Seven Foods You Should Never Eat

Dear Natural Health Solutions Reader,

“Never” is a strong term, but I use it here deliberately. With literally thousands of delicious whole, unprocessed foods to enjoy, there’s simply no reason to ever consume any of these:

1. Regular soda: This is the worst commonly consumed item in the American diet. Studies consistently link soda consumption — even at just one can a day — to increased risk of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. Optimal hydration and other health benefits come from drinking water, unsweetened green tea (iced or hot), coffee, and a nightly glass of wine.

2. Artificial sweeteners: Known technically as non-nutritive sweeteners, many forms have been shown to increase appetite, which makes perfect sense: A million years of evolution has conditioned our bodies to expect an influx of calories immediately following the sensation of a sweet taste. When those calories don’t arrive, insulin — and then hunger — spikes, and we end up eating more calories than we avoid by consuming the artificial sweetener. A study published in March 2015 showed that among people 65 and older, regular consumption of artificially sweetened diet soda led to significant increases in abdominal fat.

3. Undiluted fruit juice: Often regarded as more healthful than soda, the fact is that, metabolically, fruit juice has roughly the same effect — it spikes insulin and drives weight gain. The modest amount of vitamin C in natural juices does not compensate for this effect. Eat whole fruit, and don’t drink fruit juice.

4. Isolated soy protein foods (such as vegetarian “hot dogs”): I am not a fan of soy foods in any form, but whole fermented soy products — such as soy sauce, natto, miso, and tempeh — appear to be relatively benign, especially when eaten in modest amounts. Isolated soy protein is much more problematic — extracted with acids and then neutralized with an alkaline wash, soy isolate is often high in both toxins and anti-nutrients (substances that inhibit the body’s ability to incorporate proteins, vitamins, and minerals). Worse, virtually all soy grown in the U.S. is genetically modified and heavily sprayed with pesticides.

5. Deep-fried food: Restaurants typically use the same fryer oils for many days. But prolonged heating degrades the oil and renders it highly pro-inflammatory. Recently — in a nod toward making fried food more “healthy” — some fast-food operations have switched from hydrogenated oils to pure polyunsaturated oils in their deep fat fryers. But bad as hydrogenated oils are, polyunsaturated oils are perhaps even more dangerous when heated, as they are profoundly chemically unstable and prone to rapid oxidation.

6. “Hyperpalatable” snacks: These are typically packaged, bite-sized creations in which the grain is entirely stripped of fiber and the remaining starch is “exploded” under heat and a quick release of pressure. A perfect example is “cheese puffs,” which are offered in baked and fried versions. These are nutrient-poor, inflammatory, and insulin-spiking and offer no satiety (a feeling of fullness) whatsoever. In other words, they are engineered to promote overeating.

7. Fast foods in general: The problem here is not necessarily the category of food itself — virtually all fast-food operations offer salads, for example — it’s the overall quality. Every ingredient in every item fast-food chains sell is suspect because the imperative is to secure it as cheaply as possible. This means fast food typically contains lots of cheap additives and fillers.

In his book In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, writer Michael Pollan offers a useful concept to help us avoid eating any of these highly processed industrial concoctions. He terms them “food-like substances” — in other words, substances that resemble food but are distinct from actual food.

I endorse this distinction. You are under no obligation to classify these overprocessed and denatured substances as “food,” because they quite literally don’t deserve that designation. Once you internalize this idea, avoiding all of them becomes easy and, ultimately, effortless.

Sincerely,

Brad Lemley
Natural Health Solutions

Citations
Vartanian LR, Schwartz MB, Brownell KD. “Effects of soft drink consumption on nutrition and health: a systematic review and meta-analysis.” Am J Public Health. 2007;97:667-75.

Sharon P.G. Fowler, Ken Williams and Helen P. Hazuda. “Diet Soda Intake Is Associated with Long-Term Increases in Waist Circumference in a Biethnic Cohort of Older Adults: The San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging.” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, March 17, 2015 DOI: 10.1111/jgs.13376