Regrettable Substitutions

November 12, 2018

Sometimes, in an effort to avoid one toxin or "known evil", we end up ingesting or applying something just as bad, or worse.

BPAs are a great example of this. They became Public Enemy #1 (with good reason) several years ago due to their estrogen-mimicking compounds but, when the FDA banned baby bottles made with Bisphenol A, those chemicals were replaced with Bisphenol S -- which recent research has shown to be harmful also. Shockingly, there is no federal regulation requiring a product's toxicity to be tested before it is allowed on the market, so we're all basically guinea pigs. OY.

Diet soda is another one of these regrettable substitutions. While regular soda is by no means good for you, diet soda isn't any better and, in fact, can be worse as it contains artificial sweeteners which have been linked to depression, hyperactivity and a host of other issues. Fake sugars also have a damaging effect on our guts and have been shown to lead to weight GAIN, rather than the weight loss for which they were originally intended.

Ground beef has been so maligned in recent years that many of us made the switch to ground turkey in an effort to consume a protein source with lower fat content. But, as detailed previously, saturated fat is not to be feared -- especially when it is from high quality, grass-fed meat. If you just can't help yourself and still worry about fat content, know that ground beef actually has less fat than ground turkey (3 ounces of turkey has 9.7 grams of fat and 3 ounces of ground beef has 7.5 grams of fat, according to the USDA nutrient database). And as far as food quality goes, ground beef wins out in my book as well -- it is pretty easy to find grass-fed ground beef, but finding pastured, humanely-raised ground turkey is not simple at all, which means that most ground turkey out there is from a CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation). ICK.

I feel like the best way to go is just to avoid products that weren't around when your grandma was born. And the same goes for our food and beverages -- spend the extra money on whole, unprocessed foods from clean sources instead of being swayed by alternatives that seem too good to be true.