Foods everyone should avoid

Choosing organic products can help reduce exposure to pesticides. 

A great reference is The Environmental Working Group's Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 food lists.

The next time you go shopping, look out for these foods and additives, especially when choosing products with multiple ingredients. These foods and additives are commonly found and often hidden in ultra-processed foods and are known to be harmful to the microbiome.

If you're unfamiliar with or can't pronounce an ingredient, research it before purchasing.

General foods that everyone should avoid as much as possible:

Sweeteners like agave nectar, aspartame, corn syrup, sucralose, and white sugar

Foods or drinks with added sugar or sweeteners like sports drinks, soda, flavored oatmeal, granola bars, and flavored yogurt.

Oils such as canola, hydrogenated vegetable oil, shortening, and margarine

Refined grains like white flour (and products made with refined grains)

Ultra-processed or packaged foods

Cured meats like bacon, hotdogs

Sweeteners, White sugar, Beet sugar, Corn syrup, Agave nectar, Brown rice syrup, Aspartame, Sucralose

Dextrose

Foods labeled as "sugar-free"

Refined grains

Products made with white flour

Oils and Trans fats

The right cooking oils are essential to cooking success. Choose oils that are "cold-pressed" or "virgin". Oils such as canola oil, corn oil, and soybean oil are often chemically refined, bleached, and deodorized. This process involves heat which can negatively impact the polyunsaturated fats contained in the oils.

Be mindful of the oil’s smoke point when cooking. Extra virgin olive oil (up to 410F), avocado oil (up to 520F), sesame oil (up to 410F), walnut oil (up to 320F), and ghee (up to 480F) are good oils for cooking. While flax oil, hemp oil, and grapeseed oil are better for cold preparations, such as salads.

Avoid all trans fats (margarine, shortening)

Ultra-processed meats and cheeses

Hot dogs

Bacon

Cured meats

American cheese

Cheese spreads

Alcohol (remember, alcohol kills bacteria, including all your good microbes)

Monosodium glutamate (MSG)

Sodium Nitrates and Nitrites

Processed meats (deli meat)

Food Preservatives

Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA)

Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT)

Sodium Benzoate

Carrageenan

Artificial Food Colorings