Shoulds and Shouldn'ts

Part of the reason why most fad diets fail is that they are too limiting. Yes, calorie restriction will lead to weight loss. If you eat fewer calories than you are burning, then your body has to find those calories from other sources within you. That is what your fat is for. When you restrict the amount of calories you take in, you lose weight. However, calorie restriction diets are impossible to keep up, because they leave you feeling ravenous, constantly, and you end up crashing and binging on something horrible for you, erasing any progress you made. Calorie restriction diets also can't last forever, so when you eventually go back to eating whatever you think is normal, you gain all of that weight back.

A better idea is to bump up your metabolism so that you are burning more calories every day than you were previously, allowing you to eat a normal amount of food, and still lose weight. We are doing that by building up muscle, and eating more times per day.

When choosing what foods to eat, it's important to know what you're getting with each food. I've already talked about the ten basic foods you should always keep in your house, and the nutrients in each that make them a great food to have around. While I am never going to tell you that you cannot eat any one given thing, I am going to tell you that you shouldn't eat certain things. Keep in mind that this does not mean you can't eat these things. Once in a while is still okay for pretty much anything you can eat. You'll find that most of the things that aren't good for you are man-made products, found in processed food, so when buying food, try to stick to things that are whole foods, like something your great-grandmother would recognize as food.

The first weight loss enemy:
High-Fructose Corn Syrup
If you look at the label of a food product, and see that it has HFCS on the label, you probably shouldn't buy it. HFCS is man-made, and was invented in the 1970s. It's a sweetener, that is used in a lot of food for two reasons: it is both sweeter and cheaper than sugar. Before I even start telling you why HFCS isn't good for you, you can use your scientific brain to partially figure it out yourself. This man-made product didn't exist in the food chain until the 1970s. Evolution doesn't have a clue what this is, and neither does your body, making it very difficult to process. Go into your kitchen right now, and look at the labels on all of your food products. You will find an alarming number of things that have HFCS fairly high on the ingredients list. I did the same, and here are a few of the food products my roommates and I have on our shelves that contain HFCS, and how high it was on the ingredients list:

Chips Ahoy! Chocolate Chips - 5th
Kraft Italian Dressing - 3rd
Safeway brand Ketchup - 2nd
Fred Meyer brand Tartar Sauce - 4th
Hershey's Chocolate Syrup - 1st
Miracle Whip - 4th
Safeway brand Cran-Apple Juice Cocktail - 2nd
Ocean-Spray Cran-Raspberry Juice Cocktail - 2nd
Pepsi & Coke - 2nd
Gatorade - 2nd
Snapple - 2nd

As you can see, high-fructose corn syrup is pretty hard to avoid, so I'm not going to tell you to cut it out of your life completey. Obviously something like chololate syrup is a nice treat that is easy to keep around. If you're eating chocolate syrup constantly, that's a whole different problem. They key to all eating is moderation.

However, let me give you one more scientific reason you will want to avoid high-fructose corn syrup. This chemical is packed with calories, but your body doesn't recognize those calories. It is so foreign to your body that it actually shuts off your natural appetite controls, so you can eat tons of food, which you normally wouldn't be able to do. Chugging large amounts drinks and sodas containing HFCS wasn't possible before this chemical was invented. Your body's appetite controls would pop in and stop you from being able to eat any more.

Fructose is the reason why high-fructose corn syrup is so bad for you. Glucose, the most simple sugar, is usually processed by your body as immediately usable energy. Fructose, however, is immediately turned into fat. Normally you would get a small amount of fructose in your diet anyway from fruits and other natural sources of fructose, it's not enough to make you fat. HFCS is a carb that goes directly to your fat stores. This is because HFCS does not promote the production of insulin. Normally, when you eat other carbs, like glucose or starch, your body produces insulin, which is basically in charge of handling these carbs. It first takes it to your muscles for energy, and then stores it in fat. This action of storing the energy in your fat cells promotes the production of leptin, which regulates how much fat your body stores, and helps increase your metabolism when you need it. Fructose, however, doesn't cause your body to create insulin, so your body has no way of managing both the fructose, and your appetite.

High-fructose corn syrup is the biggest reason why you should cut soda out of your diet. No matter how much you love it, you have to come to terms with the fact that soda is slowly killing you. It makes you fatter, and raises your blood pressure. Soda also contains a large amount of acid, which can negatively affect your digestive system by creating heartburn, and even giving you acid reflux (this happened to me back when I was addicted to soda). Soda intake also increases your risk of getting cancer. Diet soda is a better option, if you have to have soda, but it too has problems. The artificial sweeteners that they use in diet soda instead of HFCS, usually aspartame, have been shown to cause cancer. So look at it this way: regular soda, makes you fat, and gives you cancer. Diet soda, gives you cancer. Either way, your odds of getting cancer are increased, so, if you feel you will die without your soda, you are much better off with diet soda. However, I urge you to try this experiment: for two weeks, instead of drinking soda, drink three great alternatives: water, fat-free milk, or %100 juice (not juice cocktail, check ingredients label for HFCS) mixed with seltzer water. I made the switch, and not only do I feel better (less heartburn) but I honestly don't miss it. When I'm craving soda, I sneak in a glass during my cheat meal of the week.

Due to the overwhelming presence of high-fructose corn syrup in our food supply, it can be pretty hard to avoid. However, there are usually healthier alternatives to products containing HFCS. Here are a few products that contain the evil chemical, and some great tasting alternatives:
Chips Ahoy! - Cookies are a hard food to find that don't contain harmful ingredients, but by checking the label you can do a pretty good job of hunting down the right kind for you.
Ketchup - There really isn't a replacement for ketchup, and few brands make it without HFCS, so just try limiting your ketchup intake
Frozen Yogurt - The supposedly healthier version of Ice Cream, is actually worse for you. Stick with the original.
Fruit-flavored yogurt - A lot of brands include HFCS in their fruit flavored yogurts, so either buy organic, or stick with plain.
Breakfast Cereals - News flash! Trix are bad for you. Stay away from highly sweetened cereals and choose low-sugar cereals or oatmeal.
Miracle Whip or Mayonnaise with HFCS - buy fat-free or light mayonnaise, and if you want the tang of miracle whip, stir in a small amount of dijon mustard.
Pancake Syrup - Always try to avoid processed foods, and stick to the real deal. Real maple syrup is much better for you than Ms. Butterworth's.

The second weight loss enemy:
Trans Fats
Another man-made chemical that didn't exist in the food chain until the 1950s, trans fats are bad for you in many, many ways. Your body has an extremely difficult time processing trans fats, and they can wreak havoc in there. This struggle has a couple of side effects. Your bad cholesterol goes up, your good cholesterol goes down, and it also increases lipoprotein in your blood, which increases your risk of heart disease.

Trans fats were created in response to the anti-saturated fat and anti-cholesterol craze that started sometime around the 1950s. Scientists knew that vegetable oil could be a good substitute for fat, however, it doesn't naturally stay solid at room temperature. They created a process called partial hydrogenation. This is a process which combines the vegetable oil with the hydrogen, making it a stable solid at room temperature. This chemical was so easy to keep around and use that it, like HFCS, permeated almost every food in our diet. Trans Fats are is so many foods that it is nearly impossible to completely elminate it from your diet, but there are a few things you can do to avoid it. When shopping at the grocery store, check the label. Some products will have trans fats on the label, some will not (trans fats were only ordered to be phased in on nutritional labels in 2003), but the ingredients will give it away. Look for hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. That means trans fats. Peanut butter will containt trace amounts that are mostly harmless, so don't get scared away from peanut butter. If you want to buy margarine instead of butter ( I choose to do this because it is easier to spread), buy trans fat free margarine, like Smart Balance Light. At restaurants, try to stick to dishes that are baked or grilled, not fried.

Those are the two problem ingredients you should try to avoid at all costs. Completely taking them out of your diet is next to impossible, but getting rid of most of them is very doable, and will only improve your health. Try out a few of these tips to stay healthy:

Instead of snacking on chips and crackers, keep some fruit around the house. An apple, on orange or two, a pear, or even some watermelon is a healthy snacking alternative. There are also many great vegetables that can work well as a snack, and still give you that satisfying crunch.

A single can of soda every day (12 oz.) amounts to 5 lbs of extra fat every year. That means your three cans of soda a day (one with every meal!) is giving you up to 15 lbs of extra fat on your body every year!

When at restaurants, try to avoid tempting sides of fries or onion rings. A salad to start with some vegetables for a side are great alternatives that will lower your calorie intake and keep you feeling fuller, longer.

In the morning, stick to protein-rich foods like eggs, or fiber-rich foods like oatmeal, and avoid sugary cereals or trans fat heavy frozen waffles.

%100 Natural Peanut Butter does NOT contain hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils - which means you have to refrigerate it, and stir it when you first get it (the vegetable oil becomes liquified), but it is much better for you.

Stay away from fast food. It's definitely okay from time to time, if you just don't have time to cook, but in general, it's a good idea to avoid fast food. Trans fats, HFCS, and worst of all, tons of calories are inhabiting your favorite fast food burger. Check out Eat This, Not That! at MensHealth.com, for a comparison of many fast food menu items, as well as chain restaurant menu items. You can usually find something decently healthy to eat at any fast food or chain restaurant, and the good choices are easily laid out in front of you on this website.

Tip of the Day

One pound of muscle burns up to 50 extra calories per day, just doing nothing. Expand that out to a week and you are burning 250 extra calories every week. Burn fat by building more muscle!

- Brendan McGuire