This link was sent to me a few weeks ago. There are more and more articles like this luckily, disputing earlier statements about healthy food. It seems we are on the right track. In this case, I had never heard of seitan and wouldn’t know where to buy shark, even if I wanted to. I’ve also never eaten grits. So I thought, that leaves me with 3 places which are easily filled with stuff that I avoid. With the other ones, I could only agree. Some of them are also in my list.
Although I think my list should be called 7 things I try to avoid eating, because I still eat some of these foods on occasion, in keeping with the spirit of the original article, here are my 7 things I would never eat:
Grains
I avoid things like bread and pasta from the supermarket, eat very little rice or any other refined products. Cutting out one of my favourites (pasta) from my diet was easier than I thought it would be. Muesli and other breakfast cereal (things I’ve never liked or eaten) as well as cereal bars, granola bars, etc. fall into this category too. PS, I don’t eat a lot of whole grains either but that’s not because they’re bad for you (necessarily). Properly prepared they are healthy and nutritious. I have chosen to leave them out of my diet 95% of the time because they don’t agree with me.
Soy products
I have not read a single piece of evidence that proves that soy products are good foods, not just neutral to the body, but beneficial. However, I have read plenty of articles claiming the opposite, that soy products are actually harmful to us. Yes, the soy industry would disagree, but they’d be the only ones.
Refined sugars
Well, that means basically any type of processed food and fizzy drinks.
Low-fat (or light) products
With this I mean things that are processed into low-fat products, not what is naturally low in fat, like chicken or vegetables. I’m referring to the low-fat varieties of things like milk, cheese, yoghurt etc. Today I read about something called ‘extra extra light’ mayonnaise. Made me laugh. Anyway, full-fat products are so much better for you, as long as you choose the right products.
Foods that claim or pretend to be something else
Meat substitutes for example. Things like vegan turkey bacon or mince that isn’t made from anything that used to be alive. I don’t mean to offend anyone, but come on, vegan turkey bacon, dairy-free cheese?
Fruit and fish from a tin or a jar
Just because it tastes SOOOOOO MUCH better fresh.
That’s only 6 – this is quite difficult, there are so many types of food to consider.
Bottled juices (and other ‘health’ drinks)
Last but not least. I suppose this could fall under the refined sugars but I think it deserves to be mentioned seperately. Even juices that claim to have no added sugar will have something in them that should be avoided. I don’t juice, as is now a common saying, except for the odd glass of fresh orange juice twice a year (the other exception is when I did my detox, where I could only have juice, nothing else, for 10 days). Fructose (fruit sugar) is best eaten with the fibre of the fruit – in its whole form, for it to be most beneficial to the body.
Ella's food for thought 