Trust Your Gut The gut plays an integral role in helping the body absorb nutrients from the food we eat. Gut bugs are very sensitive to foods because they’re constantly exposed to them in our bodies. Once our diets are out of whack, our bodies can’t absorb the nutrients they need to be healthy. That means the gut bugs don’t get their nutrients, either. Without nutrients, they begin to die off. When this happens, the immune system suffers because these little buggers are responsible for a lot of our immunity. The gut really isn’t the only way we can be affected by bad diets, either. We use our liver, kidneys, kidneys and lungs to digest food and get rid of excess wastes in the body. Some types of diet may cause our organs to grow out of proportion and get clogged, making it difficult for our body to do the things we need it to do to stay healthy. The Dirty Dozen: Foods to Avoid If you have diabetes or heart disease or a chronic illness, there are certain foods you should stay away from completely. You also want to make sure your diet is low in these foods even if you’re not dealing with chronic health issues. Sodas. It’s said that our bodies can break down aspartame (an artificial sweetener found in many diet sodas) in as little as four hours. It’s also said that certain chemicals in sodas can cause brain tumors, nerve damage, and other disorders. They also cause obesity by triggering insulin resistance in our bodies and causing a change in how the body uses fat. The best diet sodas (I’m looking at you Crystal Lite) can have as much as 19 grams of sugar in each serving, which is a lot! The worst should be avoided entirely. Sodas make up just 6% of your daily calories, so you can live without them easily. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: water doesn’t count as a “calorie.” All sodas should be avoided by anyone who is trying to lose weight. Red Meat. When you eat red meat, your body can become clogged with cholesterol. The more you eat of it, the more clogged your body becomes, and the more clogged your body becomes, the more likely it is that you’ll have a heart attack or stroke, or get one of the diseases listed below. Even if your diet is low in cholesterol, you’re still at risk if you eat a lot of red meat. Beans and nuts are good protein sources if you can’t give up red meat. Just don’t make the mistake of thinking that eating low-fat meats such as turkey or chicken will help. If you eat it in moderation, you won’t experience any ill effects from red meat, but it doesn’t help lower cholesterol when consumed in large amounts. Dairy Products. We’ve already talked about how red meat is bad for you, but there’s a lot of controversy around dairy products as well. Some people have problems with lactose intolerance, and others don’t digest dairy products well, either. Other people who can’t digest dairy products don’t have any problems with it, either. If you can’t digest dairy products, avoid them, but otherwise, here are some facts you should know: It’s all the same milk, no matter how the fat is classified. Milk causes health problems. You don’t need cow’s milk to be healthy or lose weight. B12, the naturally occurring form of vitamin B12, is made by all forms of milk, so you don’t even need milk at all to get the vitamin. There are other great sources of B12, so just say no to milk. Dairy products contribute to excess weight because of the hormones in the milk. The body doesn’t need to synthesize hormones naturally. Processed meat is full of preservatives. Even natural food, such as some jerky, have been known to contain chemical preservatives. Processed meats also contain toxins from being cooked at high temperatures. Fried foods aren’t good for your heart. Fried foods are even worse than processed meats, since they contain a lot of oil. They also contain trans-fatty acids, which can increase your risk of heart disease. There’s also a higher chance of getting cancer when you eat fried foods because of the oil you get from frying them. Fried foods and butter have been linked to colon cancer. We know this because people who eat them, and don’t eat broccoli and other vegetables, have a higher chance of getting cancer and other diseases than people who eat fruits and vegetables. If you fry something in olive oil or eat raw fruits and vegetables, you will be ok. I’ve eaten baked and deep-fried foods with no problems for as long as I can remember. You just have to make sure your food is well-cooked, so it doesn’t contain toxins. You should eat as much as five servings of fruits and veggies a day to stay healthy. If you have diabetes, however, eat as little as two servings of fruit and veggies a day. We’ll cover ways to overcome the protein problems in your diet. Sugar has been found to be more of a health risk than you realize. Have you heard of the glycemic index? This is a list of different foods that rates the foods based on the effect they have on the blood sugar in your body. It ranks your food based on this, with 100 being a perfect score and 0 being an extremely bad score. Sugar has been found to be high on the glycemic index. I’m talking about white refined sugar and processed foods in general. Don’t get me wrong, you can live with this, but some people get addicted to it and feel like they need more than they can get in a regular diet. You also can’t just go from processed food to a healthy diet and expect to lose weight. Your body needs to get used to the healthy food. There are some people who have the same weight problems I have now, despite eating the same foods, and sometimes they even use the same diet as I do. If this is you, you have to do more than just diet, though. Processed Foods. I have a friend whose house is full of nothing but food that is processed and unhealthy. My friend hasn’t cut out refined sugars or salt completely, but he’s not eating what I’m eating. Even though he can get away with this lifestyle, my friend has health issues such as heart disease. This is because these foods cause insulin resistance in the body. The bottom line is that you can find high-calorie foods in foods that are otherwise healthy. In fact, if you keep eating processed foods and sugary foods you’ll have a tough time losing weight because your body won’t want to lose weight. My friend who I was speaking about has made progress by eating healthy food instead of processed foods, but he still has a long way to go. He’s very successful at keeping his sugar intake under control, but he sometimes adds artificial sweeteners to drinks or sauces he’s eating. When he does this, he actually gets sugar withdrawal symptoms such as headaches and dizziness. He doesn’t realize it, but he feels a change in how the food is metabolized in his body after this happens. Luckily, he’s making progress. This is a good sign for him. What else have I done? I’ve actually made a list of 50 foods that are bad for us, but let me tell you: I don’t follow my list and I don’t want you to either. If you want to lose weight, find the foods that will get you started. You can follow the list once you lose weight and once you reach a healthy weight, but most people’s stomachs aren’t ready for more healthy food than what they’re eating right now. I’m not going to tell you that you have to have a salad every day for every meal, either. Eat the food you want and stop eating the food that isn’t helping you lose weight. It doesn’t matter if you eat your whole meal out of the box because they have more calories and salt than what’s healthy for you. If you eat out at the restaurant more than once a week, just try it. Some people eat as much as five meals a day, and they end up gaining weight. This is something I learned from Paleo: Food isn’t bad unless you eat too much of it. That’s it. I also learned that a healthy diet is more about what you eat less of than what you eat more of. The good thing about going Paleo is that once you cut out grains and dairy products and processed foods, you will feel so much better and you will lose weight. Processed foods have been the culprits that kept me in a bad place for so long. Now I’m moving forward with better foods.