Foods to Avoid or Reduce

Here's a list of foods to avoid or reduce to feel better and live longer:

Avoid processed carbohydrates like refined flours and sugars. They have no or very little nutrient content, and your body must expend nutrients to process them. I like sweets as much as anyone, and struggle sometimes to avoid them. If I can hold out over a few days, the cravings eventually go away. I also notice that if I eat a lot of carbohydrates, the cravings come back.

One way to get around the sweets issue is to substitute desserts made with stevia. Stevia is a natural sweetener which comes from the South American stevia shrub. You can buy it in either powder or liquid form.

I grow stevia in my garden, and just one small leaf is so sweet it makes your tongue burn.

Eating small amounts of candy or cake every once in a while isn't going to kill you, especially if you keep your overall daily carb intake below 80. But if you eat large quantities of high carb foods over time, you will most likely damage your body's ability to regulate your blood sugar and insulin. Once that happens, your risk of developing diabetes and heart disease go way up.

Fortunately, switching to a diet plan which is low in carbohydrates and processed food can reverse a great deal of any damage done over time. I think the best diet books are those which discuss the science behind why low carb diets work. I recommend The Protein Power Lifeplan by Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades, Life Without Bread by Christian Allan, PhD and Wolfgang Lutz M.D., and The Schwarzbein Principle: The Truth About Losing Weight, Being Healthy, and Feeling Younger by Diana Schwarzbein, M.D. to learn more.

If you are having trouble identifying high carb foods, I've created a healthy food list to help you figure out what foods are high in protein and low in carbohydrates.

Lower your intake of whole grain based foods. Grains, even when whole should be on everyone's foods to avoid list. All cereal grains have relatively low levels of good nutrients and high levels of anti-nutrients such as lectins and phytates. Grains are linked to a host of health problems because they disable important minerals which the body needs, and degrade the digestive tract, causing autoimmune reactions. Celiac disease is an example of grain related autoimmune problem.

Grains must be prepared properly in order to make all the nutrients available and neutralize the anti-nutrients such as phytic acid. Sprouting or soaking the grain overnight in yogurt or whey will help reduce these toxic anti-nutrients.

Sally Fallon talks about this in depth in her cookbook, Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, which is an excellent resource for how to cook foods for a traditional diet plan.

Sprouting grains and making bread is time consuming, and in all honesty, it isn't something I'm willing to spend my time doing.

As a compromise, you can buy Ezekiel sprouted wheat bread from a company called Foods for Life. It's usually in the freezer section at the grocery store. Sprouted grains are much lower in anti-nutrients, and the each slice only has about 12 grams of carb. (Most other flour based breads have about 25 grams of carb per slice.)

Personally, wheat is at the top of my foods to avoid list. Wheat has a protein called gliaden in it, which in particular has been shown to effect gut permeability. It disrupts the tight junctions between the cells lining then intestinal wall. Damaging the integrity of the gut allows all sorts of dietary proteins to gain access to the blood stream and, causes a response from the immune system. Some researchers believe diabetes, arthritis and gastric diseases such as Crohn's disease are all autoimmune diseases, meaning they are caused by autoimmune reactions to a "leaky gut". Basically, the research is saying that eating wheat causes the body to attack itself via its immune system.

In addition, wheat protein acts as an insulin mimic, having the same effect on fat metabolism as insulin, which is to say, the higher the insulin (or insulin mimic) the more fat is stored. Another excellent reason why wheat is on my foods to avoid list.

Specific Foods to Avoid or Limit

• Foods created with genetically modified organisms. (GMO) The Institute of Responsible Technology makes it easy to avoid these foods by providing a shopping guide which tells you what foods are GMO free.
• Foods made with corn, wheat, rye, barley, oats, and other grains. (Chips, crackers)
• Foods made with flours or sugars (bread, muffins, cookies, cake, candy, bagels)
• Hidden sugars: maltodextrin, honey, sucrose, maltose, dextrose, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup
• Processed foods, especially processed low fat foods
• Packaged frozen meals (too many chemicals and carbs)
• Processed cheese foods (choose real cheese instead)
• Whole grain cereals (oats, muesli, polenta)
• Refined vegetable oils (canola, soybean oil, sunflower, safflower) and hydrogenated fats (margarine)
• Canned foods, boxed foods, other processed foods
• Fast foods as they are usually high trans fats and hidden sugars.
• Fruit juice, soda, diet soda
• Beans and pulses, peanuts
• Starchy vegetables such as corn, peas, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and most winter squash (limit to small amounts)
• Breaded or fried foods
• Soy based foods, foods that include soy fillers

Resources for Further Reading

• How Toxic is Wheat? a post by Peter at his Hyperlipid blog.
• Cereal Grains: Humanity’s Double-Edged Sword an academic paper by Loren Cordain, PhD
• Wheat Head post from Dave Dixon at Spark of Reason
• Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats a cookbook by Sally Fallon
• The Protein Power Lifeplan by Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades.
• Life Without Bread by Christian Allan, PhD and Wolfgang Lutz M.D.
• Natural Health & Weight Loss by Barry Groves

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