ROCK CLIMBING & FITNESS MILK: THE MISCONCEPTION NINE WAYS PROCESSED FOODS ARE KILLING PEOPLE
VOLUME 1 . NOVEMBER 2014
HEALTH & WELLNESS MAGAZINE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Why Milk 9 is BAD For
ROCK CLIMBING & FITNESS
MILK: THE MISCONCEPTION
Little takes rock climbing into a new perspective and details how great it is as a full body workout for your body.
Learn about the negative effects cow milk has on the human body, and why milk is just unnatural for you in general.
By Cameron Little
MARGAUX ALVAREZ INTERVIEW
By Vantage Magazine This interview features Margaux Alvarez who competed in The CrossFit Games in 2013 and 2014.
By Emily Lambrecht
YOU 15
PALEO PUMPKIN PANCAKES
By Ruth Johnson
Learn how to make the healthiest pumpkin pancakes you will find for your body. Paleo style!
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NINE WAYS PROCESSED FOODS ARE KILLING PEOPLE By Chris Kunnars
Processed foods are filled with crazy chemicals, studies have been showing how negative they really are.
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EVERY DAY WORKOUT
By Emily Lambrecht Want a quick daily workout routine this month? This routine shows you how to tone and strengthen your body.
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Rock Climbing & Fitness Written by Cameron Little Illustrated by Jasmon Grant
You’re hanging onto a rock face 40 feet above the ground, shaking with exertion. The only parts of you resting on anything solid are the edges of your shoes and the tips of your fingers. Your arms are burning, your core is tight, and the corded muscles in your forearms are standing out with strain. Your back muscles swell and roll as you pull yourself up to lodge your fingers in another tiny crevice in the rock. You reset your feet, tense your body, and pull again, and again. Five more feet, 10 more feet, 20 more—and you’ve made it. As your rope takes your weight, and your partner lowers you to the ground, your forearms are swollen and pumped, your fingers are shaking, and you wonder whether you can still raise your arms above your head. Yet you feel exhilarated and victorious. Whether you’ve just done your first climb or your thousandth, you’re likely to be stiff the next morning. The human body is not designed for sustained vertical rock climbing.
Running, jumping, lifting objects—these things come naturally for the human form. Taking your entire body weight onto the tips of your fingers and pulling, does not. Improving at rock climbing means pushing the limits of what you think your body is capable of achieving. Good climbers are some of the most-fit individuals in sports. Rock climbing sits at an interesting juncture between hobby and exercise. Viewed from one angle, it is a sport that demands rigorous physical training and sacrifice from its participants, as well as a certain manic bravado. Hemingway famously remarked: “Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports. … All others are games.” From another perspective, rock climbing has become one of the world’s more-accessible fitness hobbies due to the proliferation of indoor climbing gyms, outdoor guide services, and willing participants. 4
Broad accessibility has led rock climbing to become one of the fastest-growing sports in the world. New climbers are flocking to climbing gyms and crags by the thousands. Many new climbers are individuals simply looking for a great workout. They want to feel the burn that happens when you’ve gone 5 feet higher than you thought you could. Or they want to develop the strength a climber needs to hang by his arms as he swings his feet up level with his face. There are a number of fitness benefits that climbing can afford, and these benefits are accessible to anybody looking to get a little adventurous and have a lot of fun. Most of the benefits of climbing hinge on the fact that it requires you to use your muscles in unconventional ways. Again, intense rock climbing is not natural to the human form. If we were built to climb, we would look more like chimpanzees. Rock climbing requires you to develop muscle systems that are often used to very different ends in our daily lives and even in our other workouts. In other words, rock climbing stresses an uncommon use of common muscles. To give an example, when we climb everyday objects such as ladders, we are most often curling our hands around bars to pull ourselves higher. Consequently, most non-climbers expect climbable rocks to be similar to a series of easy-togrip rungs. In reality, however, your hands must adjust to a variety of grips when rock climbing. In climbing slang, climbers are faced with “slopers,” “jugs,” “pinches,” “crimps,” and “pockets.” You might have to pull yourself up on an edge as slim as a pencil or a handhold like a huge, rounded ball. You might even have to use a hole in the rock that is big enough for only one or two fingers.
Something to keep in mind about rock climbing is that it is a body-weight exercise. As is the case with most body-weight exercises, climbing recruits a wide range of muscles for each movement. As you move your body up a rock wall, your fingers grip, your forearms tense, your biceps and triceps flex, your back muscles engage, your core moves, and your legs push. Weight training, on the other hand, often seeks to isolate a single muscle group, to the disadvantage of things like the smaller, stabilizer muscles that you need to make controlled full-body moves. Muscular bulk only serves to impede climbing, though, so your body responds to the physical stress of the kind of full-body movement used in climbing by building lean, supple muscle. Climbing sometimes requires movements that engage your muscles in unique ways. For example, you might be on an overhanging wall and have to pull halfway up with your right arm until it’s at a right angle, then stop, “lock off” that arm, and reach with your left. With this type of movement, your core is engaged to keep your hips close to the wall. Your right arm and back muscles (especially the latissimus dorsi muscle) move dynamically to hoist yourself up, then freeze in an isometric contraction to lock your body position while your left arm reaches. This is a simple example. Other types of climbing movements recruit the oblique, deltoid, and trapezius muscles, as well as a host of other smaller, stabilizing muscles. Climbing requires body tension as well as dynamic movement…You will approach some moves by keeping most of your body still, and some moves by throwing for the next hold forcefully and quickly.
“Rock climbing sits at an interesting juncture between hobby and exercise.” Such grip positions are happening as you move your body weight up a vertical wall. The stresses put on your hands when adjusting to the limitless rock options presented by climbing will force your forearms, finger muscles, and finger tendons to strengthen tremendously. In the Discovery Channel series “More Than Human,” 15-year-old professional climber Tori Allen, who weighed only 110.8 pounds, registered a grip strength of 36 kilograms (39.4 pounds). A sports physician noted that it was “the same grip strength you might see in an NFL football player.” 5
No other sport forces your muscles to constantly switch from isometric, static contractions to dynamic motions as climbing does. Your body will respond differently to different styles of climbing. “Bouldering” is done on short rocks or walls and emphasizes the extremes of climbing strength in short climbs. “Top roping” and “sport climbing” occur on tall walls and cliffs and tend to emphasize power endurance. The longer the climb, the more anaerobic endurance systems are engaged. Bouldering routes or “problems” consist of a few extremely powerful moves, while longer
forms of climbing are composed of less intense moves that must be sustained for a longer period of time. The name of the game with long routes is “power endurance.” You have to continue making high-intensity moves and pushing through muscle burn for the duration of a sport or top roped route, which can be over 100 feet. The alternative is, of course, falling. This brings up the most-intangible fitness benefit that climbing can offer. No weightlifter or treadmill runner and no one in an aerobics class or a yoga session can say that he or she has performed under the pressure of fear. Succeeding in doing one last arm curl in the gym is a far cry from succeeding at the crux move of a hard route when you’re hanging 50 feet off the ground. Both take a certain amount of mental fortitude, but only the climber has to face the real possibility of falling if he does not complete his next move. Anyone climbing smart is also climbing safe. An immense amount of technology and planning goes into every piece of safety gear designed to save you when you fall, but there is always that tiny moment of uncertainty and fear that happens when your hands finally slip from the rock. Climbing past the fear of falling is a great undertaking, and performing a physical task as complex and demanding as climbing while working through that fear is a true achievement. Everyone who climbs long enough gets over such fear, but it’s a demand imposed by few other kinds of exercise. The bottom line is that rock climbing will increase your fitness whether you do it regularly or only occasionally. For many people, climbing is their chief form of exercise. However, it also makes a great cross-training option for those whose primary physical fitness goals center on aerobic exercise or weightlifting. If you are interested in trying rock climbing for the first time, all you have to do is look up your local climbing gym and give a call. Indoor rock climbing is a great segue into climbing outdoors, and most seasoned outdoor climbers use indoor gyms to train and stay in shape. Although this article stresses the fitness benefits, climbing is much more than an exercise regimen. Climbing is exciting, challenging, and fun to do by yourself or with friends. So if you want to select a new occasional hobby, then give rock climbing a try. Focus on the fun, and the fitness will follow.
Monthly Interview
MARGAUX ALAVAREZ: An Interview This interview by MentalityWOD.com features Margaux Alvarez who competed in The CrossFit Games in 2013 and 2014. I’ve known Margaux for a few years, and I’ve enjoyed watching her grow, train and compete. Margaux’s mentality absolutely sets her apart, and she is a great role model in this sport because of how she carries herself. She understands what it takes to get to the top, but she truly enjoys the journey as well. Margaux is a special person and I’ve enjoyed getting to know her better.
MENTALITYWOD: What do you like to think about in the minutes leading up to the start of your event? While you’re in the corral or waiting for the “10 second call”? MARGAUX ALVAREZ: I close my eyes, visualize the workout or movements and take a big breath and smile. I tell myself that I can do this and that I am prepared and ready. M: What strategies do you use to mentally recover after a Workout Of the Day (WOD) that didn’t go quite how you wanted it to? MA: Many times I review splits, video, technique, transition and then determine where to improve. This pattern is something I repeat every day in practice in order to execute a well rehearsed plan efficiently when it counts. M: What is the one mantra, quote, slogan, or piece of advice, that means the most to you? MA: My mantra is: Focus. Drive. Execute. It has helped me get prepared and focus in training and competition. M: What makes you keep pushing when the WOD starts to get shitty? MA: I think just one more rep, one more rep.
M: How have you most improved (mentally) from a year ago? MA: I have given myself credit for the work that I have accomplished, which is something that I wasn’t able to do before. The opinions of others are less of a concern this year as well and the expectations that I place on myself are fair. M: Do you regularly work on improving your mindset by reading anything, or practicing any skills or strategies? MA: Yes, I write down my goals and visualize them on a daily basis. I like to blog and share my experiences with others, as it allows me to reflect on certain moments in training. I practice my circle-breathing and visualization exercises daily. M: Do you think you do a good job of staying balanced as a competitive athlete? MA: Yes. I have an amazing boyfriend that helps me day in and day out to achieve my goals. I have learned to think outside the box which has given me an ample amount of time to pursue my goals while allowing me time to enjoy life in the process. Everyone is different and has their own ways of coping with the amount of time this sports requires, but yes, I would say my life is very balanced.
M: What is your biggest motivation for competing in Crossfit competitions?
M: What do you believe you have to be really good at mentally, in order to be the best at CrossFit?
MA: My motivation is to help others achieve their goals and I have come to find the better I am in this sport, the bigger platform I have to do that. My motivation to compete is the community.
MA: The belief and confidence in yourself, the ability to endure through the tough times and stay level-headed through the great times and the ability to remove yourself from toxic environments.
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Why Milk is BAD For
YOU Written by Emily Lambrecht
Milk: The Misconception One of the most common beverages found in households in America is milk. For generations, people have been told that milk is good for a person’s health. Children are told to drink their milk because it will help a kid grow and have strong bones. The common thought that “drinking milk is natural and good for you,� is unfortunately one of the largest misconceptions in the American lifestyle, today.
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People who consume dairy products are, in fact, generating harmful effects in their bodies rather than the helpful affects that are intended through consumption. All mammals are intended to be nourished during infancy with milk from their mother… of the same species. Not another animal of a different species, but milk slogan’s such as, “Milk is Natural,” Milk is the Perfect food,” and “Everybody Needs Milk,” are misleading. Drinking milk of another species is clearly unnatural – do we see a lion cub drinking the milk from a zebra mother? No, because milk produced by any animal is designed for its own offspring. Human milk is the perfect nourishment for a mother’s child; it has an excellent amount of protein and other various nutrients that has been created for the human species. Cows produce excellent milk that has the perfect combination of nutrients specifically made for young calves’ growth and development. Other than the human species, every mammal on this planet stops drinking their mother’s milk once they are able to feed on larger or more solid foods. What makes homosapiens different? Why does it benefit the human health to drink different species’ milk? It does not; we are just in taking more than what is needed years after it was time to quit in the first place.Seeing as milk is unnatural, it would then make sense that the calcium ingested from cow milk, has a harmful effect on the human body, because it was never meant to be consumed in the first place. The calcium found in milk actually has a negative outcome when mixed into your body. It is a form of calcium that is difficult for humans to assimilate which ends up depleting the calcium from the person’s bones rather than strengthening the consumer’s bones (saveourbones). One tends to be better off just receiving calcium from foods rich in calcium - out of the dairy product category - such as green
Lucy’s Perspective Lucy sits in the waiting room in her family doctor’s office. She noticed over the past few years her height has been shrinking, not by a large amount, but large enough that Lucy noticed. She was not too alarmed by this discovery, but when she started to feel extremely painful discomfort in her lower back, she had to check with her doctor. Her doctor, Dr. Mallard, called her over to his office. He examined her and claimed she could possibly have osteoporosis.
vegetables. Studies have shown that people who drink the recommended three to four glasses of milk a day have the lowest ratio of blood to calcium in their system, which “can lead to irritability, headaches, and are also prone to muscle spasms and cramps” (Dye). Lack of calcium in a person’s bloodstream can lead to serious health conditions such as arthritis and osteoporosis. The more serious condition, osteoporosis, is where a person’s bones become weak and brittle and are easily broken. Osteoporosis is the opposite of what the milk industries advertise – ‘Milk will help you grow and strengthen your bones.’ On average, 60 percent of cows have leukemia. Cows ingest pesticides and other chemicals, while grazing in fields. They are given injections of growth hormones and anti-biotics. These cows are not healthy especially after ingesting a “toxic brew of chemicals” that is also produced when they excrete milk (Milk: The deadly poison). One of hormones injected into cows is called the rbST growth hormone, the most powerful hormone that occurs in nature, which travels through the cow’s body and is found in milk after extraction. Humans naturally produce enough of this hormone as it is and when one drinks milk they are adding excess amounts of this hormone to their body system. This excess is unneeded and normally our bodies would be able to destroy any extra hormones. In this case, drinking milk dilutes stomach acid which prevents our bodies from doing their basic functions, such as destroying any extra rbST hormones. Because of the dilution to the stomach acid, the stomach is no longer able to complete its normal task.
Outraged, Lucy claimed that should not be the case. She had followed Dr. Mallard’s instruction to drink her three to four glasses of milk each day, which should have prevented her bones from becoming so brittle that they can break easily. Researching osteoporosis, Lucy finds some of the factors that can lead to osteoporosis; heredity, taking certain medicines that effect bones mass, and milk. Milk was harder to find information about, but the website called “Save Our Bones” easily explains that, “we barely absorb the calcium in cow’s milk (especially if pasteurized), but to make matters worse, it actually increases calcium loss from the bones. Lucy then rearranged her diet so she refrained from consuming any more milk and dairy products. Just after a few weeks she already started noticing improvements in her basic body functions. Her overall body felt healthier, and less bloated. She felt like she had more energy than she could last remember. Instead of drinking cow’s milk, Lucy decided she was going to try out a more organic calcium source – coconut milk. Coconut milk along with, almond milk, rice milk, and soy milk, do not have the lactose found in cow’s milk.
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“An eye opening experience ... I am not lactose intolerant, but my body, definitely, is not used to ingesting milk anymore.”
Cows in America are separated into two categories: A1 cows or A2 cows. Cows that produce milk high in A1 beta-casein are in the A1 category, which happens have a higher population than A2 cows in the U.S. A1 beta-casein, when ingested, “releases an opiate-like chemical upon digestion.” The casein is like an addiction, because the purpose is similar to a drug dependence intended to keep the calf steadily bonded to the mother until its ready to consume solid food sources. This addiction affects humans upon digestion as well, which is why people find it hard to wane off the habit of drinking milk or eating dairy products. Casein is not only addictive it also has a myriad of negative symptoms such as “joint and muscle pains, fatigue, digestive disturbances, and headaches.” Cow milk has 20 times more casein than human breast milk, which make the protein difficult or even impossible to assimilate. When it cannot be broken down, it weakens the immune system. The weakening of the immune system obviously leads to a high risk of catching a cold or even attaining more damaging diseases such as infections to the annoying allergies that affect the way we feel everyday. Sixty percent of the time allergies are caused by cow’s milk. Through my research of the negative symptoms milk can have on a person’s body, I found that I could mostly relate to the headaches. Growing up, I had many headaches that could have been characterized as migraines at some points in time. They were annoying and affected my everyday life, where I felt as though I couldn’t completely enjoy my life to the fullest because of these daily pains I had to endure.
All milk drinking animals are intended to be nourished ... with milk from their mother, of the same species. When I quit drinking cow milk, these headaches significantly slowed down. Just three weeks after I cut off consuming dairy in my diet, my headaches had reduced to dull throbs maybe once a week after that period of time. Today, four years la-ter, I rarely experience any more headaches. I soon realized that the milks protein was too much for my body to handle and my body could not completely digest the excess protein. I found this to be accurate because I have had problems previous to this revelation with consuming too much protein in the past, which I indirectly caused myself to develop headaches. The thought that drinking milk is a healthy addition to one’s daily diet is a huge misconception in today’s American society, especially when it is clearly unhealthy to the human body. There are too many negative factors for it to even be considered positive to one’s health. Many people around the world are lactose intolerant. Asia 60 to 100 percent of the people have a negative reaction to drinking milk products, around 40 to 60 percent in African countries. Europe, America, and Australia a 30 percentage. Those numbers are pretty high. Mostly everyone knows a person who is lactose intolerant. These people not able to digest and getting sick and having allergic reactions to milk, this may be telling the population something on it’s own. If milk is the “perfect food” why is more than half the world allergic to milk?
The Author’s Perspective Four years ago, I decided to quit drinking milk, because of a really inspirational speech a presenter made at a yoga lesson. He was promoting the anti-inflammatory diet. Dairy was something you needed to cut out if you were to go on this diet. It also included wheats, grains and all processed foods, but my main concern at that point in time was that fact that this presenter said, “Milk is bad for you.” Milk was something I drank all the time. I’d drink more milk than water, ever since I was really young. So, I had never even thought of the possibility that it could be unhealthy, with my doctors always asking if I had my three glasses a day. I just assumed that, of course milk is good for you; I wanted to trust my mom and my dad because they also said it was healthy. After the anti-inflammatory diet speech, I was intrigued with the aspect of milk being bad for the human body. So, I went on the diet. I cut out dairy first, and it was easy – when I am determined to follow through with something I believe in, I will. I told myself milk is disgusting, and researched all the negative effects milk can have on a person. I was appalled with words that articles and people used to describe what is in milk; bacteria, pus, chemicals, unnatural, etc. I think what really caught my attention was the fact that it was just not right to consume. Cow milk being made for the cow’s calves. I drank milk excellent for calf growth, but not all that great for human growth for probably ten years of my life. Honestly, I have tried drinking cow milk after four years of not consuming it, and it just wasn’t all that good. I don’t know why it appealed to me in the first place anymore. Not only was it not pleasing to my taste buds, it also made me feel sick to my stomach. I felt bloated and irritated just from having a glass of milk! It felt like eating way too much candy, after treat or treating on Halloween as a kid. The fact that cow milk now makes me sick is really an eye opening experience. I am not lactose intolerant, but my body, definitely, is not used to ingesting milk, anymore.
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Recipe of the Month
PALEO
PUMPKIN
PANCAKES Recipe by Ruth Johnson ~ “These are good any season but taste best on cold winter
mornings. You can use canned or cooked fresh pumpkin.”
In this recipe, they’re using the popular combination of almond flour and coconut flour that seems to do the best job of imitating what we come to expect from foods like these that typically use regular flour. The use of both pumpkin pie spice as well as pumpkin puree means that you’re going to get a double load of pumpkiny goodness with each bite. They cook these on coconut oil, which is going to add further flavor. They’ve even managed to sneak in flax seed so you’re getting additional omega-3s to help counter your intake of omega-6s. Substituting non-Paleo favorites is always tricky, but Pumpkin Pancakes are one of my favorite things to eat! You can also do this with a banana or a grated apple as well. Enjoy and look forward to breakfast the Paleo way as much as I do!
Ingredients:
Directions:
1 1/2 cups milk
Original recipe makes 12 pancakes
1 cup pumpkin puree
To start the pancakes, prepare the wet and dry ingredients in separate bowls, and then combine. As I have found with most Paleo pancakes, they turn out better if you make them small. Since they have low flour content, they can sometimes be hard to flip. But if the pancakes are small you are much more likely to be successful.
1 egg 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 tablespoons vinegar 2 cups almond/coconut flour 3 tablespoons brown sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon ground allspice 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 1/2 teaspoon salt
Pumpkin pancakes are a delicious seasonal twist on a classic. This recipe, using mainly coconut flour and pumpkin puree, delivers light, fluffy pancakes that are perfect for your next leisurely Saturday morning.
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WAYS THAT PROCESSED FOODS ARE KILLING PEOPLE By Kris Gunnars Processed foods are bad. They are the main reason why people all over the world are getting fat and sick. How do we know? Every time a population adopts a “Western” diet high in processed foods, they get sick. It happens within a few years. Their genes don’t change, their food does.
Real vs Processed Food The word “processed” often causes some confusion, so let me clarify what I mean. Obviously, most foods we eat are processed in some way. Apples are cut from trees, ground beef has been ground in a machine and butter is cream that has been separated from the milk and churned. But there is a difference between mechanical processing and chemical processing. If it’s a single ingredient food with no added chemicals, then it doesn’t matter if it’s been ground or put into a jar. It’s still real food. However… foods that have been chemically processed and made solely from refined ingredients and artificial substances, are what is generally known as “processed food.”
S Here are 9 ways that processed foods are bad for your health. 1. Processed Foods Are Usually High in Sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup Processed foods are usually loaded with added sugar… or its evil twin, High Fructose Corn Syrup. It is well known that sugar, when consumed in excess, is seriously harmful. As we all know, sugar is “empty” calories – it has no essential nutrients, but a large amount of energy. But empty calories are really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the harmful effects of sugar… Many studies show that sugar can have devastating effects on metabolism that go way beyond its calorie content (1). It can lead to insulin resistance, high triglycerides, increased levels of the harmful cholesterol and increased fat accumulation in the liver and abdominal cavity (2,3). Not surprisingly, sugar consumption is strongly associated with some of the world’s leading killers… including heart disease, diabetes, obesity and cancer (4, 5, 6, 7, 8). Most people aren’t putting massive amounts of sugar in their coffee or on top of their cereal, they’re getting it from processed foods and sugar-sweetened beverages.
Bottom Line: Processed foods and beverages are the biggest sources of added sugar (and HFCS) in the diet. Sugar is very unhealthy and can have serious adverse effects on metabolism when consumed in excess.
2. Processed Foods Are “Hyper Rewarding” and Lead to Overconsumption Bottom Line: Food manufacturers spend massive amounts of resources on making their foods as “rewarding” as possible to the brain, which leads to overconsumption.
We all want to eat good food. That’s just human nature Evolution provided us with taste buds that are supposed to help us navigate the natural food environment. Our appetite gravitates towards foods that are sweet, salty and fatty, because we know such foods contain energy and nutrients that we need for survival. Obviously, if a food manufacturer wants to succeed and get people to buy their product, it has to taste good. But today, the competition is fierce. There are many different food manufacturers, all competing with each other. For this reason, massive resources are spent on making foods as desirable as possible. Many processed foods have been engineered to be so incredibly “rewarding” to the brain, that they overpower anything we might have come across in nature. We have complicated mechanisms in our bodies and brains that are supposed to regulate energy balance (how much we eat and how much we burn) – which, until very recently in evolutionary history, worked to keep us at a healthy weight. There is quite a lot of evidence that the reward value of foods can bypass the innate defense mechanism and make us start eating much more than we need, so much that it starts to compromise our health (9,10). This is also known as the “food reward hypothesis of obesity. ”The truth is, processed foods are so incredibly rewarding to our brains that they affect our thoughts and behavior, making us eat more and more until eventually we become sick. Good food is good, but foods that are engineered to be hyper rewarding, effectively short circuiting our innate brakes against overconsumption, are NOT good.
“I DON’T KNOW WHAT THIS IS, BUT IT MOST CERTAINLY ISN’T FOOD”
3. Processed Foods Contain All Sorts of Artificial Ingredients If you look at the ingredients label for a processed, packaged food, chances are that you won’t have a clue what some of the ingredients are. That’s because many of the ingredients in there aren’t actual food… they are artificial chemicals that are added for various purposes. This is an example of a processed food, an Atkins Advantage bar, which is actually marketed as a low-carb friendly health food.
Bottom Line: Most highly processed foods are loaded with artificial chemicals, including flavorants, texturants, colorants and preservatives.
Highly processed foods often contain: PRESERVATIVES: Chemicals that prevent the food from rotting. COLORANTS: Chemicals that are used to give the food a specific color. FLAVOR: Chemicals that give the food a particular flavor. TEXTURANTS: Chemicals that give a particular texture. Keep in mind that processed foods can contain dozens of additional chemicals that aren’t even listed on the label.For example, “artificial flavor” is a proprietary blend. Manufacturers don’t have to disclose exactly what it means and it is usually a combination of chemicals. For this reason, if you see “artificial flavor” on an ingredients list, it could mean that there are 10 or more additional chemicals that are blended in to give a specific flavor. Of course, most of these chemicals have allegedly been tested for safety. But given that the regulatory authorities still think that sugar and vegetable oils are safe, I personally take their “stamp of approval” with a grain of salt.
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“JUNK FOODS ACTIVATE THE SAME AREAS IN THE BRAIN AS DRUGS OF ABUSE LIKE COCAINE”
4. Many People Can Literally Become Addicted to Processed Junk Foods Bottom Line: For many people, junk foods can hijack the biochemistry of the brain, leading to downright addiction and cause them to lose control over their consumption.
The “hyper rewarding” nature of processed foods can have serious consequences for some people. Some people can literally become addicted to this stuff and completely lose control over their consumption. Although food addiction is something that most people don’t know about, I am personally convinced that it is a huge problem in society today. It is the main reason why some people just can’t stop eating these foods, no matter how hard they tr y. They’ve had their brain biochemistr y hijacked by the intense dopamine release that occurs in the brain when they eat these foods (11). This is actually supported by many studies. Sugar and highly rewarding junk foods activate the same areas in the brain as drugs of abuse like cocaine (12). 5. Most Processed Foods Are Low in Nutrients
Bottom Line: The carbohydrates you find in processed foods are usually refined, “simple” carbohydrates. These lead to rapid spikes in blood sugar and insulin levels and cause negative health effects.
Processed foods are extremely low in essential nutrients compared to whole, unprocessed foods. In some cases, synthetic vitamins and minerals are added to the foods to compensate for what was lost during processing. However, synthetic nutrients are NOT a good replacement for the nutrients found in whole foods. Also, let’s not forget that real foods contain much more than just the standard vitamins and minerals that we’re all familiar with. Real foods… like plants and animals, contain thousands of other trace nutrients that science is just beginning to grasp. Maybe one day we will invent a chemical blend that can replace all these nutrients, but until that happens… the only way to get them in your diet is to eat whole, unprocessed foods. The more you eat of processed foods, the less you will get of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and various trace nutrients.
6. Processed Foods Are Often High in Refined Carbohydrates There is a lot of controversy regarding carbohydrates in the diet. Some people think that the majority of our energy intake should be from carbs, while others think they should be avoided like the plague. But one thing that almost everyone agrees on, is that carbohydrates from whole foods are much better than refined carbohydrates. Processed foods are often high in carbs, but it is usually the refined variety. One of the main problems is that refined, “simple” carbohydrates are quickly broken down in the digestive tract, leading to rapid spikes in blood sugar and insulin levels. This can lead to carb cravings a few hours later when blood sugar levels go down again. This phenomenon is also called the “blood sugar roller coaster” – which many people who have been on a high-carb diet can relate to. Not surprisingly, eating a lot of refined carbohydrates is associated with negative health effects and many chronic diseases (13, 14, 15). Do NOT be fooled by labels like “whole grains” that are often plastered on processed food packages, including breakfast cereals. These are usually whole grains that have been pulverized into very fine flour and are just as harmful as their refined counterparts. If you’re going to eat carbs, get them from whole, single ingredient foods, not processed junk foods.
Bottom Line: There are many nutrients found in whole foods that are not found in processed foods. The more processed foods you eat, the less you will get of these nutrients.
7. Processed Foods Tend to be Low in Fiber Fiber, especially soluble, fermentable fiber, has various benefits. One of the main ones is that it functions as a prebiotic, feeding the friendly bacteria in the intestine (16, 17). There is also evidence that fiber can slow down the absorption of carbohydrates and help us feel more satisfied with fewer calories (18, 19). Soluble fiber can also help treat many cases of constipation, which is a very common problem today (20). The fiber that is found naturally in foods is often lost during processing, or intentionally removed. Therefore, most processed foods are very low in fiber.
Bottom Line: Soluble, fermentable fiber has various important health benefits, but most processed foods are very low in fiber because it is lost or intentionally removed during processing.
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8. It Requires Less Energy and Time to Digest Processed Foods Bottom Line: We only burn half as many calories digesting and metabolizing processed foods compared to whole foods.
Food manufacturers want their processed food products to have a long shelf life. They also want each batch of the product to have a similar consistency and they want their foods to be easily consumed. Given the way foods are processed, they are often very easy to chew and swallow. Sometimes, it’s almost as if they melt in your mouth. Most of the fiber has been taken out and the ingredients are refined, isolated nutrients that don’t resemble the whole foods they came from. One consequence of this is that it takes less energy to eat and digest processed foods. We can eat more of them in a shorter amount of time (more calories in) and we also burn less energy (fewer calories out) digesting them than we would if they were unprocessed, whole foods. One study in 17 healthy men and women compared the difference in energy expenditure after consuming a processed vs a whole foods-based meal (21). They ate a sandwich, either with multi-grain bread and cheddar cheese (whole foods) or with white bread and processed cheese (processed foods). It turned out that they burned twice as many calories digesting the unprocessed meal. The Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) is a measure of how much different foods stimulate energy expenditure after eating. It totals about 10% of total energy expenditure (metabolic rate) in the average person. According to this study, people who eat processed food will cut their TEF in half, effectively reducing the amount of calories they burn throughout the day.
“[PROCESSED FOODS] USUALLY CONTAIN CHEAP FATS, REFINED SEED AND VEGETABLE OILS THAT ARE OFTEN HYDROGENATED… WHICH TURNS THEM INTO TRANS FATS.”
9. Processed Foods Are Often High in Trans Fats or Processed Vegetable Oils Processed foods are often high in unhealthy fats. They usually contain cheap fats, refined seed and vegetable oils (like soybean oil) that are often hydrogenated… which turns them into trans fats. Vegetable oils are extremely unhealthy and most people are eating way too much of them already. These fats contain excessive amounts of Omega-6 fatty acids, which can drive oxidation and inflammation in the body (22, 23). Several studies show that when people eat more of these oils, they have a significantly increased risk of heart disease, which is the most common cause of death in Western countries today (24, 25, 26). If the fats are hydrogenated, that makes them even worse. Hydrogenated (trans) fats are among the nastiest, unhealthiest substances you can put into your body (27). The best way to avoid seed oils and trans fats is to avoid processed foods. Eat real fats like butter, coconut oil and olive oil instead. Just Eat Real Food! When we replace real, traditional foods like butter, meat and vegetables with crappy, processed junk foods, we get fat and sick. Real food is the key to good health, processed food is not. Period.
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Monthly Workout Routine
EVERY DAY WORKOUT three reps daily
This is the perfect workout for those days when you’re not sure what to do and know you really need to do something to workout. Use it as a filler, a routine, the go-to work out when you have nothing else to fire you up. At ten reps per exercise there really is no excuse not to do them.
INSTRUCTIONS:
TIPS:
WHAT IT WORKS:
HINTS:
Repeat each move with no rest in between until the set is done, rest up to 2 minutes and repeat the whole set again 3, 5 or 7 times depending on your fitness level.
Calves, quads, chest, triceps, biceps, lower abs.
10 PUSH UPS
This is your go-to exercise routine when you’re looking for motivation. Do each exercise fully engaged (it’s only 3 reps) and focus on correct breathing and posture throughout.
It’s called Daily for a reason.
20 SIT UPS
60 SEC PLANK & SIDE PLANKS
25
SQUATS
80 JUMPING JACKS
20
LUNGES
(BOTH LEGS)
60 SEC WALL SIT
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