If you go online and do some simple Google searches on how to lose weight and look better, you will be immediately assailed by millions, literally millions of websites that offer the “perfect solution” to healthy weight loss. From dietary supplements to pills, vitamins, machines, programs, and quick-fix mechanisms, you’ll see more high-dollar solutions for weight loss than you can keep track of.

As America’s most honest supplement and nutrition company, we’re upfront with our customers about the fact that a nutritional supplement is called a “supplement” for a reason. It’s supposed to supplement an already healthy diet.

The word “supplement” is defined as: 

• “Something that completes or enhances something else when added to it.” 

With that in mind, we have to recognize that dietary supplements and nutritional remedies were never meant to solve our dietary problems for us. Rather, nutritional supplements are supposed to add to or complement what we’re already doing.

To put it simply, you can’t take vitamins and supplements but then also drink soda every day and hope to be healthy.

These Five Foods are Taking Nutrients Out of Your Body

It’s an odd concept, but a true one, that certain foods have a net negative effect on our bodies. That’s right, these foods and beverages cause more nutrient loss than nutrient gain. Consider the following five not-so-healthy foods and five alternatives for each:

• Soda. With absolutely no health benefits and a great deal of sugar, corn syrup, artificial flavorings, and added chemicals, soda causes more harm than good. Furthermore, soda contains acids like phosphoric acid and carbonic acid. Not only are these acids bad for your mouth (think cavities), but such acids harm the entire gastrointestinal tract. An alternative? Drink more water!
• Fruit juice. You thought it was healthy because it tasted like fruit. But the truth is, most fruit juice is just a cocktail of artificial chemicals that are made in a lab to taste like fruit. Then, to sweeten the deal, a huge amount of sugar is added. An alternative? Just eat raw fruit.
• White bread. White bread contains highly processed flours and additives that require a great deal of work for your body to digest and process. Because of that, white bread creates a net negative effect on your health. An alternative? Eat sprouted bread! (Bread made from sprouted grains).
• Sweetened breakfast cereals. The main problem with breakfast cereal is the added sugar. Some are so sweet you could compare them to candy. Breakfast cereal is supposed to be made of cereal grains, such as wheat, oats, rice, and corn. But the grains are so heavily processed that they have little nutritional value left. An alternative? Eat no-sugar-added cereals or oatmeal instead.
• Processed “fat-free” or “low-fat” foods. When food manufacturers elected to offer food products with low fat or no fat, they compensated for the loss of fat by adding sugar. Sugar is worse than fat. Some fats have health benefits, whereas sugar has no health benefit. An alternative? Eat organic, locally-grown, or farm raised food products with healthy fats.

How Poor-Quality Food Robs Your Body of Nutrients

Certain ingredients found in many foods rob your body of essential nutrients. Here are a few to think about:

• Sugar. Sugar robs your body of vitamin C, calcium, and magnesium. When people eat too much sugar, this can lead to a weaker immune system, a poor night’s sleep, compromised cellular and nerve function, and chronic inflammation.
• High fructose corn syrup. Found in packaged foods, cookies, cakes, breakfast cereals, soda, frozen veggies, yogurt, juices, and condiments high fructose corn syrup is a precipitating factor for Irritable Bowel Syndrome, robbing the body of chromium, magnesium, and zinc.
• Phosphoric acid. Found in sodas and some flavored water, phosphoric acid robs the calcium and magnesium from the body and leads to poor bone and teeth health, osteoporosis, cramping, and increased food cravings.
• Processed meat. Some studies suggest that people who eat processed meats have a higher risk of many ailments, including but not limited to colon cancer, type 2 diabetes, and various forms of heart disease.
• Fast food. Despite the appeal of cheap and low-priced fast food items, these foods ultimately rob your body of nutrients and require treatment for the resulting medical conditions later on in life. Not so cheap after all!

Good Health Comes from Good Food

As a bonus, here are another five foods that you should consider avoiding, with helpful alternatives for each:

• Most pizza. Pizza is one of America’s favorite foods, but it’s also one of our most unhealthy. Pizza is chockfull of calories and highly refined dough and heavily processed meat. A healthier alternative would be to create a homemade pizza using wholesome, natural ingredients.
• Pastries, cookies, and cake. Most baked goods are made with refined sugar, refined wheat flour, and added fats. Shortening (high in trans fats) is often added. Healthier alternatives include greek yogurt, fresh fruit, and dark chocolate.
• French fries and potato chips. While white potatoes are quite healthy, french fries and potato chips are not. French fries and potato chips are high in calories and have been linked to weight gain. Furthermore, they may also contain large amounts of acrylamide, (carcinogenic substances that form when potatoes are fried, baked, or roasted). A healthier alternative would be baby carrots or nuts.
• Gluten-free junk foods. While much of the U.S. population attempts to eat less gluten, that can lead to unhealthy foods that just so happen to not have gluten in them. A better alternative would be to eat unprocessed plant and animal foods.
• Low-fat yogurt. When the “fat is bad” craze came through America, companies scrambled to remove fat from their products. To maintain the good taste that fat provided to those products, food companies added sugar to compensate for the loss of flavor. The result is an even more unhealthy product. As an alternative, choose regular, full-fat yogurt that contains live or active cultures (probiotics).

While there are always supplements, vitamins, minerals, and different nutritional aids that people can take to help give them a beneficial dietary boost, there is no replacing a good diet.

Three Health Products to Assist You in Achieving a Great Diet and a Healthy Body

There is no doubt about it; some foods and beverages cause more harm than good. We’ve done our best in this article to briefly inform you of some unhealthy foods and some healthier alternatives. But your journey towards a healthier life will depend so much on research, study, and experimenting with different foods, different cooking methods, and healthy eating habits.

While there is no quick fix or silver bullet to a healthy diet (yes, you will have to make real changes in the foods you eat and the beverages you drink to improve your health), there are supplements, vitamins, and nutrients that can assist you.

We offer three fantastic supplements that all work to complement a healthy diet. They are:

Raw Organic Kamut Wheatgrass Powder. From improving gut health to addressing acid reflux, assisting in detoxifying the body, and aiding healthy weight loss, Immune Solution’s Organic Kamut Wheatgrass alkalizes the body and helps remove harmful toxins (left by poor-quality food) from the body.

Organic Pumpkin Seed Protein. Containing 33 grams of single-source, paleo pumpkin seed protein (with superfoods) in each serving, this meal replacement powder is an excellent way to give your body essential nutrients and to avoid overeating all at the same time.

Optimal Digestive Enzyme. This product supports protein digestion, aiding your body in processing the nutrients you take in from good food. In addition to assisting healthy digestion, this product can reduce pain and inflammation and soothe symptoms of a sore throat.

We hope the information expressed in this article helps you take the next steps of your healthy diet journey. If you have any questions about dieting, healthy weight loss, or Immune Solution products, call our office at (727) 768-4688 or send a message to sales@immunesolution.com.

Health and wellness to all,

-Ren Brabenec

Immune Solution Writing Staff