The top 5 fake health foods to avoid ever buying even if they are certified organic and prominently displayed at a health food store with the label emblazoned with marketing buzzwords.
Consider yourself warned! Not all products at the health food store are healthy!
In fact, much of it can be classified as organic junk food.
You can always tell health food store newbies as their shopping carts are typically loaded up with these types of foods.
This pattern of behavior likely indicates that they have only recently made the transition from grocery store junk food and are simply replacing one type of highly processed boxed food with another.
Having shopped at health food stores for over 30 years and seen many a food fad come and go, here is my top five list of supposedly “healthy” foods that are anything but nourishing to you and your family.
Protein Powder (all of them are bad!)
Most people do not realize that protein is a very fragile macronutrient.
When you forcibly separate protein from its whole food source in a factory, it becomes denatured.
This is the case even when done at low temperatures. For example, the simple act of drying and powdering whey protein is denaturing!
Denatured foods are toxic and allergenic to the body. This is because digestive enzymes do not work as effectively on them. This results in an incomplete digestive process for protein powder.
Undigested food rots in the gut and is the perfect food for pathogenic yeasts and bacteria to thrive upon. Over a period of time, this leads the body down the path to autoimmune disorders (most of the immune system is in the gut!).
To reiterate this important point…whey protein is especially fragile and cannot be powdered or dried even at low temperatures.
For more information, this article includes additional details on the dangers of protein powders and other high protein foods.
Incidentally, I don’t recommend bone broth protein powder either. They do not offer the same healing benefits as homemade bone broth.
If you need a protein boost, go for Real Food! Skip the processed protein powder and eat a grass-fed steak, some pastured poultry, or an egg instead!
If you must have a powder to add to your smoothie, choose a third-party certified glyphosate-free collagen powder (such as this brand).
Plant-Based “Milk”
Soy milk and other types of alternative “plant-based” milk are not ancestral foods. Nor were they ever considered of value in traditional societies, contrary to modern claims.
Not only are there zero health benefits from soy milk, but commercial alternative milk brands are almost without exception completely toxic due to the processing and packaging.
These products are a quintessential modern fake food invention…a cheap, mass-produced product with an undigestible form of calcium and synthetic Vitamin D2.
Unnatural fortification of processed foods is linked with hyperactivity, coronary heart disease, and allergic reactions. (1)
Packaging is another very serious problem with alternative milk. Drinking them risks ingesting microplastics from the thin plastic lining hiding inside the tetrapaks.
The leaching occurs from the boiling hot liquid sealed in to sterilize the cartons for ultra-long shelf stability.
The horrible taste is covered up with sugar, “natural flavors” with solvent residues, and/or innocuous-sounding alternative sweeteners allowed under USDA Organic. (2)
Perhaps the most concerning aspect is the devasting impact of these beverages on the thyroid gland. Soy is one of the most goitrogenic (thyroid-suppressing) foods on the planet. Ingestion of endocrine disruptors from the microplastics and solvent residues is also a risk to this delicate gland. (3)
Interestingly, Dr. Harry Miller, the man credited with popularizing gag-worthy soy milk in China in the late 1930s which then spread to the rest of the world, specialized in goiter surgery in his medical practice!
Canned (and Tetrapak) Broth and Soup
Canned soups and broths even if organic are never a healthy food choice. Most brands are nothing but water, sodium, and MSG.
Organic bouillon cubes are no improvement and the tetra packs of organic broth should be avoided as well due to the same packaging issues described above for plant-based milk.
Anything that is in the store that is soup-related will usually have MSG in it.
Organic MSG is still MSG. The same damaging effects occur on the neurons in your hypothalamus.
Remember that the hypothalamus is the Master Controller of the endocrine system.
Thus, if you don’t want your metabolism messed up, then avoid canned soup of all kinds as this is a very big source of this toxic ingredient.
To get a sense of how big this problem is, just read the label of your favorite organic soup and then read the list of the dozens of MSG pseudo-names manufacturers use to fool consumers. (4)
There are a few brands of organic soup that appear to be free of MSG with no offending names on the ingredient list. However, I am skeptical that this is truly the case given that regulations allow unlabeled MSG in certain situations (same situation as unlabeled transfats).
Even for soup and broth brands that seem to not contain MSG, the packaging continues to be an issue. BPA or BPS cans are not safe nor are microplastic-laden tetrapaks.
If you want a decent bowl of soup, embrace the fact that you probably need to make it yourself unless you have a local business that makes it from scratch. Consider one of these healthy soup and broth recipes to get you started.
Fish Oil Supplements
Fish oil is a very delicate oil highly subject to rancidity due to the high concentration of omega-3 fatty acids.
Omega 3 fats can never be heated. Even exposure to light and air hastens their rapid breakdown to a rancid state.
With this in mind, how could plain fish oil supplements be anything but unhealthy given that they are all processed at extremely high temperatures?
They are then packaged in capsules or bottles that sit for goodness knows how long on store shelves until the unwitting customer buys them.
The best type of marine oil is virgin cod liver oil from sustainable and clean waters. The delicate omega-3 fats are completely unheated and raw. In addition, natural vitamins A and D are present for a legitimate health boost.
Krill oil is marginally acceptable if low-temperature processed.
For those allergic to fish and seafood, these alternatives to cod liver oil are worth considering.
Gluten-Free Foods
Gluten-free went mainstream in 2010 when Chelsea Clinton requested a gluten-free cake at her wedding reception.
Since then, the gluten-free boondoggle has continued to expand with some health food stores dedicating entire aisles to products certified free of this loathed plant protein.
Don’t be fooled by the hype.
In most cases, gluten-free processed foods are a crutch for those who are very allergic to processed foods but aren’t yet ready to switch to Real Food.
The mark-up on a product that is gluten-free is also quite ludicrous, especially given how high in carbs and lacking in nutrition they are!
If you are allergic to gluten, it is much better to work on your gut health by focusing on a legit traditional diet (from sourcing to preparation) rather than the band-aid approach of buying gluten-free processed foods.
Once you rebalance and rebuild your gut (aka, “heal and seal”) so that beneficial bacteria dominate rather than the pathogens, you will likely be delighted to find that food sensitivities that you had before are greatly minimized or even completely resolved!
Conclusion
I hope this list helps you become a savvier health food store customer.
Beware of falling for the siren song of highly processed organic junk food marketing with faddish buzzwords.
Stick with organic or (even better) local produce grown in rich soil and minimal ingredient foods such as sprouted nut butter and traditional sourdough bread.
If you are allergic to wheat, prepare nutrient-dense gluten-free dishes at home (here is my recipe for gluten-free flour blend with no gums).
This simple change will put you far ahead of the pack and well on your way to loading your pantry and refrigerator with foods that will really enhance your health and not just give you a false sense of security.
(1) Not Milk and Uncheese: The Udder Alternatives
(2) Neotame: USDA Organic’s Dirty Little Secret
(3) How Common Chemicals Are Harming Your Thyroid
(4) MSG Aliases
Let’s say I am bodybuilding and need lots of protein. I noticed you mentioned the egg in your protein boost after saying how bad protein powder is. How bad are regular eggs compared to organic eggs? Organic eggs are expensive too.
As a free-range, pastured poultry grower and former CAFO regulator, I can give you an accurate illustration of the differences so that you can decide what eggs you would like to help fuel and nourish your body. “Regular” eggs (I know what you mean when you say regular, but have a hard time calling them “regular” since they are anything, but “regular”…anyway…), regular eggs come from hens in cages. The combs on these hens is a weird paste color, with just a tinge of pink, and just flop limply over the side of their heads.
Friends of ours had three of these houses and realized that if they took out the cages they could squeeze in more hens per square food and sell them to Whole Foods at triple the price. Whole Foods then picks up these eggs (and others), drives them about 6 hours to Dallas, labels them as Cage Free, then drives them to other states, including to the WF about 25 minutes from where they originated. Now, when I visited these hens, they had pale red combs that more or less stood up, and were very active. I was amazed because I expected them to be about the same as the caged eggs, but the hens looked considerably better. But the family that grows these won’t eat them. They have their own family flock that eats different feed and lives on grass. That was very telling to me.
My girls arrive as 1-day old chicks, live in a cozy brooder for two weeks, go out on pasture, and are moved to a fresh “salad bar” every two days. They eat a very high quality non-GMO feed and quality natural supplements. I blend the feed ration and can pronounce everything that goes in it. They eat all the bugs they can catch. The egg yolks (where most of the nutrition is contained) are dark yellow to orange depending one the time of year (green grass) and access to bugs. Sometimes I even have to stab the yolk with a fork to get it to break up (note that I eat the same eggs I sell). Right now the ladies on my farm are feasting on grasshoppers. Nearly every day they hear me and my children laugh at the silly things they do.
So who’s eggs do you want to eat?
And for science, Mother Earth News sent “regular” eggs and pastured eggs (from 14 different farms) to a lab to have them analyzed and found that the pastured (read “pastured” not organic or cage free) had by far the highest nutrition of all. Eggciting!
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2007-10-01/Tests-Reveal-Healthier-Eggs.aspx
I sure wish there was a way to purchase your eggs. They sound dreamy. Keep up the good work.
Thank you for posting this. The Gluten-free part was hard to hear. I have 7 children. I recently had 2 of them tested for allergies. Truly, they have the exact opposite allergies. My first one lost so much out of his diet – wheat, rice, oats, coconut, corn, egss. If it’s on the Weston Price list of most healthy, he can’t have it. Most of these things i have been learning to prepare the traditional way for a while now. I finally learned how to make sourdough and use Kamut the ONLY grain he can have. My 2nd child, is allergic to gluten and dairy (everything his brother can have.) The grains he is able to have do include rice and oats, not something the other can have. It’s been a frusturating week for me. I would really love to do the GAPS diet but I struggling to find foods that they can both eat together. I guess I am taking baby steps though. I currently have a beef stock brewing on my stove. I am working on making a lacto-fermented soda (since my yogurt went out the door. although, can’t you make yogurt out of coconut milk?) it’s just frustrating and my only option right now is some of the gluten free stuff. but I am working my way out of this as I figure out what we can eat that doesn’t make my kitchen feel like a restuarant and me a short order cook. thanks for sharing this. It’s increased my motivation.
It looks to me like they both can eat meat, vegetables and fruit. Why not feed them those things and totally forget about grains and dairy? Nobody needs either of those.
By the way, you can still use buckwheat, which isn’t a grain, despite the confusing name. Tapioca is from a root, you can use ground almonds and other ground nuts to bake with or to make porridge.
You don’t have to cook differently for those two children. If you cook your regular meal of meat, potatoes and vegetables, everybody should be happy with that! Fruit is great for snacks, or even carrot sticks.
You can cook quinoa as an excellent rice substitute. It is fabulous for stir fries, salads, even to bake with (and of course, there is quinoa flour as well).
Great suggestions Ursula. My boys were addicted to mac and cheese and everything like that. After getting used to the GAPS diet, they now view bananas or any other fruit as the ultimate snack, and just eat meat/veggie dishes for their meals. They went from refusing all meat to loving it. After a year off of grains, they don’t even care about rice/rice pasta when we started it again.
Thanks for a great post! I went into my favorite local health food store yesterday when I went to “big” town and for every time I go there I find less things to buy. This time I ended up only buying one thing, which was coconut oil.
It is so tragic to see all that bad food being promoted as healthy food. Gluten free and vegan/vegetarian food were heavily promoted. Most of the customers happily put processed, low fat and high sugar products in their shopping carts..It will be a long time before I visit that store again.
Health food store: i buy coconut oil, avocado oil, butter (from a place up in Maine), wakame seaweed, Mycological brand dried mushrooms (half their profits go for forest conservation efforts, and I have yet to find a stem or anything I have to discard), ramps (in season this past month and wildcrafted), and organic herb plants to put in my yard. Eggs if I can’t get to my farmer’s markets, and only those local and truly free-pastured — I know the names by now.
And how about Amy’s Organic soups? I don’t think they have msg: http://www.amyskitchen.com/products/product-detail/soups/000505
The ingredients list says “spices” which is where msg is hidden. If MSG wasn’t in there, it would have no flavor. The folks at Amy’s may not even realize it as MSG is covertly called so many confusing names. Click on the link in the post to see the 50+ names for msg using in food processing.
The folks at Amy’s have always very honest and have fully disclosed their ingredients. I don’t eat any of their products, but do appreciate them saying what’s in them which allows me to decide whether it’s something I want to eat. I gave them a call this morning and the person I spoke with was very adamant that spices were simply spices. She was very knowledgeable about how MSG can be formed through processing methods and had a list of products you would need to avoid if you don’t want MSG because they contain hydrolyzed yeast.
I know there are a lot of uninformed or seedy companies that sneak MSG into their foods, but wanted to clear Amy’s reputation instead of just assuming they are guilty.
I also contacted Amy’s and here is the response I got by email:
Many people ask if there might be some MSG or yeast extract hidden in the “spices”. For Amy’s the answer is always no. Our labels are always truthful and complete. If an ingredient such as yeast extract is used in Amy’s products, we always label it. Also, you might be happy to know that as new labels are printed we are adding the phrase: “100% pure herbs and spices, no hidden ingredients”.
As noted on our package, Amy’s Kitchen adds no monosodium glutamate (MSG) flavor enhancer directly to any of our products however we do use some ingredients that naturally contain MSG. If you are extremely sensitive to MSG, you may want to avoid foods and ingredients that naturally contain MSG such as Parmesan cheese, soy sauce, yeast extract, tomatoes, hydrolyzed vegetable protein and other ingredients as recommended by your doctor. We do use all these ingredients at times in our products. All the ingredients are listed in the ingredient statements on our packages.
We understand your concern about hydrolyzed proteins (HVP) and yeast extract if you are trying to avoid MSG. As noted, there is naturally occurring MSG in these products. We have done our best to remove HVPs over the years. The following products originally all contained hydrolyzed corn and soy protein.
Vegetable Pot Pie
Non Dairy Vegetable Pot Pie
Vegetable Pot Pie in a Pocket Sandwich
No Chicken Noodle Soup
A number of years ago, Amy’s did a significant amount of work to replace HVP’s with yeast extract and tamari while still maintaining the long accepted flavor profile of our products. Unfortunately, we could not obtain the target flavor for No Chicken Noodle with tamari and/or yeast extract so we continue to use HVPs in the No Chicken Noodle Soup. We were successful at replacing the HVP with tamari and yeast extract in the other three products.
Great statement but again, misleading. Yeast extract and hydrolyzed vegetable protein are big sources of MSG and should be avoided. At least they admit that they use them.
“Naturally contains MSG” as used here means that the item is so highly processed that the protein is denatured and MSG is formed. Not too “natural” sounding to me.
What about Standard Process Whey Pro Complete? I’m not trying to advertise this product – I’m a mom that was about to start using it for my child. It says that it’s nondenatured:
Whey protein is always denatured. It is denatured by its very definition of being powdered whey.
Agree on all but gluten-free foods. If you have celiac disease, repairing your gut is still not going to cure you! You must avoid gluten. Now you can do this by making your own gluten-free foods at home with coconut flour, sorghum, rice flour, etc. and avoid the processed fast stuff, but you still can not go back to eating gluten. Gluten sensitivity and celiac are two different things and shouldn’t be overlooked.
In Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride MDs book, she talks about celiac disease and how it can be healed by fixing the gut.
But why wreck the gut again with gluten, which isn’t good for anybody, after healing it?
This doctor is, in my opinion, misguided. I wonder if she won’t find that all the people she ‘healed’ of Celiac disease, who are now happily eating gluten again, won’t have a ‘relapse’ once their gut is damaged again.
My brother-in-law tried everything — no processed foods, etc., etc. — and nothing worked until he was diagnosed with celiac disease and he removed gluten from his diet. Now he’s healthy. Gluten-free may be a fad for some, but it was a life-saver for my loved one, and “real food” almost killed him.
The bottom line is that we can’t mass produce ‘real’ food, we can only mass produce knock-offs. Consequently, any edible product that comes from a factory is a tasty (and potentially dangerous) fake. Many traditional foods use natural fermentation in their old fashioned, cottage processing: coconuts, cacao, fish sauce, offal (sausage & oil), milk (cheese & kefir), veggies, grains, fruits. Almost everyone of these items has a fake counterpart for sale at the grocery store.
Imagine how healthy we would become if we became locavores who preferred cottage foods over their large scale, industrial knock-offs. We would definitely reshape the economic landscape – enough to make the winged monkeys at the FDA obsolete.
Ciao,
Pavil
Rebecca, tell your brother to just stop eating grains altogether. i was in his position years ago, and thought that I had to have an alternative to wheat bread. After a while I realised that all I had to do was stop eating grains! So simple!
I do follow a raw food diet now(primal Diet) so there is no cooking involved. A healthy life can be very simple if you just make that initial effort. 🙂
Be very cautious about offering medical advice (or taking medical advice from a blog). Keep in mind that gluten allergy, celiac, and gluten intolerance are three very different things.
Actually, if you do your research, gluten intolerance will progress to Celiac Disease if undiagnosed in many cases.
Gluten allergy, Celiac and gluten intolerance are not VERY different at all. With all three you have to stop eating gluten. They’re three different manifestations of the same problem.
Usually, when you’re diagnosed Celiac, you manifest symptoms mostly in your digestive system, while with gluten intolerance, your symptoms are more likely neurological.
But people don’t appreciate how closely your brain and your gut work together. If you get symptoms like schizophrenia, bi-polar, depression, anxiety, ataxia, you also likely get diarrhea, constipation, ‘IBS’ (not a valid diagnosis)…… the bowel symptoms are just looked on as ‘normal’ in this messed up society.
On the other hand, people diagnosed with Celiac disease very often also have fibromyalgia, depression, spaced out feelings etc.
Not to mention that both Celiac and gluten intolerance will lead to other autoimmune diseases, like type I diabetes in children, if you escape that, later on hypothyroidism, cancer of the digestive system, osteoporosis……. there is a very long list.
As a psych nurse i am going to call you on your claims that people with schizophrenia, bi-polar, anxiety etc. get constipation, diarrhea or IBS. Its not true. There may be a few who do but most do not. And as a pediatric nurse I am going to point out that celiac disease does not lead to Type 1 Diabetes. Type 1 Diabetes typically starts in childhood or early adolescence (yes there are some exceptions). People with Type 1 Diabetes and celiac often develop diabetes first. There is a genetic link to these diseases, as well as hypothyroidism. Not a cause and effect issue.
It is ridiculous and irresponsible to imply that “healing the gut” will allow someone with Celiac to be able to safely eat gluten. I will be removing you from my feed. I hope no one is fool enough to listen to rely on you for advice in this matter.
Hi Rachael, I personally know several celiacs who have healed by fixing their gut. I’m not just making this up .. it comes from Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD’s book on the subject of autoimmune disease of which celiac is one type. All autoimmune disease is rooted in gut imbalance.
yes- one with celiac can heal their gut- but they can NEVER eat gluten again. please learn before you blog
I think your definition of celiac is symptom free which is not healing. Avoiding gluten and not having celiac symptoms is not necessarily healing. You still have the same gut issues which caused celiac symptoms in the first place and this underlying problem will spawn other autoimmune problems in the future unless you deal with them.
I have Celiac disease, my four daughters are gluten intolerant (I think my son is, too, but he isn’t ready to listen yet). All my grandchildren are gluten intolerant, too (again, my son’s kids likely are, too, but they won’t go there).
One of my grandsons, if exposed to even the tiniest amount of gluten after weaning, would crumple to the floor, clutching his stomach, and screaming. He’d be sick for days. But then his reaction went over the top, to where he’d have projectile vomiting from SMELLING somebody eating a sandwich (his dad).
My daughter took him to a naturapathic doctor, who took him off dairy, eggs, all grains (including rice), nightshades, legumes (which includes soy and peanuts). Plus he was taking a ton of tinctures, minerals and vitamins. It was very expensive, to say the least.
After a full year of this, at the age of three, somebody invited them over for supper. This lady had a long talk with my daughter about gluten, and my daughter thought it was safe to eat her food.
AFTER they ate the coconut chicken, she asked my daughter, “There isn’t gluten in flour, right?” It turns out she not only used coconut flour for the breading, but put a whole cup of regular flour in!
After only ONE year of his gut-healing regimen, the only reaction my grandson had was, that he was somewhat grumpy for a couple of days. His little sister on the other hand was sick for a week (she was put on the regimen after that).
BUT, and that is my big but, the naturopathic doctor has said that even though my grandson won’t show obvious problems when exposed to gluten in a few years, he should NEVER purposely eat gluten again. Because otherwise after a while he’ll get sick again.
Gluten isn’t good for anybody. It damages the gut. We absolutely cannot digest it. So, to say that it is okay to eat gluten again after being healed is bad advice, in my honest opinion.