| If you been led to believe that peanut butter, almonds and spinach are good for you, today’s email might shock you and is important to read, because these 3 healthy foods could be contributing to health problems in your body.
Let’s take a quick look at why…
1. Peanut butter
While peanut butter does contain a small amount of protein and vitamins/minerals, the cons outweigh the pros on this food. First of all, peanuts contain one of the highest concentrations of aflatoxin, which is a mold toxin that is created in peanuts due to storage in moist conditions.
Peanut butter is also very high in inflammatory omega-6 fats and due to the processing of peanut butter, those omega 6 fats are in a harmful oxidized state. Most people already get too much omega 6 fats from vegetable oils (soy, corn, canola, etc), and this contributes to insulin resistance, heart disease, brain inflammation, cancer, and lots more health problems, since most people are currently eating 5-10x more omega-6 fats than we should be eating in a healthy diet.
Lastly, peanut butter also contains medium amounts of oxalates, which are plant-based antinutrients that when consumed in excess can contribute to kidney stones, thyroid and gut problems, joint problems and more. We’ll talk more about oxalates in the next food…
2. Spinach
Spinach is promoted as a healthy green, but contains FAR more downsides than good sides. Spinach is one of the highest oxalate foods that’s commonly eaten by modern humans (in addition to beet greens, beets, almonds, and other veggies and nuts).
The amount of oxalates in a serving of spinach is extremely high, up to 600 mg in a normal sized bowl. The “safe” amount of oxalates in a daily diet according to world renowned oxalate expert Sally Norton should be between 100-200 mg per day total to avoid a lot of the health problems caused by high oxalate plants. So you can see how concerning spinach is with the extremely high oxalate levels.
As mentioned above, eating too much oxalates too frequently can cause serious issues such as kidney stones, thyroid problems, gut damage, skin issues, and joint pain. In fact, some people have even gotten “oxalate poisoning” by eating green smoothies too often and had to go to the ER for kidney failure.
3. Almonds
Although almonds and almond milk are marketed as healthy, they also contain many downsides, including all of the negatives mentioned above about too much omega 6 fats and too much oxalates. They’re probably ok in your diet occasionally, but I personally avoid eating almonds too often because of these issues with excess oxalates and omega 6 fats. |
