Do not buy or eat foods with these ingredients (#1-4) or prepared/cooked this way (#5-7).

1. Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated.
2. Nitrates/nitrites – in processed meat (bacon, sausage, deli meat, hot dogs, etc.)
3. White flour and processed grains.  If it doesn’t say “whole”, it is processed.  Ingredients to avoid: enriched flour, unbleached flour, wheat flour, white rice, etc.
4. Sugar.  Secret names of sugar: corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, brown sugar, cane sugar, cane syrup, cane juice and evaporated cane juice, turbinado sugar, barley malt, beet sugar, brown rice syrup, corn sweetener, dextrin, fructo-oligosaccharides, fruit juice concentrate, invert sugar, and the words ending in “-ose” – dextrose, glucose, sucrose, maltose, and fructose, polydextrose, etc.  Note: It is difficult to avoid all forms of sugar.  At a minimum, do not purchase a product that has a sugar ingredient is in the top 3 ingredients.  Remember tenet #2 (eat food with 5 ingredients or less) and tenet #3 (read labels).  Note #2: I also avoid artificial sweeteners.
5. Fried foods
6. Soda (including diet) and sugar drinks.  Don’t drink sugar.  Eliminate soda (diet soda, too), sugar drinks (lemonade, Gatorade types, etc), juice, etc.
7. Fast Food

These are the basic rules that I follow as far as eating goes.

1. Michael Pollan says it best in Food Rules: “Eat food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants.”  Eat food from a plant, not made in a plant (41).  We eat a lot of veggies, fruits, whole grains, and nuts/seeds.
2. Eat food products with 5 ingredients or less (Food Rules 15).  1 or 2 ingredients is even better!
3. Know what you are eating.  Read ALL labels.  Refer to Rule #2.
4. Eat an apple or pear every day.  Both are good sources of fiber.  Adults need 25-30 grams of fiber per day.
5. Watch the time.  As a general rule, I don’t eat carbs (except for fruit and vegetables) after midday and the kitchen is closed 3 hours before bed.
6. Drink water….lots of water.   Make water your “go-to” drink.
7. Run a full dishwasher 3 times a week.  This means you are eating at home most of the time or packing food for lunches or meals away from home.
8. Know how much you are eating.  Never ever eat out of a bag, box, package, or container of any kind.  Get out the portion you need/want and put the container back.  Make it a conscious effort to pull the container back out and eat more.
9. Start eating right today.  Don’t wait until Monday.  It’s never too late to eat right.
10. Know your favorites.  Splurge on your delicious but maybe not so nutritious foods once or twice a month (no more than once a week).