Boxed Cereal

If it comes in a box, you should not eat it.

Boxed cereals are packed with processed sugar. Most contain gluten and GMO products. Too much sugar (you’ll eat more than the recommended daily sugar allowance in just one bowl of cereal), gluten and GMOs harm your heart.

Instead of boxed cereal, mix nuts, seeds and coconut together for a tasty breakfast treat. Use home-made nut milk if you’d like!

Grain Fed Meat

Grains are not native foods to animals. Grains are used by man to add more meat to animals more quickly. It is not healthy for the animal to eat foods that are not part of their native diet.

Most grain-fed meat contains antibiotics as well. These antibiotics are either injected by man into the animal or digested as part of the grain they are feed. No matter how the antibiotics enter the animal, they in turn enter your system when eating this meat. Again, antibiotics are harmful to your health.

Eat only grass-fed, free-range, antibiotic-free meat.

Non-Organic Dairy

Milk cows are injected with antibiotics regularly for medicinal and milk production purposes.

Just as in the case with meat, these antibiotics enter into our system when we consume these dairy products.

Your body does not need dairy. Dairy is not a Paleo food. If you must consume dairy products, make sure they are organic.

Farm Raised Seafood

I’m against consuming any fish or seafood raised on farms. The big reason is that these fish live in their filth until they go to market. This filth can make you sick.

Another reason to avoid farm raised seafood is that these fish are often grain-fed, which are not native foods. Many of these grains contain GMO corn, which then allows GMOs to enter your system when the fish are consumed.

If you are eating fish or seafood, wild raised is the best bet. Although most ocean seafood has been contaminated with mercury at levels hazardous to your health, smaller items like anchovies and wild caught salmon are healthy options.

Artificial Sweeteners

Don’t be fooled by the slick marketing, artificial sweeteners destroy your heart health!

Anything created in a lab isn’t native to your body. You can be sure your body doesn’t recognize it, creating health problems you don’t want to deal with.

The main ingredient in these sweeteners is aspartame. Health problems it creates include headaches, weight gain, brain cancer, mood changes, vision problems, and depression.

If you must use a sweetener, stick with raw honey.

High Sugar Items

Never buy anything with 5 grams or more of sugar.

Sugar is a killer. Read all about how sugar harms you.

It’s best to stick with natural sweeteners if needed. I like organic natural juice from fruit or raw honey.

Gluten Foods

Wheat, barley and rye should be avoided at all costs.

Gluten causes inflammation in the body. Inflammation is a prime contributor to disease, including heart disease. Gluten can also cause diabetes and damage to the intestines.

Packaged Salad Dressings

Imagine pouring sugar all over your fresh, crisp, organic greens salad. That’s what you are doing when you use packaged salad dressing on your food. Salad dressings are loaded with sugar and we’ve already warned you about the heart health hazards of sugar.

Salad dressings use oils that are bad for your body. Nearly all of them contain vegetable oil, canola oil, sunflower seed oil, soy oil, corn oil, or cottonseed oil. These oils contain trans fat and actually prevent the body from properly absorbing the nutrients from the food!

Try an organic vinegar and oil combination. Mix 3 parts oil with one part vinegar. Add sea salt and pepper to taste, shake and you’ve got a natural dressing without all the crap to harm your body.

Canned Goods

There’s a chemical in the lining of metal and plastic cans used for food in this country. This chemical, BPA, leaches out of the lining into your canned foods, causing it to get into your body.

The only testing done on the impacts of BPA have been on mice. The study was highly flawed and of course was sponsored by our government (don’t count on them for sound eating advice). BPA was not intended to be in your body. Many scientists and doctors, including me, suspect BPA as a contributor to heart disease.

Additional medical problems stem from the high salt and sugar content in canned goods, as well as the preservatives used to keep them edible.

My advice is to only eat fresh, organic, Paleo foods.

Non-Organic Produce

Most produce in the world is covered in pesticides. While food producers use pesticides to increase crop size and yields, it ruins our land and poisons our foods.

Many studies have directly linked pesticides to cardiovascular disease.

Always eat organic produce.

Nut Milk

What could be wrong with nut milk, you ask? After all, water and most nuts are part of a Paleo diet so what could be the problem?

The issue is that most commercial nut brand milks contain additives and preservatives that are bad for your health. The main culprit is carrageenan, a food additive used as a thickener and emulsifier. The big problem with this additive is that many doctors and scientists, including me, believe it leads to inflammation in your body. Inflammation is directly linked to heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

Make your own nut milk instead. Buy raw organic nuts, soak them, and then use your blender to do the rest. You’ll get all the health benefits without the risks.