New Project to help people lose fat they keep off....

Today's Post:  Thursday, 4-11-2013

We are now building what will be the most effective fat loss support site.

When people use it they will lose fat and keep it off permanently.

Our blog will temporarily focus on that in some way.  And, in a few weeks our more normal posts will resume.

Today’s new info: 

Today, 4-11, has been declared National "Read Your Labels Day" by Citizens for Health.

Do you always read labels?

If you know what to look for and avoid buying if it’s there, always reading labels can help you lose fat and keep it off. 

And, it can slash your risk of many of the nastiest, most deadly, and most expensive diseases.

Our post & article, “Ways to remove extra calories from your food & drink” -- below in this post -- lists many of the things to watch for. 

Our clear focus for anyone losing fat they want to keep off is to prune FIRST everything that makes you hungrier or fattens you!!  The average American gets up to 25% of their calories from these things.  So pruning those out can give you enormous leverage on losing fat and keeping it off.

Almost as helpful is to prune all the harmful ingredients from what you eat and drink.  That’s because so many of those are fattening too or almost always found with ingredients that are fattening.

Replacing both kinds with real food that fills you and stops hunger and supports your good health makes fat loss and keeping it off dramatically easier to do!

>>>>>  One of the worst and most fattening is high fructose corn syrup, possibly listed as corn sugar or HFCS. 

But in many foods you might not guess contain high fructose corn syrup, it IS in that food!  But you can only find that out – or clear that food, IF you read the label on it!

I used to love Ketchup.  But all of those on the market except the one from Annie’s Naturals contain high fructose corn syrup.  But even I didn’t know that until I thought to read the label on a bottle!

I was eating the most effective fattener in our food supply.  But until I read that label, I didn’t know I was!

Another personal example is this:  Before I stopped eating virtually all beef not 100% grass raised, I used to like a kind of canned all meat chili on occasion.

But after I found out that hydrogenated oils (and the trans fats they form) are heart attack starter --and worse, build up in your body if you eat ANY on a regular basis, I read the label on that chili.  Ouch!

Oddly despite listing no hydrogenated oils they added, they tested it and found it has several grams of trans fats per serving.  Needless to say I tended to eat a whole can then and that was more than one serving!  So it had a TON of trans fat in that whole can.

That can of chili had so much heart attack starter in it, it quite literally was not safe for me to eat!

Bingo!  But until I read that label, I was eating a can every few months.  Yikes!

Hope I’ve made my point to you here. 

These two occasions really convinced me!!

And I quickly found I can’t eat packaged cookies among other foods except for a few kinds.  Even if I wanted to allow myself the sugar and refined grain wheat flour -- which I’m increasingly reluctant to do, I don’t allow myself to eat heart attack starter if it’s on the label. 

And most kinds of the cookies have “partially hydrogenated vegetable oil” on the ingredients listed.  All of the baked goods from Safeway that they bake themselves and most major cookie brands all have labels listing “partially hydrogenated vegetable oil” as an ingredient. 

That’s heart attack starter! And I pass on buying or eating them. And I can do that because it’s on their labels and I read them!

Many of you have read my bad lists in my posts and what many of these bad ingredients do.

So Citizens for Health suggests sharing their list of top ten things to avoid.

Here it is!  Has a good format and some harmful ingredients I’ve not yet posted about too.

After each of their items, I’ll add some comments of my own inside ( )’s.

The “Read Your Labels”  top ten additives to avoid in review:

#1. High fructose corn syrup

Where you’ll find it:

Where do we begin? HFCS has permeated the marketplace in so many foods and beverages it’s just about impossible to create a list. For starters, it’s in most all sodas, and many other beverages such as tea and flavored drinks, and numerous juice drinks made for kids, as well as other sweetened items such as jellies, cookies and pastries. It also turns up in some surprising places like bread and condiments, and oddly, even in some diet foods (where it’s possible that a super-high fructose version is used). All in all, to purge HFCS from your diet, you need to read ingredient labels and reject all products containing this laboratory sweetener.

Why you should avoid it:

HFCS and high fructose consumption have been implicated in a variety of diseases and health problems, including heart disease, diabetes and weight gain.

The actual fructose percentage of HFCS is variable and unknown (which is why Citizens for Health has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to require the true fructose content of HFCS formulas be disclosed on food labels).

Contrary to industry propaganda, HFCS isn’t “corn sugar” or a “natural” ingredient, but a test-tube concoction that’s much cheaper than sugar.

(About 30% at random of all HFCS in foods and drinks contains mercury due to the way some of  the HFCS is made.

Even regular sugar turns down your hunger a tiny bit when you eat some.  Recent brain research proved HFCS does NOT even do that much.

Because the fructose is unlinked and free and separate, it’s found to be unusually fattening and helps cause heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

HFCS truly is so fattening and harmful it really should not be legal to put in foods or drink.

Do you know it’s there without reading labels?  Nope.  I found ketchup has that stuff

But only after reading the label!)

#2. Aspartame

Where you’ll find it:

Aspartame is apt to turn up in foods labeled as “light” or “low-cal,” diet soft drinks, teas and juice drinks, kid’s vitamins, liquid cold drugs and other pharmaceuticals, chewing gum, cereal, sugar-free candies. Foods containing this artificial sweetener must also bear a warning that the item contains phenylalanine for those with a disorder called PKU.

Why you should avoid it:

Aspartame has never been proven to be a safe food additive, and is, in fact, considered by experts to be in a class of ingredients called “excitotoxins” that can literally excite brain cells to death, especially in children and the elderly (as are the three additives that follow);

Studies have connected it to the development of brain tumors in rodents and grand mal seizures in monkeys.

Thousands of aspartame-related health complaints, from migraines to memory loss to dizziness to vision problems have been reported to the FDA. 

#3. Hydrolyzed protein  (MSG hiding name)

#4. Autolyzed yeast  (MSG hiding name)

#5. Monosodium glutamate  (MSG)

Where you’ll find them:

These “excitoxins” can be found in soups, broth, flavoring additives, chips, dips, soup mixes, ramen noodles, frozen meals, snack mixes, canned fish, and a wide variety of other dishes –  including “natural,” “vegetarian,” and organic ones.

Why you should avoid them:

These are all toxic substances containing processed glutamic acid that can kill brain cells. They are especially harmful to kids, the elderly and developing fetuses.

Adverse reactions to these additives include everything from skin rashes and asthma attacks to mood swings, upset stomach, migraines, heart irregularities and seizures – even potentially fatal anaphylactic shock.

(MSG is unusually fattening too!

Studies in China showed conclusively that even eating the same kinds of foods and the same amount of calories, the more MSG people took in the fatter they were!

Unfortunately many condiments and spice blends have labels showing they contain “spices” as an ingredient. 

That may be innocent in some cases where maybe they used small amounts of several kinds.  But since they may think it’s OK to think of MSG as a spice, I think that means well over 90 % of the time one of those spices is MSG.

As an example, only Annie’s Naturals mustards lack having “spices’ on their ingredients list!)

#6 Potassium bromate

Where you’ll find it:

Added to flour, it can be found in breads, flat breads, bakery products, knishes and tortillas. (It may also be listed on ingredient labels as “bromated flour.”)

Why you should avoid it:

Potassium bromate has been known for over three decades to cause cancer in laboratory animals.  It’s banned in Europe, China, Canada and Brazil.

If it’s not used “properly,” a significant residue of this additive can end up in the finished food product.

(Since all those foods listed are mostly made with refined grain wheat flour -- which is very fattening and off the list of anyone wanting to lose fat and keep it off too -- this is great news!

Now, if the fattening part isn’t enough to help you take a pass, you can see on the label it’s likely to help cause cancer too!)

#7 Brominated vegetable oil, or BVO

Where you’ll find it:

Some Gatorade products, Mountain Dew and other drinks containing citrus flavorings.

Why you should avoid it:

BVO builds up in fatty tissue and been shown to cause heart damage in research animals.

It’s banned in Europe, India and Japan.

It’s never been declared safe by the FDA, where its status has remained in limbo for over 30 years.

(Dr David Brownstein writes that your body needs iodine to help your body prevent cancer.  But either of these two sources of bromine prevent your body from accessing iodine!

Worse, your body uses iodine to make thyroid hormones.  And if you lack enough thyroid hormones, you become sluggish and your metabolism goes down and you get fatter or stop losing fat!

Many other soft drinks, particularly those in cans, have some kind of bromine preservative too.

So take a pass on all soft drinks and always read labels first!)

#8 BHA and BHT

Where you’ll find them:

This pair of preservatives turn up in many breakfast cereals (including most Kellogg’s varieties), as well as snack foods, chewing gum, pies, cakes and processed meats.

Why you should avoid them:

Made from coal tar or petroleum, BHA and BHT have been of concern for decades.

Over 30 years ago studies found that after pregnant mice were fed BHT and BHA, their offspring were born with altered brain chemistry.

BHA is considered a possible carcinogen by the World Health Organization and listed as a carcinogen in California.

#9 Trans fats

Where you’ll find it:

Any food products containing partially hydrogenated oil contain trans fats, regardless of a zero trans fats listing on the nutrition facts label. These can include bakery items, pizza, dough, pies, cakes and cookies, snack foods and frozen meals.

Why you should avoid them:

Trans fats increase LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, and decrease “good” HDL cholesterol.

People with high blood levels of trans fats appear to have a greater risk of developing certain cancers. (Some research has even linked them to a higher risk of Alzheimer’s.)

All health authorities, including government agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are in agreement that trans fats cause heart disease and that cutting them out of our diet could prevent thousand of heart attacks and death from coronary disease each year.

(The lower HDL and higher LDL and triglycerides from trans fats means that your blood then has far more small particle LDL which acts like sticky sand in your blood vessels and is a direct cause of heart disease.

Worse, your body can only get rid of a fraction of the trans fats you are so unlucky as to ingest in a single day.  It takes weeks!  That means that eating less trans fats is a bad joke.

If you eat ANY trans fats, even a little, on most days, it builds up enough to be a very effective heart attack starter in your body.

Lastly, shortening is MADE out of trans fats.  So are most margarines.  So when they make inexpensive pie crusts with shortening, it becomes unsafe to eat the pie crusts!

So, if you love pie, as I do on occasion, eat only the filling and leave the crust unless you know only butter has been used to make the crust!

Also candy bars and ice creams sometimes have trans fat or have hydrogenated oils listed on their labels.)

#10 Artificial colors

Where you’ll find them:

They’re present in many cereals, cakes, candy, bakery products, drinks, juice drinks, vitamins and pharmaceuticals.

Why you should avoid them:

Artificial colors are widely acknowledged to cause hyperactivity and behavioral problems in some children.

They’re made from both coal tar and petroleum extracts – hardly the sort of things one would want to ingest.

Some, such as Red #3, have been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals, but are still allowed to be used in foods.

So there they are in review – the top ten offenders among food additives. They’re best avoided (except in the case of processed glutamic acid), by buying organic processed foods, or, better yet, by cooking your own food from scratch as much as possible. But if you’re too hard pressed to always do all that, you should at least take the time to read those ingredient labels – and keep the items that contain these health-threatening intruders out of your kitchen and out of your life.”

From Focus on Your Health:

All of our posts focus on helping people have more years of enjoyable and productive life that is free of avoidable diseases!

That lifestyle helps prevent people from getting fat and makes losing fat dramatically easier and more sustainable – leading to permanent fat loss and good health.

But the process of losing fat is more challenging and requires other efforts and to lose all the fat and keep it off requires a few more things.

It also requires extra effort when fat loss stops or reverses.  It requires extra effort when life changes or real disasters get in the way in order to recover and keep the fat loss going and permanent.

Use of an effective fat loss support site helps enough people do that it has proven to double the chances of people to succeed.

But those fat loss support efforts in that research were less complete and effective than what we think possible. 

So we’re building a fat loss support site that we plan to make over 90% effective instead of just going from 20% success to 40% success. 

We aim for a fat loss support site that enables over 90% of the people who join to have permanent fat loss.

So, during the period while we are setting up a crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo.com we will have shorter to write posts about that and about fat loss.

(We have dozens of posts you can scroll back to on preventing heart disease, cancer, and mental decline and far more, if you want that information now and during this time.)

Meanwhile here are some post summaries on posts we’ve done this year on fat loss or making the efforts that lead to it work well:

Ways to remove extra calories from your food & drink....Friday, 3-29-2013

You CAN lose fat by adding muscle and doing other things that boost your metabolism.

But calories DO count and removing some kinds and a bit of others will speed your fat loss and help you to keep it off.

This post has which calories to cut that either are easier than most to cut or make you LESS hungry -- or cut calories from foods or drinks that harm your health.

Diet soft drinks DO fatten and harm your health....Friday, 2-22-2013

A recent study found that in their very carefully regimented study people did not eat more when they drank diet soft drinks.  The much worse news is that longer studies of real diet soft drink drinkers show they routinely have MORE belly fat and more type 2 diabetes THAN drinkers of regular soft drinks. 

Does that mean they are WAY fatter and more at risk of disease than people who drink ice water or coffee without extra sweeteners or tea or green tea instead?  Totally, that’s exactly what those other studies mean!

Has this new study changed that?  Nope.  In fact a different newly reported study found diet soft drinkers were significantly greater risk of type 2 diabetes than drinkers of regular soft drinks.  Worse, because they drank more of them a week other information shows their risk of osteoporosis is also that much higher too!

Very Effective interval cardio can be brief....Tuesday, 2-19-2013

Based on my own experience with it the various forms of burst or short periods of high intensity cardio very time efficient and incredibly effective as fitness exercise. 

Now in addition to my experience here is some research on why that’s so AND the information that it’s NINE times more effective for fat loss than longer and slower cardio.

I also cover how to get into it slowly and make it safer to do in this post.

My monthly fatloss progress report....Monday, 2-18-2013

For the second month in a row, every week I did things right I lost a pound or more on the scale.  I feel I’m finally in control of the process.  And by doing everything right in months without extra holidays and adding the next round of upgrades and continuing to do the ones I already have begun, I now believe I’ll reach my goals.  This is a BIG change for the better from a few months ago and before that. It’s not just promising now, it’s actually working!

4-2 note: It has done so.  I’ve lost more 6 pounds since 2-18-2013.

Why do both strength training AND interval cardio each week….Friday, 2-8-2013

1.  The obvious and a very important reason is that it’s better to be both fit AND strong with all the benefits of both!

2.  Studies also show that people who do some of each every week get far more health benefits than people who do twice as much as either one!

3.  If the information on this in a recent Mike Geary email is correct, an important reason to do both is that although each kind of exercise does some of both, strength training releases more testosterone; & interval or variable cardio with very fast or high out put parts releases more growth hormone.

Having both youthful or moderately higher testosterone and growth hormone every week has very strong health benefits.  They also tend to slow aging and speed up needed repairs.

Even MORE on how harmful HFCS, high fructose corn syrup, is!....Thursday, 2-7-2013

We already knew high fructose corn syrup was even more fattening than sugar and many of the dreadful ways consuming it harms your health.  We start this post with that information. 

But new brain scan research shows that high fructose corn syrup is even more fattening than we already thought!  Other new research has even more ways consuming high fructose corn syrup harms your health too!

Then we review how to avoid ingesting it! You have to do some work because it’s still in so many things.

Why to minimize wheat intake for fat loss....Tuesday, 2-5-2013

Simply put, eliminating all refined grains and 95% or more of any kind of wheat from your diet will help substantially in losing fat and keeping it off.

Doing so will also dramatically improve and protect your health.

1.  Eating ANY refined grains helps make you fat and harms your health in multiple ways.  And most of the refined grains in most stores and eateries today are refined wheat flour.

2.  Our bodies are not well suited to eat ANY grains -- and for eating today’s double modified wheat this is even less so!

3.  Eating today’s wheat more than about once a month, even if 100 % whole grain only, causes or helps cause a long list of diseases most people would like to not have or not get!  Worse, even such whole wheat is even more fattening than other grains even in refined form.   These include having excess belly fat and acid reflux which are now hitting almost epidemic numbers in this county!

 Overcome food cravings....Thursday, 1-31-2013

Food cravings range from a bit obnoxious but ignorable to all but forcing you to eat no matter what you think of the idea.

1.  But if you stop cravings from happening at all that goes away!

2.  If you can turn them down and/or sharply increase your ability to ignore them, that also works reliably.

3.  If you give in to eating -- BUT eat something that turns off the craving or turns it down enough to ignore AND which does not fatten you, that also works.

This post has methods proven to work to do each of these 3 things. 

   Do all three kinds of things and you can BEAT cravings too!

Breakthrough in fatloss and health....Tuesday, 1-29-2013

Strength training is THE most effective method for fat loss when it adds enough muscle to you.  This new method is so much more effective than other methods you can feel it working from the very first session.  This means you can now begin or continue a fat loss program with confidence you WILL succeed in losing fat and keeping it off.  You can lose fat with far less need to cut back calories or be hungry too often or too much for one thing.

You lose belly fat and begin to look trimmer sooner.

Even better, you can do it at home if you need to; and it is MUCH safer also than the old kind of strength training.

Bonus:  This kind of strength training is also that much more effective in delivering health benefits!

This post has details.  Check it out.

The 9 most effective weight loss methods....Thursday, 1-10-2013

These 9 things are what people do who actually achieve permanent fat loss.  That means the methods work!  And, if you each of these 9 things too, you can lose all YOUR fat and keep it all off.

If that’s a goal – or even a desire -- for you, check out this post!

Why high fructose corn syrup is fattening....Tuesday, 1-8-2013

We already knew that high fructose corn syrup is fattening and extra harmful.  But two new things have come up showing why it is extra fattening.

1.  The big one is that real sugar turns down your appetite a bit when you eat it in foods; but recent research using brain scans proves that high fructose corn syrup does not!

We’ve already posted that fructose and glucose in real sugar are bonded or linked together and your body has to separate them. 

But high fructose corn syrup is a simple mix of some of each.  That means that the blood sugar surge from ingesting that high fructose corn syrup is worse and faster than it is for sugar.  So ingesting high fructose corn syrup is more addictive and more likely to cause type 2 diabetes and rebound hunger than sugar is.

2.  I’ve also recently read there is a petition to the FDA to limit high fructose corn syrup to containing the 55% 45% mix or at least label it if there is more fructose than 55%.  It seems that much of the high fructose corn syrup now used in foods and drinks is more addictive, sweeter, and more fattening for that reason too – it contains more than 55% fructose.

This post has more reasons that high fructose corn syrup is harmful; several ways you can avoid it; and the very large list of fattening and harmful stuff that foods containing high fructose corn syrup also tend to be made out of!

Cut injuries from exercise and sports in half....Friday, 1-4-2013

We’ve already posted that taking 3,000 to 10,000 iu a day of vitamin D3 helps people with injuries heal faster.  An Atlanta doctor who sees this first hand in his practice decided to see if doing it BEFORE the players on one of the better Georgia high school football teams got injured might help prevent injuries in the first place.  Wow! 

It not only sped the recovery of players who were injured it cut the number of injuries in HALF!  Imagine the competitive advantage that gave them!  You can protect your exercise program from having injuries temporarily stopping or slowing you by taking vitamin D3 too!  This post has a second way to use vitamin D3 to help athletic teams and you avoid drop offs in performance also!