Article By: Johnny Fontana

Many diets emphasize “calorie control” as a means of keeping those “pounds of fat” to a minimum.  But people often forget that all calories are not created equal. We may place label them under the same big blanket category, but the difference between a good calorie and a bad calorie can be tremendous. While some calories are amazing for you, others can infiltrate your boy and do as much damage as toxic chemicals — often because some of them are (or at least should be considered) toxic chemicals.

When you break it down, food manufacturers are smart and lazy. They have created certain formulas for chemicals that have an almost universal purpose in food. This is why you can grab processed foods from each aisle of your grocery store and see the same ingredients. From cake mix to cheese, frozen dinners to fruit drinks, I bet that a handful of identical ingredients will pop up in just about every food.

These most pervasive of ingredients are usually the ones that are the most highly processed. They serve a specific purpose and our bodies become conditioned to certain flavors or tastes. The major downside is that most of the highly processed ingredients have been linked to major health issues. On top of that, they are in just about every prepackaged food you can find.

Here is the list of what ingredients to avoid. Don’t be surprised if the grocery store suddenly gets cut into a fraction of the size after you cut out these out.

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)- As with any political campaign, there are two sides to the HFCS story. And like a political campaign, there is big money in HFCS.  Because it’s a big-time money saver, food manufacturing companies like to use it in just about every food they make — and have a high interest in keeping it around.  They dump millions into fighting the negative campaign people like me have tried to launch against HFCS. Don’t listen to them.

High fructose corn syrup is an insulin destroyer that messes with your head and has been linked to many health issues. Without getting too crazy into details, you want your body to be insulin-sensitive in order to live a healthy and fit life. People who develop diabetes are insulin-resistant, which is mostly caused by constantly high insulin levels. HFCS sends insulin through the roof.  The more you eat it, the more insulin-resistant you become.  Not good. It also suppresses the amino acid that triggers your brain to tell your body that you’re full. And that is part of the reason the food companies throw it in everything — it makes you eat more and more.

Nitrate & Nitrite- As a result of our nation’s obsession with meat, our diets feature heavy consumption of sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite, two chemicals used to preserve meats. The catch here is that nitrates themselves are no big deal and aren’t terrible for your body. However, once you heat it up, the chemical reaction changes them to nitrosamines which, are a big time cancer-causer. Considering you likely heat up your meat before you eat it, you are allowing this process to take place each time you eat meat. The easy fix is to buy nitrate-free meat.

Hydrogenated Oils- Hydrogenated oils are used mostly in solid foods. Since regular oils are liquid, food companies pass the oil through a heating process, adding some hydrogen molecules to the oil. This allows the oil to harden a bit. Processed foods where oil needs to be added but are meant to be solid will likely have some type of hydrogenated oil. This stuff helps you gain weight, slows down your metabolism and is great for making you susceptible to more diseases. Sounds like a winner to me.

Enriched Wheat Flour- Ah, the word enriched. Sounds so great, like it will be adding some benefits to your life. The food companies want to make you think that as well. They say, “Hey, we added some great nutrients to the wheat flour,” when in fact they took out the vast majority of the good ones and put back a few, just okay ones. Typically, about 11 of the essential vitamins and minerals are taken out and 4 chemicals are put back in. They still call it wheat flour, make whole wheat bread out of it, and the majority of the country goes on thinking they are buying a good loaf of bread. You need to find whole grain wheat bread, which still has its 11 vitamins and minerals intact.

Artificial sweeteners- I think the majority of the country knows about the negatives of artificial sweeteners, but just doesn’t understand either what classifies an artificial sweetener or how bad they actually are. The big issue here is that these things are pretty much completely lab-created. Aspartame, sucralose, neotame, acesulfame potassium and saccharin are all sugar substitute chemicals that are commonly used. Splenda, Equal, Sweet and Low, etc., are all artificial sweeteners and just about any “diet” food product has artificial sweeteners in them. The major health concern with all of these sweeteners is not a huge deal… just cancer!

Reading nutritional labels to see what the ingredients are is the absolute best way to cut these out of your diet. They aren’t good for you and aren’t meant for your  body (which is why the earth didn’t create them). It might take some getting used to, especially cutting out HFCS, but once you do, your body with thank you. Without changing the total amount of food you eat each day, simply cutting these out will have you shedding pounds and feeling much healthier. Give it a try for a week to see how easy it actually is.

–

I encourage any questions or comments, please:

Leave a response at the bottom of the article,

E-mail me personally at jfontana@shadowfit.com

or Tweet me @johnnyfontana on Twitter