What Foods to Avoid, What to Eat, and Why

Food To Avoid 90% of the time	Why	Substitute Instead	Why	Where to buy / Sources
Sugar / Agave Artificial Sweeteners	Blood glucose needs to be below 89 for fighting disease.  Agave is fructose and worse than HFCS. Possibility of tumors, evidence of metabolic syndrome with aspartame, sucralose, splenda, etc.	Stevia, Truvia, Raw Honey (in small qty) Raw Cocoa	A plant with no evidence of harm, so far.  Stevia is good in baked goods, not so good raw such as on toast.  Truvia is made with erythritol – too much of this can cause upset stomach.  Raw cocoa has a lot of anti-oxidants, similar to spinach	All stores. Read Deep Nutrition by Dr. Shanahan (MD researcher at Cornell). Penzey’s spices, health stores.
White Flour, all hot/cold cereals, crackers, chips, bread, bagels, Commercial whole wheat flour, pasta	Turns to starch, then sugar After processing nutrition is removed from grains and oats.  Most commercial foods use kernels that have been genetically modified and are unhealthy. Diabetics should avoid all grains.	Almond meal, Pasta squash Whole oats (groats) Whole Rye Trader Joe Bread	Almonds are anti-inflammatory, no carbs Squash is like spaghetti noodles Outer kernel contains nutrition. Need the whole berry to get the nutrition from the kernels.  Trader Joe sprouted bread has 4 g net carbs / slice!	Trader Joe's Health foods stores, bin / bulk Read “Wheat Belly” by William Davis
Pop Gatorade Powerade	Issue is not just with amount of sugar per can (10 tsp.), but that it enters too quickly into the blood stream.  Insulin hormone can’t react fast enough.	Water Crystal Light Pure	With lemon is refreshing Made with Stevia.	Target, Wal-Mart
Fruit juice	Healthy part of fruit removed until just the unhealthy sugar remains	Buy Vita Mix, add entire fresh or frozen fruit with spinach	Get the skin, good fruit fiber & nutrition
	C
Regular milk Soy milk	Unhealthy cows in feed lots are treated with hormones and not consuming healthy grass (grass has omega 3) Need to eat as fermented, high in phytates, enzyme inhibitors, etc.	Organic whole milk Almond milk (without added sugars) Coconut milk	Good fat from healthy cows that eat grass (per Elk study) 50% more calcium in almond milk in some brands
Vegetable Oils Canola oil	Refined (heated, etc.) oil so that it is toxic -- esp. for those with heart issues	Extra Virgin Olive Oil Coconut Oil Butter Flax seed oil	Keep in mind that 90% of EVOO from Italy is tainted.	Trader Joe -  California.  Google Dr. Mercola.
If you have IBD, Lupus, MS, Rheum. Arthritis, or other gut issues flaring:  raw high-fiber veggies like celery or broccoli stalks. Consume < 10 g fiber / day if gassy or other issues.	The digestive system does not break down fiber so it ends up undigested in your bowel, where the majority of your gut flora resides. If your gut flora is healthy then these microbes will feed on the fiber and proliferate. However if your gut is filled with pathogenic bacteria and/or yeast and fungi, fiber will actually make your symptoms worse as it is a growth factor for intestinal bacteria (and does not discriminate between pathogenic and beneficial bacteria). So, if your bowel is dominated by pathogenic microbes, these microbes will feed on fiber and proliferate, making your health problems worse. This is why fiber must be carefully eliminated from the diet, for a period of time, to help starve out the pathogens.  It can be reintroduced slowly later.	Cooked veggies, such as soups with well-cooked, deseeded and peeled vegetables.  Most fiber is in the peel and stalks Sweet potatoes are anti-inflammatory, Mushrooms and onions are very high in nutrition. All veggies are healthy with no gut issues. Spinach and broccoli are very high in nutrition:	Sweet potato is very anti-inflammatory
Non-org. apples, strawberries, spinach Grapes from Chile	These are esp. high in pesticides if not organic No regulations in Chile, so high in pesticides	Organic apples, strawberries, & spinach Blueberries, pumpkin Grapes from anywhere but Chile.	Recipe for veggie/fruit smoothie  in Vitamix:  Frozen blueberries, bananas, oranges, kale, spinach & broccoli.  You don’t  taste the veggies and even kids like it.
Peanuts	These are legumes, not nuts, so a bit inflammatory.	Almond butter	Made from almonds only.  Healthier and anti-inflammatory.	Trader Joe
Farmed Tilapia / Farmed salmon Canned tuna	Very little nutrition, actually more harmful than healthful due to poor quality water and feed. There is no healthy tuna because it’s a very large fish filled with poison.	Wild caught, cold-water fish, esp. salmon, Fish Oil, enteric coated (burp-free). At least 2,000 mg per day (2 triple-strength pills = 1,800 mg)	Salmon is the #1 miracle food.  Extremely anti-inflammatory. 2 grams is the amount per day to prevent / reverse cancer, auto-immune diseases, heart issues. Fish is a better source of omega-3 than fish oil pills.	GNC or Amazon.  Often sales at 50% off Nutrition label should show O-3 (DHA + EPA) add to 900 mg per pill.
Feed-lot cows	See milk, above.  Cows stand in manure, very sickly, are omega 6 grains instead of grass / hay.	Grass-fed cows Beans (esp. black)	Cows naturally select healthiest grass blades, per Elk study. High in protein.	Watch DVD "Food Inc."
Feed-lot chickens	Chickens forced with hormones to plump breasts, fed poor diet	Free-range / Amish chickens		See DVD “Food Inc.”

Drugs/Supplements
Statins	Statins shut down your body’s innate capability to create the cholesterol it needs for proper cellular- and brain function. Statins also prevent your body from generating sufficient levels of vitamin D from exposure to the sun, because the UVB rays in sunlight interact with the cholesterol in your skin and convert it to vitamin D. Per Dr. Rowen: while statin drugs effectively reduce cholesterol values, they typically do not have an overall beneficial impact on health and longevity.	Eliminate veg. oils to lower toxic LDL Exercise to raises HDL Eliminate sugar to reduce triglyceride Overall diet to watch C-reactive protein marker	Get your blood lipids tested frequently. “Contrary to conventional advice, very few people actually need a statin drug. Familial hypercholesterolemia is a genetic defect that can result in cholesterol levels above 330, and these people may indeed benefit from a statin drug.”	Dr. Mercola and Dr. Rowan.  Cardiologist can’t agree or lose their job.
		Vit D 3	2-5,000 IU per day.  Ask for Vit. D test.  Too difficult to get enough Vit. D from food only.  Vit. D is a hormone, not a vitamin.	Wal-Mart is the cheapest so far
		Green Tea extract – 1-2 pills/day 1 pill=1.5 cups of tea	Studies show improvement in blood pressure, triglyceride, and LDL / HDL levels in 3 months.  Good for auto-immune diseases and cancers.  Extract just as effective as tea, per study.	Amazon – Nutrigold decaf. 500 mg, 98% polyphenols, 80% catechins, 50% EGCG
		Probiotics	Studies suggest benefits for those with digestive issues as well as other diseases.	Target / Wal-Mart