4. Remove Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Fruit Juices From Your Diet
Sugar is bad news… but sugar consumed in a liquid form is even worse.
Studies show that the brain doesn’t “register” liquid sugar calories in the same way as it does calories from other foods (17, 18).
So you might drink several hundred calories of soda in one day (not uncommon), but your brain doesn’t take them into account when it is trying to control your energy balance.
If you were to add a whole food to your diet, you would automatically eat less of other foods instead. In other words, your brain would “compensate” for those added calories.
That doesn’t happen with liquid sugar calories. Your brain doesn’t compensate for them, so you end up taking in more than you need.
One study shows that consuming a single serving of sugar-sweetened beverages per day is linked to a 60% increased risk of obesity in children (19).
Many other studies support this… sugar-sweetened beverages may be the most fattening aspect of the modern diet (20).
Keep in mind that fruit juice is just as bad. It contains the same amount of sugar as a sugary soft drink (21).
Bottom Line: Sugar may be the single worst ingredient in the modern diet, but consuming it in a liquid form is even worse.
5. Start Exercising…Do Something You Enjoy and Can Stick to
Exercise is one of the most important things you can do for both physical and mental health, as well as disease prevention.
On its own, it is unlikely to lead to significant weight loss (22).
However… it can help improve your body composition. You may not be losing weight, but you may be losing some fat and gaining a bit of muscle instead (23).
Exercise leads to so many benefits that it is beyond the scope of this article to list all of them… but let’s just say that exercise is highly protective against pretty much any chronic, Western disease (24).
It is also incredibly beneficial for mood, well-being and avoiding depression, which is a very common problem today (25, 26, 27).
When it comes to exercise, what you do exactly is not that important. What IS important is finding something that you enjoy doing and can stick to in the long run.
Although a combination of cardiovascular exercise and some type of resistance training may be the best, something as simple as walking also has incredibly powerful health benefits (28).
If you’ve already done steps 1-4, the function of your hormones should have improved and your energy levels increased, so starting an exercise program may not be that hard.
Work your way up to doing some sort of exercise at least 3 times per week.
Bottom Line: Exercise is just as important as nutrition when it comes to optimal health. It can improve both physical and mental health, while being highly protective against most modern, chronic diseases.
6. Replace Simple Sugars, Refined Carbs and Processed Wheat With Other Healthier Whole Foods
Time to get rid of all the “bad” carbs.
Sugar and refined carbs are some of the unhealthiest aspects of the modern diet.
They’re low in nutrients and fiber and contribute to overeating, which brings with it a plethora of metabolic problems and diseases (29, 30).
Wheat is in a league of its own. Modern dwarf wheat, introduced around 1960, is low in nutrients compared to older varieties of wheat and is much worse for celiac patients and gluten sensitive individuals than older types of wheat (31, 32, 33).
Instead of the “bad” carbs, choose healthier carb sources instead. Vegetables, fruits, potatoes, sweet potatoes, healthier grains like rice, oats and quinoa, even legumes if you can tolerate them.
For now, let this suffice and don’t restrict total carb intake (not until step #8).
Whatever you do, just get rid of the sugar and processed carbs from your diet. Eat real food instead.
Bottom Line: Sugar and refined carbs are some of the most damaging aspects of the modern diet. It’s time to get rid of them and eat healthier car