Saturated Fat got Bum Rap

Pretty interesting research is starting to emerge about Fats and their effect of our bodies. The below study, a meta-analaysis published this month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, makes us further question where our medical advisors get their facts?

• Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease

WHAT THE BLAZES….?
Saturated fat doesn’t cause heart disease? If we can’t believe our doctors, who can we trust?

What an exciting decade we live in. Let’s keep challenging and have faith in our bodies and our heritage.

[Via http://52tweaks.co.nz]

Your Journey Month1-FOOD TRANSFORMATION

Yesterday we looked at four potential journeys in the FOOD TRANSFFORMATION. Once you have an idea of where you are currently, you can choose your challenge for the week and month from the list below. If you find that you are already doing the challenge, find a way (or ask) to do it better, or move on the the challenge for the next step. The order you do it in is not important. What is important is that you do what works for YOUR family and Don’t give up! Since the One year goal is to get become a Whole Foodie, there is no challenge for Whole Foodies. If you are a true, 100% Whole Foodie, you need to take the Nourished Kitchen challenge. You are beyond me, and you need to give ME tips! You may still find use in some of our recipes, or just humor in my posts.

All Boxed Up-Month 1

Challenge yourself to  make your own hamburger helpers. Buy separate pasta, meats, cheese and sauce. If you have to, read the back of a box you would normally buy and buy the ingredients instead. (You know the ones you can pronounce)

Bonus

While learning to make your own helpers add a veggie to each meal. The only “veggies” that cannot be used are potatoes in any form and corn in any form. Potatoes and corn are not actually vegetables, they are carbs and you are already getting carbs with your pasta.

Baked Not Fried-Month 1

Get rid of canned soups and packaged sauces like Lipton Onion Soup Mix. No more cream of anything on your meat. Learn to experiment with spices, and other types of jarred sauces. Read the ingredients on soups and soup mixes and buy them to make your own seasonings for your entres.

Bonus

Eat 2 completely fresh veggies every week instead of canned. Make a salad or try fresh steamed broccoli instead of frozen.

Healthier Than Thou-Month 1

Only buy organic produce whether canned, frozen or fresh. The only exceptions are things that can be peeled such as bananas, oranges, pineapple, etc. If the skin is edible, buy it organic. More fresh than canned or frozen.

Bonus

Add and extra fruit or veggie to each meal. Example-if a recipe calls for onions, garlic and bell pepper to go with your meat, that is not a veggie. Add an actual side dish fruit or veggie to EVERY meal.

Whole Foodies

I’d like to hear from you. What changes will YOU make this month?

[Via http://bewellconsultations.wordpress.com]

Welcome to my experiment in food!!

Hi, everyone!  Thanks for visiting my blog on the first post, and I hope you’ll come back regularly!  So let’s get right to it!

I have decided to start an experiment in personal nutrition.  Essentially, I am going to avoid any kind of processed foods for 30 days.  Why?  I’m not a spring chicken any more, and I can feel the effects of different foods and stuff on my body that ten years ago I would never have noticed.  So to see what, if any, impact a “typical” American diet is doing to me, I want to put only non-processed foods in my body for a 30 day period.  I’m not starting today, for a couple reasons: 1) I want to get a handle on what I’m eating now as my “staples” in my diet, 2) I want to get a handle on what the added costs will be (more on that in a coming post), and 3) I want to get input from others on what they eat, how they manage (if they do), and what impact such a radical change in lifestyle has had on their own and their families lives.

First, let me give you a quick run-down on me and my current lifestyle.  I’m a career man, work 50-ish hours a week in my job, and eat accordingly.  I don’t eat breakfast, basically ever.  When I do, it’s along the lines of Diet Coke and Jack in the Box breakfast sandwiches.  I rarely eat a balanced lunch, usually consisting of foods ranging from chili dogs to hand-made coldcuts sandwiches at home, to deli fare (local faves include Quiznos and a great local spot called “Newman’s Deli”).  Dinner is whatever I happen to have the energy for.

Bottom line, I eat a lot of processed foods.  Dinner tonite was a nice, healthy cobb salad, but with a rich, albeit tasty Ranch dressing.  Followed closely with a couple slices of whole wheat bread (yay!) and Country Crock butter (boo!).  On the good side I never add salt to any food I ever eat, and I don’t drink sugary soft drinks: gave that up long ago.  On the bad side, just about everything I eat, as most Americans do, is loaded with sodium.  I’m beginning to have problems with convincing myself I’m eating right, when one serving of a food contains one-fifth the amount of sodium we should consume in a single day!  I can’t ignore that any longer. 

I’m anxious to hear what other people have to say, and to hear what you’re doing to improve your lifes and you families lives through nutrition…  Please let me know!  And I’ll be posting here regularly as I get closer to launching my experiement, and will let everyone know how I’m doing as the experiment progresses!

And yes, this blog will be cleaned up quite a bit as time goes on, and I hope you’ll have the patience and interest to keep tabs on my progress, thoughts, and how I’m doing.

[Via http://noprocessedfoods.wordpress.com]

Diet Food Plans

A site I frequent (but not as frequently at FMyLife.com or PerezHilton) is CelebrityDietDoctor.com.  This post summarizes some of the current popular delivery diet plans, their costs and what other services they offer and is included in the cost.

Here’s the companies they cover:

• Nutrisystem
• Jenny Craig
• eDiets
• do-it-yourself plan (Kashi)
• Healthy Chef Creations

[Via http://iwantmysexyback.wordpress.com]

Day 19 – Legs and Back

I had a good workout today.  I was able to increase my reps/weight/time in almost all of the exercises, and it’s the first time I’ve noticed a real improvement on any pull-ups/chin-ups.  I’m still terrible at the wide-grip pull-ups, but the close-grip and the chin-ups I went up both sets.  Improved balance helped me increase my reps in the deadlift squats too.  I felt good about myself when I finished today, although my back is starting to tighten up now!  And that good feeling didn’t last long, because up next was ab ripper x!  I really pushed myself during it, and had a significant increase from last friday, up to 269 reps.  I find that pretty impressive, if I do say so myself, since the first time I did this ab workout three weeks ago, I only did 209, and now on the third day in a row that I’ve done some ab moves, I beat that by 60!  Only one more workout before the recovery week.

[Via http://likethebeanp90x.wordpress.com]

1 Day Weight loss

Trying to fit into that dress for that special party but can’t lose that extra few pounds that insist in staying even after hours of exercising?

I was, so I tried the diet below, but we gotta be careful. This diet must be 1 day only, just a way for you to fit into a dress without having to be starving for days because of that. If you follow for more than a day you can put your health at risk, also, please, do not try to eat the whole world back the day after ok?

So, here we have:

Breakfast
4oz Greek yogurt with
2 tbsp oats
1/2 fruit ( a serving size portion ) any fruit but banana

Morning snack
1 can of coconut water

Lunch
1 cup steamed vegetables seasoned with lemon juice and salt.
4oz grilled fish fillet or chicken breast
1 diet jello

Afternoon snack
A shake made with 2 dried plums and 5oz non fat milk

Dinner
a small bowl of your favorite kind of lettuce with
3 Brazil nuts or hazelnuts crushed and seasoned with
1 tsp olive oil and salt to taste
2 hard boiled eggs

Night snack
1 cup of non fat milk

Discipline and strong will is the secret for the day.

[Via http://gipsyblood.wordpress.com]

Why eating MORE will help you LOSE bodyfat and gain Lean Muscle

Eating to build muscle and lose fat at the same time is tricky, but extremely possible. I do it everyday!

If you ask a 100 different people their opinions about what percentage of their daily calorie intake should consist of protein, what percentage carbohydrates, and what percentage fats, you will probably get 100 different answers.

It’s no secret that losing body fat and gaining lean muscle is all calorie based. If you continually consume more calories than you burn off in a day, you will store the excess calories as body fat.

To lose body fat, you must create a calorie deficit, meaning you burn off more calories than you consume.

But we need calories just to survive. Where should these calories come from?

The nutritional breakdown I am about to give you is based
on “real world” results, not what is simply written in an out-dated nutrition book.

Results speak for themselves. Not only has this nutritional formula allowed me to stay lean and muscular year round, it has been used by many of my clients to achieve amazing results as well.

To burn body fat and build lean muscle tissue, follow the 50-20-30 rule! Approximately half of your daily calories should come from protein.

Other than water, protein is the most abundant substance in muscle. Protein (amino acids) helps build muscle.

Carbohydrates do not and fats do not. This is why half of your daily calorie amount should be from protein sources. Protein is also the least likely of the 3 nutrients (protein, carbs, and fat) to be converted to body fat.

Aim for approximately a gram to a gram and a half of protein per pound of body weight. If you weigh 200 pounds, try to consume at least 200 grams of protein.

20% of your daily calories should come from complex carbohydrate sources like fresh vegetables, veg and more veg!! NOT whole grains and cereals, oatmeal (Porridge), brown rice, and especially potatoes. They are the worst form of starchy carbohydrate you can eat!!!!

30 % of your daily calories should come from fats.

I often tell my clients to not worry about reaching the fat gram number, that it will be reached without too much trying. After all, fat tastes good and is in almost everything we consume, in one form or another.

There are many variations of this 50-20-30 rule but as a whole, most research has shown this to be a very effective ratio for adding lean muscle tissue to the body while minimizing the amount of fat added.

But to further back up this research, this breakdown of protein, carbs, and fats has produced the best results for myself as well as clients I have trained in person.

So I always go with what works and what has been tested, not some theory in a textbook.

If you want to start eating to build muscle mass and lose unwanted body fat, start following the 50-20-30 rule!

[Via http://darraghhayes.wordpress.com]

What is Real Food?

In the Beginning… there was FOOD…

This is an incredibly important question, and one that our forefathers did not have to face. Since the beginning of time, all mankind has eaten Real Food, until the development of fake food in the late 19th century. Our ancestors knew what was healthy, and from generation to generation taught their families what was good and wholesome.

Artificial, or processed food soon realized that they could gain market share from the Real Food purveyors (Farmers) by attacking Real Food through fraudulent clinical studies saying Real Food was dangerous, to using corporate power to control the media information about the safety of fake food and the dangers of Real Food, to controlling government officials, to the point that in many states, it is LEGAL to buy marijuana, whisky, cigarettes, etc, but NOT LEGAL to buy whole fresh MILK!
Processed food corporations realized that Real Food did not have the financial wherewithal to rebuke the obscene statements and accusations made against them by the very profitable fake food industry! Real Food has for all intents and purposes become a whipping boy for the companies that want to plunder their customers to their end! The incredibly successful job of brainwashing a nation into believing Real Food is evil is just now becoming realized as chronic disease and obesity crush our once healthy nation.
Because of this fact, we need to re-program our nation that Real Food is not only safe and healthy, it is truly the only safe and healthy thing to eat! Eating anything other is taking our life in our hands! Getting solid information about Real food such as this Liberation Wellness product is a good start, but also avoiding getting your health information from the media is critical!

Real Food is designed by our creator for our health and vitality! In simple terms, the food God made is healthy, and once man gets involved, it becomes corrupt! Unfortunately, it is not as simple as that, as all things natural are not necessarily safe to eat! For example, carrots are natural, but so also is poison ivy and arsenic. Most vegetables and grains actually need to be processed in order to be safe to eat, but the traditional methods that make food truly healthy and digestible are too costly for food manufactures who clearly do not care about the health of their customers when it conflicts with their bottom line. Fresh milk for instance is an extremely safe food and needs no processing and if refrigerated can stay fresh for 2 weeks or longer! Grains on the other hand need soaking or sprouting and delicate care to make the end product safe.

When we go to the supermarket, we find industrial versions of Real Food (imposters) pasteurized milk (processed) that is not healthy for humans, as well as bread processed improperly which can have a devastating effect on human health! These products almost always say they are “Healthy” or “Organic”, but are neither!These products are just genetically-modified microwavable TV dinners!

My first advice is to find a farmer who is doing dairy correctly, there you can start with the great basics of Real Food, milk, butter, eggs, etc, and often he will have cheese and meat and some fermented foods made in the traditional way. If you start with this foundation of Real Food, you will begin to depend less and less on the industrial foods, and will start feeling the great health benefit of eating Real Food. Sometimes you might get fooled along the way, but so have all of us for many years, so now we are empowering you with incredible information that can change your health and life!

There is a journey to begin eating like a human being, and your journey often begins at the farm!

[Via http://liberationwellnessblog.com]

Organic Food vs. Conventional Food

Organic: a food may be classified as organic if it is grown without the use of any toxic pesticides, herbicides, fungicides or chemical fertilizers. Organic meats and eggs may only come from animals raised on organic foods, and have the ability to roam outdoors.

Are you one of the many people that doesn’t buy organic foods because you’ve heard that there’s really no difference between organic foods and conventional foods? Did you hear this from the media, read it in a magazine, or maybe even hear it from a “health care professional”? Or have you actually done a little bit of research on your own so that you can form your own opinion, and have reasons as to why you have chosen to shop organic, or not? If you base it on what the media tells you, I just want to let you know one of the possibilities of how these “organic vs. conventional food tests” can be done. But first you need to know that there is a difference between “Organic” and “100%/Certified Organic” (and just to be clear, the label will either say “Certified Organic” or “100% Organic”, not both). In order for a farm to be Certified/100% Organic, it has to go through a three year gestation period, and during this time the microorganisms in the soil metabolize the residues from pesticides that were being sprayed there previously. But a farm can call their products “organic” if the farm is in the process of this gestation period; which means that it’s possible for there to still be some pesticide residues, and traces of chemical fertilizers still present in the soil – which also means present in the produce.

So How Does A Magazine Article Say’s That There’s No Difference Between Organic Foods and Conventional Foods?!

Lets say a research company in Florida is told to compare organic oranges to conventional oranges… so it gets conventional oranges from the local orange grove, and analyzes them. Then they call a store in California, and have them ship some organic oranges to their lab in Florida so that he can analyze them, and then compare the results of the two. Do you see any problems with this “study” yet? If not, let me point out a few things; first, is the fact that they’re analyzing organic oranges, and not CERTIFIED/100% organic (but majority of people don’t know the difference or even that there is a difference), which as I stated above, makes a BIG difference. Secondly, they don’t tell us how long it took for the oranges to get there; how they were handled while being shipped; and what kind of shape they was in when they arrived. And third, and maybe even the biggest problem, is that the company that hired this research company to run this “study”, could be (and most likely was) a company that sells conventionally raised produce… therefore they have something to gain by the outcome/results of the study! Kind of easy to see how (and why) they fool/screw/trick/deceive us into thinking that organic foods are no better for us than conventional foods huh?

What’s So Special About Organic (Certified/100%) Produce?!

Conventional farming affects the entire ecosystem! Microorganisms literally feed the nutrients from the soil to the roots of the plants. Conventional farms have about 85% less microorganisms in the soil than certified organic farms. There is a 40% increase of bird life on organic farms and fields, and the reason for this is that there are plenty of earthworms in the soil (they are good for the soil), and birds love earthworms. But the earthworms can’t survive on conventional fields because when they eat the soil they’re also eating the chemical fertilizers and toxic pesticides that lie within it.

Organic foods help the body heal! In order to get the physiology of the body to come right so it can heal itself, there needs to be an adequate amount of nutrients on board. Most natural cancer treatment centers use organic foods to treat their patients because they have a higher content of secondary nutrients (phyto-nutrients) than conventional foods. Plants can have anywhere from 5,000 – 10,000 secondary nutrients found in them. Organic foods have high levels of a potent group of antioxidants called ‘phenolic compounds’, and these are actually a group of the secondary nutrients. It is shown that phenolic compounds are 10x’s more efficient at cleaning up cancer-causing free radicals in the body than other antioxidants like vitamins C & E. We need to get the foundation principles right, or else there’s no reason to go to the doctor because we aren’t going to get better if we continue to eat foods that are infested with toxins and chemicals! And another problem with some of the studies done on “organic vs. conventional foods” is they only talk about the primary nutrients like fiber, water, protein, vitamins, minerals, fats and carbohydrates; but mention nothing about the secondary nutrients.

So What Do These Pesticides Do To Me??

There are different types of pesticides; some are designed to attack the nervous system of an insect, some are designed to attack the hormonal system, and some are designed with estrogenic chemicals that result in the insects not being able to reproduce… and now you get doses of these if you aren’t choosing certified organic produce! But for those of you that have heard that we are getting “safe doses” because the doses are “only in parts per million” (yet have no idea what that means, and you just trust that the government and food manufacturers are interested in your health and well-being, and not just your money! HAAA) Well it is true that the body can attack these chemicals when in the parts per million doses, but that’s if the person is healthy and has an adequate level of nutrition in their body… which very few people do. There is also some fairly new research that shows when these chemicals enter our body in “parts per TRILLION” doses that they are stealth, and go unseen by our immune system. And now they are able to attack the body at will, and they enter into our cells and damage the DNA inside. Another thing you might not know is that the FDA allows the pesticide companies to do their own research on their products, showing us how “safe” they are for us, and also in what levels.

Things to Keep in Mind

“Plants can only be as healthy as the soil they grow in, animals can only be as healthy as the plants they eat, and humans can only be as healthy as the plants and animals they eat”

Organic farming represents the Wheel of Life! Conventional farming represents the Wheel of Death! Soils are damaged by toxic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, which kill off the microorganisms. This leads to damaged, nutrient-deficient plants. So now we have sick/drugged animals, eating sick/poisoned plants – under inhuman conditions. This results in humans eating sick/poisoned plants, and sick/drugged animals, which cause us to have increased diseases, loss of vitality, increased visits to medical doctors, and increased consumption of prescription drugs (to “help” with the side effects of what we’re eating).

CHEK POINTS (as from Paul Chek’s audio series, “You Are What You Eat”)

Always make certified organic whole foods the focus of your diet. It may cost a little more, but it is well worth it in terms of quality and the long-term benefits to your body.

Choose free-range, grass-fed organic meats. Your local soil association or farmer’s association will be able to help you locate good suppliers of meat.

Support your local organic or biodynamic farmers by buying their produce.

Be cautious about purchasing packaged or processed foods that are labeled “Organic.” These may contain as much as 50% non-organic ingredients, and may include any number of toxic chemicals, additives, preservatives and colorings. Look for labels that say “100% Organic” or “Certified Organic.”

Don’t wait until you are sick before making the switch to organic foods. Look after your body by eating the best quality foods possible, and your body will look after you.

Look carefully at the funding and validity of research studies. Ask yourself who benefits from the study or is it conducted by impartial parties.

And if there’s still some confusion (for some ODD reason!), here’s some pic’s and vid’s that might help clear that up…

Organic

Organic, Free Range Cows

NOT organic

Conventionally Raised Cows

Organic

Organic, Free Range Chickens

NOT organic

Conventionally Raised Chickens

Wild Salmon

Wild Salmon

Farm Raised Salmon

Farm Raised Salmon

Yum? … Can I have a bite when you’re done spraying those?

STILL NEED MORE INFO:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2005/04/13/organic-diet.aspx

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2003/03/22/antioxidants-part-five.aspx

[Via http://jfigearo.wordpress.com]

Day 40 ~ 177 Days of Unexpected Health Project

MPH: Miles Per Health

After a weekend of sunshine and snow, I returned to the  Bay Area, greeted by more sunny skies and a warm 65-degree day. After throwing a load of laundry in the wash, a few of my “buddies” (not four-legged like Day 39 but just as essential) and I decided that we just couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to get a little exercise outdoors. So we fastened our helmets, velcroed our bike shoes, and away we went for a bike ride. At this point, I could talk about the health aspects of bike riding, of which there are lots….but I’m sure you already know them. I could also press “Play” on my song and dance about how the sun shines health on us. But today, while cruising at a challenging 17 mph, with the wind in my face, bugs in my teeth, and an already sore rump, I discovered the Unexpected Health in traveling without a car.

There are many known health benefits of leaving the car keys and opting for another form of transportation. The word “Exercise” stands out. The savings on gas, the environment and our sanity are other obvious health bonuses. But the unexpected health that comes from leaving your car in the driveway for a day (or even an hour) is that when you unfasten yourself from your box on wheels, you open yourself up to the world around you, and giving and receiving “fuel” from other organisms is healthy.

On a nearly hour jaunt on my bike, I felt healthy physically, mentally, and emotionally. My body felt healthy by the workout; my mind felt rejuvenated by the scenery; my spirit felt alive with energy from the sun. I felt connected to my friends riding with me, to the strangers passing by me, and to the cars whizzing by me. When I am driving, I am confined to a 4-wheeled configuration of windows and doors that literally block me from others (except when I have my windows down and sunroof open, which as all of you know, I often do!). Yes, cars keep dangerous objects from hitting us, but they can also shield us from some much needed connection. When we are abiding by the speed limit while inside our cars, we can miss what takes place when we slow down and experience life outside of them. So the next time you need to run an errand nearby, opt out for taking the car. Instead, grab your walking shoes, your bike, or even your skateboard, and experience a little healthy from your window-free mode of transportation…yourself. -Until tomorrow, Jaime

If you squint your eyes only then can you see, that below is a place for comments to leave.

[Via http://jaimeleemitchell.wordpress.com]