Top 10 Most HARMFUL Foods People Keep EATING EVERY DAY

Summary

The video discusses the most harmful foods contributing to major health issues like insulin resistance, nutritional deficiencies, dysbiosis, leaky gut, autoimmune diseases, and chronic inflammation. These foods include sugary foods and drinks, high glycemic foods, artificial sweeteners, trans fats, food additives, processed meats, fried foods, energy drinks, excess alcohol, and ultra-processed foods. The speaker emphasizes the widespread impact of these foods and suggests eating whole, unprocessed foods and cooking at home to mitigate these health risks.

Takeaways

• ⚠️ Many common foods cause insulin resistance, nutritional deficiencies, dysbiosis, leaky gut, autoimmune diseases, and chronic inflammation.
• 🔢 Insulin resistance affects 50-80% of the global population, while dysbiosis impacts over 90%, with 30-50% likely having leaky gut.
• 📊 Autoimmune diseases are increasing, affecting about 14-15% in the US, but the true number might be higher due to under-testing.
• 🍭 Sugary foods and drinks, including soda, sweet tea, energy drinks, coffee with sugar, and fruit juice, are the worst for insulin resistance.
• 🥔 High glycemic foods like potatoes, rice, and processed flour significantly raise blood sugar and insulin levels.
• 🚫 Artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose disrupt insulin signaling and gut microbiome balance, promoting dysbiosis and insulin resistance.
• 🧈 Trans fats, found in margarine and shortening, reduce nutrient absorption, enzyme activity, and increase inflammation.
• 🧪 Food additives and preservatives interfere with digestion, nutrient absorption, and disrupt gut microbiomes.
• 🔥 Fried foods, especially those cooked in processed oils, cause inflammation, disrupt the gut lining, and are high in pro-inflammatory Omega-6.
• 🍹 Energy drinks combine high sugar and caffeine, leading to increased inflammation and gut microbiome damage.
• 🍺 Excess alcohol damages the gut lining, increases inflammation, contributes to leaky gut, and raises the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
• 📦 Ultra-processed foods make up 60-70% of calories consumed in the US, causing insulin resistance, nutritional deficiencies, dysbiosis, and chronic inflammation.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video script?

The main topic of the video script is the discussion of the most harmful foods that people commonly consume, which contribute to health issues like insulin resistance, nutritional deficiencies, dysbiosis, leaky gut, autoimmune diseases, and chronic low-grade inflammation.

Why are these harmful foods considered more dangerous than obscure foods with hidden poisons?

These harmful foods are considered more dangerous because they claim thousands of times more lives than obscure foods with hidden poisons due to their widespread consumption and the chronic nature of the health issues they cause.

What is insulin resistance and why is it a concern?

Insulin resistance is a condition where the body's cells do not respond properly to insulin, leading to high blood sugar levels. It is a concern because it affects a large portion of the world's population and can lead to type 2 diabetes and other health complications.

What percentage of the world's population is estimated to have nutritional deficiencies?

It is suggested that nutritional deficiencies affect probably everyone, but the degree of deficiency varies among individuals.

What is dysbiosis and how prevalent is it?

Dysbiosis refers to an imbalance in gut microbes. It is estimated that over 90% of the population may have some degree of dysbiosis.

How does the consumption of sugary foods and drinks contribute to insulin resistance?

Sugary foods and drinks contain glucose that raises blood sugar and insulin levels, and fructose that overwhelms the liver, leading to insulin resistance and potential non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

What are high glycemic foods and how do they affect the body?

High glycemic foods are those high in starch without added sugar but with high glucose content, such as potatoes, rice, and processed flour. They can raise blood sugar and insulin levels, affecting individuals differently based on their metabolic health.

Why are artificial sweeteners considered harmful despite being marketed as sugar substitutes?

Artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame and sucralose, can dysregulate insulin signaling and negatively affect the microbiome, promoting dysbiosis and insulin resistance.

What role do trans fats play in nutrient deficiencies?

Trans fats can reduce cell membrane absorption, interfere with enzyme activity, and increase inflammation, all of which contribute to the body's inability to effectively absorb nutrients.

How do food additives and preservatives impact health according to the script?

Food additives and preservatives can interfere with digestion, bind to nutrients preventing absorption, disrupt gut microbes, and promote dysbiosis, all of which can lead to nutritional deficiencies and health issues.

What is the impact of ultra-processed foods on the body and why should they be avoided?

Ultra-processed foods can cause insulin resistance, nutritional deficiencies, dysbiosis, leaky gut, and chronic inflammation due to their high sugar, starch, bad oils, and additives content. They should be avoided to prevent these health issues.

Outlines

00:00

🍽️ Harmful Foods and Their Impact on Health

In this video, the speaker discusses the most harmful foods that people commonly consume, which are far more dangerous than obscure foods like poisonous fish or mushrooms. These foods contribute to insulin resistance, nutritional deficiencies, dysbiosis, leaky gut, autoimmune disease, and chronic low-grade inflammation, affecting the majority of the world's population. The speaker emphasizes the prevalence and seriousness of these conditions and highlights the need to address them urgently.

05:06

🧃 Insulin Resistance and Sugary Foods

The speaker delves into insulin resistance, identifying sugary foods and drinks as major culprits. Items like soda, sweet tea, energy drinks, sugary coffee drinks, fruit juice, candy, baked goods, breakfast cereals, and food bars raise blood sugar and insulin levels, contributing to insulin resistance. The harmful effects of glucose and fructose, which are prevalent in these foods, are explained, particularly their impact on the liver and overall metabolism.

10:08

🍟 High Glycemic Foods and Their Effects

High glycemic foods, such as potatoes, rice, and flour, are highlighted as the second category of harmful foods. These foods, although not containing added sugar, are high in glucose, which raises blood sugar levels. The speaker explains how individuals on different points of the metabolic spectrum should approach these foods, with those suffering from insulin resistance needing to be especially cautious.

🚫 Artificial Sweeteners and Their Risks

The speaker discusses artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose, which were created as sugar substitutes but have adverse effects. These sweeteners dysregulate insulin signaling and disrupt gut microbiome balance, promoting dysbiosis and insulin resistance. Despite being non-caloric, they contribute to metabolic issues similar to those caused by sugar.

🥑 Nutrient Deficiencies and Trans Fats

Trans fats are introduced as a significant factor in nutrient deficiencies. These fats interfere with cell membrane function, reducing nutrient absorption and enzyme activity. The speaker explains how trans fats, found in harshly processed vegetable oils, margarine, and shortening, increase inflammation and disrupt normal bodily functions, making them one of the harmful components in many processed foods.

📦 Food Additives and Preservatives

Food additives and preservatives are discussed for their detrimental effects on digestion and nutrient absorption. These substances can bind nutrients, making them unavailable for absorption, and disrupt the gut microbiome, further promoting dysbiosis. The speaker emphasizes the widespread presence of these additives in processed foods and their role in contributing to health issues.

🥓 Processed Meats and Their Additives

Mainstream processed meats, such as sausages and bacon, are highlighted for their harmful additives like preservatives, nitrates, and sugar. The speaker notes that it's not necessarily the meat itself that is bad, but the chemicals added during processing that make these foods detrimental to health, contributing to inflammation and microbiome disruption.

🍟 Fried Foods and Harmful Oils

The negative impact of fried foods is explained, focusing on the use of harshly processed plant oils that are further damaged by heat during cooking. These oils are high in Omega-6 fatty acids, which can disrupt the Omega-6 to Omega-3 balance, leading to inflammation. Fried foods also damage the intestinal lining and disrupt the gut microbiome, adding to their harmful effects.

⚡ Energy Drinks and Their Dangers

Energy drinks are identified as harmful due to their high sugar and caffeine content, which increase inflammation, damage the gut lining, and alter the gut microbiome. The combination of these ingredients makes energy drinks particularly detrimental to health, contributing to various metabolic issues.

🍷 Excess Alcohol and Metabolic Damage

The speaker discusses the damaging effects of excess alcohol consumption, including gut lining damage, increased inflammation, and leaky gut. Alcohol, like fructose, is processed by the liver, leading to a higher risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and insulin resistance, especially when consumed with sugar.

🛒 Ultra-Processed Foods and Their Impact

Ultra-processed foods, which make up a significant portion of the calories consumed in the United States, are discussed for their role in promoting insulin resistance, nutritional deficiencies, dysbiosis, and chronic inflammation. The speaker emphasizes the need to avoid these foods and opt for whole, unprocessed foods to address these health issues.

Keywords

💡Insulin Resistance

Insulin resistance is a condition where the body's cells become less responsive to the hormone insulin, which regulates blood sugar levels. This concept is central to the video, as the speaker highlights how many harmful foods contribute to insulin resistance, leading to various health issues like type 2 diabetes. Examples from the script include sugary foods, drinks, and high glycemic foods like potatoes and rice.

💡Nutritional Deficiencies

Nutritional deficiencies occur when the body doesn't get enough essential nutrients from the diet. The video emphasizes that almost everyone experiences some degree of nutritional deficiency due to consuming processed foods that lack essential nutrients. Examples from the script include how trans fats reduce nutrient absorption and how processed foods have their nutrients removed for longer shelf life.

💡Dysbiosis

Dysbiosis refers to an imbalance in the gut microbiome, the community of microorganisms living in the intestines. This imbalance can lead to various health issues, such as leaky gut and inflammation. The video links dysbiosis to the consumption of artificial sweeteners and preservatives that disrupt the gut's microbial balance.

💡Leaky Gut

Leaky gut syndrome is a condition where the intestinal lining becomes permeable, allowing harmful substances to enter the bloodstream. The video mentions that many harmful foods contribute to leaky gut, including artificial sweeteners, processed foods, and fried foods, which damage the gut lining and promote inflammation.

💡Autoimmune Disease

Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune system mistakenly attacks the body's own tissues. The video points out that the incidence of autoimmune diseases is rising, and they are often linked to poor dietary choices that cause chronic inflammation and other health issues. The speaker notes that these diseases are frequently underdiagnosed.

💡Chronic Inflammation

Chronic inflammation is a long-term inflammatory response that can contribute to various health problems. The video discusses how many harmful foods, such as those high in sugar and trans fats, cause chronic low-grade inflammation, which is associated with insulin resistance and other degenerative diseases.

💡Sugary Foods

Sugary foods are high in added sugars, which can raise blood sugar levels and contribute to insulin resistance. The video lists various sugary foods and drinks, such as soda, sweet tea, and candy, as major culprits in causing health issues like non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and overall insulin resistance.

💡Artificial Sweeteners

Artificial sweeteners are synthetic sugar substitutes used to sweeten foods and beverages. The video explains that despite being low-calorie, sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose can disrupt insulin signaling and gut microbiota, leading to dysbiosis and insulin resistance.

💡Trans Fats

Trans fats are a type of unhealthy fat created by adding hydrogen to vegetable oils, making them solid at room temperature. The video highlights how trans fats interfere with cell membrane function and enzyme activity, leading to inflammation and nutrient deficiencies. They are commonly found in processed foods like margarine and shortening.

💡Ultra-Processed Foods

Ultra-processed foods are industrially manufactured products that contain ingredients not typically used in home cooking. The video states that these foods, which make up a significant portion of the American diet, are linked to various health problems due to their high sugar, starch, and unhealthy fat content. Examples include packaged snacks and ready-to-eat meals.

Highlights

The most harmful foods are those causing insulin resistance, nutritional deficiencies, dysbiosis, leaky gut, autoimmune disease, and chronic inflammation.

Insulin resistance affects between 50 to 80% of the world's population.

Nutritional deficiencies are widespread, affecting the degree of deficiency in everyone.

Dysbiosis, an imbalance in gut microbes, is likely over 90%, with a significant portion having leaky gut.

Autoimmune diseases are increasing, with 1 in 7 in the US affected, a number likely underestimated.

Chronic low-grade inflammation is common, often accompanying insulin resistance.

Sugary foods and drinks are major contributors to insulin resistance and should be avoided.

High glycemic foods without added sugar, like potatoes and rice, can also cause issues for those with metabolic diseases.

Artificial sweeteners, intended as sugar substitutes, can dysregulate insulin signaling and affect the microbiome.

Trans fats reduce cell membrane absorption and enzyme activity, contributing to nutrient deficiencies.

Food additives and preservatives can interfere with digestion and disrupt gut microbes, leading to dysbiosis.

Processed meats are harmful primarily due to the chemicals and additives, not the meat itself.

Fried foods are damaging due to the use of poor quality oils and high Omega-6 content.

Energy drinks combine high sugar and caffeine, which can increase inflammation and damage gut lining.

Excess alcohol consumption can lead to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and increase insulin resistance.

Ultra-processed foods are linked to insulin resistance, nutritional deficiencies, dysbiosis, and chronic inflammation.

Eating whole, unprocessed foods and cooking at home can significantly mitigate health risks.

Transcripts

Hello Health Champions. Today, I want to talk  about the most harmful foods that people keep  

eating. Now, some of you might be expecting a  video to sensationalize some obscure food with  

a hidden poison, like a fish or a mushroom or  something, but the foods I'm talking about are  

actually thousands of times more dangerous.  They claim thousands of times more lives than  

some fish or some mushroom, and these are all the  foods that cause insulin resistance, nutritional  

deficiencies, dysbiosis, leaky gut, autoimmune  disease, and chronic low-grade inflammation.

The reason we need to take these very  seriously is that they affect the  

majority of the world's population  today. We have insulin resistance,  

probably somewhere between 50 and 80% of the  world's population. Nutritional deficiency  

is probably everyone, but it's more a matter  of to what degree do we have these nutritional  

deficiencies. Dysbiosis, an imbalance in your  gut microbes, is probably over 90%, and a good  

percentage of that, maybe 30, 40, 50%, probably  have some degree of leaky gut. Autoimmune disease  

is something that's exploding in recent years.  Officially, it's probably somewhere around one in  

10 in the world that have an autoimmune disease.  In the US, it's one in seven, or about 14-15%,  

but that's a very underestimated number because  it is very rarely tested for. So the only people  

they know about are the ones that they've actually  performed antibody tests on. In my clinic, where  

we actually test everybody for thyroid antibodies  for starters, I think that it's above 30%.

When it comes to chronic low-grade inflammation,  it probably goes hand in hand with insulin  

resistance. It is most people that have  some degree of low-grade inflammation;  

it's just a matter of to what degree do we  have it. But even though these four factors  

are responsible for most degenerative diseases,  most suffering, and deaths today, we don't take  

them seriously enough because they don't kill  us fast enough. If an animal eats something  

poisonous, they get sick and know to stay  away from that food in the future. But these  

things take decades to kill us, and that's why we  have such a hard time paying attention to them.

So let's dig a little deeper into the first  one, which is insulin resistance. Of course,  

sugary foods and sugary drinks are the worst.  These include things like soda, sweet tea,  

energy drinks, coffee drinks with sugar that  are popular, and also fruit juice. On the  

solid food part, we have all kinds of snacks.  We have candy, baked goods, breakfast cereals,  

food bars, etc. All these things that contain  added sugar are extra bad because they do two  

things. They have one part that is glucose,  which raises blood sugar and insulin and makes  

us insulin resistant. The other part is fructose.  50% of these things with added sugar are fructose  

that can only be metabolized by the liver and  therefore will quickly overwhelm the liver,  

causing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease,  making the liver insulin resistant, and now  

that kind of spreads to the rest of the body  as well. So anything with added sugar is bad.

Number two on the list is high glycemic foods.  These are foods that are high in starch but don't  

have added sugar, so they don't have any fructose  but are very high in glucose. Here we have things  

like potatoes, rice, and flour, especially  processed flour. Here we need to understand that  

some people can have a modest amount of these,  and some people can have a moderate amount of  

high glycemic foods. It depends on where you are  on the metabolic spectrum. If you have a metabolic  

disease, if you're insulin resistant, if you have  type 2 diabetes and you're on the red end of the  

spectrum as far as insulin resistance goes, then  you want to completely avoid anything with added  

sugar and be very, very careful with any high  glycemic foods. If you are very insulin sensitive,  

then you can probably tolerate a little  bit more, but I wouldn't go crazy with it.

Number three is artificial sweeteners,  and that's kind of ironic because they  

were made to be a substitute for sugar. We  know sugar raises blood sugar and insulin,  

but these were supposed to be the opposite of  that. They were supposed to be non-caloric,  

not raise blood sugar at all. But instead, what  they do, and we're talking about aspartame and  

sucralose, which are the two biggest sellers  right now, is they dysregulate insulin signaling,  

and they also reduce the amount of  keystone bacterial species. They  

affect the microbiome flora, they affect the  balance, and therefore further dysregulate  

insulin signaling because some of that also  comes from the gut microbes. In doing that,  

these non-caloric artificial sweeteners actually  promote dysbiosis and insulin resistance.

Under the heading of nutrient deficiencies, we  have almost all the foods that we're talking about  

here, but one interesting example is trans fats.  I'm bringing up a few things that people probably  

haven't heard of. Trans fats will reduce cell  membrane absorption. They affect cell membrane  

signaling in the body, and therefore you lose  your ability to absorb some of the nutrients.  

They also reduce enzyme activity. Enzymes are  what your body makes to break down food so that  

you can absorb it, and trans fats will interfere  with that function as well. Furthermore, trans  

fats are known to increase inflammation. Trans  fats, of course, are when we use vegetable oils,  

we use plant oils, we process them very harshly.  It's a bad oil to start with, but then we bombard  

it with hydrogen under high heat and high  pressure, and now we turn them into something  

called margarine or shortening. Sometimes  it's still a little bit liquid, especially if  

they use them for frying oils, and these trans  fats are basically one step away from plastic.

Number five is food additives and preservatives.  There are hundreds and hundreds of these,  

and they have different types of effects. Among  these are that they interfere with digestion,  

they bind nutrients sometimes, so if they bind  to the nutrients that your body wants, then you  

can't absorb them because they're already bound  to something. They also disrupt the gut microbes,  

they further promote dysbiosis, which again  means you can't digest and process foods as well.

The next category is biome disruptors and  inflammation. As you probably have noticed,  

there's a huge amount of overlap between all these  categories, but on these last two, there's so much  

overlap that I put them together. We already  talked about additives and preservatives;  

we're not going to count them again. We  talked about sugar, high fructose corn syrup,  

and white flour that also disrupt the  biome and promote inflammation. Next,  

we have mainstream processed meats. We're talking  about sausages and bacon and things like that.  

It's not the meat itself that is necessarily  bad. I don't think it's the best form of meat,  

but if it's processed naturally, if they don't  add a bunch of preservatives, nitrates, sugar,  

and other chemicals, then it can still be a good  thing to eat. When we're talking about these  

things being bad, it's primarily the chemicals  and the additives in them that are bad for you.

Number seven is fried foods. The reason these are  so bad is that they use very bad oils to start  

with, these harshly processed plant oils, and  then from all the heat and all the processing,  

they further oxidize these oils and damage them.  They're also very high in Omega-6. When that ratio  

of Omega-6 to Omega-3 gets way out of balance,  that becomes a pro-inflammatory factor in itself.  

Furthermore, they damage the lining of your  intestinal tract and increase inflammation,  

and just like almost everything else,  they also disrupt your gut microbiome.  

They reduce the keystone species, and with the  inflammation, they disrupt the balance down there.

Number eight is energy drinks. What they  have found is that the combination of  

high levels of sugar and caffeine is extra  damaging. It will increase inflammation,  

damage your gut lining, and  alter your bacterial balance.

Number nine is excess alcohol, which again will  damage the gut lining, increase inflammation,  

contribute to leaky gut, and because alcohol, just  like fructose, can only be processed by the liver,  

it will dramatically increase your risk  of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease,  

especially if you consume it at the same  time that you're eating sugar. Therefore,  

it will also increase insulin resistance.

Number ten on the list is all ultra-processed  foods. This is basically anything in a package,  

anything that has a long shelf life,  anything that's processed in the store.  

60 to 70% of the calories consumed in the  United States are ultra-processed foods.  

The US was the first and the  worst when it comes to this,  

but it is really, really sad to see how  the rest of the world is catching up very,  

very quickly. Even if where you live is not at  60-70%, it is getting there much, much too fast.

You can probably see how these factors keep coming  back for most of the foods we talk about. Again,  

we have insulin resistance, which processed  foods cause from all the sugar and all the  

starch and all the bad oils that they contain.  We have nutritional deficiencies, which of course  

happen from processed foods because we remove  most of the nutrients when we process food.  

The nutrients are the things that go bad, so they  take away the essential fatty acids, the vitamins,  

the minerals, and the fiber in order to give  the product a longer shelf life. Therefore,  

we tend to eat more, so we get some of  these nutrients in our bodies and now  

we end up overeating. That's where "overfed  and undernourished" comes from. Then we have  

dysbiosis and leaky gut, just like we talked  about. All of the sugar and the preservatives  

and the artificial sweeteners cause dysbiosis, and  of course, chronic inflammation is associated with  

insulin resistance as well as all of these  oxidized components and all the additives.

I wanted to break it down like this for you  so that you see what these components are,  

and you realize that it's not really all that  complicated. If you just eat meat and vegetables,  

you eat whole unprocessed foods, you cook at home  for yourself, then you have already handled 90% of  

the problem. If you enjoyed this video, you're  going to love that one. If you truly want to  

master health by understanding how the body really  works, make sure you subscribe, hit that bell,  

and turn on all the notifications so  you never miss a life-saving video.