5 foods you may be eating to get lean but are in fact making you fat!
It’s vital that you read this blog if you are attempting to improve your eating habits in order to banish those unwanted pounds. You see it may surprise you that some of the ‘health’ foods marketed directly at you are in fact making you fatter and will end up jeopardising your efforts to get lean.
As a weight loss specialist I get very aggravated by what I see as lies and mistruth regarding the health and weight loss industry. I decided to write this blog entry in response to the week-long appearance of the promo people handing out their breakfast soya poison to what I imagine are gleefully happy people who thought they were doing their bit for healthy eating that day. This made me want to rant… Soya is not a health food… It is poison! I even stopped one obviously over-weight man who collected one of the packs, and exclaimed what I am going to tell you below. He didn’t appreciate my good natured cautionary advice. Well hopefully you will. So here are my 5 foods you may be eating to get lean but are in fact making you fat!
Soy
I wanted to start with this as it is one of the biggest cons of all. Multinational food conglomerates decide that they want to make lots of money from something which is basically a worthless commodity. Using some very questionable research and ignoring anything that goes against their view they somehow manage to convince people that soy is a health food. Well its not...It messes with your thyroid (your body’s thermostat of fat burning), blocks the uptake of many essential minerals and causes GI problems. For men out there it lowers testosterone, and for both sexes it will cause your body to store fat around the hips, bum and legs. Avoid at all costs!
‘Low fat’ products
The fat you eat in your diet has for decades been labelled with an undeserved 'bad' reputation and lead to the creation of endless artificially ‘low fat’ products. Firstly we need fat in our diets and without it you will become ill and a lack of it can be life threatening. That fundamental point aside dietary fat doesn’t make you fat. Even a very high fat diet won't make you fat without an accompanied dose of carbohydrates. Many people imagine when eating a steak that somehow the fat in the meat morphs itself onto ones hips. Well if you look at the actual mechanisms of fat storage our bodies need an insulin spike (cause by carbs) to open fat deposits so protein and fat can be stored. Eating fats keeps you fuller for longer stopping hunger pains, and they are great for insulin management, the secret to long-term weight management. Also when foods have the fat processed out of them they lose their palatability, so sugar is often added to make them taste good again. And it’s sugar that makes people fat, not dietary fat. Far from eating ‘low fat’ products eat good sources of fat including organic/grass fed meats and wild game, fish, olives, avocados, coconut, raw nuts, seeds, and organic/raw dairy if you want to get leaner.
Fruit
Fruit does have its qualities; vitamin and mineral content, fibre, and phytonutrients. But it is essential to recognise that it is not beneficial for all people all of the time. Indeed despite it's reputation as a health superfood it can, in some situations, hinder weight loss. Yes, hinder weight loss. Fruit It is not essential for health and longevity as veg can be eaten instead. Fruit breaks down into fructose or glucose, or a combination of the two. Both of these sugars hinder weight management. My advice if you are trying to get leaner is if you have to eat fruit limit it to one portion a day (not the ridiculous 5 - a day) and go for berries if possible. Also go organic or unsprayed. Then eat more veg.
Wholegrain bread & wholegrain pasta
Just like fruit all starchy carbs breakdown to sugar… in the case of starchy carbs all to glucose. And glucose spikes blood sugar, leading to a cascade of insulin production. When insulin is high more calories are stored as body fat. The mechanism talked about above in the fat discussion. Furthermore both of these products, and indeed any wheat product, contain gluten. Gluten is disastrous for humans and causes so many problems in the body including GI problems, auto immune disease and thyroid problems.. All these will not only make you fat they also make you very ill. This one is easy…. Again like soy ,don’t eat gluten….. ever! Replace bread and pasta with rice or better still fibrous veg; drink red wine instead of beer; use rice or coconut flour instead of wheat flour.
Fruit juices, smoothies and veg juices
Again we are talking about sugar, blood sugar and insulin. All the above may be marketed as a quick and easy way of getting your ‘five a day’, a way of increasing vitamin and mineral intake and generally making yourself healthy. But they have a huge negative effect on insulin. As soon as fruit and veg are blitzed up they lose the benefit from the fibre in the original form and what you are really drinking is basically liquid almost empty calories in the form of sugar. Above I was happy to discuss the benefits of fruit for some people some of the time… well with these it is no one at any time. Drink herbal teas, water with fresh squeezed lime or lemon, coffee before noon, or just plain old water.
So if you take these foods out… I guess you’re wondering what is good to eat to achieve efficient weight loss? Check out my Facebook page where I have listed my top five fat busting foods.
Healthy regards for today!
Tim Drummond
Tim is a Faster Fitness trainer
