What you hold at the end of your fork is either the greatest weapon you can use towards improving your health or one of your worst enemies-it’s really that simple. Your diet plays a significant role when it comes to addressing a major root cause of illness-inflammation. The food choices you make can either offer an anti-inflammatory healing benefit-or they can pour acid onto your wounds-producing more inflammation.

Did you know that most foods you eat produce a cytokine reaction in your body that results in your immune system being programmed against the very food you just ate-which ignites a cascade of inflammation and ultimately ends up damaging your organs, tissues, joints and even your brain!

Artificial/chemical sugars, processed carbohydrates, processed meats, refined salts, fried foods, additives and preservatives: the more foods that have been heavily manufactured and processed, the worse they will generally be for your health. The basic concept of clean eating is simply only consuming whole foods (also known as unprocessed foods), increasing your organic vegetables, decreasing your fruit consumption and only focusing on pasture-raised proteins while increasing your healthy plant/animal fats .In doing so, the aim is to provide your body with an abundance of nutrients while maintaining healthy blood sugar levels to reduce inflammation and provide your body the ability nourish and regenerate itself.

Below you will find a list of the most dangerous foods/food groups and my favorite alternatives for each. Its time for a “kitchen pantry makeover” and this guide can revolutionize your health when followed properly.

Vegetable and Seed Oils: Don’t believe the media or labels-your cooking oils can be the most dangerous food you have in your kitchen! Vegetable and seed oils are extremely high omega 6fatty acids, which is one reason why eliminating them and switching to the oils listed below is step#1 in your food makeover.

Oils To Toss: Canola Oil, Soybean Oil, Vegetable Oil, Corn Oil, Sunflower Oil, Grape-seed Oil

Oils To Replace with: Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Avocado Oil, Tallow, Butter, Ghee

Sweeteners / Sugar: No matter how you spell it-sugar is sugar. Even raw, non-gmo, 100%organic cane sugar is just that-SUGAR! Given that the average Americans consumes 180lbsof sugar annually I think you can see this is one food to avoid 100%. Even more dangerous are the classic sugar substitutes-which research is now showing are neurotoxic and can even cause auto-immune diseases! To make matters worse, Fructose (found in large quantities of syrups and honey) can damage your liver if consumed regularly!

Sugars To Avoid: Sugar in all forms, Maple Syrup, Agave, Honey, Sweet n’ Low, Nutra Sweet, Equal, Splenda, Acesulfame Potassium

Sugars To Replace With: Stevia, Monk Fruit / Luo Han, Erythritol/Xylitol**Note these two can create digestive upset in some individuals

Alcohol (Beer, Wine, Spirits): I think you an agree with me that alcohol is a toxin no matter how the research spins it. Yes, red wine does have Resveratrol, but that not the excuse to have a glass every night as pistachios, chocolate, blueberries and cranberries have just as much (or more)Resveratrol than red wine. Nearly ALL of the wine produced in the US is contaminated with Round UP. Nearly ALL of the beer produced in the us is grain based, also contained with Round Up. Same goes for the sprites (mostly grain based)-and you can’t ferment out the pesticides!

Alcohol’s to avoid: All American Produced Beer, Wine & Spirit

Alternatives to alcohol: Lab tested, verified roundup, mold and yeast free non U.S. wines(dryfarmwines.com/askdrernst), fermented non-alcoholic beverages like Kombucha and/or Kevita.

Carbonated Beverages: Sodas are loaded with high fructose corn syrup, harsh acids and many have vegetable oils added to them which yields negative health effects like obesity and heart disease. And most diet sodas are worse than regulars because they contain artificial sweeteners that are worse than sugar.

Carbonated Beverages To Avoid: All Major Brands of Soda

Alternatives to Sodas: Sparkling Water/Seltzer with citrus juice, Zevia, La Croix, Spindrift, Waterloo.

Ice Creams: Most OTC ice creams are dairy based, loaded with sugar and harsh additives or gums and carrageenan (which has been linked to cancer!) With so many brands to avoid (Breyers, Ben &Jerrys, Haagen-Dazs etc). Even the diary free brands (So-Delicious, Luna & Larry’s Coconut Bliss, NadaMoo etc. )are extremely high in sugar! This is why the only ice cream I can endorse if the one you make yourself (recipe below)

Ice-creams To Avoid: All dairy and non-dairy based OTC Major brands

Alternatives To Ice Cream: The best of the best is HOME MADE-it’s super simple, health andyou can find a healing ice cream recipe HERE