Top Three “Foods” to Avoid

A large portion of items in your grocery store considered “foods” or “food additives” are very recent inventions of modern man. They are engineered in labs, often derived from petroleum and can be close family relatives to known poisons. Technology may provide many useful and important advances in many aspects of our daily lives but when it affects our food supply the results are often costly to human health. Many of the negative aspects are simply a result of how fast technology can change things. Some modern “foods” may have been produced with the best intentions in mind but we haven’t had the evolutionary time to adapt, so eating them leads to many serious health issues.
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Here is short list of “advances” in the food industry provided by modern technology that fall on Coach Seiji’s list of top three “foods” to avoid.

1. Trans and Partially Hydrogenated Fats; “partially hydrogenated (PHO)”, “hydrogenated”, and “trans” fats; all processed fats

   Where:
   Found in almost all processed foods-frozen dinners, breakfast foods, deep fried foods, pastries and baked items (donut, cupcakes, and croissants), peanut butter, grain foods, soups and especially in snacks like chips, crackers, and cookies. Studies have found that 40% of all products found in typical supermarkets contain these toxic fats.

   Why: 
   Your body doesn’t recognize the difference between a natural, healthy fat and PHO, hydrogenated or trans fat so it incorporates them into cell membranes. They do not function like a normal fat; as they accumulate in the cell membranes, many of the cell’s essential functions are hampered, altered or stopped.

   Research has shown these harmful changes to lead to inflammation, cancer and aging. The Harvard Medical School estimates that as many as 100,000 premature deaths per year occur in the United States as a result of these processed fats. The New England Journal of Medicine reported that there is a strong link between heart disease and the consumption of processed fats and the strong tendency for them to raise LDL cholesterol levels and lower HDL levels. The United States Academy of Sciences warns that “there is no safe level of processed fat in the American diet.”

   The good news: Once you stop eating dysfunctional man made fats, your body replaces or repairs them with the naturally occurring fats and normal function will be restored.
    

2. High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS); an inexpensive, chemically engineered, extremely sweet corn based sweetener

   Where:
   In the majority of sodas, energy drinks, juices, teas, baked goods, snacks, deserts, yogurts, cereals, sports drinks. Has been titled “the number one source of calories in America.”

   Why:
   Regular table sugar is 50% fructose. HFCS can be up to 80% fructose. Metabolizing this very high concentration of fructose through habitual consumption causes drastic hormonal and general health issues.

   HFCS has been proven to have a high causative factor in Metabolic Disease (a mix of risk factors that lead to diabetes and heart disease), insulin resistance, obesity, gout, kidney stones, Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, promotion of AGE’s (advanced glycation end products; these are linked to the complications of diabetes and the aging process itself). This man made, chemically and genetically engineered sweetener also leads to over eating as it short cuts the insulin reaction in the body which normally controls appetite.

   More bad news:
   Sugar causes essentially the same issues although some are not as drastic. Coach Seiji recommends avoiding all forms of sugar that are not within their natural, whole state (as in whole fruits). Table sugar is NOT in its natural, whole state nor is honey. If man had to remove, process or extract the sugar, it’s not in its natural state.

   The good news:
   Elimination of HFCS from the diet simultaneously aids many health issues at one time. Weight gain, insulin resistance, chronic fatigue, tooth decay, type II diabetes and over eating to name a few. Simply cutting this one item alone has caused rapid fat loss in many of my clients.
    

3. Artificial Sweeteners; saccharine, aspartame, sucralose, etc. Chemically engineered uh, chemicals.

   Where:
   Diet or sugar free sodas and drinks, jello (and over gelatins), desserts, sugar free gum, drink mixes, baking goods, table top sweeteners, cereal, breathmints, chewable vitamins, toothpaste

   Why:
   Obviously these artificial sweeteners are, well, artificial. This means that they are chemicals and the ingestion of chemicals is never good. Among other problems these sweetening chemicals can cause:

• Saccharine:
  Mainly benzoic sulfilimine. This organic molecule is made from petroleum. Linked to cancers and the USDA tried to ban it. The American Medical Association has officially stated that pregnant women and children should avoid saccharine and that there is not enough information to assess risk. Banned in Canada for 30+ years.
  

• Aspartame:
  A methyl ester of the aspartic acid/phenylalanine dipeptide. It is a neurotoxin, more specifically a excitotoxin; overstimulates nerve cells in the brain. It is also thought to be a carcinogen and linked to brain tumors. Components of this toxic creation have shown causative factors for diseases like lymphoma, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue. Linked to emotional disorders like depression and anxiety attacks, dizziness, headaches, nausea, mental confusion, migraines and seizures. The source of more reports of adverse reactions than all other food and food additives combined.
  

• Sucralose:
  Chlorinated sugar, a cholorocarbon. Chlorine is nature’s biocide used in bleach, disinfectants, insecticide, WWI poison gas and hydrochloric acid. Cholorocarbons bring this danger to humans as the attached carbon makes it incompatible to metabolic processes. Sucralose is technically a chemical cousin to DDT, the banned insecticide that has shown horrible toxicity in even trace amounts to humans, mammals and birds. The new kid on the block thus less information available due to its recent introduction to the market. It has so far been shown to shrink the thymus gland (the seat of immunity) and cause liver inflammation in rats and mice. Remember that when saccharine and aspartame was new, they also originally showed little harm to humans.

  The bad news:
  The industries behind these artificial sweeteners have powerful lobbies and often times the best efforts of government agencies and health oriented labs are overturned in the political system and these sweeteners can be deemed safe.

  The good news:
  Public pressure and stereotyping have caused enough market pressure at times to slow or halt sales of some artificial sweeteners here and in other countries. Keep up the good work!

The common theme among these top three “foods” to avoid is that they are all man made and that they were originally thought to be “better than nature.” History has shown repeatedly that it’s almost impossible to create a food through technology, chemistry, genetic manipulation, etc. that is better than what nature provides and isn’t later proven to be harmful. Coach Seiji recommends eating foods as close as possible to what nature provides on its own for this reason among many others. Telling someone to avoid poisons seems elementary yet this advice is mysteriously overlooked when it comes to “foods” or “food additives” that are often created or driven by economics rather than health.

Seiji Ishii is the head coach of www.coachseiji.com. Coachseiji.com provides personal online fitness coaching and in-person training services to motorsports athletes. Coach Seiji has worked with both pros and elite amateurs including: Andrew Short, Heath Voss, Ryan Clark, Austin Stroupe, PJ Larsen, Hunter Hewitt, Phil Nicolietti, Drew Yenerich, Jason Anderson, Rusty Potter and Landon Currier. Learn more at www.coachseiji.com or contact Coach Seiji directly at seiji@coachseiji.com.