Their detrimental qualities are somehow overlooked. Replace them with Beauty Foods to look and feel your best!
Yogurt
Yogurt gets you from two angles. The dairy itself is difficult for most everyone to digest (remember it’s not human food, it’s made for a baby cow), thereby contributing to potential issues like bloating and acne, and the sugar that’s often paired with the flavored yogurts is highly acidic in the body and take it down to junk food level. Artificial sweeteners in “sugar free” yogurt are no better.
When dairy is digested, it leaves a very acidic residue. Not only can can an overly acidic body detrimentally affect your health, but it can have direct effect it has on your skin. The resulting wrinkles, premature lines, acne, and under-eye circles make it clear that this is no Beauty Food, whether you prefer the flavored stuff or plain Greek yogurt. It’s still all dairy- and dairy was never intended in nature to be consumed by humans.
Sugar is also highly acidic and high in empty calories, so it will cause inflammation in your body and thereby premature aging, as well as weight gain. Artificial sweeteners still have the acidity, but they’ll actually make you eat more and store more fat while you’re at it. Aspartame, for example, increases the release of insulin and leptin, which in turn make your body store more fat. Not only that, but it pushes serotonin levels down and makes it harder to notice when you’re full (you’ll also experience more cravings!). You could still feel hungry even though you’ve eaten.
Yogurt (and all other dairy) is really the biggest disaster of all.
Delicious replacements: Almond yogurt, coconut yogurt, banana “ice cream” from frozen bananas run through the food processor
Whole Wheat Bread/Pasta
Whole wheat has maintained a sparkling reputation over the past few years, but it’s hardly the knight in shining armor carb lovers have been looking for. In fact, it can make you gain weight because the more wheat you eat, the more you want to eat (of everything you shouldn’t have, like refined sugars and carbs). Did you know you can actually get addicted to wheat? It’s possible, so even if you wanted to consume whole wheat products in small quantities, the wheat itself would make it difficult to keep that in check. Most wheat bread and products may also be made up of a high amount of refined and white flours and other fillers, and be dyed to look brown. Sneaky!
Wheat is also commonly associated with inflammation all over the body, allergies (which can make your skin look dull, splotchy, or red). Not to mention, some products that say “whole wheat” on the label actually contain sub-par ingredients, like enriched flour, that drain your Beauty Energy because they need to be digested, but are nutrient-free.
Delicious replacements: Quinoa (or quinoa pasta), amaranth, millet, or gluten-free bread
Protein Bars
Ugh! It bugs me that I see so many people everywhere eating these processed foods as if they were good for them. First, they’re popular because of the protein crazegoing on today, but they’re also chock-full of things you really shouldn’t need to be putting into your body. They are not whole foods. Let me say it again, processed protein bars are not whole foods!!
If you’re not very careful, you’ll be consuming whey (a dairy protein) or soy (highly GMO, contaminated with pesticides),artificial sweeteners, peanuts or peanut butter, polyunsaturated vegetable oils and tons of other sub-par ingredients and fillers.
Delicious replacements: Power Protein Smoothie with vegan protein powder, or a handful of nuts or seeds.
Trail Mix
Trail mix you make yourself is fine as long as you’re choosing dried fruits without added sugar and raw nuts that aren’t covered in salt. It’s when you pick it up in the grocery or convenience store that it begins to veer into not-so-healthy territory. Milk chocolate chips, candy, peanuts, salt, and sugar.
Delicious replacement: Trail mix you make at home so you can control the ingredients. Use items like pumpkin and sunflower seeds, a few organic golden raisins, etc.
Veggie Chips
Veggie chips may have started out as vegetables, but they’re far, far away from that natural source by the time they’re chips you can buy at the store. They’re essentially mostly all vegetable oils, and potato and/or corn flours. And refined salt!
Delicious replacement: Kale chips made at home with very little oil and some nutritional yeast, raw veggies and hummus (to get the crunch the chips provide)
Smoothies You Didn’t Make at Home
Unless you’re getting your smoothie from a place that uses all organic, fresh ingredients (like Glow Bio, which is 100% organic and all our recipes are perfectly food combined!), your chances of getting something that’s actually healthy are slim to none. Smoothie shops often load up their beverages with sugar, chemicals, powders, and dairy. For example, one 20 oz. smoothie at Smoothie King designed to build up your immune system contains a total of 380 calories, 77 grams of sugar, and 57 grams of sodium, and is made up of ingredients such as refined turbinado sugar and soy protein.
Jamba Juice and Planet Smoothie have options that probably sounds innocent enough if you judge it by what most people think is healthy–peanut butter, strawberries, bananas, lowfat milk, vanilla, and yogurt–but with that one, you could be taking in aflatoxins from the peanuts, pesticides from the strawberries, and all (all!) of the downsides that come from yogurt and milk.
And definitely don’t reach for Naked or other shelved smoothies- which are often made of an itty bit of powdered green powder and fruit puree, and pasteurized. Save your money and go for real foods!
Delicious replacement: Whole fruits, Glowing Green Smoothie, protein smoothies made with vegan protein powder and greens
Soy Milk
Most of the soy products in the US are GMO and heavily sprayed with pesticides, but too much soy itself can contribute to trouble with digestion and assimilation of proteins, damage your thyroid, and the phytoestrogens in it can disrupt the endocrine system (which wreaks havoc on your hormones). Hormone trouble alone can cause you to break out and gain weight, and depressed thyroid function can also cause dry skin, unexplained weight gain, and a puffy appearance to the face.
The toxins (pesticides) in soy encourage the body to hold onto fat. Fat cells expand in order to house the toxins and acidic waste so they’ll stay away from your organs. However, because these toxins are still being stored in your body, you’ll age faster and have more trouble losing weight. Beauty Detox helps you get rid of those toxins, acidic waste, and other chemicals so the excess fat can disappear and you can look younger.
Organic soy milk is always a better option than any type of dairy milk, so if it is a choice go for that. Occasionally it isn’t the absolute worst, but go for the much better choices below, which are far better to stock at home and consume on a regular basis.
Delicious replacement: Almond milk, coconut milk, or hemp milk
Granola Bars
Granola bars have a reputation as a great health food when you’re on the go or looking for a light snack or meal replacement, but they can actually be full of sugar and sodium. They may also contain peanuts, which tend to harbor mold and fungus, along with highly processed ingredients, like puffed rice, chocolate chips (which are different from cacao), syrup, oil, GMO soy, and rolled oats.
Delicious replacement: Trail mix you make at home, a bowl of oat groats or at least steel cut oats if you typically grab a granola bar for breakfast, whole fruit, a square of dark chocolate if you’re using granola bars to tackle your craving for something sweet, or a bar that hasn’t gone through a lot of processing (Some flavors of Lara Bars are decent, or a DIY version with dates, dried fruit of your choice, and nuts blended in the food processor)
Sushi
Potential contamination issues related to the fish aside, sushi’s not as good of a choice as people seem to think it is. The rice is often mixed with refined sugar, and many rolls contain deep-fried tempura, the potential for cream cheese and fatty sauces with mayonnaise, and the pairing of a protein with a starch (which results in less than optimal digestion, bloating, gas, and discomfort), etc. Bad news all around. It’s possible that the only healthy thing there is the seaweed wrap.
Delicious replacement: If you want to have the fish, pair it with steamed vegetables instead of rice and all the other sauces that come with sushi. You can also order veggie rolls with no mayo, and some places will even make brown rice sushi rolls. You make your own sushi (sans-fish) at home with a Beauty Grain (quinoa works great!), some sheets of nori, a little avocado, and your choice of thinly sliced vegetables.
Are you surprised that some of the most common health advice and some of the foods generally accepted as “healthy” really aren’t that healthy for you at all? By making actualhealthy replacements in your diet, you’ll see weight fall off and your skin will begin to glow.
Veda Health 