Which foods do people think are healthy but are actually unhealthy?

Which foods do people think are healthy but are actually unhealthy?

It’s mind-boggling just how wrong - perhaps deadly-wrong - many of the world’s dietary food pyramid charts are.

For example:

The global diabetes and heart disease pandemics may have been fueled in large part based on now decades-old yet still recommended eating-errors and assumptions like: “eating a low-fat diet is good” and “regular refined carb intake is fine” and “daily sugary desserts are part of a normal diet.”

True, many of these eating recommendation-errors were based on past limitations in evidenced-based nutrition. But there’s also been a growing problem with industry-funded researchers fudging and sugar-coating the data (puns intended) - for profit.

Thankfully, we’ve been witnessing an explosion in new knowledge from hopefully more ethical nutrition scientists over the last 5–10 years. And that new knowledge is turning so many of our pre-conceived healthy-eating assumptions on their heads!

For example, did you know:

• Eating a super-low salt diet may be one of the most unhealthy things you can do? This may be true even if you have high blood pressure ( please see videos in comments). Although, getting enough iodine, potassium, and vitamin C (to protect against the likely harmful effects of salt on your blood vessels and arteries without it) may also be critical here. Not only that but:
• Many processed foods that contain high salt contain low-quality salt that hasn't been enriched with iodine. And of course, a large number of fake-food ingredients have had their most valuable nutrients extracted.
• Many types of fruit juice are just about as harmful as soft drinks are -sugar-wise. New research has linked only slight increases in regular fruit juice consumption to a clinically significant increased risk of mortality.
• Many types of fruit now have very unhealthy levels of high sugar due to selective breeding for a sweeter taste.
• Choose high-nutrient fruits like blueberries wisely and eat them in small amounts with lots of high fiber veggies to minimize sugar -bombing your cells and organs.
• Refined grains are incredibly unhealthy due to the insulin spikes they cause and the toxic-synergy they have, especially with simple sugars, processed meat products, and unhealthy fats.
• Boxed breakfast cereals labeled “all-natural,” “low fat” and “organic” are often full of processed carbs, sugars, and loads of industrial seed oils - a toxic combination that glucose-bombs your cells while causing inflammation.
• Eating a diet low in healthy fats is very, very unhealthy. But at the same time you want to:
• Avoid unhealthy fats. Most refined “vegetable” and (refined) seed oils are super-toxic. When it comes to industrially refined seed oils. Don’t let the words “vegetable oil” fool you. Not only do they cause inflammation, and actually get embedded in the very structure of human fat cells, but they also cause human fat cells to become leaky. Prolonged fasting - often associated with serious viral infections, for example, or “dirty keto” eating, can cause a massive release of these toxic oils that actually get stored in fat cells. And that's why most:
• Margarine is toxic - despite all those old TV and print ads touting its so-called heart-healthiness. I recommend replacing margarine with healthy fats by eating nuts, seeds, healthy fat fish, and using extra virgin olive oil (please make sure it’s real and not a fake olive oil), and butter from grass-fed cattle.
• Relatedly: David Haldorsen's answer to How do you know if your olive oil is really olive oil and not a substitute? Is there a test?
• Eggs are super-healthy - (for those permitted to eat them) especially when eaten as part of a zero-”fake-food” mainly plant-based, whole food diet and, even better, when taken from your own organically fed “backyard chickens.” Eggs are an excellent source of the brain and liver-protecting mega-nutrient choline. But it's best to prepare your eggs soft boiled or cook them on low heat, sunny side up to avoid excess oxidation. It’s also a good idea to boil your meat rather than frying or grilling it for this reason as well. Although:
• Too many eggs per day can cause very bad body odor. 6 eggs per day may be the unacceptably smelly point.
• Eating a mainly whole-food, plant-based diet can help buffer against the oxidation in high temperature cooked meats and eggs while absorbing and helping in the elimination of toxins, including heavy metals and likely micro and nano plastics from a wide variety of industrial-food sources. Speaking of which:
• Fish farmed salmon might be the world's most toxic industrial seafood right now. I suggest wild salmon instead, - even better are smaller, high-healthy-fat-fish - like sardines (less time spent as sea-toxin-filters compared to larger fish, as well as containing a healthy balance of omega 3s and 6s and high in vitamin D).
• Vitamin D is absolutely critical for a healthy immune system. One of the best sources of vitamin D is sunlight. That makes getting around 20 minutes of sunshine each day (at lower peak UV times early AM or PM) a truly high-value health behavior (darker-skinned folks could need 3–5 times more exposure time to produce good levels of vitamin D compared to folks with lighter skin color - i.e. less melanin = less sun exposure needed). Surprisingly to me - getting sun through a window apparently blocks out the vitamin D producing part of the sunlight while letting some of the unhealthy parts of the spectrum through. And according to Dr. James DiNicolantonio, author of The Salt Fix, Superfuel & The Longevity Solution: “Vitamin D DOES NOT WORK without MAGNESIUM !” In fact:

“Approximately 50% of the US population does not have adequate magnesium intake. Magnesium is required by enzymes to convert vitamin D3 into the active steroid hormone that regulates over 5% of the protein-encoding human genome!” - Dr Rhonda Patrick

• Top high-magnesium healthy foods include spinach, pumpkin, and squash seeds, lima beans, tuna, almonds, and sugar-free dark chocolate (mmm… almonds and dark chocolate!). Try to get your Tuna and other canned fish packed in water to avoid toxic industrial, so-called“vegetable oils”.
• If You’re Low in Magnesium Rich Foods- you might want to try absorbing it through your skin: “Epsom salts are magnesium salts that you can buy in any pharmacy. You dissolve 1 or 2 cups in a bath and soak in it for 30 minutes. The magnesium is absorbed directly through the skin. Dead sea salts are the same thing and have been a traditional remedy for many things including arthritis and skin conditions. If you don’t like taking a bath, you can also find magnesium oil in certain specialty stores. You spray it on your skin and let it absorb. This is more convenient for some people instead of taking a bath.” -Dr. Jason Fung

Now back to unhealthy eating….

• Yogurt with sweetened fruit can be as bad for you as icecream is, again because of the combined natural and added sugars.
• The old advice to eat small frequent meals throughout the day can be very, very unhealthy. What likely makes “grazing” harmful to so many folks, is that it increases the number of times insulin gets secreted in their bodies throughout the day. This, often on top of an already unnaturally high rate of insulin spiking from eating refined carbs and sugars. Your cells and organs need some glucose-free-time for at least some part of the day to avoid literally “rotting” over months and years from chronic glucose overload (a major contributor to several chronic diseases).
• Rotting is a very strong word, but I’m quoting the language used by Dr. Jason Fung author of “The Diabetes Code” arguably one of the most important, popular public health books on preventing and reversing diabetes (and many directly related disease processes) ever written. It’s also a real pleasure to listen to in audiobook format - blending the most critical nutritional research with a surprising sprinkle of humor - read by Dr. Fung himself.
• Try time-restricted-feeding instead. Eat a good ratio of healthy fats (especially from nuts and seeds), as well as plant and some meat-based proteins (again, for the essential nutrient choline), and mainly plant-based, low-sugar carbs (i.e. beans) across 1–3 meals during an 8–12-hour daily “feeding window”. The remaining so-called “fasting-like period” ( you still drink water as needed) gives your cells, tissues, and organs the comparatively glucose-free time they need for self-repair and for normal functioning. (I put a must-watch video in the comments section below for you - on intermittent fasting - by one of the world’s leading experts on diabetes prevention and reversal - Dr. Jason Fung). For those who can safely do the Keto diet, I recommend carb cycling or getting higher levels of high-nutrient and high-fiber carbs at least once per week. Women need to be extra careful health-wise and may need larger feeding windows, and slightly higher levels of daily healthy carbs, than men. And that means you might want to:
• Replace processed carbs with low-glycemic plant-based carb sources like beans (Did I say beans? lol). And try to eat some whole grains as well.
• The vegetarian vs carnivore diet debate is far from resolved. Although the growing evidence-base from both sides clearly shows that highly processed carbs, sugars, and unhealthy fats (especially in an all-out fake-food form - case in point Twinkies Cakes - regardless of “bliss point” status) definitely need to be avoided. It’s also important to focus on strong empirical research and to avoid fad diet hype and equally, - so-called “evolutionary” or “paleolithic” approaches to diet. That said, I also recommend:
• Staying away from refined meat products like ham, and hotdogs. It's also critical to stay away from so-called “dirty keto” foods - including processed meats, salad dressings and so many other foods saturated with toxic industrial seed oils. It’s incredible just how many so-called healthy foods are loaded with industrially processed “vegetable oils”. On the other hand:
• Grass-Fed/Finished Beef: or beef or mutton that’s been fed grass throughout and at the end of its life (if you can afford it) is said to have:

“GRASS FED vs. GRAIN FED meat (2 lbs meat/3.5 oz. fat) =

500 LESS calories

60 g LESS fat

7-20 g LESS saturated fat

15-20 g MORE protein

1-9 g MORE omega-3s

0.225-1.7 g MORE EPA/DPA

100-600 mg MORE DHA

7X MORE beta-carotene

3-5X MORE alpha tocopherol

[Source: Dr. James DiNicolantonio]

• A strictly meat-based (carnivore) diet is likely very unhealthy over long periods of time.
• Eating only meat robs you of critical, sources of antioxidants, phytonutrients, - pre-biotic fiber from plant-based whole foods, according to many experts. And that’s because:
• Having a variety of plant-based fiber in your diet is likely essential for building and maintaining optimal gut-health - so essential to good brain health and a stronger immune system.
• Hope that helps!
• Thanks for ♥️