Be healthier and less fat and save money too, part 2....

Today's Post: Monday, 1-24-2011

One of the health related emails I get is from the fat loss guru Jillian Michaels. Thursday last week she did a 10 foods to avoid list.

If you avoid all 10 of these drinks, foods, and food ingredients, you will be far less fat. (Most people who eat and drink these who have been doing it for many years will lose over 25 pounds of fat within 12 months of doing so.)

You will be dramatically healthier, feel better, and have far lower health care costs for decades after giving up these things.

And, since you will stop buying close to 70 % of the dollar cost most Americans spend at the grocery store, you will very likely net out some savings. Even after buying some real food to replace these things after her family gave them up, one woman local to me wound up saving two or three hundred dollars a month.

Even better, this post and the one from last Friday, 1-21-2011, together have Jillian Michaels’ 10 items-- and two more from me that didn’t make her list.

First her ten:

Last Friday we covered her first 5:

1. Trans fats were listed first.

2. She listed shortening second.

3. Refined grains such as white flour, most pasta, and white rice were in her third group.

4. High fructose corn syrup is on her list.

5. Artificial sweeteners were her fifth item.

6. She listed the preservatives, sodium and potassium benzoate next. It seems that when they meet vitamin C or possibly citric acid from fruit or other sources they release the benzene in their molecules and may cause or help cause cancer and thyroid disease. Besides reading labels and avoiding most packaged snacks and desserts, the best way to avoid these is to drink absolutely no soft drinks as these most commonly contain these preservatives.

7. She listed the preservative BHA just after that. It seems it is an endocrine disruptor. The hormones that it can disrupt could cause sex problems, pregnancy problems in women, fertility problems in both sexes, difficulty losing fat and its weight, and possibly help cause type 2 diabetes.

Note that fresh and frozen and even most canned foods avoid the preservatives in # 6 & 7.

8. Sodium nitrates and sodium nitrites were listed next. They may cause colon cancer she says. And, the meats in which they were used were recently tested as being much more likely to cause heart disease than the same meat without these and other preservatives.

Whole Foods sells bacon to cook yourself that does not contain these. Otherwise, it would make sense to minimize foods like bacon, sausage, hot dogs, lunch meat, and salami that do contain these. Eating them once or twice a month or even less is likely much safer than several times a week and almost every week.

9. Do not consume foods or drinks with artificial colors was next. Soft drinks and foods for children the marketers are trying to make look eye catching often have these. She says that some of the most common blue, red, green, and yellow artificial colors may cause several kinds of cancer.

It doesn’t help that many of these items have little in them besides sugar or high fructose corn syrup or refined grains besides. So, this is something to pay special attention to if you have children living at home.

10. MSG, monosodium glutamate, was her item number 10. It may be harmful to the brains of some people. Dr Blaylock calls it an excitotoxin. What has been proven recently is that MSG is a proven fattener. The more of it is in your food the fatter you will be.

It is very difficult to avoid in packaged and canned foods since it often is not listed as MSG but listed instead with names like autolyzed yeast or processed soy protein or even “spices.” In fact, many spice blends and most mustard brands likely contain it.

I’d like to see it become illegal to put it in a food, spice blend, or drink without disclosing that it IS MSG and how much in mg there is per stated serving.

Note that other glutamates are in packaged foods. And they are likely also better avoided. So if a packaged food lists any kind of glutamate, they are trying to make the food’s taste addictive, just like nicotine in tobacco. So, if you see that on the label, it may be wise to not buy or ingest it!

The two she leaves out that I will contribute are sodium and omega 6 oils.

11. Sodium is OK in small amounts. Up to 1500 mg a day seems safe as that’s the guideline for the DASH II diet that lowers blood pressure even in people who start out with normal blood pressure as well as those with blood pressure that start out with it too high.

Salt does add a kind of warmth to the flavor of savory foods. There are many other spices you can use instead. But sometimes a bit of salt too doubles the enjoyment of eating that food.

Unfortunately, many if not, most Americans get about 3 times that amount of sodium because they routinely eat foods that add salt ahead of time or which you wouldn’t expect it to be in. Some of this is for flavor and some of it is because salt can be a preservative.

The best way to avoid getting excessive salt is to always read labels on cans and any kind of packaged food.

Eat more foods such as meat or fish you cook yourself and then only add the amount of salt you need just as you eat them.

It also helps to eat more raw and steamed vegetables and whole fresh fruit as these contain potassium which enables your body to balance sodium without it causing as many problems and allows you to have some salt safely.

Plus these foods taste good or can taste good without added salt.

12. Minimize your omega 6 oil intake.

Our ancestors ate about as many omega 3 oils as omega 6 oils. People who limit omega 6 oils quite strictly by comparison to the average person and who eat wild caught fish from safe kinds and locations and take omega 3 from purified fish oil have much better health, better heart health, and tend to have much more comfortable and health producing levels of inflammation.

The people who take in 16 times as much omega 6 oils as omega 3 oils or more by doing neither of these things have enough more inflammation to be much more likely to get heart disease and many kinds of cancers. They are also more likely to get osteoarthritis or have any they get otherwise be more painful. They are also more likely to get some kind of mental decline. In addition to increasing inflammation, omega 6 oils lower your protective HDL level in your blood.

Extra virgin olive oil has very little omega 6 oils. It has monosaturated oil or omega 9 oil instead. This is one of the most important reasons why the Mediterranean Diet has such a good health track record in several categories.

The less expensive vegetable oils that are in so many foods that add some kind of oil such as soy oil, corn oil, safflower oil, and even canola oil are all quite high in omega 6 oil.

In addition, fats from animals fed grain and are so high in omega 6 that most people may get a majority of their omega 6 from this source. That’s one of the most important reasons why eating many of your meals where nuts, beans or lentils, or wild caught fish instead of meat; eating meat from animals fed only grass, and the like provide the protein protects your health. It’s also very likely the most important reason why eating the leanest and most fat removed version of beef, chicken, and dairy products tends to have a good health track record.

(Canola oil does have some plant based omega 3 oils. But fish or algae based omega 3 oils are more effective in lowering inflammation and producing good health. And, eating walnuts is a far more health and heart protective way to get these plant based omega 3 oils than canola oil. And canola oils are from virtually 100 % genetic modified plants. So, canola oil is likely a bit less harmful and better for you than oils like soy or corn oil. But it still makes sense to minimize how much you eat because it is still quite high in omega 6 oils.)

If you are not familiar with why you should avoid omega 6 oils it may seem a bit over the top to you since things like soy oil are in so many foods still. But avoiding them is extremely powerful.

If you want less of a chance of getting cancer, heart disease, mental decline, and bothersome pain, please consider avoiding omega 6 oils!