You should stop eating these foods immediately

Nobody likes being told what to do.

Worse, nobody likes being told what they should do. That puts the responsibility on your shoulders.

I want to take a chance here and tell you something you should do. Actually, it’s something you should stop doing. If you are at all concerned about your health, losing weight, avoiding diabetes and other diseases, and eating well, there are some things you should stop eating immediately. I mean drop them like they were a deadly poison, because they are.

No human being (or animal for that matter) should ever consume another bite of anything made with enriched white flour, high fructose corn syrup, processed sugar, or artificial sweeteners. Soft drinks (including sports drinks and energy drinks) should be dumped down the drain.

These things are killing us. It’s a slow, debilitating death. The obesity problem in America is the byproduct of poor government regulation and a greedy food industry. The foods I mentioned – flour, sugar, corn syrup, and artificial sweeteners – are the primary culprits in a long list of “foods” that are really bad for us.

How do I know this? I read a lot. I’ve read numerous books about healthy eating and all of them without fail point to these things as the source of the problem. Each book I’ve read takes a different approach but reaches the same conclusions. I’ve also interviewed dieticians and other health experts over the years and they, too, say the same thing.

Among the books I’ve read are “The End of Craving” by Mark Schatzker, “Food: What the Heck Should I Eat” by Mark Hyman, and “Real Food, Fake Food: Why You Don't Know What You’re Eating and What You Can Do About It” by Larry Olmsted.

It’s not just the books. I’ve participated in studies and programs in the past that indirectly pointed in the same direction. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about. In late 2020 I went on the keto diet. I lost 60 pounds. I don’t think it’s so much from being low-carb as much as it is having cut flour, sugar, processed foods, and other unhealthy stuff from my diet. Last December I took a break from the diet and immediately gained 14 pounds back. I’ve slowly been losing it again.

These processed foods are messing with your body’s chemistry and sending signals to your brain telling it you need to eat more, when you really don’t. For years I’ve always felt hungry, even when I was stuffed. Now I know why. The chemically altered and preserved things we eat are designed to make us crave more.

The artificial sweeteners tell your brain that a certain amount of calories are coming, but then don’t deliver. When your brain doesn’t detect the calories, it sends the message to consume more. Big Food banks on this.

High fructose corn syrup triggers a craving for sweetness, but in reality is doing severe damage to your liver. White flour is so heavily processed that the nutrition is removed, so the government told producers to enrich it with the missing nutrients and other additives. Those chemical nutrients are out of balance with that was there naturally and creates an overdose in the body that gets stored as fat.

My explanations here are oversimplified and you can get better information from the books. The bottom line is you should eat only things that are natural and organic. Avoid all foods that have an ingredient list containing the aforementioned foods and a lot of chemistry that you can’t pronounce or even understand. In “Food: What the Heck Should I Eat,” Dr. Hyman concludes that “If God made it, eat it. If man made it, leave it.”

Last year when I was working in Fredericksburg, I did a story with a nutritionist and asked what is the single worst food you can eat. She didn’t hesitate: Donut. It has white flour, sugar, is deep fried (which is bad for you), and then smothered in more sugar.

So, if you shouldn’t eat this stuff – which makes up the lion’s share of the American diet – what should you eat? The answer is to eat naturally. Organic fruits, vegetables, meats, whole grains, nuts, etc. should be the staple of your diet. Want a hamburger? Ditch the bun. I like mine on a salad. Avoid the French fries.

When it comes to drinks, I limit myself to water, black coffee, and unsweet teas. Trust me, you get used to it. Don’t sweeten your coffee or tea or add cream and other stuff. They may be small amounts of flavorings, but they make a big difference.

My middle son has Celiac disease, which is an intolerance to wheat gluten and other things. Not surprisingly, growing up without wheat made him skinnier and healthier than the rest of the family.

I could go on – after all, books have been written about this – but I want to keep it simple. Now that you know, the onus is on you. Like I said, no one wants to be told what they should do. You know what you should (and shouldn’t) do, the question is, will you? I did and I feel a lot better for it.

Joe Southern is the managing editor of the Wharton Journal-Spectator and the East Bernard Express. He can be reached at news@journal-spectator.com.