DETOX YOUR KITCHEN

Let's clean out your fridge so you're ready for a fresh start

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STEP 1: SET ASIDE TIME TO DETOX YOUR KITCHEN

Schedule it into your planner if you need to. This requires some detective work. Read food labels for added sugar and other junk ingredients that don’t belong in a healthy kitchen. If the food is opened and near expiration, toss it. If it's unopened and still has shelf life, consider donating it or, putting it away somewhere you're less likely to be tempted.

STEP 2: CHECK YOUR LABELS

Ideally, you’ll replace anything that is questionable with real fresh or whole foods without labels. A fresh avocado or a kiwi doesn’t come with a nutrition label, bar code or ingredient list. If you decide to keep foods with labels, follow these rules:

• FOCUS ON THE INGREDIENT LIST. Not the “nutrition facts” that mostly just confuse and confound your efforts to eat healthy. We want to know what's IN our food. Be conscious of ingredients that may not be on the list. Some ingredients may be exempt from labels. Get rid of these foods.

• BE ABLE TO PRONOUNCE IT. If you don’t recognize the ingredient, can’t pronounce it, it is in Latin or you don’t have it in your cupboard and you wouldn’t use it in a recipe – maltodextrin, for instance – limit it. If you're not sure, reach out to me and I can let you know what it is and if it's 'ok"

• KNOW WHAT YOU’RE EATING. On every ingredient list, note that the most abundant ingredient is listed first. The others follow in descending order by weight.

• DON’T RELY ON BUZZ WORDS & MARKETING. Beware of foods with health claims on the label (like "gluten free"). These claims usually signal a marketing ploy to make you think they’re good for you when they’re really just healthy pretenders, processed chemicals. Things like sports beverages, energy bars and even multigrain breads (which often contain high-fructose corn syrup) fall into this category.

  STEP 3: DITCH THESE FOODS

• Now that you know what to look for, I’ll walk you through the process of determining what can stay and what needs to take a permanent vacation on your kitchen detox. When you detoxify your body, you eliminate harmful toxins. Likewise, when you detoxify your kitchen you’ll want to get rid of any food that contains these harmful ingredients.

• SUGAR. You probably know obvious sugar culprits, but be aware of hidden sugars that lurk in salad dressings, processed foods, drinks and even “healthy” foods like cereals and wheat. Sugar goes by many aliases- like organic cane juice, honey, agave, cane syrup or molasses. There are 257 names for sugar, most made from corn, with names that you wouldn’t recognize like maltodextrin and xanthan gum, which keep you addicted. Look carefully at condiments like salad dressing, barbecue sauce or ketchup, which are often high-fructose corn syrup traps.

• “BAD” FATS. Don’t be afraid of fat. Fat doesn’t make you fat, but the wrong fats can wreak serious metabolic havoc. Toss out any highly refined cooking oils such as corn and soy, fried foods you may have stored in your freezer and margarine or shortening. These have dangerous trans fats that create inflammation and cause heart disease. Scour labels for the words “hydrogenated fat” (another phrase for trans fat), which has finally been declared unsafe for consumption by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

• ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS. Throw out food with artificial sweeteners of all kinds (aspartame, NutraSweet, Splenda, sucralose, and sugar alcohols — any word that ends with “ol,” like xylitol or sorbitol). Stevia may be better than aspartame but only whole-plant extract, not Pure Via and Truvia, which are chemical extracts of stevia. Use it sparingly. Any sweetener can make you hungry, lower your metabolism, create gas, and store belly fat.

• ANYTHING WITH QUESTIONABLE INGREDIENTS. If you purchase something with a nutrition label, there should be less than five ingredients on it and all things that a third grader would understand like “tomatoes, water, salt.” As mentioned above, focus on the ingredient list, not the “nutrition facts.” Make sure you recognize the ingredients (and can pronounce them!). Seemingly safe foods like spices and seasonings can contain maltodextrin, autolyzed yeast extract and even high-fructose corn syrup that can sabotage your healthy kitchen.

STEP 4: STOCK UP ON THESE

Now that you’ve purged unhealthy foods, you want to replace kitchen cabinets and cupboards with fresh, healthy foods. These are the ones you’ll want to load your kitchen with:

• PRODUCE. Non-starchy veggies are freebies. Eat as many as you like! Limit fruits because they increase your insulin levels. Berries are your best bet. When possible, choose organic, seasonal and local produce. When you can, avoid the most pesticide contaminated fruits and vegetables by consulting the Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen” list and instead choose from the “Clean Fifteen” list featuring the least contaminated options. Just make sure you’re buying unseasoned or unsweetened varieties. Also check out your local farmers market or community supported agriculture (CSA).

• DRY FOODS. These staple foods usually have a longer shelf life and include raw or lightly roasted nuts and seeds, legumes, quinoa and gluten-free grains.

• HERBS, SPICES AND SEASONINGS. You’ll want to have a range of pantry ingredients, including seasonings and spices, on hand. Buy organic when you can. Because you only use a little of some of these, they tend to last a long time so you get a lot of value from them. Among my favorites include extra-virgin olive oil, extra-virgin coconut butter, sea salt or pink Himalayan salt, freshly ground black pepper and seasonings and spices. Just read your labels to ensure they don’t contain hidden sugar, gluten, or other problem additives.

• FRESH FOODS. Get in the habit of keeping your fridge and freezer stocked with these items. When selecting beef or meat, choose grass-fed, hormone-free or organic, whenever possible. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) mandates that all poultry is raised without hormones, so look for the terms “antibiotic free” or “organic” when buying poultry. Check out the Environmental Working Group’s “Meat Eater’s Guide” to choose meat that’s good for you and good for the planet.

• OPTIMAL PROTEIN. Healthy protein like chicken, turkey, grass-fed meats like beef, lamb, bison, omega-3 enriched eggs, whole forms of non-GMO soy food, like tofu, tempeh and gluten-free miso (organic, when possible), wild or sustainably farmed, low-mercury seafood like sardines, salmon, herring, flounder, clams, crab, oyster, perch, pollock, shrimp, sole, squid, trout, whitefish etc. (Avoid those fish that are high in mercury such as tuna, swordfish and Chilean sea bass. Refer to the National Resources Defense Council website to download their wallet guide to choosing the fish lowest in mercury.)

In week 2, we'll go through a deeper dive of what to eliminate and what to stock up on!

referenced from The Chalkboard Mag