There are certain foods that, once reached 30 years old, our body starts to tolerate less; be that our body craves natural and healthy ingredients or be that due to the body raging it is harder to metabolise such foods.
Flavored yogurt
We also keep yogurt as a healthy option in the refrigerator, but sadly the flavored varieties have a boatload of sugar in each serving –as much as 47 grams! That is more sugar added than anyone should have in a whole day.
The American Heart Association sets the recommendations for men at 38 grams a day, and women at 25 grams per day.
Instead, buy plain or Greek yogurt and mix in fresh or dried fruit at home. Yogurt is great for your digestive health and by adding your own extras you’ll actually get the nutritional benefit of the fruit.
Most flavored yogurts are way more artificial flavoring than real produce.
Soy
Here’s another product that’s supposed to be safe, but in fact the meat you’re trying to substitute isn’t any better.
Soy is heavily genetically engineered for example and we just don’t know the long-term consequences of that.
Soy can cause inflammation in your body in the short term, and potentially interfere with thyroid function.
Another problem with soy is its phytoestrogen, which is mimicking estrogen in the body.
Especially for this reason soy should not be given to still growingchildren. Yet really everybody is better off avoiding it.
When you are trying to cut back on animal protein, there are plenty of delicious veggie based meat alternatives.
Anything with a straw
Here’s one you probably never thought about. If you habitually use a straw with your beverages, you will start to develop lines and wrinkles around your mouth due to the pursing motion required to suck up fluid.
After the age of 25, the collagen in our skin starts to break down, and this is when repetitive actions are likely to causing wrinkling.
Nothing will ultimately stop those wrinkles from happening, but do you really want to grow them in your 30’s?
Using a straw all the time will make you look older than you are, not to mention the serious environmental threat posed by plastic models.
Farmed fish
Unfortunately, farmed fish account for up to 70% of the fish you’ll find on your local market.
Yet you do want to stop it because farmed fish are so overcrowded that they eat the feces of each other.
They are fed a diet full of antibiotics to make up for, as well as specially colored foods to tint the meat in a way that makes it look good.
The fresh fish market is always a better call for good seafood, if you have one in your area.
The fishmonger will be delighted to speak to you about the sources of the fish and how they were caught recently.
White bread
White bread was perhaps the only kind you would eat when you were a child. But now you are an adult, and the white bread is practically nutritionally empty.
The bleached white flour spikes your blood sugar and has virtually none of the whole wheat vitamins and minerals in it.
White bread also has less fiber than whole wheat, and trust us – you need more fiber to keep your digestive system chugging along as you age.
And while we’re at it, bagels pose the same question-no nutrients or fiber-but they have a lot of sodium as well.
And if you go for a whole bagel of wheat, you’ll probably take 565 mg of sodium, more than a quarter of your daily allowance.
Fruit juice
You possibly, as a kid, had a juice box thrown into your lunch every day and named it fruit. But even as an adult you may find yourself in the pit of believing that juice is as safe as fruit. That is not so.
Once fruit juice is extracted all the beneficial fiber is left behind. Fiber helps to regulate the rate of pouring sugar into your bloodstream so pure juice can reach you all at once.
Most commercial juices contained sugar, well beyond what’s in the fruit it self.
They are most often pasteurized, ensuring any heat-sensitive nutrients are lost before the product even reaches store shelves.
Store bought baked goods
Would you have any special memories of the baked goods which your parents or grandparents lovingly prepared at home?
Home cooked sweets are so much better than store bought because you can enjoy them fresh from the oven, without preservatives having the faint chemical aftertaste.
It is not that homemade sweets are completely nutritious, but baked goods manufactured commercially rely on hydrogenated oils to keep their productslooking fresh for weeks to come.
They don’t even have to mention these unhealthy trans fats on the label unless they make up over 0.5% of the drug.
You can monitor the ingredients at least at home, and are likely to use much less sugar and butter. And the memories.
Microwave popcorn with butter
When we age, we start thinking more about how to defend ourselves from cognitive loss, obviously.
Continuing to learn new things and challenging yourself with games and puzzles is a perfect way to keep your brain engaged.
But diet plays a role, as well. Microwave popcorn is one especially harmful food for your brain.
The fake butter that coats those kernels is full of trans fats which affects memory negatively. We kill cells literally and increase brain inflammation.
The development of brain-supporting omega-3 fatty acids by the body, in effect, is being impaired. One specific ingredient, diacetyl, is a known carcinogen in this “butter.”
The plastic-like coating inside the bag was also connected to cancer, which was used to prevent the fake butter from seeping through.
This list is a mere fraction of the bad food options currently available on the market. Major food producers cut big corners for inexpensive food production, then add a lot of sugar, salt, then fat to keep you coming back.
Though buying only whole foods and making it from scratch takes a little longer, think of it as adding more time to the end of your life. Upon detoxing from child-friendly fast foods, we bet that you will also start enjoying more of the taste of home cooking.
