The First Step to Your Best Health: A Kitchen Makeover

Hey, everybody. Welcome to my weekly house call. Your chance to ask me your questions. And this week's question is. Hey, Dr. Hyman. Over and over, I find myself making unhealthy choices. So even while I'm at home, I reach for something that I know is going to make me feel like crap. When dinner time comes around, I get so overwhelmed and end up making pasta or pizza. Please help me make better decisions about what I put into my body. Well, you're not alone, my friend. This is a challenge that so many of us deal with on a day to day basis. And the only way around it is to do a kitchen makeover. You heard me right. A kitchen makeover. Bringing in new fresh energy and fresh food into the kitchen and then purging it of all the foods and things that make us sick and unhealthy and fat is an important step in overcoming food cravings and, and making better choices easier. You see, the cure for what ails us both in our bodies and in our nation can be found in the kitchen. You see, it's a place to rebuild community and connection, to strengthen bonds with our family and our friends, to teach life giving skills to our kids, and to enrich and nourish our bodies and our souls. So often we think that we can just avoid the foods that aren't serving us. And you know what? This rarely works. It may be tempting to say, oh, I'll be fine, I'll just avoid these foods for now. But really, it's not that easy. We need to break the addiction cycle and we need to halt your cravings. Likely the same cravings that have sabotaged your weight loss efforts in the past. So why not stack the deck and the odds in your favor by getting rid of the items that keep you trapped, sick and miserable? Or to put it a better way, why not set yourself up for optimal success by making your kitchen a happy, a hopeful place filled with vibrant, real whole foods that will nourish your body and really genuinely feed your soul. So how do you do a kitchen makeover? Well, guess what? It starts with purging your kitchen. See, ideally, you're going to replace anything that's questionable with real fresh or whole foods without labels. A fresh avocado or a kiwi or doesn't come with a nutrition facts label, a barcode, or an ingredient list. So first, I want you to focus on the ingredient list, not the nutrition facts label that are mostly designed and developed under the huge food industry lobby and their efforts to confuse and confound us in eating healthy now, if you don't recognize the ingredient, like maltodextrin or you can't pronounce it, or it's in Latin, or you don't have the actual ingredient in your cupboard and, and you wouldn't use it in a recipe, then you shouldn't eat the food which contains it, right? These health claims are really a marketing strategy to help you think that they're good for you when they're really just pretenders. Things like sports drinks or energy bars, multigrain breads, which often contain high fructose corn syrup, all fall in this category. If it says high fiber, low fat, gluten free, those are all buzzwords to make you think it's good or when it's actually bad. Now you want to remove all the junk. This includes any food that contains added sugar, refined vegetable oils, trans or hydrogenated fats, refined processed flours, and all processed food. Even seemingly safe foods like spices and seasonings contain weird stuff like maltodextrin, autolyzed yeast extract, which means msg, which is really bad for you and makes you overeat, and even high fructose corn syrup that have no place in a healthy kitchen. Next, I want you to remove all the bad fats. The wrong fats can actually wreak serious metabolic havoc. Toss out any highly refined vegetable cooking oils such as corn and soybean oil, fried foods you may have stored in your freezer, and margarine or shortening. Now, these have really dangerous trans fats that create inflammation in your body and, and they cause heart disease and cancer and diabetes and obesity and lots more. I want you to scour the labels for words. Hydrogenated fat, which is a buzzword for trans fat. Now, this has finally been declared as a non grass substance. That means it's not safe for human consumption. The FDA has finally ruled that we should not be eating this at all. I also want you to throw out foods with artificial sweeteners and, and all of them. I'm talking about aspartame, nutrasweet, splenda, sucralose, sugar, alcohols, which is any word that ends with ol like xylitol or sorbitol or maltol. Stevia may be better than aspartame, but only whole plant extracts, not the stuff made by Coke and Pepsi, which is purvia and truvia they've manipulated, which are basically chemical extracts of stevia and who knows what they do. Also, when you use stevia, use it very sparingly because it's very sweet and it Actually stimulates your hunger and stimulates eating. And it's not a great thing to be consuming in high quantities all the time. There is a new non caloric sweetener that comes from monk fruit that's rich in antioxidants and it can be used but in small amounts. Remember, any sweetener can make you hungry, can lower your metabolism, it may create gas, and it helps you store belly fat. So it's not a free food. We know that artificial sweeteners actually cause diabetes, obesity and much more. So they're not actually a substitute for sugar. So don't just tuck away all these toxic foods in some cabinet. I want you to throw them in the garbage. We're going to quickly and easily replace them with delicious, healthy alternatives that will leave you more than satisfied. Now, you might be reluctant to throw these items out because your kids like them or someone else in your family does. Well, think about it this way. If you don't want that junk in your body, why would you feed it to your kids? I mean, stuff you wouldn't even feed your dogs, you feed to your kids, right? You wouldn't give your dog Coca Cola or French fries or chicken nuggets, right? It's time to sit down with the family and decide together to make healthier choices. And there's so many delicious and healthy alternatives to your favorite comfort foods. You don't have to starve, you don't have to be in deprivation. You don't have to. You can have a delicious way of eating that's full of abundance and flavor. It's not about deprivation. Now, if an adult in the family refuses to get rid of these items, well, that's a little more tricky. In this case. I suggest that they hide those items from you or maybe lock them away in a safe with a secret combo. Also, I know it's a little extreme, but when hunger strikes, anything is likely to look good, even Twinkies. You know, sometimes when I come home from work and I'm super stressed, if I had a pint of Chunky Monkey ice cream in the fridge or the freezer, I'm going to eat it. So make sure it's just not there. And if I had to get in the car and drive three miles to get something, or 10 miles, I'm probably not going to do it at 8 or 10 o' clock at night. So the first thing you'll want to do is to focus on filling your fridge with delicious, non starchy veggies. There are things like broccoli and kale and tomatoes and bok choy and peppers and asparagus and cauliflower and lots more. You can eat as many of those as you like. Unlimited refills. You want to limit the fruits because they increase your insulin, but berries are your best bet. And when possible, choose organic, local, seasonal produce. Next thing I want you to do is stock up on the dry foods. These are for your pantry. These are staple foods and they have a longer shelf life and they include things like raw or lightly roasted nuts and seeds, legumes, quinoa, gluten free grains. Next, I want you to include herbs and spices and seasonings. You're going to want to have a whole range of pantry ingredients and including seasonings and spices on hand. And I want you to buy organic when you can because you only use a little of these and 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 oil or butter, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and lots of seasonings and spices. Just read your labels to be sure they don't contain hidden sugar or gluten or other problem additives. Next, I want you to get in the habit of of keeping your fridge and your freezer stocked with good protein. I would check out the Environmental Working Group's Meat Eater's Guide to choose the meat that's good for you and good for the planet. There's also a lot of optimal protein choices. Skinless, boneless chicken, turkey breasts, ground chicken and turkey, grass fed beef, lamb, bison, omega 3 eggs or farm eggs. Whole forms of non GMO soy food like tofu, tempeh, gluten free misu and wild seafood like sardines and salmon and herring and floundering clams and lots more that are low in mercury. And I want you to avoid those fish that are really high in mercury such as tuna, swordfish and Chilean sea bass. Now you might need some inspiration. It's easy just to say, well I'll buy tons of veggies and some fruit and some healthy meats and fats, but what are you going to do with all that food? Well, my new cookbook, the Eat Fat, Get Thin cookbook not only goes through a step by step guide of how to makeover your kitchen, but it features over 175 mouth watering recipes to help you get healthy and stay healthy. Now I've included breakfast dishes, smoothies, some vegan meals, plenty of options for lunch and dinner and even desserts. Guess what? Desserts you get desserts. Eating food that's Good for you is not about feeling deprived. If you choose the right foods and and the right recipes, you can actually reap the benefits of a healthy lifestyle without feeling deprived. So if you're ready to eat foods that taste good and are good for you, foods that love you and that you love, be sure to check out the Eat Fat, Get Thin Cookbook, which is out on November 29th. Okay, now I want to hear from you. Have you done a kitchen makeover? How has it helped your eating habits? What have you found? Works for you? I want you to comment on my Facebook page and and if you like this video, share it with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter. And be sure to submit your questions to drhyman.com and maybe next week I'll make a house call to you.