After a lapse in blogging, I’m back. And in my usual form … I’ve been net surfing. I stumbled onto a website about healthy eating. It is an interesting summary of “what NOT to eat.”
So I made note of the top health foods you should never eat. Many of these aren’t really health foods at all, and I didn’t include the whole list – just some that were interesting to me – they may be to you as well!
1. Fruit Juice – They say fruit juice is just as dangerous as soda, or nearly as bad, when you’re drinking too much of it. Isn’t that the rule with everything … excess is never good? It surprised me to consider that when you drink an 8-ounce glass of orange juice, you’re consuming the juice of four medium-sized oranges in just a few minutes. Compare that to how long it would take to eat four oranges. Given the benefits of the fiber, probably eating fruit in its whole form is best. Fruit juice is dangerous, largely due to the fructose factor. Our bodies aren’t designed to deal with fructose overload. While glucose serves as a fuel for our body, fructose is processed almost exclusively in the liver, where it’s converted to fat. And who wants that?!
2. ‘Atlantic’ Salmon + Other Farmed Fish Like Tilapia – Another health food you should never eat – farmed fish. And in fact, the author suggested that eating tilapia is worse than eating bacon. Be sure to avoid farmed salmon, too. It’s often called ‘Atlantic’ salmon or just salmon. Apparently the omega-3 levels in farmed salmon are dropping drastically, and dioxin levels are far higher than wild salmon. Of course those pollutants are linked to cancers.
Better option: Alaskan wild-caught salmon. Where do I find this?! We looked on our salmon … yep Atlantic Salmon. Hmmm …
3. Microwave Popcorn Filled with questionable ingredients, it is just not worth the convenience. The main problem? The microwavable bags are coated with nonstick perfluorochemicals like perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), chemicals linked to cancer. Another problem is the fake butter, of course. The better option suggestion was to pop my own. But … I don’t do that. I eat Skinny Pop. Love it. Convenient, low calorie … good choice for me!
4. Factory-Farmed Meat Essentially, you are what they eat. It makes sense that if the livestock that you’re grilling up for supper is fed hormones, drugs and an unnatural diet using chemical pesticides and fertilizers, well, that’s not good news for you, either. The important take-away here is to always purchase meat from a trusted local source. And the truth of that? It’s just not realistic – too expensive to buy from a source where you’re familiar with the rancher. So, I guess we can only be careful about what and where we buy.
5. Shrimp Is shrimp good for you? Not according to what I’ve read. Too many reasons to list, but all about what they contain, how the are farmed, and the extreme health conditions associated, including memory loss, tremors, and even possibly Parkinson’s. I can go without shrimp …
6. Vegetable Oils Don’t use them … that’s all I got from this. Soooo many health problems associated with the use of vegetable oils, including canola oil. I’m an olive oil gal, myself. But the writer tells us to use pure, cold pressed, extra virgin coconut oil. To make sure you’re really getting the benefits of coconut oil, you should make sure the product smells like coconut when you buy it. Otherwise there’s a good chance it’s been pasteurized and is not as healthy for you. Don’t know what I think about this?!
7. Table Salt Standard table salt definitely makes everyone’s list of top health foods you should never eat. Pretty much everyone has heard that white table salt causes hypertension. The suggested replacement is not even a replacement at all, but the original product! Celtic sea salt and Himalayan salt are the products of choir – I may just do this one.
In my own world of dieting … I’ve had an odd couple of days. Off-the-charts new back pain, too much time in the car, eating off the plan (not by choice, just circumstance), and stomach ailments.
On the plus side – 10 hours and 6 minutes of sleep last night! 3000 steps today. And back to a regular schedule starting tomorrow!