6 Things to Avoid in Health Food Stores

Just because something’s sold in a health food store doesn’t mean it's good for YOU!

This is a shout out to all the people who want to do good things for themselves, but feel confused. I get it. I’ve been there. None of us are immune to the elaborate marketing campaigns strategically designed to influence our choices.

That’s why I never stop studying and why I'm so compelled to share what I learn with you. Part of the healing process involves shopping at health food stores, but let me tell you – buyer beware!

Let’s take a close look at 6 things you need be aware of when you walk through the door of a health food store:

#1 Gluten-Free Foods

Good lord. This section of the store hurts my soul. While I am grateful for the rising awareness that food contributes to chronic inflammation, these are not value-added. Read the ingredients. What you normally see is a long list of gluten-free refined flours that are not really going to do your body any favors. They are often nutritionally void and contain a ton of sugar.

What you need to look for:

When you read the label, you need to see real food, and you may need to start baking at home. Click here to receive a free e-book of recipes titled Sweets in Peace. It can help.

Other than that, macaroons can often be a good choice (just watch the sugar content) and so is a company called Cappello’s.

#2 Protein Powders

At best, these are a crutch. Our ancestors didn’t have access to protein powders and they didn’t drink smoothies. Protein powders are a processed health food, and they lack an essential macronutrient: FAT.

That’s right. Mother Nature packages protein with fat. The yolk of an egg. The skin on a chicken or turkey. The oil in a nut. Protein is an important building block, but fat is your body’s preferred fuel.

You’d be better off eating a steak.

What you need to look for:

If you really want to supplement with a protein powder, animal is always best. That way you get the full profile of amino acids. Collagen, gelatin, and whey (if not sensitive to dairy) can all be helpful short-term. Great Lakes and Vital Proteins are both good brands to consider.

If plant-based is the thing for you, I like Innate made with pea protein.

And like I said, add the fat back. Put an avocado, coconut oil, or scoop of nut butter in your protein smoothie.

#3 Energy Drinks

Yes, these are still sold in health food stores. Do NOT under any circumstances consume caffeine outside of what nature intended. It is a synthetic manmade chemical that comes from China.

Did you know that synthetic caffeine at a high enough dose is a lethal powder? Yet, no one dies from coffee or tea consumption. It’s thought that nature packages the caffeine with protective phytochemicals. In addition, there’s only so much coffee or tea one can drink before you start to feel off or have digestive upset so that is protective as well.

And all of these great energy drinks with added herbs. Please. Oh please. There isn’t enough plant materials in these to do a damn thing. Enjoy your homeopathic dose of herbs, because that’s all you’re getting.

What you need to look for:

Unsweetened or naturally sweetened green teas are good. I’ve always enjoyed Honest Tea’s Moroccan Mint flavored with honey. You can also purchase Reishi Roast online from Farmacopia. There is enough herbal material in this beverage to have an effect. Reishi helps your body adapt to stress and gently calms the nervous system.

Check out a book called Caffeinated by Murray Carpenter to learn more about this drug in our food supply.

#4 Salad dressings and refined vegetable oils.

Canola, corn and soy bean oil are everywhere, particularly in health food stores because everyone is still stuck in an industry-driven paradigm: animal fats cause disease, while fats from plants support our health.

We are here today as human beings because our ancestors prized animal fats. The very thing that we have demonized gave us life and intelligence.

Canola, corn and soybean oil are processed, industrialized foods that are very new to our bodies. Is there anything oily about corn or a soybean? NO! Machines extract the oil and severely damage it in the process.

Here’s a rule of thumb: if you can’t theoretically make the oil yourself, don’t consume it. For example, I could have a cow, milk it and make butter. I could also take olives and press the oil out by hand with the right equipment.

Not so with canola, corn and soy bean oil. Here’s another way to think of it: if you were to step on the food that the oil is coming from, it should leave an oily stain on the floor. If not, think twice.

By the way, canola oil comes from the rape seed. Seriously, the rape seed. Does that sound like something that will promote your health and well being?

The key thing you need to understand is that inflammation underlies every single chronic disease in our modern world. The reason for that is that your cell walls are made of fat, and if you eat poor quality fat, then your cells will not communicate very well and are primed for inflammation.

What you need to look for:

Butter, ghee, coconut oil, lard, and olive oil.

Primal Kitchen is a good, tasty brand of salad dressing that uses avocado oil, but nothing is better than what you can easily make in your own kitchen.

Fatworks is my favorite brand of lard and if you want to read a good book, check out Primal Fat Burner from Nora Gedgaudas.

#5 Sugar.

God, why do I even have to write this? It’s so annoying. But I feel compelled to write this because the truth is that high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners make sugar look like a health food.

We see it all the time on health food labels, "Made with REAL sugar," as if that's a good thing.

The truth is that sugar is a drug that causes disease over a long period of time. I’m not going to elaborate on this point. The less you consume, the better off you will be.

What you need to look for:

Read labels to avoid sugar, high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners. Also, be sure to limit natural sweeteners, like honey and maple syrup.

Check out Gary Taubes new book The Case Against Sugar.

I hope that this is a helpful conversation as we navigate this confusing world of health and wellness together.

#6 on my list is one that you truly don't want to miss and warrants it's own conversation, so I've decided to include it in my weekly newsletter (it comes out every Wednesday). When you sign up you'll also get a copy of my super juicy booklet of all-time favorite resources. Don't worry - it's sugar free and contains no artificial ingredients.

Visit your health food stores in peace!

Love,

Charlotte

Recipe: Cleansing Soup

I’m half-way through my 40 days and 40 nights of The Nourishing Cleanse with Amanda Love. Her program is only 7 days, but when I got to day 6, I looked at my husband and said, “This is awesome. I want to take this all the way. Let’s complete the spiritual cycle of 40 days and 40 nights. Are you up for 6-weeks of this food?” He agreed, so here we are.

What’s even more significant is that I am also 40 years old, and I have NEVER felt better than I do right now.

One of the reasons I am sharing my experience with you is because I value transparency. I want you to see that human beings are always evolving, even the “experts” who appear to have it all figured out - struggle. We get sick. We get in ruts. We get bored. We go through healing crises.

Healing is an on-going process with right turns, left turns, and u-turns. It is not a straight line. On top of that, there is no destination. There is no point in the future when everything will be “perfect.” Life isn’t static. It is movement, and the Life coursing through your body wants to take you somewhere….higher.

If you need an analogy: I was the caterpillar creeping along the sidewalk who just turned into a butterfly. This has happened to me before and it is happening again. This is a pattern that repeats itself over and over again in all of our lives – if we are paying attention.

These are things I’ve noticed over the past 20 days.

All of these insights came from homemade broth, soups, green juice with avocado, and Amanda’s liver lemon flush.

-I’m waking up with joy.

-I have sustained energy through out the day.

-I’m losing weight.

-I look forward to eating, but my cravings are all gone. No coffee, no green tea, no black tea, no sugar, no honey, no maple syrup, and I feel fully alive.

-I’ve had about six red, hot pimples with pus. Look, I know that’s gross, but it’s really good! My body is pushing out what doesn’t belong.

-My acupuncturist and massage therapist have said, “Your body feels different. Your tissue has changed. Your pulse is different.”

-My mind is clear.

-I have more emotional options. What I mean by that is that when life happens and I’m faced with a stressful situation, my knee jerk reaction is either one of anger and protection or I just want to go hide. I can feel these extremes finding a middle ground. In other words, I’m not in my lizard brain. My prefrontal cortex, my thinking brain, is turned on. I’m off the rollercoaster of stimulants. I’m a nicer person and a better communicator.

-I don’t have the numbers for you, but I know that I am spending much less money on food. It’s healthy, paleo-style convenience foods that add up.

-I feel inspired in my kitchen again. I am learning how to make new dishes – one of which I want to share with you…

This is a healing, easy-to-make, nourishing soup. It is excellent when you are sick with a cold, flu or intestinal bug or if you just need a light meal, serve it with a salad or piece of fish or chicken.

Cleansing Soup

2 cups water

1 cup homemade chicken broth

1 Tablespoon freshly grated ginger root

1-2 Tablespoons miso paste (South River Miso Company)

1-2 green onions, chopped

1-2 Tablespoons cilantro, chopped

1 Tablespoon kelp flakes, optional (http://www.ryandrum.com/)

1-2 pinches cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon olive oil

½ lemon, juiced

Boil water in a small pot; add ginger and simmer on low for 10 minutes. Add chicken broth and heat it enough to warm it up. Turn off heat; stir in miso paste until dissolved. Add green onions, cilantro, kelp, cayenne, olive oil, and lemon juice. Cover and steep for 10 more minutes.

I want you to understand that whatever is going on for you, however bad it feels, is inherently good. I couldn’t have done Amanda’s Nourishing Cleanse before this point in time, but if I hadn’t been doing this personal work for fourteen years, I wouldn’t be doing the cleanse now.

Trust your process. Don’t give up. And heal in peace.

Love,

Charlotte

P. S. If you liked this post and my other blog articles, be sure to subscribe to my weekly newsletter, You'll get in-depth tips and more stories like this one to guide you along the way.

The Gifts of Creativity

Have you ever noticed that the word EAT is in creativity?

I have. What we eat literally creates us, so that we can then create things in our lives.

Life always begets more life.

In my case, I’ve spent the last year birthing a book. I am very grateful for this experience. It’s changed me in numerous ways and taught me some important things that I want to share with you:

#1 There is no time in the future for you to pursue your goals and dreams. If you want to do something, you simply have to develop the discipline to do it. There will always be a reason not to. Not enough money. Not enough time. Not enough energy. Stop living in the illusion that tomorrow will be different. Right now is all you’ve got.

#2 Make the thing. The creative process has a life of its own. You won’t have it all figured out in advance. Let the process take you somewhere. What you end up with may not be what you started out with, but you’ll never know if you don’t start.

#3 Creative work has changed me. I have more compassion for myself and people in general and am much less critical. I am much more interested in art. I may not even like the painting or the song, but it doesn’t matter. Someone made something and that deserves respect. All of it is sacred. Before writing my book, I would see a typo in a book and think, “How in the holy fuck didn’t they catch that one?” Now, I see typos, and I think, “That’s awesome. A typo. And this book is still out in the world helping people. Good on ya!”

#4 I have realized that perfectionism is evil. There’s no such thing as perfect because it’s all perfect. Perfectionism is like over-exercising or eating a low fat diet – you think you’re doing yourself a favor, but you are actually destroying your life and perpetuating anxiety. Perfect sucks.

#5 I trust more. I understand that I will be given what I need when I need it. I don’t have to have it all figured out to keep moving forward.

#6 Creativity isn’t always fun. It’s work. When I took on this project, I thought, “Wow, I have all these ideas. I’m gonna write a book. This will be so much fun.” I couldn’t have been more wrong. Writing a book is no different than birthing a child. Life includes everything. The sweet smell of a baby, along with the poopy diaper from hell. The joy, right alongside the blood, sweat, and tears. And that’s as it should be because….you can’t have one without the other.

So whether you’ve been waiting to write that book, learn ballroom dancing, knit a hat, travel the world, or yes…even to change the way you eat, you owe it to yourself to go do it now.

If, and only if, reading my weekly newsletter will add value to your life (I promise it will) and won’t distract you from your highest goal, be sure to SIGN UP HERE! You'll get a free copy of my newest e-book, Sweets-In-Peace.