Lasting change is not made without a little bit of inconvenience, even when you replace a bad habit with a good habit.

Beware refined foods! They look so pure and white, but they can be horrors to your body. Many years ago, eating white flour and white sugar was a sign of affluence. These days, I’d consider the eating of refined foods as a sign of ignorance.

This week we’re going to get rid of all the refined foods in your diet. Out goes white bread, white salt and white sugar. In comes good old-fashioned wholemeal flour, sea salt and honey. It’s not hard to do – it just takes a little thought.

Most people put better fuel into their cars than they do into their bodies. Would you put low-grade or substandard oil and petrol into your car? Probably not, but most people don’t think twice about putting low-grade food into their bodies. And, unlike cars, you can’t go out and buy a new body if this one breaks down.

A diet high in refined foods can dictate the shape and health of your body. The lack of nutrients and the high level of additives in refined foods can put an almighty strain on your body. If it can’t excrete the additives, your body deals with these toxins by surrounding them with a layer of fat or by smothering the toxin with mucus. In my opinion, cellulite is merely pockets of toxins buffered by fat particles. Once you begin to eat good whole organic foods that the body has evolved to eat and start cleaning your system out, the cellulite begins to disappear.

The second way the body combats the bad aspects of refined foods is to increase mucus production. This can increase your risk of colds, flu, nasal congestion and sinus problems. Clean up the foods you eat and you’ll also clean up your sinuses.

Going from a refined food diet to a wholefood diet can be a bit of a shock to the system, especially if you try to do it overnight. This dramatic change can initially make you feel worse rather than better. But after feeling unwell for up to ten days, there’s a gradual increase in strength, vitality and general wellbeing. Gradually changing the diet avoids this shock to the system.

Look at it this way – your body uses good wholesome foods just like we use soap. If we take a bath or shower every day, we’re clean in a few minutes. But if we don’t bathe for months, it takes a lot more time and a lot more soap to clean off the grime and impurities. Some people recommend fasting as a good way to cleanse the body. Many people who fast find that they feel sick and nauseous for five or ten days. This is because, as the body cleanses itself, all the stored toxins in the system are released. These toxins flow into the bloodstream and then out of the body via the skin, nasal passages, lungs and urine.

The gall bladder and liver excrete excess bile (and sometimes even gallstones) into our intestines for elimination. Joints that contain an excess of acid (which causes arthritic pain or gout), begin to clean themselves out. And finally, medications or chemical food additives which the body has stored in buffer zones are released and eliminated. I do not endorse prolonged fasting, but detoxifying your body with good wholesome foods is a must for good health. Think of fresh fruit and vegetables as your ‘soap’ – together with clean water, you can use them to wash away the toxins.

More and more frequently, direct correlations are being made between our diets and many modern-day ailments. Most people in the thirty-five to forty age group who have had diets heavy in refined foods will find themselves with one or more of these ailments: headaches, chronic infections, eating disorders, varicose veins, haemorrhoids, indigestion, stomach upsets, bad circulation, depression, exhaustion or chronic fatigue syndrome. After years of a refined food diet, you believe that the way you feel is normal. But once you’ve made the switch to wholefoods, you’ll have so much vigour and energy you’ll wonder how you ever got by before!

There are plenty of alternatives to refined foods – some are legitimate, some are complete scams. Be careful when choosing wholemeal foods. The wholemeal pasta you like may be white pasta, which has been dyed brown. I kid you not! I remember once buying some brown bread, only to find it was white bread that had been dyed brown. It was noticeable, because they hadn’t mixed in the dye properly, so parts of the loaf were still white. Needless to say, that was the last time I bought bread from that bakery! By law brown bread must contain 50 per cent wholemeal flour.

So, it’s time to take a serious look at the pantry and to get rid of the nasties. Read back through the earlier chapters, and make sure that your fridge or pantry only contains good, wholesome organic foods.

Action steps

1. Stock the pantry full of wholefoods but, if it’s not, now is the time to go through your pantry and be ruthless.

2. Get rid of anything devoid of nutrition.

3. Replace all refined foods with healthy wholefood alternatives.