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Oftentimes, we may read an article, or hear from a friend or loved one that there is a new superfood that will change your life. Sometimes the information is accurate; most times, it should always be fact-checked. 

Here is a list of the top ten foods that you thought were healthy, and indeed, are not.

1. Granola bars

Despite their healthy reputation, many granola bars are high in added sugars, unhealthy fats, and artificial ingredients. That said, they offset the health benefits of oats, nuts, and other whole grains typically found in them. Worse, these snacks contain large amounts of calories which make them an unhealthy choice to munch on every time you need to go on break from work.

2. Sports drinks

These drinks are often marketed as healthy for athletes, but they can be high in added sugars and artificial ingredients, and provide little nutritional value. These added sugars and artificial sweeteners can be the culprit to weight gain and other health issues while the high sodium content can ironically cause dehydration.

3. Low-fat and fat-free products

While these products may be lower in fat, they often contain added sugars and artificial ingredients to enhance their taste, making up for the lost flavor when fat is removed. What’s worse is, sometimes, the essential fatty acids and vitamins that are removed can actually be beneficial for your health.

4. Dried fruits

Dried fruits can be high in added sugars and often lack the fiber and water content of fresh fruit. Because of this, it’s like offsetting the actual health benefits of the original fruit when freshly picked from the tree. Dehydrating fruits also remove some of the vitamins and minerals found in fresh fruits. If consumed in excess, the high calories in dried fruits can even cause weight gain.

5. Smoothies

While smoothies can be a good source of nutrients, they can also be high in added sugars and other artificial ingredients, especially if made with fruit juices or sweetened dairy products. Like the others in this list, these added sugars often can lead to weight gain.

6. Juice

Many juices are high in added sugars and lack the fiber and water content of whole fruits and vegetables. Moreover, juice is high in natural sugars (yes, we keep repeating this!) which can cause weight gain when consumed excessively.

7. Flavored yogurt

Flavored yogurt can be high in added sugars and artificial ingredients, and often lacks the protein and healthy fats found in plain, full-fat yogurt. Consequently, these yogurts can be high in calories and you already know what that can lead to, right?

8. Breakfast cereals

Many breakfast cereals, especially those marketed to children, are high in added sugars and artificial ingredients, and often lack fiber and healthy fats. It is better to go for oatmeal or eggs instead as an alternative.

9. Agave nectar

Despite its reputation as a healthy sweetener, agave nectar is high in fructose and can contribute to insulin resistance and other health problems. Its low glycemic index should make it as an alternative to refined sugars, however, it is high in calories so it should only be taken in moderation.

10. Energy bars 

Energy bars can be high in added sugars, unhealthy fats, and artificial ingredients, and often lack the fiber, healthy fats, and protein found in whole food snacks. They may be a convenient snack option but just take it easy and don’t get tempted to have some every time you’re craving for something.

In conclusion, it’s important to be mindful of the ingredients and nutrition content of the foods we eat. Best tip? Focus on whole and nutrient-dense foods as the foundation of a healthy diet. And, like always, everything in moderation should be okay.

Our Philosophy 

Welcome to this week’s part 2 in our 3-part blog series on your health transformation. 

Remember where we left off? With detailed explanation, we talked about how your body creates and suffers from inflammation. 

Now it’s time to go into our philosophy, which will then lead to the solution.  A sneak peak on the solution for gut inflammation is below. 

The solution is simple – heal your gut, thus, heal your body. 

Other measures can help reduce gut inflammation. However, with the core of inflammation sitting in your gut, the bottomline is, if you heal your gut, you will be primed for a healthy life. We can’t wait to explain exactly how to do that, but first it is important that we describe our philosophy, that thousands of patients and customers have now adopted.  

AliRx: Our Dietary Philosophy

Your health starts with your diet. But you cannot just adopt a general diet and achieve optimal results. A challenge with most diets is, they are not sustainable. While most diet programs work for a period of time, the ability to sustain them is often limited. We believe in personalizing your diet based upon your gut health, genetic makeup, and current inflammatory markers. This allows you to have a program that you know works for you, and eventually this dietary change becomes a way of life, not a strict practice. 

We believe that a diet should be sustainable over time. In order for it to be sustainable, you must enjoy it. That means that if you want to enjoy certain foods or drinks that may not be directly helpful to your health, we understand that and will incorporate those foods. That may mean family traditions, social gatherings, or just your favorite foods. But we are here to help you limit those practices in a manner that is simple and sustainable for you. 

The dietary philosophy

When we consume too many carbohydrates from grains, beans, fruits, dairy products, and many other foods and drinks that have added sugar, our body spends all its energy burning the sugar from these foods as opposed to burning fat. When we rely on sugar for fuel, and we then do not burn those calories, our body stores excess sugar as fat. This process then starts a process where when you store fat, you are unable to properly digest the toxins in your body, thus resulting in an inflammatory response to fight off these toxins, which of course leads to increased inflammation.

The goal of AliRx is to reduce inflammation in your body by training it to become what we call “fat adapted” and use fat as its primary fuel source. By following our AliRx plan, you will thrive on eating a variety of nutritious, and delicious foods, and will achieve the transformative health and cognitive function goals that you have. Whether it is weight loss, cognitive function, recovery, or reduced pain, our program is proven to achieve these goals. 

Instead of gaining weight and adding fat to your body by eating fat, your body will learn to use fat for lasting energy, boosted mood and brain function and reduced inflammation. The result of using fat as fuel is reduced inflammation which leads to systemic improvements, including improved cognitive function.

When your body becomes fat-adapted, it begins to produce ketones as its main energy source. Ketones come from the breakdown of fat and have natural anti-inflammatory properties. Unlike the typical highs and lows of using sugar for fuel, using fat as fuel creates stable and consistent energy, all while your body is simultaneously reducing inflammation.  

Ketones also act as an anti-inflammatory agent by helping your body get rid of the toxins we encounter every day that come from the foods we eat, the air we breathe, and the things we touch or put on our skin. Most of the foods available today are loaded with unhealthy additives like artificial sweeteners and chemical preservatives. In addition, ketones have a natural ability to permeate your blood brain barrier, thus reducing inflammation that leads to neurodegenerative disease. This makes sense because the ketogenic diet was originally tested to assist children who suffer from epilepsy. 

Eating too much sugar and carbohydrates can be toxic to our systems too. Our bodies typically do a great job of protecting us from these toxins, but when the amount of toxins become too difficult for our body to manage, we experience inflammation. Your body is a system. The reason that we often see people with a poor diet gain weight is not because they are eating fatty foods. It is because they are storing fatty foods. The reason our body stores fatty foods is because our body first processes the most toxic things first. Our liver will process simple sugars first, then proteins, and then fat. If we tire our digestive system out, or if we are unable to get to the point that we are utilizing fat as fuel, our body simply stores the fat for a later day, hence weight gain, and even worse, a poor functioning liver. 

Inflammation, as discussed, can also be triggered by a bacterial imbalance in our gut, which is our first line of defense from the outside world. When this happens, foreign materials pass through our gut and enter our blood. Our body naturally responds to this foreign material by attacking it. 

Unfortunately, this attack leads to increased inflammation. When in the brain, this increased inflammation makes it difficult to think and can even lead to long term health risks. 

By following this guide and becoming fat-adapted, you will drastically reduce your inflammation by replacing high-carbohydrate, highly processed foods with healthy, high-fat, nutrient dense foods. You will enjoy eating a variety of meats and seafoods, nuts and seeds, vegetables and berries, and healthy fats like avocados and olives. 

Now that we have had the opportunity to explain our scientific philosophy, we will go into our solution for this problem. Thank you for your time today. Our next post will be in two short days!