“The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.” ― Ann Wigmore

If you take a look at leading causes of death in the U.S. (heart disease, cancer, type II diabetes and obesity) you may agree when I say that ALL OF THEM have a lifestyle cause. Knowing this, if we can reverse the lifestyle cause you can reverse and prevent ALL OF THEM from happening to you.

Did you know that all 4 of these leading causes of death are virtually non-existent in populations that eat a “non-industrial diet.” I’m sure you also know that America is the largest supplier and consumer of an industrial diet.

These 4 common foods are by far the worst “foods” (technically they are poisons) in your body.

1. Sugar, Artificial Sweeteners & High Fructose Corn Syrup
Sugars and HFCS consist of a glucose and fructose in a 1:1 relationship. Every cell in the human body knows exactly what to do with glucose. BUT only your liver can metabolize fructose and only in the amounts naturally found in nature when you eat fruit. When you consume unnatural amounts of fructose (HFCS is 100% fructose) the liver becomes overloaded and turns all Fructose into Fat which is often stored in the liver (fatty liver disease) or converted into cholesterol and shipped out into the blood. (Thats right! The #1 way to lower your cholesterol is to remove fructose!).
White sugar and the many artificial sweeteners have also been shown to increase triglycerides and cholesterol and lead to insulin resistance, elevated blood sugars and fat deposits in and around the abdomen (dangerous visceral fat)

2. Trans Fats
A trans fatty acid is a specific fat occurring in margarines and any manufactured cooking oil as a result of the hydrogenation process. Essentially they are fats that would normally be liquid at room temperature but the hydrogenation process makes them solid. These fats were not even available to the human diet until the advent of food industrialization. As such, your body literally does not know what to do with them and will consider them highly toxic.

Trans fats increase cholesterol levels, increase abdominal visceral fat, crease insulin resistance (diabetes) as well as igniting a systemic level of inflammation. Long term exposure through diet has been linked to all 4 of the leading causes of death as well as Alzheimers, Depression, Dementia and death.

How to spot them: Look for the word “Hydrogenated or Partially Hydrogenated” on the ingredient label

3. Seed or Vegetable Oils
Corn, Soy, Cottonseed, Sunflower, Safflower and Canola. These oils are literally killing you. Nature provides very small amounts of oil into these seeds and vegetables and it required a chemical extraction process with bleaching and hexane solvents to get the oil out. These oils are extremely high in Omega-6 fats (inflammatory) and low in Omega-3 (anti-inflammatory) fats. Seed and vegetable oils also have a unique deadly feature: they are attracted directly to your cell wall membranes which, quite literally, hardens your cells for exchange of nutrients and toxins. This of coarse makes your cells more toxic which leads to dysfunction (disease) and even cell failure (death).

Note: This danger only lies with SEED or VEGETABLE OIL. Plant oils (olive or coconut) and Nut oils (walnut, almond etc) are healing oils when used properly.

4. Wheat (and all grains)
Wheat is commonly mistaken as a health food. The main reasons wheat is linked to the top 4 causes of death is due to an increased amount of amylopectin (a sugar compound) and digestion directly into sugar via salivary and digestive amylase (an enzyme to convert amylopectin into sugar). Essentially wheat is sugar. Another reason has to do with a particular protein called gluten. Several studies now point out that at many as 95% of americans (chances are you are one of them) are sensitive to gluten. Gluten sensitivity implies that when gluten is introduced into your digestive tract the lining of the intestine becomes irritated and inflamed on contact. Sometimes this can cause abdominal pain, bloating, and stool inconsistency (alternating constipation, diarrhea, normal stools).

Gluten also has a tendency to “leak” the intestine by irritating the colon wall cells leading to increased gap junctions (connections between individual cells) which increases the permeability, allowing for other substances (larger proteins, viruses, bacteria etc) to cross through the intestine into the blood stream. Once a foreign object is in the blood stream it often sparks an immune reaction. Enough sparks and you can see why leaky gut is now connected with auto-immune diseases!

Whole wheat is particularly high in phytic acid, which has been shown to prevent various vitamins and minerals from being absorbed. Some studies even point out that wheat decreases your bodies Vitamin D resources as much as 30%! Lastly, the damage to the intestine wall by gluten typically leads to an overall decrease in absorption of ALL NUTRIENTS leading t sub-clinical and even diagnostic malnutrition.

NOTE: Wheat is in almost EVERY food item found in the grocery isles and removing it from you diet is a must if you want to avoid all 4 of the leading causes of death and have a chance at a long, healthy vibrant and alive life.