YinvsYang

One of the hardest things to do in your daily life is maintain a healthy diet. We all try, but those feel good foods are sometimes too hard to resists. Everyone knows that candies and snacks are not the healthiest things to eat. Everyone also knows picking up fast food is not going to sit well with your doctor. However, most people don’t realize there are three major food items you should stay away from: Trans Fats, Refined Sugar, and White (or enriched) flour.

There is a very simple reason why you should avoid as much as possible these three foods. You see, your body is like a computer. When we ingest something from nature, like natural sugar, your body recognizes these foods and knows exactly how to move them through your body, whether bad or good.

However, when we process man-made foods (which these three items are), our body is confused. Picture inserting an Apple based program into your Windows operating system. The computer will spit out the disc because it does not recognize it. Your body does the same thing. Instead of spitting it out, your body throws it aside into your arteries where clogs can form after many years of abuse. This has been the main cause of many heart attacks in countless people. It’s why many of my Italian ancestors who ate nothing but pasta, white bread, and pasteries, all had either obesity or heart issues.Let’s explore a little more about these three food items.

TRANS FATS

Luckily, the government became aware of the trans fat issue a few years back. Since 2006 it is illegal to have over a certain amount of trans fat in any food.

Trans fats….”are industrially created by partially hydrogenating plant oils — a process developed in the early 1900s and first commercialized as Crisco in 1911. The goal of partial hydrogenation is to add hydrogen atoms to unsaturated fats, making them more saturated. These more saturated fats have a higher melting point, which makes them attractive for baking and extends their shelf-life. Another particular class of trans fats, vaccenic acid, occurs naturally in trace amounts in meat and dairy products from ruminants.”….from Wikipedia.

Since 2006, most companies have gone through the process of nearly eliminating trans fats in their foods due to the FDA. However, schools still buy items in bulk and it is impossible to figure out the amount of trans fats that way. The best thing to do is peak over the ingredient list. If you see anything that reads ‘partially hydrogenated’, maybe it’s best to pass that up.

REFINED SUGAR

Refined, or granulated sugar is the most common form of sugar in the US and Europe.

‘Refined sugar can be made by dissolving raw sugar and purifying it with a phosphoric acid method similar to that used for blanco directo, a carbonatation process involving calcium hydroxide and carbon dioxide, or by various filtration strategies. It is then further purified by filtration through a bed of activated carbon or bone char depending on where the processing takes place.’ …from Wikipedia

This process changes the fundamental structure of pure cane sugar. So, once again, your body does not recognize it when ingested. Refined sugar is found mostly in soda, cookies, deserts, and candy. However, fruit is also loaded with sugar you may say. This is a common misnomer. Fruit is loaded with natural sugar. Natural sugar is from nature, so your body knows exactly how to process it.

WHITE FLOUR

This is probably the worst of the three. Now that you know about trans fats, it is easy to see how that oil is bad for you. The same goes for refined sugar. You probably already knew to stay away from cookies and soda. But, did you know that white bread is just as bad?

White flour, or enriched flour, is a process that was developed in the middle ages. It is called enriched flour, because it replaces some of the ingredients lost during the white flour making process. Flour, without anything before it, refers to wheat flour. Wheat flour, along with any other natural grain flour (corn, rye, barley, rice, etc.) is completely natural. Once again, your body will recognize the nutrients and know how to disperse them.

When the flour is bleached to make it white and more suitable, then enriched to replace the nutrients lost in the first process, you wind up with something unnatural. Your body does not recognize those two pieces of white bread holding your sandwich together, nor that slice of sicilian pizza. Instead, these food items are pushed to the side as unknowns, potentially clogging up your arteries and your waist line.

OVERALL

The new challenge for you is not change your diet over night. It is to sit back an analyze what you eat. How much white flour, refined sugar, and trans fats do you eat? One way to track it is to make a list of everything you eat.

Another, much easier way, is to try and stick to natural items during your main meals. Everyone loves a dessert now and again which is usually loaded with white flour and refined sugar. I try to eat healthy in all my meals, avoiding the three unnatural food items, this way I don’t feel so upset when I consume a Napolean from the local bakery.

The real battle is understanding what you are consuming. You have already taken that step by reading this article. The next step is up to you. I have found through my personal experience that cutting out these foods leads to more energy, increased performance, and most of all, a fitter body. I lost about 10 pounds when I switched. Not immediately, but over the course of a few weeks. That weight has never come back either.

Whole wheat bread anyone?