Trans fats are probably the most dangerous kind of food and, unfortunately, are often hidden, not appearing on the label. They were introduced after the Second World War when the cross-country transportation of butter and lard became expensive and wasteful because products went off after a few days. This led to a drive to replace them with chemically manufactured vegetable substitutes that would increase shelf life and profits, but what first was considered an ingenious move soon became a disaster.
It turned out that just small amounts, 1-2% of daily trans-fat intake, massively increases your risk of heart disease, and sudden death rose threefold, whilst it also is linked to a number of cancers. One reason trans-fats are so harmful is they disrupt normal communication between the immune system, our gut microbes, and the metabolism of fat, which completely messes with our metabolism. They also ramp up inflammation.
Despite the evidence that clearly demonstrates the detrimental impact trans-fats have on our health, and the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) calling for a ban to prevent 40,000 deaths per year, whilst some countries have banned it, the UK and US have only reduced the amount of trans-fats that can be legally contained in food despite there being no safe amount.
Trans-fats can be found in processed foods – biscuits, crackers, pastries, cakes, ice cream – as well as cheap fried foods. If you want to avoid the health complications associated with trans-fats, avoid all processed foods and snacks, and don’t eat cheap fried food from your local takeaway.
What we commonly refer to as sugar is an addictive fifty-fifty mixture of glucose and fructose. Glucose is the natural fuel for our bodies, supplying vital energy to our muscles, brains, and organs, and it’s not actually that sweet; it’s the fructose that provides the sweetness, which is also a natural component of all fruits. Sugar poses a problem for our health in a multitude of ways.
High-sugar diets are bad for our mood and are linked with anxiety, depression, irritability, anger, and trouble concentrating. Meals high in sugar or refined carbohydrates (white bread, pasta, rice for example) cause fatigue after meals, cravings for sweet foods between meals, and an afternoon slump. The reason being is that the high-sugar load hits the stomach and passes rapidly into your small intestine, producing an abnormal and mistimed insulin response ( the hormone produced in your pancreas that is involved in blood-sugar regulation), causing your blood sugars to rapidly sore then plummet.
In terms of your gut microbiome, high sugar diets disrupt your microbiome, causing toxic changes through an increase in unhealthy microbial species that send out new messages that alter hormone signals and cause a very disturbed system, whilst the overdose of sugar causes an increase in fat deposition particularly visceral fat which is that fat around your organs, an increase of which is associated with a host of disease including diabetes, stroke, and heart disease.
The bottom line is that eating or drinking too much sugar in any form is harmful, and liquid calories are particularly bad, even ‘healthy juice’ – a glass of orange juice contains 26g, that’s approximately 6 teaspoons of sugar! Eating refined carbohydrates (anything that’s white), processed foods, which are packed with sugar to make them addictive and increase their shelf life, and high-sugar drinks, including fizzy drinks and juices, are best avoided if you want to avoid the health complications associated with high-sugar diets.
All sweeteners, including sucralose, aspartame, and saccharin, are terrible for our health. Aspartame is carcinogenic in humans and is linked particularly with liver cancer whilst sweeteners, in general, cause a significant reduction in our gut microbe count and diversity. These harmful chemicals also affect our immune system, both directly and via interactions with our microbes, promoting inflammation. On top of this, they have harmful metabolic effects that can increase weight gain and your risk of diabetes.
All preservatives are also out, including artificial food colourings, sodium nitrate, guar gum, carrageenan, sodium benzoate, artificial flavourings, and xanthan gum. These are chemicals, all of which are linked to pretty scary side effects from destroying our gut microbiome, ramping up inflammation, and increasing our risk of various diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers.
My advice here is to start reading the ingredient labels when you’re shopping to take control of your diet and determine the harmful chemicals that are being added to your food. Avoiding all ‘diet’ drinks and processed and packaged foods is one of the best things you can do for your health.
