Revisiting the Top Ten Things to ADD to your diet and To AVOID

It's been about six months since I wrote those first two entries here on my blog, and I thought it might do to revisit the concepts and see how much my ideas have changed, if any at all.  Here are the two original entries. ( ADD )  ( AVOID )

Number One:  Brown Rice    This is God's most perfect food.  Good organic brown rice is the staple food of a large percentage of the WORLD.  If you eat it a lot, you won't have dry skin, dandruff, psoriasis, irregularity, and a whole host of problems that plague ANYONE that generally lives on the Standard American Diet; the SAD.  When I had the cooking and teaching store back in Austin, a whole lot of people came into my store looking for answers.  There are so many gimmicks and supplements and diets out there and people spend their money and nothing helped.  IT IS NOT A CURE ALL, but I personally know people that at my advice started to eat brown rice five times a week and their irritable bowel cleared, others had dandruff, dry skin and psoriasis disappear, and a whole host of maladies helped.  Get organic, most AmeriKan rice is contaminated with arsenic.  And forget the converted or instant brown, it isn't the same.

Number Two:  Whole Grains    Not just brown rice, but add any number of other whole grains to your diet and you will see a huge increase in your overall health.  Quinoa, Millet, Teff, Amaranth and yes, Whole Wheat.  And any of the Wheat family of grains.  Spelt, Kamut, Oats, Barley etc.  Yes, wheat is good for 98% of the population.  But, and here is the big one, WHOLE wheat, and avoid any processed grains that contain anything on the label that you can't pronounce.  ( BREAD ) You negate any possible benefits when you consume toxic additives.  One of the best things you can do is start a tradition of making bread with your family.  Then you know what is in your bread.

Number Three:  Fresh Organic Vegetables, raw, or lightly cooked.  Do I really have to explain this one?  Ideally your diet should consist of at least 50% raw foods.  It may seem like a lot, but it is the BEST way to live to be a hundred and still be active sexually and physically and mentally alert. Raw veggies help to detox your system of toxins you acquire from heavy metals, pesticide residues etc.  Modern Life.

Number Four:    Water   Drink a lot of it every day.  If your urine is yellow, you are not drinking enough water to be healthy.  Drink at least a half a gallon every day.  Soda is not water.  Juice is not water. Coffee is not water.  Water is what your body needs, fill your body's needs. 

Number Five:  Vitamin C, D, E and Cinnamon,   Take more than RDA.  Take 4 or 5 grams Vitamin C daily, and the cinnamon is new, new research shows that it is a HUGE detox agent that helps remove heavy metals like aluminum that cause Alzheimers.  I highly recommend a gram a day.

Number Six:  Extra Virgin Coconut and Olive Oil.  The finest products for your skin, liver, happiness.

Number Seven:  Yogurt and other Fermented Foods   We know that you have a lot of bacteria living in your digestive system.  It is a part of you, and a big part too.  Consuming the SAD kills off some of the bacterial flora.  If you don't replenish it with good bacteria, then you leave yourself open for BAD bacteria to grow there.  Put the good ones in and you will be better off.  Make your own fermented vegetables, Kim chee, sourkraut, etc are all good.  Yogurt, Kefir, miso and others are very good.

Number Eight:  Whole Fruit, never juice.  What's the point of juice?  Eat the whole thing and get more benefits, fiber, all the vitamins everything.  Not just juice, and especially bottled processed juice is pretty much devoid of benefits.

Number Nine:  Popcorn   Why not, I love it, it is NOT Genetically Modified in any way, and it is full of fiber, fun to eat and mighty tasty.

Number Ten:  Wine. Well, and maybe good beers.  Proven health benefits.  And good taste as well.  And okay, we can put chocolate in here as well. 

A few changes to my list, but basically the same.  Now here are the top ten to avoid.

Number One:  Canola oil  see my entry Canola Oil, the scary story  Forget the scary internet hype, the truth is that the eurycic acid content has been shown to be harmful, very harmful.  At 2% the level is dangerous enough to cause degeneration of brain tissue, as well as heart, liver, kidney and the pancreas.  Effects are cumulative, not transient.  Meaning when you eat foods containing eurycic acid, it accumulates in your body and is not eliminated as solid or liquid waste.  People that consume large amounts of foods fried in canola oil, or made with hydrogenated canola oil are at seriously high risk for degenerative illnesses and ALS type brain disorder symptoms.  And at this time, that's all we know for certain, more research is needed.

Number Two:  Bleached and/or Bromated Flour   It is bad enough that millers put chlorine in flour, but they also put in potassium bromate.  Bromine, the end product when bromate is heated during the baking process, is extremely toxic.  The US is just about the only industrialized country that allows the use of this cumulative neurotoxin in our food supply.  The FDA took action years ago, they asked for the bakery industry to voluntarily stop using it.  Those that did, now use azodicarbonamide, a very similar chemical that is banned in every country on the planet, except the US.  Again, both are cumulative toxins, your body only excretes a portion, the rest accumulates in your liver, brain and bone marrow.

Number Three:  High Fructose Corn Syrup:  I think enough has been said about this stuff in the media that most people should know how bad it is for our systems.  The media does not however report on the other bad stuff about it.  Like how much mercury is found in the stuff.  How mercury is found in soft drinks that use it.  And also now the newest threat to health comes from HMF  my blog has a lot about this new stuff and you can read it here. High Fructose Corn Syrup - Now, a known toxin 

Number Four:  Artificial Sweeteners and all those labeled "All Natural"  Wow, where to begin.  Apartame, Sucralose, Nutisse, Truvia, Agave.  All bad, all have their own entries here on my blog. Sweeteners - Aspartame/Nutrasw,  Sweeteners -- Sucralose/Splend, Truvia/Nectresse "NATURAL" Sweeteners?,  and a Sweet and Dirty Little Secret -- Agave    

Number Five: All Genetically Modified foods   So much has been written here on my blog, and in reality, all over the internet and in scientific publications world wide that little explanation is needed.

Number Six:  Soy products.  Hard for some people to hear, what with all the hype about it being nature's perfect food.  It isn't, too many anti nutrient properties, the hormonal imbalance it causes and just the fact that nearly all soy is GM.  Soy is one of those things that insects won't touch because it is toxic to them.  Very high concentrations of lectins and those are what prevent you from absorbing nutrients and they can also damage our cilia in your intestines. 

Number Seven:  Commercially Raised Meat  No body wants to hear that, but it is true, commercial farming practices are the cause of antibiotic resistant bacteria, the lowering of the age of puberty in humans, the increase in cancer, heart disease and who knows what else.  We need to try to remember that all of the toxins in our food supply, BT toxin, herbicides, pesticides, heavy metals and even hormonal agents are all CUMULATIVE.  Just like mercury in the top of the food chain, swordfish and large tuna, all that crap goes into cows, pigs, chickens and then into us in concentrated form.  Plus, holy cow, I mean a dedicated vegetarian like me will eat organic grass fed beef and pastured organic chicken because they TASTE BETTER.  And don't get me started on Berkshire pork.  It's worth the price.  But, limit or eliminate commercially raised meats and you will feel better, and in the long run, probably delay or remove the probability of cancer. (Meat 1 ) (Meat 2 ) (Meat 3 )

Number Eight:  Spice mixes containing Silica or any other "anticaking agent"  What, why?  Because most of them are little more than ground glass.  Make your own spice mixes.  Recipes all over the internet.  Yes, you can even make "BAM"  The great thing about making your own spice mixes is that you can control the amount of salt in them, or not add any at all.  Commercial spice mixes usually have crappy salt, and chemicals.  Look at the ingredients of Taco Bell Taco Mix, it is scary.

Number Nine:  Farmed Fish, shrimp, salmon etc.  Not shellfish like muscles, clams or oysters.  But definitely shrimp and salmon.  Again, those poor critters are fed factory made food from questionable sources.  And it makes this stuff just like commercial meats.  With one exception, salmon. Since consumers won't buy white salmon, Swiss chemical giant Hoffman La Roche synthetically produces canthaxanthin and an astaxanthin called Carophyll Pink from petrochemicals and provides salmon farms with -- SalmoFan.  Again, any toxins in their diet accumulate and make eating their flesh all the more toxic to humans.  

Number Ten:  Pretty much anything from China.  Well, isn't that harsh.  NO!  It is just common sense.  China has a pretty poor record for food production.  Questionable manufacturing practices, high pesticide residues on organic produce, the FDA sampling less than 1% of imports, huge recalls, the ban on all Chinese fish, and well, just a whole host of reasons, not the least of which is just that buying local makes sense in today's economy.  Spread some of your food dollars out to local people, don't send it off to big corporate agribusinesses or off to foreign companies.  We all need to do more of that, if we did, then maybe our economy really would start to recover instead of in the midst of huge layoffs, plant closings and a huge increase in menial minimum wage jobs with our governmental overlords spouting off about how the economy has improved, maybe it really will.  


Twelve years ago I had worked for AT&T for over 19 years.  As a customer service representative.  I had a base pay of over 21 bucks an hour.  In 2003 AT&T moved most of those jobs to India.  AT&T then got rated as the worst customer service in any industry.  After a few years, they brought those jobs back to the US, at less than ten bucks an hour.  Semi Skilled jobs in the US now pay way way way less than they used to, and yet the companies charge customers more than ever for products and services.  And the profits go to do nothings on Wall Street and the economy tanks as money accumulates to a smaller percentage of the populous.  I'm sorry, but I have firm views as to how to help this country, and it all starts with eliminating doing business with large corporations as much as possible.  Since a large percentage of everyone's income goes into food, shop local.  When dining out, go local, avoid the CHAIN restaurants and always always always avoid fast food.  Get the local movement moving, and that will improve the economy.