Know What Foods to Avoid

Know What Foods to Avoid!

The standard American diet is anything but healthy. All dietitians, medical practitioners and public health officials agree that Americans need to consume less salt, fat, sugar, meat–especially high-fat meat, dairy–especially high-fat dairy and we need to eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

Beyond that, not all foods should be considered part of a healthy diet!

Trans fats are not part of a healthy diet.
Most trans-fat is formed through an industrial process that adds hydrogen to vegetable oil, which causes the oil to become solid at room temperature. Common sources of trans fats are baked goods, such as cakes, cookies and pies, shortening, microwave popcorn, frozen pizza, refrigerated dough such as biscuits and rolls, fried foods including French fries, doughnuts and fried chicken, non-dairy coffee creamer and stick margarine. Doctors worry about trans-fat because it increases the risk of heart attacks, stroke and type 2 diabetes. Trans-fat lowers the “good” HDL cholesterol and raises the “bad” LDL cholesterol.

High-fructose corn syrup is not part of a healthy diet.
There is some controversy about what high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) does in the body to disrupt communication between your brain and receptors that indicate that you have eaten enough food. Even if you ignore the controversial aspects of what HFCS syrup does in your body, there are plenty of reasons to avoid it. HFCS is a concentrated sugar that is absorbed quickly and does not promote an insulin response like sugar does, thus leading to increased triglycerides in the blood, greater fat production and eventually nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The very cautious words of researchers warn that even though the role of HFCS in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is evolving, that evidence is “sufficient to support decreasing consumption as a clinical recommendation.” HFCS is used in soda, sweetened drinks and even “healthy” fruit juices, peanut and other nut butters, many “healthy” granola and nutrition bars, processed desserts like candies, muffins and ice creams, canned fruit products like cranberry sauce, applesauce and salad dressings.

Full sugar soft drinks and other liquid calories are not part of a healthy diet.
Soft drinks are the leading source of added sugar in our diet and have been linked to metabolic syndrome and all of the associated diseases like diabetes, heart disease and hypertension. The consumption of soft drinks can increase the prevalence of NAFLD independently of metabolic syndrome, meaning that although nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is associated with metabolic syndrome, those that consume large amounts of soft drinks can develop the disease even if they don’t have metabolic syndrome. Staying away from calorically dense and nutritionally deficient foods like soft drinks is a lifesaving rule to follow! You should also consider fruit juice as something to avoid as well. It is also a calorically dense food item completely void of fiber, which is an essential element of any healthy diet.

Deep-fried foods are not part of a healthy diet.
There are many mouthwatering foods and ways to cook out there besides deep frying. Deep-fried foods add unnecessary fat to your diet, and many commercial fryers are filled with trans-fat laden oils that reduce the cost of operation for the restaurant without consideration for your health. A study published in the British Medical Journal in 2019 uses more than 100,000 women followed for over 20 years for the Women’s Health Initiative to link those that ate fried foods with a higher percentage of premature death than those that did not eat fried foods.

As a further step, we should all consider reducing the following things in our diet.

Reduce simple sugars or refined carbohydrates.
Simple sugars or refined carbohydrates are the ones that enter your bloodstream quickly and raise blood sugar immediately. There is nothing wrong with carbohydrates, but choose complex carbohydrates with fiber. The DASH diet suggests 55 percent of calories come from carbohydrates.

Reduce processed food.
Fiber is what all processing removes, and it is essential for the proper functioning of your body in hundreds of ways. Stay away from the frozen food aisle as much as you can. Frozen packaged meals of all kinds are higher in salt, fat and sugar than whole foods that you make yourself. Remember that if it has a nutrition facts label on it, then it is processed! The DASH diet suggests that we consume no more than 1,500-2,300 mg of sodium a day and some frozen meals have 800 mg or more in just one serving! The DASH diet recommends that we get a minimum of 30 grams of fiber every day and some frozen meals have no fiber in them at all!

Reduce fat, especially saturated fat.
Oil is a highly processed food; there is no way around that. So, if you are going to follow one of the fundamental pillars of health to reduce processed food, you should reduce your consumption of oil. Peanut oil is the essence of the peanut minus the protein, fiber, some of the nutrients and everything else that makes up a peanut. Those plant-based proteins, fiber and all of the nutrients in the peanut are what makes up a healthy diet. The oil alone is not part of a healthy diet. Get your fat from whole foods with all of the associated goodness along with it! Saturated fat is the fat associated with high cholesterol. The DASH diet limits fat to around 55-63 grams and saturated fat to about 10-15 grams a day, depending on your weight and height. Plant sources of saturated fat are mainly limited to coconut, palm and cocoa. All meat and dairy have some amount of saturated fat in them. It is the fat that is solid at room temperature.

Healthy diets all show an increase in the following foods.

Increase fruits and vegetables.
Fruits and vegetables should be the central part of your diet. Sadly, in the United States and even more so in Kansas, fruits and vegetables do not figure prominently in the diets of most people. On the hospital floor at Smith County Memorial Hospital, many people eat only frozen corn and peas and no other vegetables. The fiber, nutrients, phytochemicals and antioxidants in fruits and vegetables make up the backbone of a healthy diet.

Increase beans, legumes and whole grains.
The best way to get beans, legumes, and whole grains in your diet is to cook them yourself. Eat the whole, unprocessed food. Dried lentils and beans are easy to cook. Some canned beans are low in sodium and fat, and all are very high in fiber and are a great source of non-meat protein. Eat only whole wheat or whole grain bread and cereals with no less than 3 grams of fiber per serving. Start the day with a high fiber breakfast and get a head start on the 30 grams that the DASH wants you to get a day. My suggestion is either the whole grain oatmeal we serve to staff and patients at Hometown Café or steel-cut oats available at Gene’s. Some cold cereal like Grape Nuts are also a good source of fiber. Try to stay away from breakfast cereals that have a lot of fiber but also a lot of refined sugar or fat in them.

Every healthy diet is built on the general macronutrient principles of health; eat less salt, fat and sugar, reduce fat–especially saturated fat and cholesterol, reduce all processed food and increase “whole foods” like fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes and whole grains. All effective diets on the healthy diet spectrum, from the moderate DASH diet on one side to the more rigorous plant-based whole foods diet on the other side of the spectrum, all follow those same general guidelines.

Remember that all foods are not part of a healthy diet!

Here are the references for today’s Healthy Eating Tip:

Mayo Clinic. Diseases and Conditions. High Cholesterol. Trans Fat.  (Accessed 2/15/2020.)

Vos MB, Lavine JE. Dietary fructose in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Hepatology. 2013;57:2525–31.

Basaranoglu M, Basaranoglu G, Bugianesi E. Carbohydrate intake and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: fructose as a weapon of mass destruction. Hepatobiliary Surgery and Nutrition. 2015;4(2):109–116.

Kmietowicz Zosia. Fried food linked to increased risk of death among older US women British Medical Journal 2019;364:l362