Health Guide

Diet & lifestyle

Your health should be one of the most important factors in your life. Wholeness means a healthy mind-body that is mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally balanced.

A new study by nutrition researchers found that nearly 20 percent of restaurant dishes have at least 100 more calories than what the restaurant states on their website.  Underestimated foods came from a number of chains, including Chipotle Mexican Grill, Olive Garden, Boston Market and Outback Steakhouse.
One dish, a side order of chips and salsa at On the Border Mexican Grill & Cantina, had more than 1,000 calories more than it was supposed to.
According to CNN:
 
“Some foods with the biggest discrepancies were lower-calorie items such as salads, which dieters would be more likely to choose. For example, the Tufts lab analysis showed the classic blue cheese wedge side salad at Outback Steakhouse contained 1,035 calories -- 659 calories more than what would be expected based on what was on the restaurant's website.”
 
Nearly one out of five fast-food and sit-down restaurant dishes contains at least 100 calories more than the restaurant's online menu states, CNN reports. Not surprisingly, sit-down restaurants were more inaccurate than fast-food menu items, which tend to be more standardized. If you're trying to lose weight, your instinctual response might be yes. Unfortunately, believing you can shed or maintain your weight by counting calories may be leading you astray and keeping you from success.
 
Counting calories is not the proper way to lose weight, unless you are counting them to make sure you eat enough protein to avoid losing muscle mass.
Granted, you'll probably lose weight if you eat fewer cookies, and hence fewer calories, but you're not going to get healthier as long as you keep eating cookies. And you probably will not lose as much weight as you would if you abstained from cookies altogether and replaced them with calories from a more nutritious food. And therein lays the problem. Calories are not created equal, and will not have identical effects on your weight or health.
 
Most people do not get fat because they eat too many calories and don't exercise enough. They get fat because they eat the wrong kind of calories. The American standard diet (SAD) is one of the main culprits. People eat too much process and refined carbohydrate and soda pop in their diet.
 
People are drinking far too much soda, and a lot of people, particularly teenagers, probably get majority of their calories from fructose-rich drinks like soda pops.
In order to curb the current obesity epidemic, we do not need more accurate reporting of calories; we need to start focusing on eating the right kind of calories. It is far more important to look at the source of the calories than counting them. Reality tells us that's simply not the case. I believe that the two primary keys for successful weight management are:
1. Severely restricting refines carbohydrates and table sugar in your diet.
2. Giving your body enough healthy protein and essential fat consumption.
Your consumption of refine carbohydrates, whether in the form of grains and sugars (especially fructose), will determine whether or not you're able to manage your weight and maintain optimal health. Cutting out or limiting refine carbohydrates and sugars can be the change you've been looking for, if you are currently overweight and/or your health is suffering.
 
Refine and process foods affect the hormone insulin, which is a very potent fat regulator.
This means you can have the same amount of calories from fructose or glucose, fructose and protein, or fructose and fat, but the metabolic effect will be entirely different despite the identical calorie count. This is a crucial point that must be understood. Fructose is in fact far worse than other refine carbohydrates because the vast majority of it converts directly to fat, both in your fatty tissues, and in your liver. And this is why counting calories does not work... As long as you keep eating the wrong foods, your body will be programmed to create and store fat.
 
Too much fat in your body will lead to the following
• Insulin resistance
• Diabetes
• High blood pressure, or
• High cholesterol
• Obesity
In the end, the real remedy is not better calorie reporting and tracking, but rather to return to your kitchen and embrace good old-fashioned home cooking, using fresh, preferably local and organic ingredients. By avoiding processed foods, which includes the vast majority of fast-food dishes and even many meals in sit-down restaurants, you can avoid the primary culprit of weight gain: Fructose. It's hidden in most processed foods, including foods you wouldn't expect would need a sweetener...
It is a commitment—a truly important one—and it CAN be done. A major leap forward would be to strive for a diet of 90 percent non-processed food and only 10 percent from other sources. Sure, it takes a little more time and energy to follow an individualized nutrition plan than to eat fast food, but doing so could:
• Help you lose weight
• Add years to your lifespan
• Increase your energy levels
• Help you avoid diseases like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis
So the question is: What's really important to you? Good health and wellness or satisfying your taste buds with unhealthy foods. Good health is wealth.
 
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