Top 10 common foods that you should start avoiding

Most households use the same supplies nowadays. Same foods, common house cleaning products, many kitchens look alike in the modern world. And this is not very good news. As I often say, something being common doesn't mean it is normal.

I decided to make a top 10 list of those very common foods that may be in the kitchen cupboards of many of you, and show you that it might be time to re-consider them.

1. Ketchup

Have you checked the list of ingredients in your old friend the ketchup tomato sauce? Sugar, sodium from bleached processed salt, high fructose corn syrup, artificial additives, overcooked tomatoes... "Flavour" or "natural flavour" usually means artificial chemicals added, by the way. This tomato sauce has actually nothing to do with a real fresh home-made tomato sauce. It is pure sugar mixed with GMOs and other toxic chemicals.

Tip: Do it yourself! Use fresh organic tomatoes, and sweeten with some raw honey and/or stevia.

2. Chocolate spread

An all-too-common go-to for snacks and breakfast. But do you know what you are giving your kids or yourself with just one spoon of it? Sugar, refined palm oil, low quality cacao, soy lecithin - a real mix to disrupt your metabolism, your hormones, your health.

Tip: Make your own: raw cacao powder, almond butter, coconut oil and/or raw grass-fed butter, coconut milk, Celtic sea salt, hazelnuts, raw honey, a pinch of fresh vanilla.

3. Breakfast packaged cereals

Check the list of ingredients. They are all highly processed. When they are "enriched in vitamins", it often means that processing killed all the good enzymes and nutrients, and they had to add synthetic vitamins to add some value. Sugar, processed cereals (often GMO), soy, high fructose corn syrup, additives, artificial flavors and colorings.

Tip: Choose organic oatmeal or oat bran. Mix it with cinnamon, fruits, nuts/seeds, raw cacao and raw honey in hot water or unsweetened almond or coconut milk.

4. Canned tomatoes

Most cans are made with Bisphenol-A (BPA), a common plastic chemical that is highly toxic. It can mimic and interfere with your hormones, disrupting your endocrine system, which can lead to many harmful health issues. The acidity of the tomatoes causes the BPA to leach even more into the food.

Tip: Use dried beans or lentils instead. Cook home-made tomato sauce or soup from fresh tomatoes.

5. Commercial yogurt or milk

Pasteurized dairy is dairy depleted in its essential vitamins and nutrients. When it is not organic, it is often full of hormones and antibiotics fed to the animals. They get enriched with synthetic vitamins and minerals, sometimes sugar or high fructose corn syrup gets added as well, with other additives and artificial colorings.

Tip: Choose organic raw (un-pasteurized) dairy from your local farmers market. Organic kefir milk is a better choice as well. You get plenty of calcium in vegetables, especially dark leafy greens.

6. Fruit Juice

Whether it says "100% juice" or "not made from concentrate" on the bottle, it is just a sugar drink. It is only sugar, which disrupts your hormones, especially insulin.

Tip: Choose organic fresh whole fruit instead. If you like juicing, make good choices and always add fats to balance the juice.

7. Sunflower Oil (and other vegetable oils)

All vegetable oils are harmful to your overall health and should be avoided as much as possible. Often highly processed, hydrogenated, sometimes becoming trans-fats, these are nothing but harmful molecules, highly inflammatory, similar to plastic.

Tip: Cook with coconut oil, raw grass-fed butter, ghee or duck fat. For cold dressings, use cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil.

8. Margarine

Why replace a nutrient-dense power food like raw grass-fed butter with a chemical, plastic-like substance called margarine? Because it is cheaper. Please read about it and throw the last jar you might still have in your fridge. Go buy some real butter.

9. Table salt (refined)

Refined white table salt is highly processed - stripped of all its minerals and nutrients. In this form, it is toxic to your body and raises your blood pressure. It has nothing to do with real sea salt or pink Himalayan salt, which are full of essential minerals your body needs.

Tip: Switch to unrefined Celtic sea salt or pink Himalayan salt.

10. Soy products (non-fermented)

Soy is marketed as a health food, but non-fermented soy (soy milk, soy protein, soy lecithin) can be highly disruptive to your hormonal system. It contains phytoestrogens that mimic estrogen in the body. Most commercial soy is also GMO.

Tip: If you want to use soy, choose only fermented soy products like natto, tempeh or traditionally fermented miso.

The main point: educate yourself about what goes into the foods you are buying. Read labels. The fewer ingredients, the better. The closer to nature, the better.

In Health and Happiness,

Stephanie