Top Ten Things I Used to Eat, Thinking They Were Healthful

In no particular order....

1.  Diet Pop.

Well, on this one, maybe I was partially correct.   At one time many years ago I decided that aspartame-containing diet pop was a healthier choice than regular pop, which was loaded with sugar.   (At that time, I hadn't even heard of sucrose's evil cousin, high-fructose corn syrup).   It is true that ordinary sugar-containing soda is awful.   It has absolutely no redeeming value.   BTW, I never drank soda pop "thinking it was healthy" so it does not make this top ten list.   If you drink soda pop it should be the first thing you eliminate from your diet.  The only argument you will get on that would be from the people who make or sell it.

Back to diet pop...  Just do a google search on "dangers of aspartame" and you will find numerous articles, many of which have documented references to back up their claims.  Some of the side effects linked to aspartame  include headaches/migraines, dizziness, seizures, nausea, numbness, muscle spasms, weight gain, rashes, depression, fatigue, irritability, tachycardia, insomnia, vision problems, hearing loss, heart palpitations, breathing difficulties, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, loss of taste, tinnitus, vertigo, memory loss and joint pain.

You will also find many articles vehemently insisting that aspartame is safe.   They seem to get quite worked up about it.  For example this one.  Dig a little deeper and you will find that website is published by "The Calorie Control Council".  And who are they?  Well, according to their website, they represent "manufacturers and suppliers of low- and reduced-calorie foods and beverages, including manufacturers and suppliers of more than two dozen different alternative sweeteners, fibers and other low-calorie, dietary ingredients."   Most other websites insisting aspartame is safe have similar roots.    Hmm, would that mean they are anything but 100% objective?  Do you trust your health and well-being to them?  The way I look at it, we are about 30 years into a lifetime experiment.  So skip the aspartame.  What's to lose?   Living with neither diet or regular pop is actually quite easy.  I decided not to be a guinea pig.

So if you wonder which is better, diet or regular soda pop, I think the best answer is clearly "C - neither".

2.  Margarine

It boggles the mind that we were once told (and many people still believe) that margarine is more healthful than butter.  In fact, many websites still say that.   They say that butter is bad because it contains some cholesterol and some saturated fats.  Well, time to wake up, Rip Van Winkle, there's new info!  It has been known for decades that dietary cholesterol is not a significant source of serum cholesterol, and saturated fats are mostly vindicated also.   It is just that the old information takes a long time to die out, and apparently many of the old guard are too lazy to keep up with new information or are so conditioned by faulty research of the past they they can't accept the new information.  If this information is news to you, here is a good place to inform yourself.

The best butter with the most healthful lipid profile is from grass-fed cows, and the easiest way to make sure you are getting the best butter is to go with Kerrygold butter from Ireland.

3.  Ramen Noodles

There was a time when I thought that the best diet was lots and lots of carbohydrates.   If that's the case, what's not to like about cheap and easy Ramen noodles?   Well, I will tell you what.   Checking the list of ingredients reveals: Enriched Flour, Vegetable Oil (whatever oil they happened to have that day), Salt, Textured Soy Protein (nasty stuff!), Hydrolyzed Soy (nasty stuff!), Corn and Wheat Protein, Onion Powder, Monosodium Glutamate (super nasty stuff!), Caramel Color, Garlic Powder, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Sugar,  Potassium Carbonate, Sodium Carbonate, & Sodium Tripolyphosphate, maltodextrin, "natural flavor" (could be anything!), disodium insonate , disodium guanylate, and lactose.    Hardly what one would call "food".    A good axiom you might have heard... if your grandmother would not recognize an ingredient as food, it's probably not food.

4.  Egg Beaters

Doesn't everybody know by now that "eating cholesterol does not raise your cholesterol level".    If someone tried to tell you that eating liver would grow your liver, or eating beef tongue would cause your tongue to grow, you might get a weak chuckle, yet some people still believe that egg yolks are unhealthy, for the sole reason that they contain some cholesterol.    As mentioned above, dietary cholesterol is not an unhealthy food, and even the mainstream dieticians are coming around to learn this.  Only the most ignorant or uninformed "experts" continue to advise not to eat egg yolks. If you still don't believe it, you need to check out Liz Wolfe at Eat the Yolks.

5.   Fake Meat

OK, if you choose not to eat meat, I accept that.   Most animals are raised in terrible, unnatureal conditions, and I understand not wanting to support that.   That's why we eat, to the extent possible, humanely raised meat and poultry.   Including grass fed pasture raised animals, not from a CAFO (confined animal feeding operation), factory pig farm, or mass produced chicken factory.


But if you do choose not to eat meat, be careful about the meat substitutes.   Many contain unfermented soy.  (As does soy milk!)  Soy is often thought to be a health food.    Probably the #1 danger of eating unfermented soy is phytoestrogens.  Phytoestrogens are plant-based estrogens that mimic estrogen in our bodies.  A leading cause of breast cancer, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, infertility, and low libido is unopposed estrogen, or estrogen dominance. Why, then, would anyone argue that we should consume more of a food high in estrogen?  Unfermented soy is also a goitrogen that will destroy your thyroid.

One of the best sources of information on soy is The Naughty Nutritionist, Dr. Kaayla Daniel, and her book The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food.

6.  "Fat Free" Stuff. 

Many people continue to eat "fat free" food due to the mistaken notion  that "fat is the enemy".   (I once saw the notation "Fat Free!" on a bottle of soda pop!)   However, "fat free" foods are often loaded with more sugar (in many forms) than their non fat free counterparts, and also a laundry list of synthetic chemicals to improve their flavor and "mouth feel".    Best to just eat the regular version, sticking to the "healthy fats".  (Which is the subject of another whole post).

By the way, you have probably heard hundreds of times, that "eating fat makes you fat" because "fat contains 9 calories per gram but carbs only contain 4 calories per gram."   That would only make sense if you at the same number of grams of each food.   People eat giant bagels and muffins containing "healthy whole grains", big bowls of  "Fruit Loops",  and all-you-can-eat pasta bowls.   Do you think they are counting the grams of carbohydrates?   People do not eat bowls of butter.  A slice of bacon might appear to contain a lot of fat, but we do not fill a cereal bowl full of bacon and eat it.  So comparing fat vs carbs on a gram-for-gram basis makes no sense at all.

7.  Edamame

Soy Beans.     Unfermented.   See #5 above.

8.  Granola

Granola conjures up feelings of "back to nature" and "healthy whole grains"... but in reality are anything but healthy.    They are usually loaded with sugar, with 15-17 grams common per serving.  A bowl of granola is a lot of food, as it is dense and not full of air like most breakfast cereals.  So you might be eating way more than you think.  Many granolas have an ingredient list that looks more like a chemistry lab inventory.  We decided long ago that there is no place for granola in our food lineup.

9.  "Quorn"

Have you heard of "Quorn".  We used to eat this food.  We would get breaded fake-chicken patties.  What is Quorn?  Even their own website has a hard time explaining.   "The main ingredient in Quorn™ is mycoprotein, a high quality meat-free protein, which is naturally low in fat and saturated fat."  And what, you might ask, is "mycoprotein"?   Well, they don't really tell you, but according to Wikipedia, it is a protein derived from a fungus.   Talk about a "Franken-Food".  It is reported that some people react with nausea to this food.   I have to say that several times after eating it, I did feel a bit queasy.  Now it all makes sense.   I was putting something very unnatural in my stomach.  My stomach was saying "What in the Sam Hill is this?   I am not sure if I want to continue to process this or send it back where it came from."  I'm getting a little queasy just writing this and looking at the photo, so let's move on!

10.  Canola Oil (and other vegetable oils)

Ok, most of the anti-fat people came around some years ago and admitted that olive oil was a "good fat".  The reason being that it contains a large amount of mono-unsaturated fatty acids, which were deemed to be the best for heart health.   An then along comes "Canola" oil, which, lo and behold, also is largely mono-unsaturated.  Bingo!   No need to look further, another "healthy oil" is born.   Well, not so fast!   There is more to the story than that.   The processing of extra virgin olive oil has essentially one step.   Press the olive.   It's then strained and centrifuged to remove pieces of olive, and packaged.   That's it.  Canola oil processing could not be more different.   It's gross!   Look at this flowchart of canola oil (and other industrial vegetable oil) processing.  It is literally an oil refinery.  It turns out that man-made refined oils like corn oil, sunflower oil, and canola oil are not heart-healthy.  They promote inflammation, which is a major cause of atherosclerosis.  Instead of canola other vegetable oils, we use coconut or macadamia nut oils.