Seven bad food habits that shorten your life and accelerate aging

With all the conveniences of fast foods, processed foods, TV and magazine advertising and even those radio ads plugging yummy stuff in your car, we're tempted toward "eating bad" even as we drive around.

It takes considerable research, reading Natural News, discipline, and diligent label reading to avoid aging yourself rapidly and leaving yourself more vulnerable to disease with what and how you eat in our modern world.

You may continue feeling young mentally and emotionally, but if you don't watch what you eat, someday you'll be a young person in an old person's body wondering what happened.

Avoid the following dietary habits

(1) Avoid trans-fatty, processed, hydrogenated oils. They are ubiquitous in fast and slow food restaurants. Don't use them for cooking or salad dressings. Yes, they're less expensive, but they've been processed only for creating a longer shelf life while shortening your time with a healthy life.

They're known to shorten chromosomal telomeres, which to make a long story short, increases cellular aging. Margarine is among them. Real butter is better. You might as well use molten plastic because plastic and margarine have molecular similarities. Use only cold pressed oils, and refuse any version of canola oil.

(2) Yes, of course refined sugar or sucrose is bad for you. It creates blood sugar spikes that ultimately affect your insulin response, leading to obesity and diabetes. It creates an oxidation process that, ironically, creates AGEs, which is short for advanced glycation end-products. Sucrose will increase your AGEs accumulation faster if you indulge your sweet tooth.

(3) Artificial sweeteners are worse than sucrose. Ignore the aspartame and diet soda trap. You should actually simply avoid all sodas. Aspartame is a neuron excitoxin that can excite brain cells to death, putting you in the fast lane to dementia or even brain cancer.

Ditto for MSG that's in most quick and easy processed foods and snacks.

(4) You'll also want to shun high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) a lot by avoiding sodas and even off the shelf fruit juices that aren't low calorie and artificially sweetened. But that's not enough. Pastries, cookies, and candies usually contain HFCS, but dodge the issue by using the label "corn syrup."

Don't fall for that. It's all HFCS, and HFCS is not rapidly metabolized into energy like glucose. Half of it gets trapped in the liver, contributing to fatty liver, Type II diabetes, or cancer.

(5) Wheat is getting a bad rap because it's a source of digestive problems. Minimize your wheat intake, even whole wheat products. Try to use wheat products that are sourdough-based.

If you consume refined wheat breads, pastas, and pizzas, you might as well be gulping down handfuls of sugar. Try to mix in some alternative grain products.

Don't bother with soy anything unless it's fermented. It's not the health food that it's cracked up to be. It creates digestive problems. Fermented soy tempeh and soy sauces are okay though.

(6) Don't eat under pressure. If you're in a hurry and hungry, grab an apple to satisfy your craving until it's appropriate to sit down and eat comfortably, chewing well.

The mouth is where digestion begins. So savor every bite while chewing well and allowing saliva digestive enzymes to accumulate before the food slips into your esophagus.

(7) Be diligent, aware, and strict about breaking old, bad eating habits. Be able to walk away from the pizza counter at Whole Foods even as you salivate. If it first you don't succeed, try again next time. Drive past the drive-bys, not through them.

Carry some organic, unsalted, raw cashews or other nuts and have an apple or two in your vehicle. Don't tempt yourself by having cheap chips and sweets within reach. Eventually, your tastes will adapt to the better foods and dispel those old cravings by replacing them with good eating habits.