Foods and drinks harmful enough to avoid....
Today's Post: Thursday, 8-18-2011
1. Fattening foods and drinks.
Michelle Stacey has a blog post on which she notes that she has tended to avoid labeling things as “BAD” foods.
She has found that when people are dieting for fat loss & have come to like such foods, they can have problems avoiding them. That’s because when they do, they can get obsessed by them.
But she did find the recent study of health professionals that found that those who routinely ate some foods and drank soft drinks gained 17 pounds over 20 years because of it cause to rethink. As bad as the fat gain from drinking soft drinks, people in this study who routinely eat processed potato foods such as French fries and potato chips gained more fat from that than the soft drinks.
See http://the-food-bitch.blogspot.com Sunday, July 24, 2011 “The Truth About "Bad" Foods (Finally).”
The average fat gained was so high because people who drink soft drinks also tend to eat the other fattening foods too and not exercise.
Two quick points.
The group was made up of health professionals such as nurses and doctors. Many of the health problems and excessive medical care costs today are because the average American has been eating and drinking twice that much of such foods and drinks.
The study also found that those who did NOT eat such foods and never drank soft drinks and also got at least some exercise regularly gained no fat or extra weight at all over the 20 year period.
It’s true that you could only eat such foods once a week or once a month if you really loved them and not be harmed too much. But in practice that can be like being an alcoholic and hanging out in bars once or twice a month.
It’s a safer and in some ways easier way to go to simply write them off and put them on the list of things you don’t do.
There are some other reasons to write off soft drinks.
Not only are both regular and diet soft drinks known fatteners, they are the very worst kind. Instead of making you less hungry as foods or even juices do, they cause blood sugar spikes and insulin spikes that directly fatten and then make you hungry again once your blood sugar crashes later which causes you to crave more food and often sugary, fattening foods. If you want to be trim or less fat soft drinks are the LAST thing you want to put in your body!
Also, so far regular soft drinks have been sweetened lately with high fructose corn syrup. Some of the high fructose corn syrup on the market is made in a way that it contains mercury which can cause dementia and nerve damage if you get too much of it. In addition many studies have found that high fructose corn syrup is more fattening and more likely to trigger type 2 diabetes than regular sugar.
The health protecting choice is to not only pass on regular soft drinks that contain high fructose corn syrup; but always read the labels and pass on ANY food that contains high fructose corn syrup.
Helpful strategy:
If you really like French fries or hash browns, limit yourself to those you make yourself at home and don’t do it more than once a week. By baking them and adding a bit of extra virgin olive oil and spices after they are done, you can make them to your taste and almost good for you.
That also works for something like oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips. You can use real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup and use apple sauce or real butter from grass fed cows or extra virgin olive oil instead of partially hydrogenated soy oil.
2. Other food ingredients too harmful to eat at all besides high fructose corn syrup include:
a) Partially hydrogenated and fully hydrogenated vegetable oils and the trans fats in them cause heart disease.
They have been found to lower your heart protective HDL and boost your heart threatening triglycerides. That’s an indicator that eating this junk increases the small particle LDL that is a direct cause of heart disease. In fact this has also been tested directly to happen!
Partially hydrogenated and fully hydrogenated vegetable oils and the trans fats in them are heart attack starters. Why volunteer to ever eat ANY?
Always read labels and in addition to passing if you see high fructose corn syrup or its possible new name, corn sugar. And always pass if you see any amount of trans fats besides zero AND pass if even one ingredient is a hydrogenated oil.
Also do your best to avoid commercial baked goods where you have no label to check out. If it wasn’t homemade by you or a baker you personally know and have asked or a health oriented friend, the chances of it having neither high fructose corn syrup or a harmful oil approach zero.
b) Foods that contain oils high in omega 6 or worse -- partially or fully hydrogenated vegetable oils.
We just covered the hydrogenated oils. But cheap, high omega 6 oils are close to as bad for you.
The excessively high intake of omega 6 oils such as soy oil and corn oil and to a degree canola oil and from the fats in grain fed meat tend to cause chronic inflammation. This is a major cause of heart disease and chronic inflammation also has been implicated in causing many cancers.
Oils high in omega 6 also tend to lower your HDL cholesterol and help cause heart disease that way too.
This is made worse by the bioconcentrated pesticides and herbicides in the fat of grain fed meat. They not only are high in omega 6, twenty times as much as 100 % grass fed, they also have more pesticides and herbicides by far than produce that was directly sprayed.
A study reported today that persistent pollutants such as these in the fat of grain fed animals and farmed fish tend to cause type 2 diabetes even in people who don’t overdo sugars and starches.
Helpful strategy:
Know and eat the health OK alternatives!
a) Except for those too high in mercury which include most tuna and all swordfish, wild caught fish are low in pollutants and high in omega 3 oils your body needs to lower inflammation, avoid excessive clotting, and lower your dangerous triglycerides.
Pasture raised chickens in pastures clean of pollutants and 100 % grass fed beef and eggs from naturally fed chickens raised at home or from a small farm near you are another way to go.
And, since even eggs from the store aren’t too bad since they have such high quality protein and so little fat. (Eggs from providers that are free of antibiotics and are at least partly free range are available at Whole Foods and other markets.)
Two percent lowfat milk and other low fat dairy products also work in moderation. So does eating lean cuts of grain fed meat that have all the visible fat removed. So does eating skinless poultry. (You can add back flavor with extra virgin olive oil and spices.)
Vegetable proteins such as from beans and lentils, mushrooms, and nuts if you aren’t allergic also work.
b) Nonstarchy, high nutrition vegetables are a superb fat loss choice. They have so few calories and close to zero boost to your blood sugar and are so filling, you can be less fat and healthier by eating MORE of this kind of food!
In fact, several kinds of studies have found the nutrients and phytonutrients in them are powerful producers and protectors of good health.
Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, tomatoes, green beans, asparagus, even carrots work as do dozens of others. Sweet potatoes and yams also work in moderation.
c) Drinks that work include filtered water, coffee, tea, green tea, and unsweetened cocoa. There are flavored teas too such as lemon and chai and vanilla chai tea available across the country.
d) Snacks that work include dark chocolate in modeation, nuts such as walnuts, almonds, and pecans if you aren’t allergic and only eat them raw or dry roasted. They also include cherries, organic peaches and nectarines and strawberries and blueberries and black berries. Unwaxed, organic apples also work.
So do vegetables with a health OK dip such as guacamole or hummus or lowfat Greek yogurt with spices.
e) Skillful use of extra virgin olive oil, wine, garlic, onions, and spices such as basil, oregano, and turmeric and curry combinations, not only can make these healthy foods a delight to eat, most of these also have their own health benefits.
Today's Post: Thursday, 8-18-2011
1. Fattening foods and drinks.
Michelle Stacey has a blog post on which she notes that she has tended to avoid labeling things as “BAD” foods.
She has found that when people are dieting for fat loss & have come to like such foods, they can have problems avoiding them. That’s because when they do, they can get obsessed by them.
But she did find the recent study of health professionals that found that those who routinely ate some foods and drank soft drinks gained 17 pounds over 20 years because of it cause to rethink. As bad as the fat gain from drinking soft drinks, people in this study who routinely eat processed potato foods such as French fries and potato chips gained more fat from that than the soft drinks.
See http://the-food-bitch.blogspot.com Sunday, July 24, 2011 “The Truth About "Bad" Foods (Finally).”
The average fat gained was so high because people who drink soft drinks also tend to eat the other fattening foods too and not exercise.
Two quick points.
The group was made up of health professionals such as nurses and doctors. Many of the health problems and excessive medical care costs today are because the average American has been eating and drinking twice that much of such foods and drinks.
The study also found that those who did NOT eat such foods and never drank soft drinks and also got at least some exercise regularly gained no fat or extra weight at all over the 20 year period.
It’s true that you could only eat such foods once a week or once a month if you really loved them and not be harmed too much. But in practice that can be like being an alcoholic and hanging out in bars once or twice a month.
It’s a safer and in some ways easier way to go to simply write them off and put them on the list of things you don’t do.
There are some other reasons to write off soft drinks.
Not only are both regular and diet soft drinks known fatteners, they are the very worst kind. Instead of making you less hungry as foods or even juices do, they cause blood sugar spikes and insulin spikes that directly fatten and then make you hungry again once your blood sugar crashes later which causes you to crave more food and often sugary, fattening foods. If you want to be trim or less fat soft drinks are the LAST thing you want to put in your body!
Also, so far regular soft drinks have been sweetened lately with high fructose corn syrup. Some of the high fructose corn syrup on the market is made in a way that it contains mercury which can cause dementia and nerve damage if you get too much of it. In addition many studies have found that high fructose corn syrup is more fattening and more likely to trigger type 2 diabetes than regular sugar.
The health protecting choice is to not only pass on regular soft drinks that contain high fructose corn syrup; but always read the labels and pass on ANY food that contains high fructose corn syrup.
Helpful strategy:
If you really like French fries or hash browns, limit yourself to those you make yourself at home and don’t do it more than once a week. By baking them and adding a bit of extra virgin olive oil and spices after they are done, you can make them to your taste and almost good for you.
That also works for something like oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips. You can use real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup and use apple sauce or real butter from grass fed cows or extra virgin olive oil instead of partially hydrogenated soy oil.
2. Other food ingredients too harmful to eat at all besides high fructose corn syrup include:
a) Partially hydrogenated and fully hydrogenated vegetable oils and the trans fats in them cause heart disease.
They have been found to lower your heart protective HDL and boost your heart threatening triglycerides. That’s an indicator that eating this junk increases the small particle LDL that is a direct cause of heart disease. In fact this has also been tested directly to happen!
Partially hydrogenated and fully hydrogenated vegetable oils and the trans fats in them are heart attack starters. Why volunteer to ever eat ANY?
Always read labels and in addition to passing if you see high fructose corn syrup or its possible new name, corn sugar. And always pass if you see any amount of trans fats besides zero AND pass if even one ingredient is a hydrogenated oil.
Also do your best to avoid commercial baked goods where you have no label to check out. If it wasn’t homemade by you or a baker you personally know and have asked or a health oriented friend, the chances of it having neither high fructose corn syrup or a harmful oil approach zero.
b) Foods that contain oils high in omega 6 or worse -- partially or fully hydrogenated vegetable oils.
We just covered the hydrogenated oils. But cheap, high omega 6 oils are close to as bad for you.
The excessively high intake of omega 6 oils such as soy oil and corn oil and to a degree canola oil and from the fats in grain fed meat tend to cause chronic inflammation. This is a major cause of heart disease and chronic inflammation also has been implicated in causing many cancers.
Oils high in omega 6 also tend to lower your HDL cholesterol and help cause heart disease that way too.
This is made worse by the bioconcentrated pesticides and herbicides in the fat of grain fed meat. They not only are high in omega 6, twenty times as much as 100 % grass fed, they also have more pesticides and herbicides by far than produce that was directly sprayed.
A study reported today that persistent pollutants such as these in the fat of grain fed animals and farmed fish tend to cause type 2 diabetes even in people who don’t overdo sugars and starches.
Helpful strategy:
Know and eat the health OK alternatives!
a) Except for those too high in mercury which include most tuna and all swordfish, wild caught fish are low in pollutants and high in omega 3 oils your body needs to lower inflammation, avoid excessive clotting, and lower your dangerous triglycerides.
Pasture raised chickens in pastures clean of pollutants and 100 % grass fed beef and eggs from naturally fed chickens raised at home or from a small farm near you are another way to go.
And, since even eggs from the store aren’t too bad since they have such high quality protein and so little fat. (Eggs from providers that are free of antibiotics and are at least partly free range are available at Whole Foods and other markets.)
Two percent lowfat milk and other low fat dairy products also work in moderation. So does eating lean cuts of grain fed meat that have all the visible fat removed. So does eating skinless poultry. (You can add back flavor with extra virgin olive oil and spices.)
Vegetable proteins such as from beans and lentils, mushrooms, and nuts if you aren’t allergic also work.
b) Nonstarchy, high nutrition vegetables are a superb fat loss choice. They have so few calories and close to zero boost to your blood sugar and are so filling, you can be less fat and healthier by eating MORE of this kind of food!
In fact, several kinds of studies have found the nutrients and phytonutrients in them are powerful producers and protectors of good health.
Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, tomatoes, green beans, asparagus, even carrots work as do dozens of others. Sweet potatoes and yams also work in moderation.
c) Drinks that work include filtered water, coffee, tea, green tea, and unsweetened cocoa. There are flavored teas too such as lemon and chai and vanilla chai tea available across the country.
d) Snacks that work include dark chocolate in modeation, nuts such as walnuts, almonds, and pecans if you aren’t allergic and only eat them raw or dry roasted. They also include cherries, organic peaches and nectarines and strawberries and blueberries and black berries. Unwaxed, organic apples also work.
So do vegetables with a health OK dip such as guacamole or hummus or lowfat Greek yogurt with spices.
e) Skillful use of extra virgin olive oil, wine, garlic, onions, and spices such as basil, oregano, and turmeric and curry combinations, not only can make these healthy foods a delight to eat, most of these also have their own health benefits.
Labels: Fattening foods and drinks and harmful foods and drinks, harmful fats and oils, health OK foods and drinks, why avoid high fructose corn syrup and soft drinks
posted by David at 1:23 PM
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