Learning how to eat mindfully can be a challenge.
You must learn how to read labels, know what you are reading and make smart decisions as far as what is best for your health.
Here are 5 Foods to Avoid When Trying to Eat Healthy
1. Refined Sugar
Due to the addictive nature of refined sugar, it is best to avoid it or at least limit your intake.
The real culprit to watch out for is added sugar – sugar that does not naturally occur but has been added during processing.
Otherwise, try to satisfy your desire for something sweet with natural sugar found in most fruits.
2. Artificial Sweeteners
Although many of these are approved by the FDA, other studies have shown even in small amounts, they can cause health problems. The big three to stay away from include:
• Aspertame
• Sucralose
• Saccarin
3. Refined Flour
Refined flour is usually shown in an ingredient’s list as “enriched white flour”. It is almost as bad as refined sugar when it comes to messing with your metabolism.
Instead look for bread, baked goods and pasta made from 100% whole grain.
4. Trans Fat
No amount of trans fat is safe! Trans fats are a manufactured fat added to products to add shelf life to them.
Not only does trans fat raise your bad LDL cholesterol, but it lowers your good HDL – both just the opposite of what you want.
And you must watch the nutrition label and do some math to see if the product has trans fat in it or not.
According to the FDA, a product with less than 1 gram of trans fat doesn’t have to declare it on their nutrition information label.
To see if your food has trans fat in it when the label shows zero, look at the total number of fat grams. Now add up the saturated and unsaturated amounts. If they don’t add up to the total amount, the difference is undeclared trans fat.
5. Oils
There are healthy oils and then there are unhealthy oils.
The difficult part is telling the difference between the two; looking at them and they both appear to be the same.
Ones you want to stay away from, or at least limit, are corn oil, oils that are hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated, canola and safflower oil.
Most of these oils go through a manufacturing process that uses high temperature, bleaching, degumming, caustic refining just to mention a few of the processes.
Instead, stick with healthy oils like olive, coconut, and avocado oil
