The food industry has a lot of dirty little secrets they don’t want you to know. Terminology that sounds straightforward, like “natural”, sounds so happy and clean but may not really mean much at all.
Let’s just dive right in and examine what “they” don’t want us to know!
1. Your Extra Virgin Olive Oil Isn’t What It Claims to Be
Olive oil isn’t a Beauty Food despite the common idea that there are several health benefits to consuming it. Olive oil (or any oil) isn’t found in nature, it’s processed. So I don’t recommend more than just an occasional splash on a salad or cooking at low temperatures.
An interesting article in The New Yorker points out that just because the bottle says you’re getting extra virgin olive oil, that doesn’t make it true. In some cases, extra virgin olive oil is cut with oils of inferior quality (sometimes olive oil, but sometimes other vegetable oils). The FDA says it doesn’t have the resources to test it. Who is looking out for us then? We are left, truly, to fend for ourselves and our own health. The article recommends purchasing your oil directly from the miller, if possible, so you can see it being made.
Instead of cooking with olive oil of questionable quality or sprinkling it onto your salads, get the fats you need from Beauty Fats, like coconut oil, avocados, nuts, and seeds or even whole olives. Don’t think that by replacing olive oil with vegetable oils, thinking that since the word “vegetable” is in the name, it must be good. Polyunsaturated fats like canola, corn, cottonseed grapeseed, safflower, soybean, and sunflower oxidize easily and aren’t whole foods either.
2. Artificial Coloring Lurks in Unexpected Places and Causes Hyperactivity in Kids
Artificial coloring serves one major purpose: to deceive the consumer. It makes not such great looking stuff look prettier. It makes otherwise bland-looking cereals irresistible to kids. Maybe you steer clear of those sugary cereals and the obvious candy and punch that you know contain dyes (um, Captain Crunch?!). But specially created dyes are in lots of other foods too- like added to food pellets to give farmed salmon a fresher, heathier pink look, while Yellow 5 even makes Mt. Olive and Vlassic jarred pickles look more appealing. Bread, too, often contains caramel coloring simply to look darker.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest warns that Red 40, Yellow 5, and six others contribute to “hyperactivity in children, cancer (in animal studies), and allergic reactions.” When you shop for whole, organic foods either in the supermarket or the farmer’s market, you’re seeing an array of natural beauty, and that feeds your Beauty Energy better than anything pumped full of dyes to look pretty ever could.
3. Free-Range, Cage-Free, and Natural Don’t Mean Much
Free-range may conjure up images of poultry being allowed to roam around in a large area outside, enjoying a nice life. Sadly, that’s not the case at all. It just means that they have (some) access to the outdoors. That doesn’t specify what has to be out there (like grass), how long they’re allowed outside, or the amount of space they’ll have to roam around in.
Cage-free simply means they poultry isn’t kept in cages. Again, this doesn’t mean they’re living a blissful life in wide-open spaces. The Huffington Post points out that this doesn’t even necessarily mean the chickens are allowed outside. They still may be barely able to move around. They’re simply not in cages.
Add those inhumane practices to the fact that poultry is often pumped full of salt to preserve the meat and make leaner cuts juicier, and the additives like medications, antibiotics, heavy metals, and even Prozac, caffeine, and banned antibiotics (did you know your chicken was depressed?) and you’re eating quite an unfriendly, toxic concoction every time you dig into non-organic poultry.
“Natural” is such a loose, generic term now that it doesn’t really mean a thing…though it does sound comforting. According to an excerpt from Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation at PBS.org, “a natural flavor is not necessarily healthier or purer than an artificial one.” The article goes on to explain that some ingredients are labeled as “artificial” simply because of the way they’re derived, while something considered “natural” can contain cyanide from the use of peach and apricot pits. So in essence, “natural” should be taken with a (large) grain of salt.
4. Your Breakfast Cereal Isn’t as Healthy as You Think
Whole grains are good for you, but not everything that makes the “whole grain” claim is safe. It is not only the amount of sugar and oil that can be added to cereals to make them more appealing, but that the extrusion process itself, used to puff up certain types, can alter the proteins inside the grains and turn them into neurotoxins and wreak havoc on your digestive probiotics. Eat Beauty Grains that haven’t been put through the extrusion process. I love oat groats and steel-cut oats (Irish oatmeal), and my Raw Rolled Oat Cereal recipe is a quick, delicious breakfast alternative to boxed cereals. You can cook your oatmeal, too, of course, but just steer clear of those packets of instant oatmeal with lots of extra sugar, salt, and other additives.
5. Artificial Sweeteners Make You Fat
Different research has shown that using aspartame, saccharine, and acesulfame potassium, and other artificial sweeteners can lead to more weight gain than the sugar you’re trying to avoid. It confuses your body when you feed it something sweet with no calories to go along with it; that leads to more cravings.
So is eating refined sugar okay? No. It will cause wrinkles, dark circles under the eyes, weight gain, and cause constipation. It steals your Beauty Energy and disrupts your body’s ability to consume nutrients and use enzymes. There are plenty of naturally sweet fruits to consume once your body has been cleaned. If you really need to add sweeteners to your food, I recommend small amounts of raw coconut nectar, raw honey (from a bee keeper that uses ethical practices) maple syrup, or stevia. And agave is also big no-no!!
6. Calorie Counts Are Often Wrong
According to the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the calorie counts in pre-packaged and restaurant food are not exactly accurate. According to fast food meals averaged 18 percent more calories than stated, while frozen meals from the supermarket averaged eight percent more than their nutrition facts labels claimed. Some restaurant meals actually had up to 245% more of the estimated calories.
Good thing Beauty Detox isn’t about calorie counting in the first place. It’s so much simpler to prepare and eat Beauty Dishes at home because it frees you from hidden calories and the need to count calories at all. You’ll still lose weight, but your mind will be more focused on enjoying the colorful, beautifying foods in front of you that provide you all the essential vitamins than staying caught up in the numbers. But even if you do count, you’ll be far better off and have a much more accurate idea if you limit pre-packaged foods and stick to whole foods.
7. The Main Thing the Food Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know
The main thing the food industry doesn’t want you to know is that they don’t care about you. They care about their bottom line- not your health. Period. They will omit details and use buzzwords to draw consumers in. Labels saying “more protein’ or “reduced fat’ can still have increased amounts of refined flour and sugar, more preservatives, etc. 
Generic, catchy phrases like “higher in protein”, “low-fat”, “no sugar added”, “whole grains”, “diet by blood type”. and “heart-healthy” aren’t always as straightforward as they appear, and the food has often been strategically manipulated in other ways—mostly with salt, sugar, and fat as well as preservatives, so that it still tastes good enough to get you hooked. If you’re eating pre-packaged, processed foods without combing through the ingredients lists first, you could be falling victim to marketing tactics.
The truth is, you’re almost never going to find Beauty Foods in the center aisles of the store, with the exception of some seeds and nuts and you’ll be healthier, more beautiful, and less stressed about shopping if you avoid those pre-packaged foods altogether. You’ll actually save money in the end, because whole foods, especially in bulk, can end up saving you more that all the pre-made stuff.
How to Get Around the Deception
The easiest way to get around most of the deception is to shop the perimeter of the store and visit farmers’ markets. Stock up on fresh, in-season, organic vegetables and fruits and skip processed, packaged items in the middle of the store. Check out our infographic to help you navigate your grocery store! Choose whole foods, and don’t let “them” aka the food industry load up your body with hidden chemicals, sugars, and other nasty ingredients that will drag down your healthy and energy.
So true! The food industry cares nothing for us. I cringe when I think back on the days when I used to make nachos for us while my son was little, using ground turkey, shredded cheese and orange colored Doritos. I began making changes long ago and slowly have gotten all of the processed foods out of our diets. When I see people eating those addictive snacks now, all I see are puffed chemicals going into their mouths.
Kimberly, I’m a huge fan of yours. I’ve read both of your books and tell everyone I know about your glowing green smoothie which I drink everyday! I am so happy to see you mention the deception of the olive oil industry and Tom Mueller’s article in the New Yorker. My husband and I own an olive oil tasting bar in Calgary AB called Blue Door Oil and Vinegar. Our olive oil is sourced by Veronica Foods out of California. They are pinoneers in the EVOO industry and are committed to sourcing fresh, high quality olive oil from around the world. All their oils are tested by a third party lab to ensure they meet the standards for extra virgin. Tom Mueller’s website truthinoliveoil.com lists shops in North America where you can find the best fresh EVOO. When it’s real, extra virgin and fresh, olive oil has incredibly high levels of polyphenols. Also, the smoke point is higher when it’s fresh because the free fatty acid content is lower (ours is all less than .01%). So while you probably shouldnt cook woth most grocery store olive oil, you can cook with good, fresh olive oil! Freshness is key when it comes to olive oil!
It is scary how big business only cares about the bottom line. Pharma companies want us to be sick. Big banks want us to be dumbed down and killed off. Don’t mean to sound like a conspiracy theorist but I can’t wait to get out of the city and back to the woods of NH were farms are everywhere and they care for the soil and nature. Thank you for educating us. And you reap what you sow as you are extremely beautiful. Keep up the great work.
Sean
It’s amazing the way the food industry tries to get us to believe their little adds to make us buy products that we think are good for us. It’s too bad they can get away with this! Buying smart, eating smart is truly the best way to stay healthy (:
Can u plz blog about the Paleo diet. i mean is it healthy or not? thanks
What do you think about organic extra virgin cold pressed olive oil….what else would you recommend for salad drag. If your gluten free ……thanks for any help…..PS. is there a place you can order olive oil that is pure and good for you and not outdated??
I love Detox Beauty and am a follower, but I appreciate positive info and tips – the “do’s” along with the “dont’s.” Choose this not that, etc. Thank you
I love the fact that finally this information is getting out there for all to know the TRUTH!! Thank you so much for this latest post. The world today is so uninformed a bout these kinds of things & they don’t realize how this is contributing to the obesity problem that is so overwhelming in Americans today. When I go to my local grocery store & I seeall of the processed garbage that I see them buying especially the ones with children it just saddens me b/c it is not their fault, they just don’t know the truth. Maybe little by little this truth will get to more & more people & finally the state that Americans are in will gradually get better. I sure hope so. It is about time!!
What assholes…..they want us all dying of cancer so that the bigger assholes can make money off of our insurance…. Go organic people get with the program save ur life
Hi Kimberly! My husband and I have been followers of yours for the past two years. A staple in our diet is your glowing green smoothie., which we love. Unfortunately, my husband has a chronic kidney stone condition that necessitates my eliminating spinach from the smoothie. Can you recommend an alternative? Thanks so much! Your devoted fan, Summer
Hi Kimberly,
Have you heard of the petition recently for Kraft? Dr Oz has mentioned this petition a few weeks ago. Last I heard about it Kraft continues to ignore this expanding issue of food dyes used in the US while Kraft in the UK uses natural coloring spices such as turmeric…
https://www.change.org/petitions/kraft-stop-using-dangerous-food-dyes-in-our-mac-cheese
I like to have steel cut oats in the morning sometimes, but they’re not gluten free. Are gluten-filled oats still healthy?
Very interesting article, I have been eating what I thought was an organic diet for 20 years and I believed I knew just about everything when it came to my food. I was brought to school by Kimberly and learned some incredible things about my olive oil, eggs and cereals that will truly benefit me from now on!
Hi Kimberly,
Do we need to be worried that “NON GMO”, “ORGANIC” is accurate and true? I feel as if even those could be loose terms as I dont know the true standards of how “organic” it is. For example the organic tomatoes from Mexico… Also what is your view on ‘hot house’ tomatoes and cucumbers? I asked the grocer and in Canada at least they do not use pesticide, rather lady bugs… but I am not clear on the remaining conditions… Would love to hear your thoughts!
Thank you!
Annika
Hi Kimberly,
Can you please do a blog article about how to get rid of melasma (liver spots, age spots, brown spots). I have quite a lot on my face and would like to know what I can and should be doing to rid of them as much as possible.
Thank you
Great article! I’ve never used agave, but why do you think so many “healthy recipes” recommend it?
This is good reading. I ask questions when buying eggs, like what do you feed them, how long are they outside, do they eat grass etc. BD:)
Kim – you are an inspiration to every human being that walks the grocery store with caution and concern. Eating whole healthy foods is the only path for those that want to enjoy life to its fullest. Courage in choice helps to guide our destiny.
Love u,
Betty
Thanks for Sharing.. Really Interesting and Informative.
Thank you Kimberly for your wonderful advice. It is so sad in this world we live in that our food can actually be so unhealthy for us. Most consumers are not aware of how unhealthy they are eating. I live by if its not grown on a plant and made in a plant , don’t eat it.
Great post. I’ve started looking very carefully at what I eat and whilst I was aware of most of this, it’s a great article and helps keep me in check!
This is invaluable information! Thank you so much for keeping us informed and take charge of our health! Very Empowering information!!
Great article! It’s a shame that no one is concerned about the consumer, making it all the more important that we educate ourselves. Thanks for keeping it real in the truest sense, and empowering the rest of us to do the same!!
Hi Kim :-). I love your philosophy. I never buy books that are indorsed or hyped by anyone. I make my own decision on what my needs are or what i want. But i believed in you cause i was raised on your ways of thr “bible” @diet what god put on earth is what should go in our body. Love everything you do and preach. Bought both booksa and loved theme. Keep it up
What about eggs? If you don’t know someone who has backyard chickens, and can’t trust the Organic Cage-free varieties from say Whole Foods, what do you recommend? Any brands where the chickens actually do roam free eating grass? What about VITAL FARMS brand? Thanks!
i’ve read her book and it mentions eating rolled oaks for breakfast.. what’s the difference between rolled oats and flake oats
like why does she always say rolled oats and not flake oats are good too
there must be some reason, i just want to know what it is