose is a toxic compound that drives so many diseases of aging. HFCS is worse for you than plain sugar because it has even more fructose at 75 percent. You find HFCS in the grocery store in so many things, including bread, tomato sauce, and pancake syrups.

o Fructose drives insulin resistance and is tough on the liver, where it must be processed. Fructose disrupts the tight junctions of the digestive track, driving inflammation and causing leaky gut, where food, protein, bacterial compounds, and waste get leaked into the bloodstream. Leaky gut can result in metabolic disease, diabetes, heart issues, etc.

3. Ultra-Processed Food. Eating ultra-processed foods—from wheat, corn, and soy—increases your death rate by 75 percent. Industrial food or food-like substances are prime examples. If you look at an ingredient list and cannot tell what it is because the ingredient list is super long, it is likely an ultra-processed food. Good examples are pop tarts, hamburger helper, and fruit rollups, or anything with artificial dyes, artificial colors/flavors.

o Ultra-processed foods account for 60% of the typical American diet and 67% of American kids’ diet. For each 10% of your diet that is ultra- processed, your risk of death goes up 14 percent. Unfortunately, 46% of the FDA’s budget comes from the food and pharmaceutical industries.

4. Artificial Sweeteners. Artificial sweeteners damage your microbiome and lead to diabetes and obesity. A thousand times sweeter than sugar, fake sugars signal the brain that sugar is coming. Your body responds by releasing a lot of insulin. Since the real sugar does not come, your body is never satisfied so you eat more and get more overweight. The excess insulin can also prompt the body to store more fat.

5. Dirty Dozen Foods. The Environmental Working Group (EWG.org) put together a list of foods that we should always strive to eat organic because there are so many toxins in the regular versions.

o The foods you should only eat organic (i.e., the Dirty Dozen) are strawberries, spinach, kale, nectarines, apples, grapes, cherries, peaches, pears, bell & hot peppers, celery, and tomatoes.

o EWG also put out a Clean 15 which includes: avocado, sweet corn, pineapple, onions, papaya, sweet peas (frozen), eggplant, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, kiwi, cauliflower, mushrooms, honeydew melon, and cantaloupe.

FOODS to LIMIT:

• Flour: Flour is almost worse than table sugar for your body because it spikes blood sugar so much. On average, Americans eat 133 pounds of flour per person per year.

• Sugar: Americans eat 152 pounds of sugar per person per year. Most of it is fructose. Try to limit how much sugar you consume and do not eat on an empty stomach. Liquid sugar is the worst because there is nothing to slow its absorption.

• Refined oils. Refined oils are made using high temperatures. In the body, they cause oxidation, gut issues, and inflammation. Refined oils are hard to avoid since they are in all processed foods and in most restaurant meals.

• GMOs. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) wreak havoc in our bodies. Many of our crops are made with glysophate, which is an herbicide that kills the microbiome of the soil but also destroys our microbiome. Glyphosate has been linked to cancer. Its use in farming is also contributing to climate change and the destruction of our planet.

EASY HACK: Ask yourself if your grandmother would recognize whatever you want to eat as food; if yes, go ahead. If not, put it back.:-)

**Content provided for educational and informational purposes only. It is derived from information from Dr. Mark Hyman’s podcast. It is not to be considered medical advice.**