The 10 Foods In Your Grocery Chart That Are Making You Sick

The 10 Foods In Your Grocery Chart That Are Making You Sick

We’ve all been there. We go the check stand, put our groceries up on the checkout belt, and a minute later we glance back at what the person behind us is buying.

Oh, they’re loading up on sugar...

Wow, that’s a lot of soda and dessert items.

Or maybe: Gosh, they’re buying a lot of produce and organic foods...while it looks like I’m throwing a junk food party.

Do you do that? Or is it just me?

I find myself embarrassed and wanting to explain to the cashier that it’s for a birthday party.

It’s amazing how much unhealthy food we can purchase at the store. And of course, there are many healthy choices too.

We have more options available than ever before. In the same store, you can buy packaged food that’s high in sugar, bad fat, and salt, or you can choose organic fruits and vegetables and free range meat.

When we stick to the perimeter of the store, it’s easier to make healthier choices. That’s where we find produce, meat, and healthier foods.

The interior aisles contain packaged foods.

Some of those might be healthy, but there are many “healthy” foods with hidden dangers.

You might wonder why they’re for sale, and why no one is warning consumers, but the people who make these products also work with government agencies to decide what’s safe to eat.

This might surprise some, but the government doesn’t decide what’s healthy. It checks if things cause immediate danger.

If something checks out (by tests possibly conducted by a company with biased interests) the item is “generally considered to be safe”.

That’s not really a promise or much of an endorsement.

The health claims on food packages aren’t backed up by rigorous testing either.

It’s best to be educated and check into the foods we eat.

Here’s some that might be making you sick.

1. Frozen dinners

We have a row of freezers full of quick and easy meals.

Some are better than others, but how do you tell?

I probably don’t have to go into this one too much, because if a frozen dinner costs 99 cents...you really have to wonder what’s in it.

2. Produce

I’m not saying to skip produce!

But it’s easy to take it home and eat it, either without washing it or giving it a quick rinse under the tap.

There’s wax on most fruits. The government has declared that generally safe, but they haven’t studied what happens when you eat it for 50 years.

You can remove wax, pesticides, and germs by soaking fruits and vegetables in water with baking soda for 15 minutes.

3. Soy products

Some people drink soy milk if they have trouble digesting dairy, but you might want to pick another dairy alternative.

Soy throws off hormones in both males and females. In males, it causes gynecomastia, or the enlargement of the male chest (err, breast) through added fatty tissue.

In females, soy can hurt your fertility and cause hormonal imbalances, leading to other problems.

Basically, a female might feel like she has a thyroid problem (feeling sluggish, gaining weight, exhausted all the time...) but the medical test will come back negative.

The problem is compounded because soy is in most packaged foods like protein bars, snack bars, protein mixes, and anything else that needs cheap filler or something to make it chewy and smooth.

Check labels and you’ll find soy hiding in many things, and you’ll want to avoid those so you’ll feel more energetic and stay more tone.

4. Processed and bleached grains

Humans haven’t been eating grains at the level we do now until the last 50 to 70 years. So our bodies haven’t evolved to digest grain.

If you look at the rising levels of grain consumption, it correlates to the rising numbers for obesity, diabetes, and inflammation diseases.

The grain we eat is often bleached, white bread foods which turn to sugar in our bodies.

Grains today have been bred so they are very different from the grain people have been eating the last few hundred years.

And after all the cross breeding, many are genetically modified.

On top of all that, most grains have pesticides in them when processed into food.

So if you want grains in your diet, go for whole, organic grains that are processed as little as possible.

5. Margarine

Once upon a time, advertises told us that margarine was a healthy alternative to butter. It was also cheaper, and came out when people were scrapping for grocery money.

It’s softer than refrigerated butter and therefore easier to use. But it’s not worth the health risks.

Margarine is marketed as a healthier, low fat butter, but it’s loaded with bad fats and increases your cholesterol, hurts your heart, and makes it harder to lose weight.

6. Liquid Food

It seems like grabbing a shake is a good idea if you’re running out the door.

But drinking a supplement drink will spike your insulin levels much more than eating actual food.

That can make you develop insulin insensitivity and lead to many different health problems.

These drinks also have lots of chemicals in them. Just take a look at the very long ingredient list.

Nutrition shakes can help the elderly or sick get their vitamins and minerals, but these shakes aren’t a good meal plan in general.

7. Juice

The WIC, or Women, Infant, and Child program has been giving families food vouchers for milk, cereal, and juice.

We’ve seen a sharp increase in obesity in toddlers, and it’s from drinking more juice and eating sweetened cold cereals.

Juice has fructose but no fiber, and our body needs the fiber to properly digest the fructose.

We end up with inflammation and other problems due to ingesting fructose alone.

8. Grain Fed Beef

Cows are not mean to eat grain. In fact, cows must have medicine and antibiotics if they eat grain, which basically keep them alive long enough to butcher.

Grass fed beef, or free range beef, actually has a completely different fat makeup. So the fat content in grass fed beef is healthy instead of bad for you.

You can compare the products in store: you’ll see a huge difference in how grain and grass fed beef looks.

You’ll also taste a big difference, and then feel a big difference in your health.

Yes, it’s more expensive. But if you limit your red meat intake, as you should, it’s not the much more money for a few of your monthly meals.

9. Lab Created Food

So this is a group of food—a rather large group of food products that are causing ridiculously high numbers of disease in our country.

There are many, many ingredients in our foods that do much more harm than we realize.

Research is showing the GMO food is not healthy, but it goes beyond that.

Limit your consumption, or avoid, foods that aren’t natural.

Artificial sweeteners might be zero calories, but the body still reacts as if you’re eating sugar. They’re also linked to cancer and diabetes.

Preservatives and food dyes are linked to a long list of diseases. Other countries ban ingredients that the U.S. allows, so check labels! Buy organic instead.

If you don’t understand what ingredients are, you can’t know what it’ll do to your body.

You might think that it’s safe because it’s on the shelf of a store, but look around at the general health of Americans.

10. Diet and Healthy snacks

Many diet problems sell a line of foods products to help you lose weight.

The idea is that you’ll have a few shakes and then a few snacks during the day.

That’s a problem because the products have huge ingredient lists that are full of artificial ingredients.

Many cause insulin spikes, so you’re extremely hungry after eating them.

You might end up eating all the diet food in the plan, and then other unhealthy foods because you’re craving carbs worse than ever.

We also have health foods like bars. These, too, have artificial ingredients, lots of soy, and other things you don’t want to eat.

We’re trying so hard to be healthy...but we’re confused by these packages foods.

You can feel better and lose weight if you eat lean meats and lots of fruit and vegetables.

The next time you load your groceries onto the checkout belt, use this list so you can feel good about what you’re buying.

It doesn’t take that much more time to read labels and buy whole foods, and it’s so worth it for the health benefits!