What not to Eat

What not to Eat

To shoot for optimal health, we should simply eat a plant-based, whole-foods diet. The more
natural, micronutrient-dense a food is, the better it is for you, so obviously the more processed and macronutrient-dense a food is, the worse it is. Usually we use the term empty calories to describe these kinds of foods. We should avoid foods like table sugar and corn-syrup, which are both pure carbohydrate. Even honey, which many people consider healthy is almost 100% simple sugar and should be avoided. All oils are made entirely out of fat, as is lard. Butter has some impurities, but is almost 100% fat as well. Processed proteins, such as whey protein or seitan are less of an issue, since most people use them to build muscle or to ensure they are getting their minimum amount of amino acids. Processed carbohydrates and fats are the main issue. Eating lots of processed fat is bad, but it’s much worse to eat (or drink) refined sugar, and worse than either is a combination of the two.

We should be careful about how much processed fats we consume because fat is more than
twice as calorie dense as carbohydrate and protein. Since pure fats have very little volume
per calorie, on their own, they aren’t good at making us feel satiated, and they can easily
send us into a caloric surplus. Since glucose is the body’s primary fuel, we usually won’t
metabolize fat unless glucose is no longer available. Since most of us maintain high blood
sugar, the fat we eat quickly becomes the fat that we wear, so we should be careful about
how much oil and butter we use.

There is one kind of fat that may be healthy to supplement: omega threes. The body needs fats (lipids) for a variety of metabolic processes. Some of these lipids can be made by the body, but there are some kinds of fat that the body cannot make on its own. These are the essential fatty acids, and they come in two categories: omega sixes and omega threes. Since omega sixes are pro-inflammatory, and omegas threes are anti-inflammatory, we are recommended to take them in a ratio of 1-1. However, people on the western diet usually have a ratio closer to 1-15. Therefore, it's usually only healthy to supplement omega threes.

Omega threes supplements are widely available as fish oil or flaxseed oil gel caps, and natural foods that have high amounts of omega threes include: wild oily fish (tuna, cod, salmon), ground flaxseed, walnuts and spinach.

The cereals and grains that provide human beings with most of their calories are minimally
processed grasses. They are not inherently unhealthy, but in man’s quest to concentrate and
preserve calories, they have become the primary victim of food processing. Saltine crackers
aren’t healthy. Nor is a donut, or a cup of hot cup sake. However, wild rice, whole oats and
buckwheat are nutritious foods. Whole grains have micronutrients and they are very high in
insoluble fiber, which promotes satiety and keeps the gut clear and clean. When we process
our grains, we rob ourselves of vitamins and minerals. More importantly, when strip our grains of their natural fibers, we tend to eat too much, absorb calories too quickly, and get food matter stuck in the gut, making it difficult to absorb nutrients from the next thing to come down the pike.

Sugars, like sucrose and corn syrup, represent an extreme form of processed grasses.
Processed sugar is much worse than donuts or white crackers. We all know that sugar
promotes weight gain, but not everyone knows that it gets worse over time. Prolonged
consumption of processed sugar can lead metabolic syndrome, which limits the body’s ability
to burn calories, leading to runaway weight gain. Eating processed sugar can also lead to
serious illnesses like heart disease, type two diabetes, hypertension, dementia, non-alcoholic
fatty liver disease, cancer and stroke. If you already have metabolic syndrome, your risk of
developing the above illnesses increases dramatically.

Additionally, while eating whole foods builds up the gut barrier, eating refined sugar can cause
the gut barrier to break down, allowing food particles to enter the bloodstream. As a result,
immune cells are sent to pursue the food particles all over the body, leading to widespread
inflammation. Eating refined sugar also impairs the functioning of white blood cells,
compromising the body’s ability to prevent disease and heal itself, leading to a vicious cycle.
It's common practice to drink tea with honey and take cough syrup containing high fructose
corn syrup when a cold or flu develops, but doing so will make us sicker, for longer.

There were no dentists in the Neolithic era, but then we didn’t really need them. Before
processed sugar, people didn’t develop cavities. Similarly, people weren’t overweight, and
diseases like heart disease and cancer were rare. If we want to live a long and healthy life, we
should take a cue from our ancestors and cut out the processed sugar. The health benefits of
getting sugar out of our diet are probably at least on par with quitting smoking, so for most of
us it’s probably the best thing we can do for our health.

Everyone knows sugar isn’t healthy, but we still eat it for the same reason alcoholics drink and
cocaine addicts take cocaine: dopamine. Dopamine is a reward chemical released by the
brain. When we eat most foods, the brain releases a certain amount of dopamine, which
gradually tapers off, the more we eat of that food. This is to ensure that we eat a variety of
foods and meet our nutritional requirements. However, the amount of dopamine released by
the brain when we eat sugar remains constant. And it gets worse: eating too much sugar
interferes with the hormone ghrelin, which makes us hungry, and the hormone leptin, which
tells us when we are full. So, is it any wonder people eat too much sugar, when our brains
constantly reward us for it, and no amount makes us feel satisfied? Sugar is extremely
unhealthy, and more addictive than cocaine, so we should treat it with a great amount of
caution.

Eating refined fats is bad, eating refined sugars is worse, but eating both at the same time is
the worst. Two out of five possible conditions of metabolic syndrome are high blood sugar and
high levels of blood lipids (fatty molecules). Our cells can create energy from fats and sugars,
but when there is an overabundance of both, they become insulin resistant. Insulin is the
hormone that brings glucose into the cell. The more insulin resistant we become, the more the
pancreas tries to compensate by producing more insulin. Eventually, the pancreas can
become so over-taxed that it cannot produce even a normal amount of insulin. Meanwhile,
if we are still filling the body with sugar and lipids, there becomes nowhere for the excess
glucose to go, leading to high blood sugar. This is what we call type-two diabetes. The way we
usually deal with this problem by taking insulin shots, which manages the high blood sugar,
but can lead to other health problems. Diabetes, if left untreated can lead to blindness, organ
failure, and amputation.

Metabolic syndrome and associated diseases like diabetes are clearly awful to endure.
Luckily, we can reverse metabolic syndrome and cure diabetes. All it takes is that we get the
processed carbohydrates and fats out of our diets, get daily exercise, and perhaps incorporate
intermittent or long term fasting into our lifestyles.

When we take pure carbohydrate and chemically alter it through fermentation, we get alcohol. Like sugar, alcohol has no nutritional value apart from raw calories. Alcohol is metabolism requires that the body break it down into acetaldehyde, which is a poison, before processing it into simpler compounds. Alcohol abuse can damage the pancreas, the liver, cause certain types of cancer, and as we all know, lead to birth defects in pregnant women. At seven calories per gram, it's almost twice and calorie-dense and carbohydrate.

Excess amounts of any concentrated macronutrient are bad for the body, whether it be
carbohydrate, fat or even protein. Protein helps provide the raw materials for building muscle,
and any other tissue. However, it is possible to consume more protein than the body can
effectively use for building and maintaining cells, in which case, the excess protein is
converted to glucose. It is difficult to over-consume protein from non-processed, non-meat
sources. However, it’s easy to consume more meat that the body can process in single sitting,
or by consuming too much of protein supplement, such as whey protein. As I can personally
confirm, even more "natural" protein supplements like hemp protein can just make you fat if
you take more than you need.

Eating too much meat can have drawbacks in addition to weight gain. Meat from grass-eating
animals contains unsaturated fatty acids (trans fats), which can contribute to heart disease,
stroke and diabetes, especially if those grass-eating animals aren't fed grass. Additionally,
excess meat consumption in general is associated with atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s, erectile
dysfunction, overweight, cancer, heart disease, stroke and diabetes. These diseases are
mostly associated with red meat, and especially with processed meats. So, while some
people believe that excess animal protein is inherently problematic, animal fat may be the
primary culprit. Although seafood is usually not associated with the above diseases, it may
not be a good one to one replacement, since it carries other health risks due to high levels of
heavy metals like mercury.

Finally, I would be remiss not to say a word on genetically modified foods. Some people claim
that GMO foods are lacking in nutrition, potentially harmful and should always be labeled.
Others say that there is nothing wrong with GMO foods and without them, billions of people
around the globe would starve. I sometimes eat GMO foods, but given the choice, I opt for
non-GMO foods every time.

When I talk about GMO foods, I don’t mean the kind of genetic modification that comes as a
result of grafting a branch from one kinds of apple tree to another; I’m talking about
gene-splicing that happens in labs. For me, that the genetic modification which alters our food
happens outside of a natural environment, and that there haven’t been any long-term studies
on the effects of those foods on human health is reasonable cause for concern. If we were
talking about drugs developed in a lab, rigorous testing would be mandatory, but for whatever
reason, for foods created in a lab, we don’t require it. I realize that genetic modification of
wheat has been a massive boon to human survival, but I also know that if I eat more than a
couple slices of bread in one sitting, I feel real, visceral discomfort. Since I don't know the long
term effects on my human health I would rather eat non-GMO.

Similarly, I prefer organic to non-organic food. Non-organic produce is sprayed with
petrol-chemical pesticides--poisons which remain on the food in trace amounts. Given the
choice I would choose not to eat poison every time, even if it's just a little bit. The soil from
which organic produce is grown is fertilized with natural, organic materials, while inorganic
food is usually fertilized with petrochemicals. Since vegetables have been evolving for
hundreds of millions of years with naturally fertilized soil, I prefer it over soil fertilized with
petrochemicals. Having grown my own vegetables, I know that there is no comparison in the
quality of the tomato grown in the backyard and the one bought at the local supermarket. The
tomato grown in the backyard maybe a little oddly shaped, but bursts with flavors, while the
tomato from the store usually has very little taste and begs for salt.

Human beings take great pleasure in food and drink. I’m not here to tell anyone that they
shouldn’t have the occasional hot-fudge sundae or pint of beer. However, if we want to live
long, health and happy lives, we must be aware of the detriment that processed foods have
on our health and make our decisions accordingly.