I was thumbing through a health publication while waiting for my acupuncture appointment last Friday and came across a “healthy eating” article written by a registered dietitian.

After reading the piece, all I could think to myself was:  It’s no wonder that people are still sick, overweight and medicated in record numbers.  With crap like what this woman wrote still being widely circulated as plausible advice, people don’t stand a chance at real health.

Here are several of the points she made in her article which range from not too helpful to downright harmful!

Not-so-great diet advice (Or, how to guarantee you stay sick and overweight)

1. Saturated fats are bad for you

Your body NEEDS saturated fats to protect nerve cells, produce hormones, assimilate vitamins A, D, E and K, support your heart during stress, and help your brain and nervous system transmit nerve impulses.

The average person needs about 30 percent of their daily calories to come from fats, and about one-third of those should be saturated.

Good saturated fats include meat, butter, lard, suet, milk, eggs and cheese--preferably organic—as well as avocado and coconut oil. 

2. Polyunsaturated oils and margarines are good for you

This is the flip side of number 1 above.

Since saturated fats have long been unjustly demonized, this gave food companies an opportunity to market "heart healthy" oils and margarines.

What a bunch of baloney.

When polyunsaturated oils are heated (as they are during margarine processing or when you use them for cooking), deadly compounds similarly harmful to trans-fats are created. 

That doesn’t sound too “heart healthy” to me.

In addition, most of the polyunsaturated oils in stores are rancid before they even make it to your pantry.

Your best choices for cooking are real butter, coconut oil and lard.  If you wish to use polyunsaturated oils, buy the ones that are in dark brown or green containers, and opt for organic brands if possible…and NEVER use them in cooking.

3. Cholesterol is a demon that clogs arteries

Cholesterol is a healthy substance—it’s a potent antioxidant, your liver uses it to make bile, it’s used to make pregnenolone (your body’s hormone “molding clay”) and it protects you against depression. 

Plus it repairs tears in your blood vessels, it's vital for your brain and nervous system and it helps your body manufacture vitamin D. 

The real culprit behind cardiovascular disease is inflammation in your blood vessels, which is largely the result of a diet high in refined carbs and sugars, stress and nutritional deficiencies (especially vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids).

4. Artificial sweeteners are a good way to lose weight

Despite overwhelming evidence and studies showing that these things are about as good for you as eating rat poison, artificial sweeteners including aspartame (Equal or NutraSweet), sucralose (Splenda), Acesulfame K (Sweet One), and saccharin (Sweet ‘N Low) continue to be touted as a good way to cut calories.

They are all disease-creating poisons, period.

And they don’t even help with weight loss!  They trick your brain into thinking calories are coming, which in turn drives up your appetite for sweet, high-calorie foods.  They have also been linked to metabolic syndrome, atherosclerosis and migraines, to name a few.

I’ve got to tell you, I’ve never once in my career seen a person that uses artificial sweeteners at a slender or normal bodyweight.  That should tell you something.

5. "My Plate" is good nutritional advice

Please spare me.

"My Plate" is the reincarnation of the Food Pyramid, which had people eating 6-11 servings of bread, cereal and pasta each day.  This flood of refined carbohydrates was anything BUT healthy and most certainly contributed to our overwhelming rates of heart disease! 

My Plate has downplayed grains somewhat and made vegetables the largest "plate section," but it still strongly pushes grains and lacks any plausible advice on fats.

Truly GOOD advice

If you want to help prevent disease, achieve a healthy bodyweight, and quite possibly lead a medication-free existence, here are 3 effective strategies that you can trust from your friendly holistic nutrition coach that can help support YOUR health from head to toe:

1- Eat real food and support good digestion

When your diet is comprised of real foods you:

• Automatically eliminate trans-fats and artificial sweeteners
• Get good sources of antioxidants
• Get natural sources of crucial nutrients

And when you have sound digestion, this helps minimize waste accumulation in your blood, which cuts off a major source of inflammation! 

So, stay away from processed, packaged garbage and keep it real—fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs, dairy and butter (never margarine). 

Also, structure your meals to help encourage better digestion--my Great Taste No Pain system can help you here. 

Great Taste No Pain will show you what foods to pair together to ease the stress on your GI tract and help pave the way for comfortable, pain-free digestion and regular BMs!

2- Balance your microbiome

The friendly flora in your gut microbiome helps your body digest starches and fibers, supports regular BMs and houses 80 percent of your immune system…but they can only do so when there’s a strong enough population of them!

Unfortunately, people who have diets high in processed foods, soda and refined carbs have fed the harmful microbes in their guts...and are likely looking at a serious flora imbalance as a result.

Plus medication use (especially antacids and antibiotics), stress and lack of sleep can make your microbiome topsy-turvy. 

The best way to help restore a proper gut flora balance is with a full-spectrum probiotic formula like Super Shield.

Super Shield has been helping to create healthy guts all over the world for 10 years!    

3- Get enough Omega-3 EFAs

Omega-3 essential fatty acids promote health in 4 ways:

1. They've been proven to help lower blood pressure.
2. They have anti-inflammatory properties, which can counteract inflammation in your arteries and joints.
3. They keep clots from forming by reducing the stickiness in your platelets.
4. They support proper brain function.

Since our food supply doesn't contain a fraction of the Omega-3 EFAs that it used to (due to our diets high in processed foods, vegetable oils and grain-fed animals), supplementation with a pharmaceutical-grade fish oil formula like VitalMega-3 is a must for most people.

Now you have real advice on how to create health and quite possibly say goodbye to medications for good. 

To your health,

Sherry Brescia