Seriously, food manufacturers have got us pegged. They have figured out how to make sh– taste really good. And we’re suckers. We go for it. The smells in fast food joints are enticing. They elicit responses and make us want to eat it (so much for the healthy options). Then when you eat it, you feel good while you eat, you feel satisfied afterwards, like a drug. Then, you crash and guess what your body wants after you crash? More sh—. Seriously, it’s a vicious cycle. The best way to avoid it is to NOT walk in the place. That’s A. And B - when grocery shopping, avoid boxes whenever possible. Shop the perimeter. The more processed a food–meaning the more things done to a food once it leaves an animal, the ground, a tree or the ocean, the more processed it is. The more chemicals are added. The more fiber is stripped out. The more salt is added. MSG is awful. And the worst offender is the trans fat added to make the product hold up, like forever. Even mold avoids it! In David Katz’s Flavor-Full Diet: Use Your Taste Buds to Lose Pounds and Inches, he shares the nitty gritty about the physical AND physiological dependence that is promoted by convenience, marketing and price. Then, there is the Wake Forest School of Medicine which found the effect of trans fats on weight. Turns out they fed these two groups of monkeys an equal # of calories but gave one group just 8 % of their daily intake in trans fats. The trans fat group gained THREE times as much weight. So the moral of THAT story is you can’t go eat a fast food lunch and then think eating lean the rest of the day can make up for it. You might THINK so calorie wise but those trans fats do more than screw up your cardiovascular health. And oh yeah, it’s allllllllllllllllllllllllllllll belly fat!! If that isn’t enough to convince you to start eating healthy TODAY, then consider this: Another study (CARDIA in 2005) followed 5000 healthy young adults for 20 years (that’s a GOOD sample and a good time period). Turns out, eating fast food was worse on a body than a sedentary lifestyle or alchohol consumption.
Be good to your body. Try a cleanse. I found a really great one several years ago and do it twice a year. It’s not tough and you’d be surprised at how far you’ve moved from eating healthy. I sleep like a baby and wake up before my alarm. I have tons of energy. There’s a great article you can follow at Experience Life Magazine on a fast track detox plan. ENJOY and Happy Monday!
