Food Quality: It’s Scary Stuff

Just last year, 128,000 Americans were hospitalized due to foodborne illnesses. 3,000 of these people did not survive. It starts to make you wonder…what the heck is going on with our food?! With ever growing demands for affordable food products, our country has turned to big agriculture and feed lots to provide large quantities of low cost “food”. The problem is that when you treat your food poorly, it returns the favor.

In order to produce such large quantities at affordable rates, large food producers have to find ways to cut corners, increase productivity, and drive down costs of production. While this makes the price tag go down at the supermarket, it ends up also increasing the cost on your health. Pesticides, antibiotics, growth hormones, genetic modifications, poor conditions, poor top soil, poor animal feed, and dumping of waist/ toxins are just some of the tactics used by these companies to lower costs and increase production. All of this ends up affecting the food that you eat, and in turn, your health.

If you want to learn more about these issues, please do yourself a favor and go rent Food Inc., a documentary on just how bad the food industry had become when it comes to its concern for your wellbeing. There is more info in there than I can cover in this post, but just know that it takes on just about every angle of how this system of food production is hurting us.

What I want to focus on, rather, is what you can do to remove yourself from the cycle. If you are looking to really change the way you look and feel, food quality is a great place to start. The following are the best principles to follow to ensure the highest quality possible:

1) Buy from your local farmers. Go to the farmer’s market, talk with the people growing your food, and find out what they are doing to ensure its quality. If this is not possible, at least find out from your local grocer when new shipments come in so that you can buy fresh and still look for local products.

2) Buy often. Once you find a good place to purchase your food, try to shop for only 2-3 days at a time. If you need something to last longer than this, keep it in the freezer.

3) Buy organic. This is where talking with your local farmer can make a big difference, because you can really get to the bottom of what they mean when they say organic. Large companies do not always have as strict of procedures to ensure “organic” status, so talk with your food provider about how they ensure that no toxins are used in producing your food.

4) Wash your plants. Before you prepare your meals, be sure to wash your plants. This becomes infinitely more important if you were unable to buy organic, but even if you were, it’s always a good idea.

5) Don’t forget to look at what you eat eats. Grass fed/wild animal products will always be superior.

6) Look at the label. If you want the highest quality foods, they probably won’t have a label, but if you are unsure, take a look at the back and see what the ingredients are. If there are more than 3 ingredients, and any of them are unknown or hard to pronounce, you may want to reconsider the purchase.

These are just a few ways to ensure that you are eating the highest quality food possible, and keeping yourself from becoming a statistic.  While the amount of food we consume is always important, we must respect the quality of our food if we hope to look and feel our best. Losing fat (not just weight), optimizing energy, preventing disease, and even improving and stabilizing mood can all be linked back to the quality of our food. Our bodies were not meant to consume chemicals, toxins, and decayed food, so it is up to us to search out the best food options if we are to live long, fulfilling lives.

If you would like more information on food quality, please check out Food Inc.:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eKYyD14d_0

Also, if you would like to find a farmer’s market near you, here is a list of all those markets in Santa Clara County:

http://www.mercurynews.com/foodheadlines/ci_5852501

Your Most Valuable Asset

“Action expresses priorities…” – Mahatma Gandhi

What a wonderful quote. This one idea summarizes all the advice anyone needs for being successful. Action is something that we talk about frequently on this page, but in the end it all comes down to this idea of priorities. We can all say that we want to be healthy, or lose weight, or change the way we eat, but in the end, if it is not a priority, it will not happen.

What I think we can learn from this idea is that before setting off to accomplish any goal, we must first take a good hard look at what our priorities are, and how we express those through our actions. One very effective way to do this is to keep an activity log dictating what you spend your time doing. You can do this for just one day, or even better, 3-5 days. Once you have this, it makes it much easier to see what your priorities really are. If you say that exercise is important, but spend more time watching TV than in the gym, maybe fitness is not so important after all. If you say eating well is important, but you eat out 5 days a week, again, maybe you need to reflect on if this is really a priority at this moment.

This is not to say that any of these things HAVE to be your priority, but it is important to at least acknowledge where your priorities lie so that you can chose your next move. If you realize that you do spend more time watching TV than at the gym, then you have a choice. You can either decide that you would rather enjoy your favorite shows than reach your fitness goal, or, you put in the effort with your training and limit the time on the couch. There is no right answer, but this is something that each one of us must face if we hope to be successful in our lives and our goals.

If you have been trying to make a change, but are struggling to do so, perhaps this will be a good way to kick start your efforts. Start by establishing what your goals are (health related or otherwise). Then determine which areas of your life you need to prioritize. This could be exercise, sleep, reading, networking, saving, cooking, spending time with family, etc. Then list these in order from most important to least. Now that you have this, all you need is your activity log.

Spend the next few days jotting down everything you do, and how much time you spend on it. The more specific the better—if you spent 10 minutes on Facebook scanning your news feed, it goes on the log! Once you have this written out, take note of how much time you actually spent on your top priorities. Look at how much time you spent elsewhere. It can be truly amazing how much time and energy we devote to activities that are in no way conducive to our goals or our priorities, yet we let these activities rob us of our time every day! The good news: now that you have this in front of you, you can make the changes necessary to align your time with those things that are most important with you.

Do your actions express your priorities?

Summer Body Workout Plan

What is the biggest difference between those people who achieve success in their weight loss/body composition goals, and those who continue to struggle? What separates the lose-quick, gain-quick diets from approaches that have long-lasting results? While many factors play a role in this (some of which we will talk about today) the biggest is persistence. Think of anything that is worth achieving...does it usually come quickly and last forever? No.  It takes trial and error, daily effort, and a never-ending desire to reach your goal. So how does all this relate to making sure you look good for the summer? Persistence in the short term provides an opportunity for building habits for the long term.

The main habit we will be talking about today is exercise. There is no shortcut to getting lean and looking great; it takes consistent, focused exercise. No two-hour jog on the treadmill while watching your favorite show is going to produce any type of noticeable results. We need to get moving and work hard! So if you want to look and feel great for the summer, here is your schedule for the next three months. There’s a catch, though: when you get there…don’t stop! This is not just a “get-in-great-shape” routine. This establishes what it takes to stay fit, as well. It’s a lifestyle change, and once you have built it into your routine, don’t let it slip away!

It’s Exercise Time

This program will require daily activity with purposeful exercise 5 days a week. The time you spend each day will vary, but doing SOMETHING every day is critical. Here is your weekly breakdown:

Mon/Wed/Fri: Strength Training

Strength training is the most effective exercise technique for building lean muscle mass and burning body fat. Be sure to include compound movements (full body) and keep off the machines as much as possible. Your body responses much better to activities that require you to support your own body weight such as squats/split squats, deadlifts, push ups, pull ups, inverted rows, and overhead presses.

Tue/Thu: High-Intensity Anaerobic Training

The next best thing you can do to help burn fat is anaerobic training. This is essentially a more intense variation of traditional cardio. You can run, bike, swim, jump rope, etc., alternating between intense bouts of work and rest periods. The beauty of this work is that you can get it all done in 15 minutes or less, yet achieve better results than spending 60+ minutes doing slow steady pace work in the same activity.

Every day: Active Recovery

If you are doing your strength training and anaerobic training, you will need some light activity to help with your recovery. This includes walking, gardening, house cleaning, playing sports, or just doing light swimming or biking. Staying active will not only help you to recover, but also help to keep you burning fat between workouts. The 10,000 step rule is no joke—it can make a huge difference—and if you have a desk job, it’s time to find ways to get those steps in!

Make Food Your Friend

If you are going to put all this work into getting lean for the summer, don’t just throw it all away by continuing to eat the same way that got you where you are now. Think of it this way; each meal you eat can either support your workouts or negate your workouts. This doesn’t mean you cannot ever have “unhealthy” foods, but just try to support your exercise with your meals as much as possible.

Persist and Prosper

As mentioned earlier, this process will take some trial and error. Depending on how much you exercise right now, this may be an unthinkable amount of work to do right away. If so, then don’t do it all immediately. Set up a plan for how you will slowly build in all these pieces. Maybe you can only do strength training or only the walking: no problem. Start building one activity in and set a goal to focus on just this for one month. Then, once you have it down, add in the next piece. Even if you only do one new activity a month, you will have completely transformed your workout routine in 3 months.

On a similar note, once you do build this exercise routine into your lifestyle, keep it up! While this will definitely help to get you looking good for the summer, there are more important things in life than just having a 6-pack. Keeping yourself in top condition also means that you will feel better, have more energy, spend less time being sick, and will reduce your risk of disease and injury. Use the summer as your excuse to build your routine, then use your life as your excuse to keep that routine.

The Fat Finale

Welcome to the last installment in our series on fat. We have already seen that fat is an important part of a balanced diet, can help us to lose weight, and will help to improve our heart health!

Today we will conclude our series by looking at some of the psychological barriers to changing our cultural views on fat and then how we can best utilize fat in our daily lives.

The Psychology of Fat

Fat is required for keeping our bodies working at their best. Our brains, nerves, and cells all depend dearly on the fat that we consume if they are to work properly. While we know that fat is an important part of our diet, it can sometimes be hard to get past the psychological fear of gaining fat from eating fat.

We have become obsessed with food quantity when quality is just as important if not more important. We have gone overboard on the low-fat, low calorie foods and wonder why we are not getting any healthier (or leaner). We have mistaken weight loss for fat loss, and being skinny for being healthy. Just the fact that fatty acids derived from food and adipose tissue are both referred to as FAT make this a difficult issue. It is as if every time we think of the fat content of a food, we expect it to just settle right in to our love handles without a second thought.

It takes an open mind to reprogram our thoughts and behaviors, but it is going to be important if we are going to have any chance of healing ourselves. The food industry has been capitalizing on our fat fears for too long and it is time to retake control. (If an item is low-fat, it is almost inevitably high-sugar, and sugar is addicting and increases your appetite, so you want more "low-fat" foods, more often!). 

Let’s look at fat in a new light. Let’s think of fat as:

     -  The stuff that makes up 70% of our brains.

     -  The only macronutrient capable of transporting vitamins A, D, E, and K into our bodies.

     -  A key player in hair and skin health.

     -  One of the main structural components of our cells.

     -  Necessary for optimal functioning of the nervous system.

     -  One of the important players in calcium absorption (bone density)

Fat is not just important, it is vital for survival. We cannot live without the right fats, and our bodies function best when we are eating the right amount of fat.

How to Use Fat

If our understanding of fat has changed, then our use of fat must change too. Here is what I feel is the best strategy to make sure you are taking in the right fats:

1)  Eat grass-fed/wild caught animal products. These animal products have a beautiful balance of fats, while also providing a variety of vitamins and minerals that are stored in the fat. If you are unable to do so, find lean cuts of grain-fed meat and supplement with fish oil. While this is not optimal, it can be much cheaper, and will help you to avoid the toxins stored in the fat of grain-fed animals.

2)  Eat more avocados, olives, and coconut products. As you may already know, avocados and olives are a wonderful source of monounsaturated fat and can be great for snacking or for adding to other meals. Coconut products are full of medium-chain saturated fats which have a host of beneficial properties. Choose between coconut oil for cooking, coconut milk for drinking or adding to dishes, coconut butter or flakes to add as toppings, or just straight coconut for eating!

3)  Use saturated fat for cooking. Saturated fat is the most stable type of fat when exposed to heat, so using plant fats such as coconut or palm oil and grass-fed animal fats (lard/tallow) are best used for cooking. Your local farmer’s market should have a grass-fed beef stand, and I am sure they would be happy to sell you some of the fat.

4)  Use monounsaturated fats as dressing. Oils such as olive oil, avocado oil, and macadamia nut oil can be great on salads. I prefer these as dressings because while more stable than polyunsaturated fats, I still worry about cooking with them. They should be all right for low temperature cooking & baking, but I prefer to just add them cold.

5)  Avoid vegetable oils, and use nuts, seeds, and their derivatives as you would a condiment. Nuts and seeds can be a tasty addition to any meal, we just don’t want to go through a bag of almonds every day. Think of them as a topping and enjoy their flavoring.

There are tons of ways to include a variety of fats, but the goal should always be to use the right fat for the right reason. Start thinking about how you use fats on a daily basis and see where there is an opportunity to make a change for the better.

That concludes our series on fat. I encourage all of you to continue to learn about fats and experiment with them in your diet. We can read all we want, but until we start playing around with some of this stuff there is no way to know how it will affect our health. So let’s figure out where we can make a change in our current diets and start getting in those healthy fats today!

Comments:

This article has a lot of solid information that is still very relevant. Luckily I have noticed that more and more people are realizing that what they have been told about dietary fat and health has not worked out so well for them and are already looking for alternatives. The shift in how we think about fat in our diet has begun and I am excited for our future as we continue to undo the damage caused by the vegetable oil push for the last 50 years. 

The only thing I would like to expand on is the detrimental effect of eating "low-fat" food products. I touched on this in the article, but this is a serious issue that can really cause some issues for those people trying to stay healthy and lose weight. As I mentioned, when you take fat out of something, you cannot just leave it as it is. It would taste terrible! So instead, you must add sugar and salt to flavor it up. When you eat sugar, it effects some of the same brain receptors that drugs do, and generally leads to increased cravings. This is why if you have ever tried to cut sugar out of your diet, you have terrible cravings for the first few weeks, but then, all of a sudden, you really don't want them any more. This is the withdrawal period. 

What makes sugar even worse is that it actually decreases your satiety, meaning that you will not feel full as long after your meals. This leads to eating more throughout the day and hinders any chance of weight loss. The last issue with sugar is that every sugar molecule is 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose. As I explained more thoroughly in my article Fast Track Your Fat Loss: Elimate Fructose, fructose is not good for fat loss. It has very limited use in the body and increases the rate at which fat is stored, while decreasing the bodies ability to release fat. All bad things. 

So in the end, stay clear of those low-fat foods, and sugary foods in general, and focus more on where you can get in your healthy fats. It doesn't take a ton of fat to make a meal taste good, and if you use the right kinds, it will actually help you lose weight and stay fit in the process.