After two decades treating heart disease, clogged arteries, and metabolic dysfunction, I began to notice a pattern. Many of my patients thought they were doing everything right — like exercising regularly and managing stress — yet they still ended up in my office with serious cardiovascular issues.

The common thread? Everyday food choices.

Some of the most harmful foods in the American diet don’t come with warning labels. Instead, they’re marketed as “heart smart,” “plant-based,” or “low-fat.” But behind the buzzwords are ingredients that fuel inflammation, spike blood sugar, and quietly damage your arteries over time.

As a cardiologist, there are nine American foods you couldn’t pay me to eat — not because I’m extreme, but because I’ve seen firsthand what they do to the human heart. 

They look harmless. They’re marketed with smiling cartoon mascots and sometimes even carry health claims. But most are essentially desserts in disguise. You might as well eat a glazed donut for breakfast!

That sugar spike doesn’t just leave you groggy by mid-morning. It triggers a surge in insulin, putting your metabolism into overdrive and, over time, wearing down your vascular system. I’ve seen patients develop insulin resistance, chronic fatigue, and cardiovascular complications — all linked to this morning ritual.

Eat this instead: Steel-cut oats with berries and cinnamon. Real fiber, antioxidants, and stable energy.

They’re portable and convenient, but this sandwich staple comes with a dark side. Deli meats are often preserved with nitrates and nitrites, which can convert into carcinogenic compounds inside the body.

These substances don’t just raise your cancer risk — they also elevate blood pressure and promote long-term arterial damage. If your “meat” has a shelf life longer than your dog, your arteries are paying the price.

Eat this instead: Roast your own turkey or chicken breast and slice it fresh.

These beverages deliver a double blow to your system: spiking blood sugar, overworking your adrenal glands, and flooding your body with inflammatory compounds.

And the “diet” versions? Often worse. Artificial sweeteners can disrupt your gut microbiome, which plays a huge role in both metabolism and heart health. Not only do they age you faster, but they can make you feel worse while doing it.

Eat this instead: Sparkling water with lemon or iced herbal tea.

Yes, they’re delicious. But deep-fried foods like corn dogs, funnel cake, and French fries are cooked in industrial seed oils that oxidize at high temperatures, forming potentially toxic byproducts.

Those byproducts embed in your artery walls, promote plaque buildup, and raise your risk of hypertension, stroke, and heart attacks. I tell patients to imagine each fried bite as sandpaper on your arteries. It’s not an exaggeration.

Eat this instead: Oven-baked options using olive or avocado oil.

When you strip a grain of its fiber, minerals, and nutrients, you’re left with a food that acts like sugar in the body. That includes white bread, crackers, and even many “multi-grain” imposters.

They break down quickly, spiking glucose, leading to crashes, fat storage, and insulin resistance. Over time, that means higher risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Eat this instead: 100% whole grain or sprouted grain bread.

Once marketed as a heart-healthy butter alternative, margarine turned out to be one of the biggest nutrition myths of the last century. Many versions still contain trans fats, which are chemically engineered to extend shelf life, but do real damage to your body.

Trans fats raise LDL (bad) cholesterol, lower HDL (good) cholesterol, and cause arterial stiffness. Even in small doses, they harm the endothelial lining of your blood vessels.

Eat this instead: Grass-fed butter or extra-virgin olive oil.

“Plant-based” doesn’t always mean heart-healthy. Many meat substitutes are ultra-processed, filled with sodium, inflammatory oils, and synthetic additives like methylcellulose and soy protein isolate.

Just because something doesn’t contain meat doesn’t mean it’s good for you. If it takes a chemistry degree to decode the label, it probably doesn’t belong in your body.

Eat this instead: Lentils, beans, or minimally processed tofu.

A single cup of canned soup can contain 80% to 100% of your daily sodium limit. Excess sodium raises blood pressure, strains the kidneys, and increases the risk of heart failure.

If you wouldn’t drink a glass of seawater, think twice before sipping that overly salty soup.

Eat this instead: Homemade soup with fresh vegetables, herbs, and sea salt to taste.

That morning splash of creamer is often a chemical cocktail: hydrogenated oils, artificial flavors, and added sugars. It may seem small, but day after day, it adds up — promoting inflammation and arterial plaque before you’ve even left the house.

Eat this instead: Unsweetened almond or oat milk with cinnamon or vanilla extract.

I’ll never touch any of these foods, but you don’t need to overhaul your entire diet overnight. Small swaps add up, and your bloodwork will prove it. And of course, consult with your healthcare provider before making any drastic changes.

Dr. Sanjay Bhojraj, MD, is a board-certified interventional cardiologist and certified functional medicine doctor. A pioneer at the intersection of precision cardiology and lifestyle medicine, he is the founder of Well12, a wellness program helping individuals reverse chronic disease through nutrition, breathwork, and genomic insights. Dr. Bhojraj is also a national educator for the Institute for Functional Medicine. Follow him on Instagram.

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Before he became a farmer, Joshua Morgenthau planned to pursue a career in art.

He graduated from Yale University with a degree in painting in 2006, but just two years later, he instead took on the task of reviving his family’s struggling Hudson Valley farm.

Morgenthau, now 41, is the owner and operator of Fishkill Farms, a 112-year-old apple farm in Hopewell Junction, New York.

Since he took charge of the farm 17 years ago, he’s transformed it into a popular fall destination for families across the Northeast.

Fishkill Farms was founded in 1913 by Joshua’s grandfather Henry Morgenthau, a lifelong agriculture enthusiast who served as the United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1934 to 1945.

Since then, the farm has remained in the family, with ownership passing to Joshua’s father Robert Morgenthau in the 1960s and then to Joshua after Robert’s death in 2019.

Morgenthau, who grew up in Manhattan, has fond memories of spending his childhood summers at Fishkill Farms. “I really fell in love with the place,” he recalls.

So when Fishkill’s longtime farm manager retired in 2008, Morgenthau stepped up to help his father decide the future of the farm.

It was a “make-or-break moment” for Fishkill, Morgenthau says: they could either try to save the farm, which was floundering financially, or they could sell the property, likely to developers.

With his father’s support, Morgenthau decided to take charge of the farm.

“I didn’t have any agricultural training, or think that this was what I necessarily was going to do,” he says, “but it was very important for me to see it continue as a farm.”

When Morgenthau took over running the farm in 2008, he saw a statistic that “really lit a fire under my behind,” he says: every three days, one farm in New York state was sold to developers.

“That tide is not one that reverses,” he says. “At the end of the day, I feel a sort of duty to preserve the land and keep going here.”

The learning curve for farming is “extremely steep,” Morgenthau says, and the margin of error is “very, very slim.”

With little practical experience in agriculture, Morgenthau threw himself into researching horticulture and eco-friendly farming practices. He’s passionate about sustainable farming, he says, and under his leadership, Fishkill Farms has eliminated the use of synthetic fertilizers and significantly reduced the use of synthetic herbicides since 2010.

Apples are still Fishkill Farms’ primary crop, and they currently cultivate over 80 different varieties. The farm also grows peaches, cherries, nectarines, pears, pumpkins, flowers and a variety of seasonal vegetables.

Morgenthau relies on a staff of around 20 full-time, year-round employees and over 100 seasonal workers to operate the farm.

“People have a sort of idyllic idea of farming as this romantic, simple pastime,” he says, but to succeed as a modern farmer, “you have to be part-biologist, part-CEO.”

Today, picking your own produce is a trendy fall pastime, but Fishkill Farms has offered the activity for decades.

As Morgenthau tells it, Fishkill Farms began allowing customers to pick their own fruit after a major hailstorm damaged their crop in the 1980s.

The farm couldn’t sell the blemished apples to supermarkets or wholesale chains, Morgenthau says, so in “an act of desperation,” his father and the farm manager invited neighbors to pick apples for a fee.

They ended up making more money than they did selling the produce wholesale, Morgenthau says, and “there was no going back after that.”

“This was an outlet that allowed us to cut out the middleman and to get customers and the local community coming to the farm,” he says.

According to Morgenthau, pick-your-own fruit is still Fishkill Farms’ primary attraction, with “peak season” occurring in September and October.

Of the farm’s approximately 100,000 yearly visitors, about 65% visit during those two months, Morgenthau says, and the farm brings in about 50% of its yearly revenue in that period.

“At least half of our traffic for the year is probably occurring on maybe 12 or 15 days of the year,” he says.

Visitors hail from all five boroughs of New York City, as well as New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.

A classic pick-your-own apple package, available by reservation only, costs $48 for a weekday visit and $58 for weekends. Each classic package includes admission for up to 5 people and a half-bushel bag to fill with fruit.

During peak season, the farm provides a “full-day experience” for visitors, including live music, hayrides, a pumpkin patch, food trucks and a corn maze.

“We sort of switch what we’re doing from being farmers to running a bit of a carnival, or a festival,” Morgenthau says.

Visitors can also purchase fresh produce, baked goods and local cheeses from the farm store, or taste hard cider made from Fishkill’s own apples at the farm’s Treasury Cider bar.

Since taking over the farm, Morgenthau’s primary goal has been to diversify Fishkill’s revenue streams.

“Our gross revenue has grown to over $4 million in 2024, from only about $350,000 in 2008,” he says, “but expenses commonly run just as high.”

Relying on pick-your-own fruit for most of the farm’s income is “untenable,” as Morgenthau found out during a disastrous fall season in 2023.

That year, the farm’s pick-your-own fruit activities were “rained out” almost every weekend in September and October. Financially, “it was the worst season we’ve ever had,” Morgenthau says.

“I was very concerned that we weren’t going to be able to weather another season like that and stay in business,” he recalls.

The farm experienced better weather in 2024, but the experience underscored for Morgenthau the importance of exploring other sources of income.

“The goal has been how to shift our business away from one season to an all-season business. We’re moving in that direction, but it takes time,” he says.

The farm now offers strawberry and cherry picking in the summer, Morgenthau says, and he recently planted a grove of fir trees in hopes of expanding into cut-your-own Christmas trees in the next few years.

Even today, farming is a “hand to mouth” endeavor, Morgenthau says: it’s a “really tough business with razor-thin profits and tremendous risk.”

“You have to do it for the love, not the money,” he continues.

That love for the land is what Morgenthau hopes to share with visitors.

“Especially as our lives are moving more and more out of the physical world into the digital world, coming to a farm and picking produce is a really, really meaningful experience,” he says.

This story has been updated to more accurately reflect Fishkill Farms synthetic herbicide use.

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Gone are the days of fad diets and restriction. Social media users are leaving those trends behind for a new approach: intuitive eating.

Intuitive eating “focuses on trusting your hunger cues. You decide what to eat and how much based on that,” says Jinan Banna, registered dietitian and professor of nutrition at the University of Hawaii.

“It really rejects diet culture. It avoids judgments around food, and it puts the focus on trusting your body.”

This more mindful way of thinking about food is resonating with folks online, particularly on TikTok. Under the hashtag ”#intuitiveeating”, there are more than 200,000 posts on the platform of users discussing how their relationships with food changed for the better when they stopped tracking macronutrients and just started eating when they were hungry.

Though the trend has grown in popularity recently, it’s something that Taylor Swift seems to have been practicing 15 years ago.

“During the week, I try to eat healthily, so that means salads, yogurt, and sandwiches. No sugary drinks. I try to keep it lighter,” Swift told WebMD in 2010.

“But it’s nothing too regimented or crazy. I don’t like to create too many rules where I don’t need them. We know what’s good for us, thanks to common sense.”

Swift allowed herself to eat her “comfort foods” like ice cream, cookies and burgers on weekends, and get her favorite drinks from Starbucks like spiced pumpkin lattes.

“I’m never cutting out what I love,” she said.

Banna confirms that Swift’s approach to eating in 2010 aligns with intuitive eating. And it’s a practice that she recommends.

“We should not have an extremely rigid approach to eating. It is a fact that all foods can fit in moderation,” she says.

“Having a very rigid mindset is not helpful and can potentially create some problems when it comes to body image and when it comes to relationships with food.”

Research shows that intuitive eating is associated with better psychological health, a lower risk of disordered eating behaviors, a lower frequency of overeating and a better chance of stabilizing weight.

When a person shifts to intuitive eating, it may feel difficult to give themselves permission to eat all foods, Banna says. Sometimes this can cause people to eat beyond being full once they regain access to foods they stopped allowing themselves to eat, she notes.

It’s important to distinguish the difference between actual hunger and emotional hunger or eating out of boredom. There are clear differences between them, depending on the symptoms.

“If you are physically hungry, you might feel tired, irritable, or find that your stomach is rumbling. You will likely be satisfied by any type of food,” Banna says.

“But if you are experiencing emotional hunger, your stomach may be quiet. You might be craving something specific, and it might be in response to seeing an advertisement for food or feeling stressed. You might feel guilty about eating in that case.”

Keep in mind that “it is a good idea to accept the idea that you can consume all foods in moderation, and there are no good and bad foods absolutely,” she says.

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The IRS announced a raft of changes to tax rules for tax year 2026 on Thursday, including higher brackets for capital gains tax.

A quick reminder of how these work. If you sell an investment you hold in a taxable account for more than you paid for it, you realize a capital gain. Profits on investments you’ve held for a year or less are taxed at your regular income tax rate (the IRS announced boosts to those brackets, too).

Profits on assets you’ve held for longer than a year are subject to the long-term capital gains rate, which, depending on your income, is either 0%, 15% or 20%.

The upshot of the IRS changes is that you can make more money next year and still qualify for a lower rate on your gains. For the purposes of these brackets, the IRS looks at your taxable income, found by subtracting any deductions, standard or itemized, from your gross income for the year.

For 2026, individuals with taxable income up to $49,450 qualify for the 0% rate, as do married couples filing jointly with incomes up to $98,900.

Individual filers qualify for the 15% rate if they earn $545,500 or less, as do married joint filers earning up to $613,700. Exceed those amounts, and you’ll owe 20% on your gains.

The new rates apply for investments you sell in the next calendar year, but it’s still worth thinking about your tax picture for 2025. The last quarter of the year is a popular time for investors and their financial planners to think about capital gains. That’s because, if you sold something at a profit this year, you still have until Dec. 31 to lower your tax burden.

Should you own any investments that are currently worth less than what you paid for them, selling them will trigger a capital loss, which the IRS allows you to use to offset gains you’d otherwise owe tax on.

At first, like must offset like: short-term losses offset short-term gains, and long-term losses offset long-term gains. From there, any excess losses can be used to negate the opposite kind of gain.

Selling underperforming investments to offset gains you’ve earned from your winners is a strategy known as “tax-loss harvesting.” If you have taxable gains from earlier this year, talk to a financial professional to see if the strategy makes sense for you and to avoid running afoul of any IRS rules.

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Florence Poirel was earning about $390,000 a year in Zurich, Switzerland, as a senior program manager at Google when she decided to walk away in 2024.

The now-37-year-old wasn’t unhappy with her job. “By the time I left Google, I was absolutely not in a position of burnout,” she tells CNBC Make It. “The team was pleasant. The work was pleasant enough as well.”

What pushed her instead was clarity. “I realized how much quality time with the people I love is the most important,” she says.

That included her partner, Jan, a fellow Googler who is 17 years her senior. After meeting him in 2017, she realized she had to rethink traditional retirement. “I could not just wait for retirement to enjoy my time with him because he would be much older at that time,” she says.

Poirel had always been a diligent saver, but the realization inspired her to start following the FIRE movement — short for “financial independence, retire early” — which emphasizes saving and investing aggressively to leave the workforce early.

“That’s when it hit me that I didn’t need to keep on climbing that ladder. I had reached the point when it was just enough — and I was happy and free to do something else,” she says.

By January 2024, she had saved up about $1.5 million, and in April of that year, she and Jan quit their jobs. Poirel calls her break a “mini-retirement” — setting aside enough cash to cover 18 months — although she has no firm plans for when, or if, she’ll return to full-time work.

“I’m not particularly antsy about going back to employment,” she says. “I thought that would be by now, but I really enjoy the daily life that we’ve created in this mini retirement.”

Poirel’s willingness to make big changes isn’t new. In 2013, she was in a marketing job in Belgium she didn’t like. On the way home after a long week, she told a colleague she felt unfulfilled, and he replied with the French phrase “qui ne tente rien n’a rien” — he who risks nothing has nothing.

The words stayed with her throughout that weekend. Poirel says she realized she needed the “courage to do something different” to be happy.

The following Monday, she quit. She decided to move to Dublin, Ireland — a tech hub in Europe — with no job and no connections. Soon after arriving, she landed a contract role at Google earning about $60,000, working in content safety and moderation, which began her career at the company.

Poirel’s risk paid off. She spent more than a decade at Google, rising steadily through new teams and promotions. In 2017, she transferred from Dublin to Zurich, where she moved into project management and eventually senior leadership roles, raising her salary to $390,000 by 2024.

Once Poirel had reached her goal of $1.5 million in savings in January 2024, it was just a matter of deciding when to make the leap. For someone who describes herself as “risk-averse” when it comes to money, it wasn’t easy to walk away from her high-paying job.

“Saying no to this kind of income can be daunting, for sure,” Poirel says.

But she hasn’t looked back. In mini-retirement, she spends her days swimming in Lake Zurich, providing career coaching for women and traveling abroad with Jan. “I thought I would get bored very easily. But now, it’s been a year and a half and I still haven’t [had] a time of boredom,” she says.

While she might return to work, it will be on her terms, whether that’s working part-time or only doing what she finds fulfilling. Either way, she feels fortunate that she saved enough money to make that choice.

“Life is too short and life is beautiful and it’s too sad to spend most of that time spending it at work when we can spend it in beautiful nature with friends, family, loved ones, and doing things that make us truly happy,” she says.

All amounts are in U.S. dollars, converted from Swiss francs at the OANDA exchange rate of 1 CHF to 1.22 USD on May 31, 2025.

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