Easy Ways to Make Healthy Foods Unhealthy

New years’ resolutions are still on our minds and I bet we all know someone who’s been hitting the gym and eating “clean.” Hopefully, “clean” means including more fresh plant foods in the diet. That sounds great but poor choices can easily end up ruining a good start.

One of the most popular go-to foods when it’s cold outside is hot soup. It smells great. It’s got lots of vegetables in it and looks incredible. It even tastes delicious. Its overall nutritional value? Not so much. When food is cooked many of the essential nutrients are destroyed. Enzymes which help the body convert food into muscle, bone, nerves and glands are negatively affected by temperatures too low or too high. Enzymes are the key to life in plants and animals and when they’re low the body’s immune system is left vulnerable.

The microwave oven is not your friend. Scientific studies by Dr. Hans Ulrich Hertel have long concluded that microwave cooking denatures and changes the minerals in vegetables into cancerous free radicals. These changes lead to toxic blood and ultimately cause deterioration in the human body. An alternative to microwaving or boiling is to lightly steam vegetables for several minutes or less. This way you can take advantage of the antioxidants that the plant world has to offer.

Oil of any kind is 100% fat. A small percentage (10%) of fat is essential to good health. We need fat to protect us from cold and heat, keep our electric flow in balance, protect our vital organs, and keep our hormones in check but oil is not food. It’s definitely not a health food. It has none of the protein or carbohydrates that were in the original whole food. It has no fiber neither. Once fiber is removed from the plant it begins to spoil and becomes carcinogenic. Oil has no purpose in the human body.

You’ve got a nice raw salad in front of you. You’re good to go but then you decide to soak it in low-fat salad dressing or olive oil. Can’t forget to chase it down with a diet soda. Healthy right? Not really.

A healthy alternative to processed salad dressings and oily concoctions is to make your own dressings. For a different taste, try blending lemon or lime with avocado or red bell peppers. If your body is signaling thirst, try a glass of water with lemon, orange or cucumber.

The big game is just around the corner. For some of us grilling is as popular during the colder months as it is in the summer. The grill marks on vegetables indicate a loss in nutritional value due to cellular damage and the production of cancer causing free radicals. Once again, a healthier option is to lower the heat to below 122° F and gently warm vegetables for several minutes.

As a kid I used to add sugar to grapefruit to reduce the tartness. It was my way of creating sweet and sour. What I didn’t know was that processed sugar goes through heating and chemical processing that removes vitamins A, B, D, calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium and other nutrients. When you eat refined sugars your body has to deplete its own store of vital nutrients to metabolize this incomplete food. Over time, bones become osteoporotic, teeth loose their structure and begin to decay, and the rest of other eventual health issues are too long to name here.

The point here is that the more plants are altered the less your body benefits. The nutrients in whole, fresh, ripe, raw fruits and vegetables maintain the highest biological value to the human body.