As a Mastery Certified Health Coach, I use functional nutrition and lifestyle modification to help people Get Their Health Back and Transform Their Lives.
I’m offering a FREE 30 day Whole30 Reset Challenge. This is s great place to reset your metabolism, and use the Whole30 books and reference materials–Like a book club, curated with love. You can opt in to My Private Facebook Group: Optimal Health Blueprint – to participate, lurk, listen, get support, and accountability. Use this group to get inspired to simply—or not so simply—change the food you put on your plate.
The Whole 30 is rooted in a Paleo framework, basically this is an anti-inflammatory, autoimmune protocol. To help you eliminate foods that are known to be less healthy, for a full 30 days. Then we add them back in slowly—paying attention to the signs and symptoms in your body. The key is to track how you feel as you reintroduce foods.
In the Private Facebook Group I’ve done a series of introductory videos explaining the concepts of the Whole30. I’ve explained the Whole30 guidelines, and created videos to help you prepare, and plan for your success. The ides is to clear out less healthy foods from our life, and make simple adjustments to the food we eat. Essentially taking 30 days of making healthier food choices.
Today I’m talking about Less Healthy Foods, as outlined in the Whole30. There are 5 food groups that fail their “Good Food Standards.” These are:
Added Sugar
Alcohol
Grains
Legumes
Dairy
I know… This may be a challenge to the way your’ve been eating, especially IF you are vegan/vegetarian. Dallas and Melissa Hartwig explain that —in these food groups, there are no vitamins, minerals or phytonutrients that can’t be found in high quality meats, vegetables, fruits, and natural fats. All of these “less healthy foods” have potential metabolic, digestive, and inflammatory downsides.
The First Less Healthy Food Category is ADDED SUGAR
All forms of sugar, honey, agave nectar maple syrup, and of course, chemically derived artificial sweeteners do not contribute to your health. Sugars are a direct hit to the pleasure pathways in our brains, creating an unhealthy psychological response. Eating sugar and foods with sugar in them makes it hard to break poor food and eating habits.
Sugar Is as addictive as heroine and cocaine. It also is highly inflammatory inside out bodies. It affects hormone disregulation, and feeds the bad bacteria in our gut–the kind that keeps us craving MORE SUGAR. All artificial sweeteners, yes all of them, are included in this assault against our bodies immune systems, and the psychological pleasure pathway in our brains.
Studies show that artificial sweeteners do not help people loose weight, or improve hormonal imbalances.
The Second Less Healthy Food Category: ALCOHOL
Alcohol is similar to sugar with it’s negative impact on our health, and it’s addictive nature. Honestly, it is neurotoxic in our bodies, numbing our senses and our abilities. Combine this with the way that it is served and consumed with sweet sugary pop, or juice. Alcohol is also a concentrated source of calories, almost twice that of sugar, with NO nutritional value. ZERO.
When we drink alcohol, it makes it difficult for the body to control blood sugar. The excess sugar in our blood stream signals the pancreas to to secrete insulin, in order to remove the toxic level of sugar from the blood. Alcohol effects the lining of the intestine causing leaky gut, which sets up the cascade of silent inflammation throughout the body. So while you’re thinking that you are “relaxing” after a challenging day, you are actually stressing out your body’s precious reserves, taxing your liver, kidneys, and brain. 🙁
I know some of you, have heard that Red wine is “Good For You.” It has and antioxidant that has ben tasted to be good for heart health. This anti-oxidant resveratrol comes from the skins of red grapes. Please know that the study results have been skewed, in a marketing move by wine makers. Yes, red wine has some resveratrol in it… But you’d need to drink 180 bottles of wine to get the “good stuff” in enough quantity to make a difference for your health. Doing the math you’re better off taking resveratrol tablets!
Our Third Less Healthy Food Category: Whole Grains
Yep, that’s right… Whole Grains, the very thing that Big Agriculture has been marketing. to. us for years! This includes all grainsWheat, Oats, Barley, Corn, Rice, Millet, Quinoa, buckwheat… even the ancient grains like Amaranth. Hold onto your hat, I’ll explain why.
Refined and Whole Grains promote overconsumption. Let me repeat that–they promote over-consumption. In addition, grains contain inflammatory proteins, and fermentable carbohydrates, causing that imbalance in gut bacteria. This causes inflammation in the body–and the gut.
Grains contain phytates, or phytic acid, in the hull of the grain. This acts as a natural deterrent to natural predators, like birds and bugs. Many grains, and grasses are designed to withstand a birds digestive tract. It is the process of digestion, and being expelled elsewhere that re-seeds the grain across the land.
This phytic acid is defined as an “anti-nutrient.” It makes valuable minerals like calcium, magnesium, and zinc found in the grains bio-unavailable in the body. That is worth repeating as well: Bio-Unavailable. So now you’re just eating a carbohydrate that gets turned into. a fast source of fuel in the body, that is essentially has poor nutritional value. This makes all grains, less healthy foods. There is more nutrition in vegetables and fruits.
I know you’re going to ask about the food pyramid… I’ve seen a version of the food. pyramid that has grains, cereals, and pasta, and breads with a suggested serving. of 11 portions a day. No wonder Americans keep getting larger and larger! Remember the food manufacturers want you to buy their products, this is big industry. Feeding people and animals grains is a relatively cheap way to keep the masses fed. Many farmers are subsidized by your tax dollars. There is a big lobby for keeping these foods in our stores, and on our plate.
Our Fourth Less Healthy Food Category: LEGUMES
What are legumes? Beans, Lentils, Soy (beans), and Peanuts. Hang in with me here, these are similar to whole grains. Legumes have phytates that are those anti-nutrients which cause the nutrients inside the foods to be bio-unavailable–Even if they are soaked, sprouted, or fermented. Legumes also have those fermenental carbohydrates. This means they don’t break down easily in the digestive tract, hence the gas. bloating, and digestive distress.
Soy is also in this category, it is a legume. In the Whole30 we are encouraged to avoid. all forms of soy, beans, oil and soy products like soy sauce and tofu. Soy has phytoestrogens, which act in some tissues of the body to block, or stimulate the sex hormone estrogen. I don’t know about you, but I don’t need to eat a food that could potentially mess with my hormonal balance.
IF you’ve ever looked into the trends in America, and possibly other Westernized countries, the age of puberty is girls has been getting younger and younger, shifting downward. The trend show now that puberty is happening more frequently to girls at 8 or 9 years of age, instead of 12-14 years, which was the norm in previously. The cause doesn’t point to any one thing, but I can tell you that soy is cheap, and it is in A LOT of products. Soy in the base of most mayonnaise, it is predominately what fast food is cooked or fried in. An increase in phytoestrogens, and environmental estrogens may be to blame for this quick shift in our statistics.
Soy is often genetically modified, and our body sees GMO foods as toxic substances, not nutrition. What do you think the body does with non-identifiable compounds in the blood stream? That’s right, It causes Inflammation!
Peanuts, also in the legume family. Peanuts contain lectins, a protein that is not digestible. This indigestible protein crosses into our bloodstream, which causes an inflammatory response.
Our Fifth Category of Less Healthy Foods: Dairy
I know you. are. probably rolling. your eyes right now… Dairy?!! Yes Daily, all forms: milk, cheese, yogurt, sour cream, cottage cheese, hard cheese, soft cheese, cream cheese. You know, the stuff that they’ve been marketing to us as “Does a Body Good.”
Milk from cows, sheep, and goats, and humans is designed as a super growth hormone to quite literally grow babies in to adults. Milk contains proteins, and sugars that are not easy to digest, and are pro inflammatory in. the gut. We are the only species on the planet that drinks another species milk–that idea was enough for me to give up milk at seventeen, as soon as I moved out of my mothers house.
I’m sure you’ve heard of lactose intolerance. Lactose is the carbohydrate/milk sugar that for some people causes digestive distress. But the story doesn’t stop there, often it is the casein, or milk protein that is equally difficult to digest, so serving up lactose free milk may not be. the answer. When we make cheese this protein–casein becomes concentrated. I am sure you can. see the correlation that would make cheese a potential digestive culprit. In addition, immune factors in milk (of all kinds) confuse our immune systems.
People who consume dairy products often report aggregated symptoms of seasonal allergies, asthma, acne, and Rheumatoid Arthritis. All of this creates an inflammatory response in the immune system.
WOW. Right?
Does this seem crazy to you? It does to me! How did we get this far, as a species, eating a host of foods that are less healthy? Well, look at the sick-care crisis in America today. Food is not what is used to be. And let me remind you, people used to be thin—remember? This is like a sad spiral and we’ve gone quite literally to sleep while watching television. Do you recall the movie Wall-E? I highly recommend that you watch it. We’ve over consumed and over consumed. We’re addicted to our so-called comfort-foods, and convenience items.
I know this is a lot to digest (pardon my pun). The foods that we’ve been raised on, for the most part, may have been Less Healthy Foods. I’m not saying these foods are “bad.”
I am suggesting that IF you do the Whole30 and eliminate them from your diet you might find out that they are causing undesirable symptoms in your body. Do you have any symptoms that you’d rather not have? Symptoms like anxiety, joint pain, brain fog, depression, sleeplessness, resistant weight loss, a skin condition, an auto-immune disorder (or two), ADD, ADHD, OCD, thyroid disfunction, irritable bowel, gas, bloating, heartburn, constipation? Many of these symptoms are aggravated by an imbalance in your immune function–a result of long-term chronic silent inflammation, that might possibly be related to the. foods that you eat.
It is likely to be different for each of you. You won’t really know until you eliminate the offenders that are taxing your immune system, for a full 30 days. Take my word for it. Go to the Whole30 website there are thousands of testimonials from people who could not believe that their symptoms cleared up after removing certain foods from their diet.
They key is to get clean, heal your gut, give your immune system a break. Then systematically add foods back in, and track your symptoms. I promise, you’ll be surprised, and delighted. You’ll learn which food is causing which symptom. Dallas and Melissa Hartwig, now Melissa Urban invite you to abstain completely from less healthy foods for a full 30 days.
I invite you to do it the Whole30 with me. Give your gut a chance to heal. Restore your microbiome. Give your brain and liver a detox. You can learn to change your tastes and your habits, I did. Let’s be honest, this is the missing link in Western Medicine. Most doctors do not have nutritional expertise. I know you are wary of another diet… The only claim I am making is that some food is less healthy for your body than you may realize. Until you clean up your diet and cut it out you’ll never really know.
Do the Whole30 and figure out exactly which foods are culprits, and which help you look and feel your best. I can guarantee you that a bag of Cheetos never will.
I hope you are inspired to learn more. I’m hosting the Whole30 Reset Challenge starting Feb 28, 2021 for a full 30 days. You can do this with us, or at your own pace. You can start program at any time in March or April of 2021. The videos will be up in the Facebook group until May.
I’ll be cointinuing to share science behind WHY we cut these less healthy foods out. This way of eating has changed my life–For GOOD. IF you really give it a go I think it can change Your Health for the Better as well.
Thanks for tuning in.
Here is a link to my Private Facebook Group: Optimal Health Blueprint.