There often seems to be so few things we can actually control in this life, but the food we eat is within our control. If you’re at all like me, you may find the food pyramid and different nutrition fads confusing. Is the paleo diet best? The Mediterranean diet? The keto diet? Because of that, I’ve asked my friend, Susan Neal, to share from her professional and personal experience with us today to help us better understand some dangers and problems with today’s foods you may want to know about.

On a recent episode of Your Hope Filled Perspective podcast, I chatted with Susan about how to improve our health and our weight. If you missed that episode, you can listen here – How to Improve Your Health and Weight – Episode 143.

 

Top Four Problems with Today’s Foods
By Susan Neal, RN, MBA, MHS

Today’s foods are not what they were a century ago—before manufacturers processed foods. Produce grew on farms and was distributed to local regions. It was fresh and needed to be consumed quickly. Wheat had a short shelf life because it was a whole grain. Now manufacturers remove two parts of the wheat (bran and germ), so that it has an extended shelf life. Unfortunately, it doesn’t contain any nutrients. Most of today’s processed foods don’t contain any nutrients nor do they resemble the original food they were made from.

There are a few dangers about today’s food that you may want to know about.

Top Four Problems with Today’s Foods

1. Cancer-Causing Glyphosate Residue

The active ingredient in many herbicides—glyphosate—is a carcinogen. When this weed killer is sprayed on crops prior to harvesting, its residue remains on produce. Unfortunately, there is no federal monitoring of glyphosate on foods. You can avoid consuming this carcinogen by purchasing organic produce and products made from produce. The nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting human health and the environment, Environmental Working Group (EWG), creates an annual Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen produce list. The Dirty Dozen foods are the ones with the highest concentration of pesticides and the Clean 15 are the ones with the lowest.

To ensure you consume the safest foods, purchase organic produce that is on the Dirty Dozen list:

• Strawberries
• Spinach
• Kale, collard, and mustard greens
• Nectarines
• Apples
• Grapes
• Cherries
• Peaches
• Pears
• Bell and hot peppers
• Celery
• Tomatoes

2. Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) Crops

There are five primary crops in the United States that have been genetically changed so the herbicide glyphosate does not harm them. These crops include wheat, oats, soy, corn, and sugar beets. Therefore, when you buy products made with these ingredients, you could consume a carcinogen. In fact, the EWG found glyphosate residue on almost all the oat-based breakfast foods popular with children. So you might eat more than you desired in your breakfast.

3. Celiac Disease Increased 400 Percent

Everyone seems to know someone who is negatively affected by gluten. Celiac disease increased by 400 percent in the past 60 years. What caused the exponential growth of this immune-related disorder? I believe it is because of the hybridization of wheat. In the 1960s, wheat was bred to be short, drought resistant, and prolific. It can feed the world. Unfortunately most humans cannot properly digest its large gluten molecule.

4. Hidden Forms of Gluten

It’s difficult to navigate a gluten-free diet these days because we find gluten in many ingredients that don’t say they include wheat. The list of skeptical ingredients includes:

• Enzymes
• Fillers
• Flavors
• Natural flavors
• Modified food starch
• Rice malt (if made from barley)
• Seasonings
• Spices
• Stabilizers
• Starch

If a food label has one of these ingredients and it is not labeled gluten-free, it could contain gluten. Therefore, eating a gluten-free diet is more difficult than it may seem. I had a difficult time figuring this out. I kept experiencing negative symptoms from ingesting hidden sources of gluten, but I wasn’t eating wheat. I had to investigate further to figure out this gluten puzzle.

Purchase organic products that are made from corn, oats, wheat, and soy. Otherwise, you may ingest glyphosate. If you have problems digesting gluten, educate yourself about gluten-related disorders and the gluten-free lifestyle by reading, Solving the Gluten Puzzle.

In what ways are you taking control of your health by better tending to your diet? We’d love to hear in the comments below.

 

 

About Susan Neal

Susan Neal, RN, MHS, MBA lives her life with a passion to help others improve their health. After suffering a health crisis, she became an author and health coach to provide others with the tools they needed to heal their bodies and reclaim their ideal weight. Her award-winning #1 Amazon best-seller is 7 Steps to Get Off Sugar and Carbohydrates. You can find Susan at SusanUNeal.com.

Connect with Susan: Website

 

Book Giveaway

In conjunction with this post and the podcast interview, How to Improve Your Health and Weight – Episode 143, Susan Neal is giving away a free copy of her new book, 7 Steps to Get Off Sugar and Carbohydrates.

Leave a comment below sharing with us one you learned about dangers and problems with today’s foods and you will be entered into the contest for your chance to win a copy of her book.

You could also share this blog post on Facebook or Twitter then comment here to tell us where you shared it and you’ll also be entered into the drawing.

The winner will be selected at random and announced next Monday, January 17, 2022. Continental United States only.