We hope you’ve been making time to get active this month and are noticing some of the mental, emotional and physical benefits that exercise provides. Since we’re encouraging everyone to move their bodies more this winter, today we’re focusing on how to FUEL your body – because it’s equally important.

You may have heard the saying, “You can’t out-train a bad diet.” And it’s true. No matter how many hours you put in at the gym you cannot escape the STRESS and TOXIC LOAD that processed, inflammatory foods have on your nervous system and overall health.

What you eat has a direct impact on your energy level, mood, mental clarity, digestion, blood sugar, cravings, and likelihood of developing chronic disease.

If you want food to work IN YOUR FAVOR, helping you thrive, heal, and feel your best, eat real, WHOLE FOODS as much as possible, and avoid these 3 common food ingredients when choosing what to feed yourself and your family.

3 Food Ingredients Adding Toxic Load to Your Body (And What to Eat Instead)

1. Industrial Seed Oils

Canola, vegetable, safflower, corn, peanut, soybean, and sunflower oil. These oils damage your body because of how they’re processed and how they impair cellular communication and mitochondrial function (the energy factories of your cells).

Without going into great detail, industrial seed oils have been refined, bleached, and deodorized through exposure to high heat and chemicals like hexane gas. Due to high levels of polyunsaturated fats and Omega-6 fats, these oils oxidize easily, causing inflammation and cell mutation in the body.

Safer, healthy oil and fat options include:

• Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
• Unrefined, Virgin Coconut Oil
• Cold-Pressed Avocado Oil
• Grass-fed Butter or Ghee (don’t use margarine – it has vegetable oil in it)
• Look for the label "expeller-pressed", "cold-pressed" and "unrefined" when shopping for oils. Those terms mean the oil has not been altered by extreme temperatures and chemicals.

2. Sugar

Added sugar is hiding in 80% of packaged food items in America - and its wreaking havoc on our nation's health. Here’s a few reasons why you want to read ingredient labels and limit sugar intake:

• Sugar spikes your blood sugar which leads to a quick surge of energy followed by a blood sugar crash, making you feel tired, irritable and hungry two hours later – even though you just ate
• Sugar blocks leptin receptors, a hunger hormone that tells you when you’re full, so you often overeat
• Sugar suppresses your immune system.
• It increases inflammation in your body, which is the leading cause of most chronic disease
• Accelerates cognitive decline
• Increases risk of depression and anxiety
• Can lead to insulin resistance, a precursor to Type 2 diabetes
• Increases hyperactivity
• It’s as addicting as cocaine. It gives your brain a dopamine hit that makes you crave it and need more.

Healthy swaps for sugar:

• Raw honey
• Maple syrup
• Coconut palm sugar
• Pure Stevia extract
• Monk Fruit sweetener
• Erythritol or other sugar alcohols (if you don’t have gut issues)

3. Artificial Sweeteners

Examples of artificial sweeteners include: Aspartame (diet soda, Equal, NutraSweet), Sacchari (Sweet N’Low), and Sucralose (Splenda, sugar-free Gatorade, light yogurts)

Many people opt for “diet” beverages and food items with artificial sweeteners to avoid sugar and reduce calories, but here’s the truth: artificial sweeteners are just as harmful as sugar. Here’s why:

• Artificial sweeteners release an influx of stress hormones into your body. The frequent release of stress hormones taxes your adrenal system, resulting in increased inflammation, a suppressed immune system, and lower thyroid function.
• Aspartame changes the gut microbiome (shifts the type of bacteria toward an obesity-associated bacterial community rather than a healthy bacterial one), which may explain aspartame’s link to insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and Type 2 Diabetes.
• Aspartame in particular breaks down into free methanol in your digestive track, which eventually turns into formaldehyde – a known carcinogen.
• Can cause depression of the central nervous system (because of how aspartame is broken down in the gut), which can lead to worse mood disorders like anxiety and depression.
• Artificial sweeteners are actually more sweet than table sugar, making your taste buds crave increasingly sweet things over time.
• Although artificial sweeteners contain no calories, the sweet taste tricks your brain into thinking it does have caloric value. When no true calories are found, your body goes looking for more food, stimulating your appetite.

Healthy swaps for artificial sweeteners:

Look for products that use stevia, monk fruit, fruit juice or other natural sweeteners (see sugar swaps)

• Zevia: A stevia-sweetened soda pop alternative.
• Spindrift or Lacroix: Flavored carbonated water (be sure to read ingredients as some bubbly beverages use artificial sweeteners)
• GT’s Raw Kombucha – lower sugar flavored beverage option with probiotics.