Healthy Eating Tips - Foods to Avoid

Read food labels carefully and eliminate all food items that contain the following ingredients:
1) High fructose corn syrup
2) Sugar in top five ingredients
3) Bleached and/or enriched flour
4) Hydrogenated (partially) oils
5) Foods that contain > 4 grams of sugar
6) Foods that contain > 4 grams of saturated fat
7) Transfat

Rationale: The hypothalmus is the comman center of our brain and contains important satiety(feeling of being full or satisfied) regulating hormones, ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin creates the desire to crave food and leptin promotes satiety. If our brain doesn't tell us that we are full, we continue to eat, which leads to overeating and weight gain.

Simple Sugars
Simple sugars, ending in "ose", example high fructose corn syrup is not recognized as food and therefore inhibits leptin and leaves us feeling unsatisfied and craving more food. Also avoid foods that end in "ol", example: mannitol, sorbitol, these are sugar alcohols and are quickly converted to simple sugars.

Bleached/Unriched Flour
Bleached flours or unriched means that the food item is stripped from all nutrients.

Saturated Fats/Transfats
Saturated fats and transfats are added to foods to increase shelf life. These foods are usually solid at room temperature and have been reported to produce lower leptin levels. These fats increase LDL (bad cholesterol) and lower HDL (good cholesterol), which leads to arterial clogging and increases the risk of heart disease.

Hydrogenated (partially) Fats
The healthy fats Omega 3 and Omega 6 are removed.