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!

Be healthier and less fat and save money too....

Today's Post: Friday, 1-21-2011

One of the health related emails I get is from the fat loss guru Jillian Michaels. Yesterday she did a10 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 has Jillian Michaels’ 10 items-- and two more from me that didn’t make her list.

First her ten:

1. Trans fats were listed first.

(She included palm oil in this on her email. I find that odd. The saturated fat it does have may not be that bad for you as it’s from a plant source; and palm oil does not need the hydrogenating that causes trans fats since it already has saturated fat. In fact, it may be a better choice than butter when high heat is used and is far better than using a hydrogenated oil that does have transfats.)

But she is spectacularly correct in listing trans fats from hydrogenating vegetable oils as harmful. Studies found it directly causes heart disease by sharply increasing the small particle LDL that creates plaque -- eventually closing off your circulation -- by sticking itself into the walls of your blood vessels. In plain language trans fats and the artificially hydrogenated oils that contain them are heart attack starters.

Some people say to eat less or keep your consumption somewhat low. I think that’s ridiculous.

How much heart attack starter do you want to eat when you can avoid most of it voluntarily? None at all makes better sense to me!

Don’t patronize restaurants that cannot tell you what fry oil they use or which use hydrogenated oils. Always read labels. And, if the trans fat section has any number higher than zero or ANY hydrogenated oils at all show up as an ingredient, do NOT buy it or eat it or serve it to people you care about.

(The zero reading can be fudged since it can mean up to half a gram of trans fats per serving and this is often done when most people eat 3 to 6 servings. That can mean 1.5 to 3 grams of trans fat if you eat that food. How to avoid that trans fat? Simply follow the second half of the rule and avoid the food if it has any of the hydrogenated oil. If it has any amount of hydrogenated oil, it HAS trans fats!)

Packaged desserts, particularly cookies, quite often contain this stuff. Some microwave popcorn does too. Most margarine contains it. And, you will occasionally find it in what should be real foods such as bread and ice cream. I was shocked to find that the label revealed that what used to be my favorite canned chili had 3 grams of trans fats per serving as yet another example. (I no longer buy it!)

2. She listed shortening second. In a way that doesn’t quite fit as a separate item since shortening is close to 100 % trans fat!

But its use is enough different that I agree with her it should be listed separately.
It is used in different kinds of foods and those often do not have labels.

Commercially baked pies use it in their crusts instead of butter or palm or coconut oil. Most biscuits are made using it. And, I believe it very likely that all fast food pastry such as croissants are made using it.

(Now you know why, despite my love for pie and pie crusts, I no longer eat pie crusts even at Thanksgiving unless I know for certain that butter was used to make the crust.)

>>> Bonus for NOT eating foods from the first two things to avoid: The things that have trans fats usually also have refined grains and either sugar or high fructose corn syrup added. By taking a pass, you will wind up being much less fat in addition to having a much healthier heart and better circulation!

3. Refined grains such as white flour, most pasta, and white rice were in her third group. These foods deliver very little real nutrition and are quite low in fiber. They make you fat by the response your body has for the blood sugar spike you get when you eat them and because you add calories without turning off your hunger very well due to their low fiber content. In many people, if this goes on too often for too long, they get type 2 diabetes.

In addition, like excessive sugar and trans fats, they tend to sharply increase your triglycerides and heart attack risk.

(She did not include baked white potato or food made from white potatoes.

She also did not include whole wheat pasta, 100 % whole grain bread, or brown rice. She also did not include barley or quinoa. These foods do have fiber and much more nutrition. Some of them also spike your blood sugar less. But they do spike blood sugar too much.

So, you have some ways to deal with these. Eat them less often – once or twice a week instead of each day -- or maybe not at all if you are trying to lose fat.

And, if you do eat them, only do so with moderate or small servings; and add some health OK oils or protein to the dish to slow the blood sugar spike you would get otherwise.

4. High fructose corn syrup is on her list. The most common version used only has somewhat more fructose than sugar. But the average person now gets a huge amount of high fructose corn syrup. Jillian Michaels quoted a source that it is the single largest source of calories in the diet of the average person. So, consuming it reliably overdoses people with fructose causing obesity and heart disease from the boost it gives to your triglyceride levels.

Worse, high fructose corn syrup is used in regular soft drinks which add calories without making you less hungry and then make you MORE hungry when your blood sugar crashes after the blood sugar spike they cause is done. Such soft drinks are literally the perfect fattener!

One study estimated that for every daily serving of regular soft drinks you stop drinking, you’ll wind up carrying 15 pounds less fat!

In addition, one recent sampling found that 30% to a third of foods and drinks that contained high fructose corn syrup contained mercury also! (One way to make high fructose corn syrup leaves a mercury residue in it.) Many well consumed brand name foods including one I used to like and buy had mercury from the high fructose corn syrup they used.)

So, you will be far less fat if you never buy or ingest the stuff or foods or drinks containing it. You will also lower you risk for type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

(The manufacturers are trying to get permission to call high fructose corn syrup, corn sugar since that sounds more natural and will fool some people into thinking they aren’t getting high fructose corn syrup.)

5. Artificial sweeteners.

There is reason to believe many of these are harmful to some people, particularly when used for a long time. Sucralose or Splenda contains a chlorine atom. Nerve gasses and pesticides are carbon based molecules with chlorine atoms added. I’d prefer not to eat it, thanks. Others have seemed linked with causing a form of MS or some cancers. The manufacturers say they are safe and they are certainly far less harmful than some things. But I think the prudent thing to do is to take a pass.

Jillian Michaels didn’t even include that. It seems that ingesting artificial sweeteners makes sweet things taste less sweet and increasing your craving for sweets. This combo is so effective in most people that close to everyone who drinks diet soft drinks winds up as fat as if the were drinking regular soft drinks. And, their health markers show the same damage!

This one is a huge problem. One source I saw said that 60 of all Americans drink diet soft drinks. Between that and the people who drink regular soft drinks, it’s small wonder that half of Americans today are too fat. Eliminating both regular and diet soft drinks would cut that problem in half or more.

If you don’t want to be too fat, don’t drink ANY soft drinks!

At this point, I still have 5 of her items to go and my two and I’m out of time today.

Those will be in my next post.