Guest post by Brian (warning:this is a guest entry and thus express only the guest bloggers opinion not mine)
When it comes to trying to pick the right foods to eat that fit into your diet plan, many people often feel that they can still go to a fast food restaurant, order a burger and a diet soda, and everything will be forgiven. That is not the case. When you want to lose weight, whether for personal reasons or because of a recommendation from your doctor, you need to be committed to the diet 100 percent. There are hundreds of healthy food options that are both delicious and serve a purpose. On the other side, there are numerous foods that you must avoid at any cost because they will hurt your body more than you ever imagined.
Canned Tomatoes
In the hot summer months, almost nothing tastes better than a bite out of a freshly picked tomato from the garden. What you get from that bite and what you get from the bite out of a canned tomato product are two different things. With canned tomatoes, you are not only getting the tomato taste, you are also getting bisphenol-A. Bisphenol-A is a synthetic estrogen that can lead to many health problems. According to Fredrick Vom Saal, an endocrinologist from the University of Missouri, the excessive intake of bisphenol-A can lead to heart disease, obesity, diabetes and reproductive problems.
Microwavable Popcorn
The basic rule of thumb for anyone on a diet is to avoid most corn products. Corn starch is used in a lot of baking and fried foods and they add zero nutritional value. In fact, the only thing it does is add to your calorie intake. There are plenty of food options that will add calories to your diet, but at least they provide some sort of nutritional help like vitamins or proteins. With microwavable popcorn, you are getting a delicious tasting food that will fill you up, but won’t give you anything by calories.
Fast Food
Fast food has turned into the downfall of the United States. With obesity levels rising at an alarming rate, the growth of fast food restaurants in the U.S. continues to rise. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, since the early 1970s, the number of children between the ages of six and 19 being considered overweight has seen an increase of 12 percent to 17 percent. Janet Currie, Stefano DellaVigna, Enrico Moretti, and Vikram Pathania examined the correlation between overweight children and their proximity to fast food restaurants and saw that this was a significant factor in overweight children.
Beef
Not all beef is bad for you so don’t worry about your summer barbeques switching to all turkey and tofu burgers. You can still eat your beef burgers and steaks, but you should check where they are coming from. Organic beef is the way to go nowadays because in an effort to make the cows get getter before being slaughtered, farmers feed their cattle corn and soybeans. If the beef you are eating is fed with grass only, they will give you better nutritional values and less chance to develop any serious illnesses.
Farm Raised Salmon
If you are sitting at a restaurant and hear the person at the next table asking about whether the salmon is farm raised or wild, they aren’t asking to be pesky. There is a difference in their taste and a difference in their nutritional value. Farm raised salmon are fed soy and other foods that were never intended to be included in their diets. This has led to farm raised salmon being lower in vitamin D while having higher values of carcinogens and pesticides. Dr. John Carpenter is the director at the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany. He suggests switching to Alaskan caught salmon and reading the labels. If the label at the grocery store says they came from the Atlantic, it is the first sign that the fish was farmed.
Nonorganic Potatoes
While potatoes may be a delicious part of any diet, you need to be weary of the pesticides and other contaminants they may absorb in the ground. At major farms where potatoes are produced, they are treated constantly with fungicides and herbicides, both of which are absorbed. The best way to go would be with organic potatoes that aren’t treated with these chemicals to begin with.
Apples
Don’t take this the wrong way, but apples can be one of the most dangerous fruits you can get during the fall months. The thing about these fruits is they are drenched with pesticides because they can’t develop a way to thwart off any pests. While apple growers argue that the fruit doesn’t absorb any of the chemicals, Mark Kastel disagrees. Kastel is the co-director of the Cornucopia Institute, a group that supports organic made foods. He says that apples do absorb these chemicals and that farm workers have a larger chance of getting cancer from the pesticides being used.
Milk with Artificial Hormones
A tall glass of milk is a refreshing taste for millions of people around the world, but not all milk is created equally. A lot of milk producers feed their cattle with growth hormones. They do this to boost the amount of milk they can get from their animals each day, but it also leads to infections in the udders and in some cases, pus in the milk. It can also lead to a higher hormone level of insulin, which has been linked to colon, prostate, and breast cancer. When at the grocery store, either look for organic milk or a container that says rBGH-free.
Eating healthy isn’t as easy as it used to be. There are many temptations that make it hard for some people to stick to their healthy routine. Then you look at the farmers looking to make more money by feeding their cattle items that will help get them more products while reducing the nutritional value of the food you eat and you are facing an uphill battle. When you re grocery shopping, you need to do a little more research to determine what is best for you and your family. By avoiding these items, you will be off to a good start.