Foods to avoid to lose weight. It’s great to give nutrition advice, but sometimes, people just want to get straight to the point and know exactly what not to eat to lose weight. I, myself, made many mistakes at the beginning of my journey to living a healthy lifestyle, because while some products seemed obvious to cut from your diet, others need you to be a bit more informed on nutrition to know they’re to get rid of from your eating habits.
Without further due, here is a list of foods not to eat when trying to lose weight.
If you’ve read one of my previous nutrition posts, you know the single reason why we gain weight is carbohydrates. With that being said, I don’t think everyone is aware of how much carbs there is in pretty much everything we consume on a regular basis. Now I must make it clear that the idea is not to cut carbs altogether from your diet because it is a great source of energy for our organism but rather, choose wisely your sources of carbs (fruits and veggies) and consume in moderation.
READ MORE: 6 Foods You Think Are Healthy But Aren’t
Let’s define carbs, just to make sure everyone fully understands and that we are all on the same page. Here is a definition from my Ultimate Nutrition Guide that you can download for free here: Carbs are organic components that comprise all the forms of sugar, starch, cellulose, as well as other substances produced by plants when they are exposed to light. This process is called photosynthesis. There are 3 types of carbs: simple carbs, complex carbs and dietary fibers. They all contain sugar. What differentiates them is the number of sugar unit they contain and the way these units are linked to one another. The organism’s fuel is glucose, which are the molecules your cells burn to find energy. Digestible carbs found in food provide either glucose or sugar units that can be transformed in glucose. Glucose comes from the transformation of carbs during digestion. It then penetrates cells thanks to insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas.
Here is a list of carbs that must be avoided:
Obvious ones:
– Pastries, bakeries and sweets
– Refined sweeteners and sugar
– Cereals
– Sodas
Less obvious ones:
– Canned products, which contain high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a highly dangerous sugar used as a preservative, and linked to promoting obesity and type 2 diabetes. You may be confused and think: “But isn’t fructose one of the best sugars there is? Fruits contain fructose, why are they considered healthy then?” Let’s start by defining high fructose corn syrup first: it is a sweetener made from corn starch and is widely used as a preservative by the food industry. Most canned or already made products contain HFCS. Why is it so dangerous? if you were to compare HFCS to a fruit, say a mature peach, for instance: in HFCS, the added fructose represents 50% of the additive’s weight, whereas fructose only represents 1% of a mature peach’s weight. Additionally, fruits will also bring you vitamins, and dietary fiber, whereas HFCS in completely void of nutrients.
READ MORE: What Happens To Your Body When You Eat Junk Food
– Dairies. For a long time I didn’t understand what was the big deal about dairy products being unhealthy and why so many people I followed claimed they had banned dairy products from their diets. There are many reasons why you should avoid consuming dairy, but I will only list a couple of them for the purpose of this post: lactose is a sugar naturally present in milk. Lactose is only digested under the action of an enzyme called lactase. But not everyone possesses this enzyme; we call these people lactose intolerant, because they can’t digest lactose. Lactose intolerance manifests itself by bloating and cramps whenever dairy products are consumed. Another reason why it is advised not to eat dairies is that cows are given growth hormones which are all found in the milk they produce, therefore, consumed by humans. Additionally, we don’t possess rennet, a substance extracted from young ruminants, which contains an enzyme that allows to coagulate milk and casein (milk protein). I will dedicate a full post to all the reasons why dairy products should be avoided.
READ MORE: The Main Reason Why We Gain Fat… And What To Do About It
– Fast food. Take the example of a burger. It is not necessarily the fats it contains that makes it dangerous for your health but rather, the sugar and salt contained in the bun, and other ingredients that make fast food detrimental to your health.
– White flour: pasta, bread, pizza, burger, doughnuts, etc. During the process of refining white flour, all the nutrients are lost; the most important of which is the wheat bran, an essential nutrient for digestion. White flour also promotes acidity, and causes digestive problems.
– White rice. Replace it by brown rice, which contains protein.
– Potatoes
– Grains, such as quinoa (consume in moderation as they may cause bloating)
– Light and low fat products. What they don’t tell you is that while they decrease the fat contained in these products, they increase the sugar to compensate! So by all means, stay away from light and low fat products.
– Processed products. They’re high in sugar, salt, and high fructose corn syrup, contain artificial ingredients (artificial chemicals such as preservatives, colorants, flavor and texturant), high in calorie, low in nutrients (they don’t really nourish your body so you eat more and more of it waiting to be full!) and are often high in trans fats.
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