Is Your Food Killing You?
Many patients trying to get healthy, lose weight or have more energy may check the number of calories, fat or sugar in foods they eat. But when was the last time they read the ingredients label?
Most people don’t realize a food’s quality, and the effects it has on your body, has little to do with its fat or calorie count, and everything to do with what ingredients are hiding in it. Today, most products on your grocery shelf are processed, refined, and basically tampered with to enhance flavor, prolong shelf life, and decrease production costs. However, the cost to you is significant and can lead to life-threatening illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
The biggest culprit stealing your health? Synthetics. I call these “Franken-foods.”
In our program “Eat More, Lose Weight” one of the first guidelines we teach is: “Eat Food!”
We tell our patients not to ingest anything unless it is actually real, natural food. When your body ingests whole, living foods, it knows how to break them down, digest their components, absorb nutrients, and eliminate the excess with ease. When you ingest Franken-foods — processed, refined or synthetic items — it causes major, significant, and sometimes life-long health problems.
High fructose corn syrup, for example, has made its way into nearly everything from ice cream to ketchup. Extracting sugars from corn, and then highly concentrating them to levels not found anywhere in nature, is directly toxic to your cells, your brain, and even your DNA. That means your genetic code gets damaged as a result of ingesting this synthetic Franken-food.
Another example of hidden toxins is artificial flavors and colors. These are listed in fine print on the front of the package as well as in the ingredients list. A few weeks back I was shopping for gluten-free cupcakes, and scanning the aisle for a decent frosting. After sorting through dozens and dozens of frosting brands I was unable to find a single one that did not include artificial ingredients. I was shocked that with so many choices, not one was made with 100% food! No wonder America is getting sick from fun foods such as cake. We’re being intoxicated without our knowing it.
Of course, it’s not going to make you feel great to eat things such as cake all day long, but there certainly is space for it in a healthy diet. A healthy body fed natural foods can balance sugars and detoxify the extra calories. However, when those extra calories are filled with synthetics, all bets are off. Your body’s signals get confused, your sugar levels skyrocket, and you store extra calories as fat. That’s to say nothing of the direct toxicity synthetics have on your tissues. Your skin, muscles, joints and bones become inflamed and age quickly when you eat processed foods.
Even things such as wheat — which in its natural form contains minerals, fiber and nutrients — gets stripped of all of them. Typically what we get is solely the sugar portion of the grain. In most “whole wheat” products what you really get is processed, bleached, refined wheat (stripped of the nutrients, minerals and fiber) with a small amount of these components and other synthetically derived minerals added back in. It may seem similar, but your body is very wise; it knows the difference!
So if you are suffering with pain, headaches, fibromyalgia, depression, anxiety, arthritis, or any chronic illness, or are struggling to lose weight, this one change can save your life! Next time you shop, be savvy and refuse to put anything in your body that is not actually food. This goes for your kids’ bodies as well. They are even more susceptible to the toxic effects of fake foods.
Then eat your cake…and live long too!
Be well!
-Dr. Kim
