Fast food is everywhere these days, turn any corner and a big food chain is right there shining its bright lights at you with all their specials and seasonal desserts (pumpkin spice everything once Fall hits).
Ever catch yourself feeling extra bloated, tired, or even more hungry after eating a full meal at a fast food restaurant? We have to be cautious about what fuel type we put into our vehicles, this is also true for our bodies with the types of foods we eat to give us energy.
These are five foods to avoid to help feel your best!
- White Flour Products: Serving grain with meals has been a part of historical food supply for thousands of years but refining grain to make the modern white refined flour is more moderately new. Many vital nutrients are removed within the refining process, with only about 9 being added back in. After refinement, all that’s truly left is starch that quickly digests into sugar quite rapidly.
- High-Fructose Corn Syrup / Refined Sugar: When one extracts sugars from their food bases, such as sucrose from sugar cane or high-fructose corn syrup from corn – it removes all of the needed nutrients. In this, it also removes the minerals and vitamins our bodies need in order to metabolize the sugar. Due to the extraction, the sugar depletes the body of any nutrients which leads to cravings because the body is searching for those needed nutrients.
- Soda (Soft Drinks): Just think of this beverage as one with empty calories, meaning it’s only entering calories into your body with no real nutrient effects at all. You can expect about 10-12 teaspoons of sugar, per soda can – heaping dose humans don’t need in a single sitting like that. In addition to sugar, artificial sweeteners may be added that have been linked to irritability, headaches, and sometimes seizures in some people.
- Vegetable Oils (Partially Hydrogenated) / Trans Fatty Acids: Plastic is practically resistant by biology and hydrogenated fats are just a step away from being considered plastic itself. When foods are made with hydrogenated fats, it’s unable to spoil or go stale as fast as they would in their regular state, meaning it’s doing the same within our bodies. These types of oils are found in nearly all processed and fast food items such as chicken nuggets, french fries, cookies, chips, donuts, brownies, margarine, American cheese, etc. Many foods on our shelves within grocery stores have a lot of these harmful ingredients that our bodies are unable to process.
- Excess Omega 6 Oils: Now, Omega 6 oils are essential to human health, but in balanced quantities. If taken in excess, these oils can promote inflammation, cancer, and heart disease. Try to avoid vegetable oils when cooking such as corn, soy, sunflower, or safflower, and use extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, or flax oil.
Take a look at what your everyday eating habits are like and adjust as needed.
See Your Internal Medicine Practitioner
Woodlands Diagnostic Clinic is an internal medicine practice located in Shenandoah, TX, providing comprehensive and compassionate patient-centered health care. Our internal medicine practitioners are committed to optimizing the health and well-being of patients through the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of both acute and chronic medical conditions in an office or teleconference setting. Schedule all your medical appointments with one of Woodlands Diagnostic Clinic’s physicians by calling us at (281) 863-9554.
