Dietitian Tells All: 4 “Healthy” Foods to Ditch and 5 Foods To Love Print 6 LikeDislike By Recipe Team As a Registered Dietitian at a major NYC hospital, I tell all my patients that optimal nutrition is about being an informed eater, an empowered eater. Being a healthier version of yourself isn’t about giving up all your favorite foods, or fasting, or sticking to a severely restricted diet plan. It’s about making small changes that collectively make real and lasting impact on health. That being said, there are some foods that I simply won’t touch, and other foods that I can’t get enough of! My five favorite foods: 1. Turmeric is a trendy nutrition supplement but with good reason: it is a powerful natural anti-inflammatory. It’s really bright yellow, but the flavor is more mild and earthy. I cook it with olive oil and black pepper to enhance its activity, as these three ingredients together have good synergy. I like to use it in everything from scrambled eggs to lentil salad.2. Chilies and hot peppers are one of my favorite foods and I find myself craving the piquant sense and flavor in my food. The capsaicin in peppers is a stimulant and can increase blood flow and metabolism by stimulating digestion. I recently found a Chinese hot pepper oil, Fuyun Xianglawang that has added broad bean for an earthy quality.3. Beans, lentils and other legumes are always in my kitchen. Aside from being protein powerhouses and providing vitamins and minerals, they have special resistant fibers that are fermented in the colon. Sounds gross, but it sustains the beneficial bacteria, or microbiome, that boosts immunity and overall organ function.4. Mushrooms of course! They are often overlooked or people dislike the texture but I’m convinced it’s just because they haven’t had good mushrooms. I use them in literally everything as they add an earthy and savory depth of flavor that you can’t get from anything else.5. Matcha is powdered green tea and a powerful anti-inflammatory and metabolism booster. The first time I ever had it was in ice cream and it was love at first bite. It’s also used in baked goods, but I love it unadulterated as a tea or latte beverage made with unsweetened, natural almond milk. Matcha is particularly healthy because instead of brewing the leaf as with most other teas, you dissolve the whole leaf powder for even more potent catechins. Four foods you won’t catch me eating: 1. Diet ice cream is a sham. Natural ice cream should have just 3 or 4 ingredients (cream, sugar, egg yolk, fruit). The diet varieties that advertise as being healthy are strange analogs of food filled with corn syrup, fillers, emulsifiers and other “ingredients” that are hardly natural food items. Instead I stick with Greek yogurt and fresh or frozen fruit for dessert, and when I’m planning to indulge, go for a small portion of the real stuff.2. Fruit juice and smoothies! Surprised? These are often incorporated into diet and detox plans but it’s too easy to pack in a ton of fruit at once. You would never sit down and eat as much fruit as you can juice, and even their natural sugars and carbohydrates add up (and add to your waistline). Not to mention that many commercial varieties also pack in added sugars from seemingly healthy sources like brown rice. No thanks!3. Nutrition bars often have criminal amounts of carbohydrates and sugars with difficult to absorb vitamins and minerals, and other fillers. Instead I’ll make my own nuts/dried fruit mix and keep it in my bag for when I’m in a pinch.4. Sugar substitutes are pervasive in our food supply. When people try to limit or avoid high amounts of added sugars like high fructose corn syrup, table sugar, evaporated cane juice, etc, it’s no surprise that the use of sugar substitutes rises. These pastel colored sweet nothings may not be nothing after all. There’s some evidence that sugar substitutes can increase cravings and calories, cause headaches, dizziness, preterm delivery and insulin resistance. Choose unsweetened beverages like tea or seltzer instead. The more we understand how to apply nutrition strategies to food, the more relaxed and in control we become. It’s when we take charge of our forks that we become confident, calm and mindful. Bumps are inevitable but they are tamable when we’re adequately equipped with tools to handle them healthfully. I hope this helps you to make informed decisions about what you put in your body! Note: PLEASE consult with  your doctor before making any changes to your diet or medications. The material on this site is provided for educational purposes only, and is not to be used for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
Katie Bedell-Bishop March 7, 2015 at 10:15 amTurmeric is amazing, and really tastes great on almost anything (I even put it in my smoothies too!). Cinnamon should definitely be added to this list-I actually put this on almost everything I eat! Great way to “sweeten” up and flavor a dish without actually using sugar 🙂 Reply ↓
patricia chan February 21, 2015 at 1:46 pmI’m already a big fan of turmeric and matcha. Nice tip about turmeric, olive oil and pepper. I can think of lots of foods I can add that too! Reply ↓
vicki February 20, 2015 at 4:12 pmGreat post, I’d love to know how to make that green tea matcha ice cream! That sounds amazing! Reply ↓
7 Simple Food Swaps To Cut Out Sugar and Junk From Your DietDid you know that the average American consumes 130 pounds of sugar per year?! You can probably guess some obvious sources… but you may be surprised to learn that a lot of seemingly “healthy” options are packed with sugar too. You might even be...
Nutritionist Elissa Goodman’s Tips For How To Eat Out AND Stick With a Sugar Free DietEating out can be tricky if you are on the Further Food 10 Day Sugar Detox Plan or just trying to eat healthy and sugar free. However, it is possible! Here, Certified Holistic Nutritionist Elissa Goodman gives her tips on how to eat out on a sugar fr...
5 Health Benefits of Astragalus Explained By A Master HerbalistAstragalus herb is one of the most popular and important medicinal herbs that you may have never heard of! Astragalus comes to us from Traditional Chinese Medicine, where it has been considered to be among the most powerful herbal medicines for mille...
I Said NO to Sugar and YES to Collagen and Then This Happened!When Phyllis signed up for the Further Food Sugar Detox and started taking 2 scoops of collagen protein a day, she couldn’t have known what would happen in the following 3 months. When she first signed up, she could barely walk 10 minutes… but no...
Keto Expert Maria Emmerich on Breaking the Cycle of Sugar AddictionKeto Expert and Nutritionist Maria Emmerich helps people lose weight and transform their health by helping them change their diets and lifestyle. Here Maria writes how sugar can be addictive in the same way as alcohol! Both sugar and alcohol stimulat...
Your brain on sugar. It affects more than you think.It’s no secret that sugar affects our waistlines. We know it’s linked to cavities and diseases like obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. But that’s not all that’s affected by consuming an excess of sweets. Sugar affects brain function...