Out of sight, out of mouth and mind. That’s Dr. Sears’ feeling about most grains and starches. Grab any processed starch you can find (breakfast cereals, flour, crackers, pasta, bread, bagels, muffins, cookies, cake, breadsticks, granola bars, and so on) and put all these products into a trash bag. Fill another trash bag with traditional starches like rice, potatoes, and grains. But you can keep barley and steel-cut oats if you have them on hand. Now look in your pantry to see if you have products rich in sugar, such as fruit rollups, chocolate, or candy. Put these in a bag as well. Now scour your kitchen for dangerous fats: butter, margarine, Crisco, lard, and most important, vegetable oils such as soybean, corn safflower and sunflower. Don’t even try to save them, just throw them out. Now take all these bags with unopened high glycemic-load products to the local food bank. As hard as it may be to remove these foods from your kitchen, your body will thank you later. These items are the worst offenders when it comes to raising insulin levels and increasing silent inflammation. These fall into the category of either high glycemic-load carbohydrates or pro-inflammatory fats. They are, literally, poison to your future wellness.
Your kitchen might be looking a little bare at this point. Not to worry. You are about to fill it up again—this time with low glycemic-load carbohydrates, such as fruits and vegetables. You’ll also add the right kinds of protein and fat.
People usually buy fresh produce with the best of intentions, but time usually conspires against them. Salad greens wilt, berries become moldy, peaches become mushy, and we often end up throwing our money in the garbage. The easiest way around this is to simply buy only two or three days’ worth of produce at a time. Good idea, but highly unlikely in today’s world with its growing time constraints. Instead, stock up on frozen fruits and vegetables. Not only are they less expensive than fresh items, but also they are surprisingly more nutritious. This is because only the ripest fruits and vegetables are frozen. What’s more, they are frozen soon after harvesting, which seals in their vitamins and phytochemicals. Fresh produce, on the other hand, will lose many of these nutrients when it is transported and stored.
Canned fruits and vegetables are more problematic. You have to avoid any that are floating in sweetened syrups, which are added during the canning process. (The high sugar content reduces bacterial growth.) Also, canned produce often contains a much lower vitamin content than frozen produce. Nonetheless, they still make a better choice for Zone carbohydrates than the high glycemic-load carbohydrates that you donated to the local food bank.
Look for low-fat sources of prot