The diet industry alone is a multi-billion-dollar-a-year business. Hundreds of books and thousands of e-books are published each year, promising the answers to all your questions. They claim to have the diet that will change your life and get you to an ideal weight in no time. The major problem with many of these diets is that they are not sustainable. You cannot continue the diet they offer for an extended period of time, leaving you confused and helpless when you step away from it. If you think about it, the diet industry wants this to happen and is willing to pay big dollars to ensure that it does. Because if you found the perfect diet that was actually sustainable, you would eat less overall and never have to buy another diet book again. Since food publishers sell books and food companies sell “diet foods,” they cannot afford any miracle diet that changes people’s lives forever.

This in turn, is why people will lose weight, gain it back, lose it again and gain it back again, over and over and over. This vicious cycle continues time after time, until you just give up and learn to live with all that extra weight you’d rather shed. The funny thing is, the answer really is simple and right in front of you. We had the answer hundreds of years ago, but somewhere in the last 30 years we completely lost sight of it. The answer went from being simple to extremely complex, completely confusing a relatively simple topic along the way.  Here are a few, easy-to-follow rules for you to make for yourself.  If you stick to them, you’ll surely be on a better path and find yourself a whole lot less confused.

It’s Not a Diet

I hate saying the word diet, just because people associate it with a method of weight loss. In truth, Webster’s Dictionary describes a diet as, “the kinds of food that a person habitually eats.” You can see where we become so confused. If these “diets” that we go on are supposed to be short-term fixes and a proper diet is habitual, it is a bit of an oxymoron. The first thing you have to do is change the meaning of the word “diet” for you. It now needs to be a habitual way you eat that can be sustained from now until forever. The best diet is actually the furthest thing from what we think of as a traditional diet. The best diet is simply the way you eat.

It’s Not Fat, It’s Worse

Somewhere in the last 30 years, America has developed this obsession with fat. The idea that fat makes us fat sparked this craze to cut the natural fat out of foods. In turn, the food industry started making up for the lost flavor by adding sugar to foods. Not your regular old table sugar mind you (which still isn’t recommended), but instead sugars like high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

Our food’s sugar content has skyrocketed dramatically, which has a lot of negative effects on the body. Sugar spikes blood-sugar levels, which in turn spikes insulin, causing the body to deliver nutrients we eat to the places we don’t want them to go. The sugar put in foods in order to reduce fat content actually gets stored in the body as fat in the long run. Basically, we’ve been fooled.

Make a rule for yourself that you will drastically reduce the amount of sugar you eat that does not come from fruits and vegetables. Doing this will automatically put you in a better position to lose weight.

Be Aware

Paying attention to how much sugar you eat comes down to you looking at a food label for how much is in each item. Just being aware of what is in the foods you are picking from the grocery store is a key step if you’re trying to start to lose weight. It’s heartening to know that the food industry is finally starting to make foods that are better for us, but they’re still putting them right next to foods that are terrible, so vigilence is key.

Simply looking at the nutritional facts of all the options of a specific type of food will make a huge difference. If you notice that one brand is 400 calories per serving and the other is 300, make the choice for the brand with 300 calories. I found some bagels the other day that have a very similar taste but are completely different. While one had over 50 carbs and nearly no fiber the other had only 19 cabs with 9 grams of fiber. The decision to go with the latter will make a huge difference in your ability to lose weight.

Please just compare the nutritional facts of the foods you are looking at.

Avoid Being Labeled

While I just told you to look at the labels of the foods you are buying, the best types of foods come with no labels at all. Making fresh fruits and vegetables your main food choices takes all the pressure off of you because just about every single time they are far supreme to any packaged foods. Think about it, the bonus of eating fruits and vegetables is that you can eat a lot more throughout the day than if you eat packaged foods. More nutrients, less calories doesn’t sound too bad to me.

Avoid The Hype

Food companies are equally as large (if not larger now) than any car company out there in terms of profits. They spend billions on research and basically know exactly where the trends are heading. Once we started to recognize as a whole that tans fat’s were no good for us, they stopped putting it in our food. Then they started making sure that we could easily see that their foods don’t have trans fats.

Even foods that never had trans fat in them were labeled “Trans Fat: 0″  to make sure that you could see they were a trans fat free product. The same is now happening with the likes of HFCS, Omega-3’s and fiber. Just about any food you see now has some form of nutritional reinforcement right on the label. While 20 years before we would never see on the front of the box that a cereal had fiber in it, now companies rush to show us how much it has.

When it comes down to it, many of these companies are doing this as a way to trick you into thinking their product is healthy. I recent heard that Golden Grams is going to begin an ad campaign claiming to be a cheap, healthy snack. Really? Sure  Golden Grams are cheap but how in the world are they healthy? The will likely claim that they have a few servings of whole grains.

If companies have to tell you that their food is good for you by flashing a graphic at you chances are it is not. Don’t buy into the food just because it say’s it has some Omeg-3’s or fiber in it.

Remember that your diet should not actually be a diet but more of a way of life. One of the worst things you can do is to actually go on a “diet.” Learn to make some simple adjustments and eat the foods that our grandparents were eating when they were younger. Just 30 years ago when obesity and diabetes was not much of a concern at all. Our bodies chemistry hasn’t changed at all, our food has. People weren’t worried about being on a diet or eating certain types of “low-carb” or “low-fat” diets, if they needed to lose weight they just ate less. Now with there being about 50,000 products in your average grocery store you need to start paying attention. If you know people who are in their 70’s and 80’s ask them what they ate when they were kids. I bet if you follow that diet you will be alright.

Oatmeal is a great way to get your morning started.  It is a heart health breakfast that is low in calories and has just enough carbohydrates to energize you for the day. The fiber and grains in oatmeal have been proven time and time again to protect the heart and reduce cholesterol.  It is really one of the simplest and most powerful breakfasts you can eat daily.

All oatmeal is not created equal though, some have a bunch of added sugar or low quality oats.  In the test for instant serve oatmeal domination I tested out Nature’s Path oatmeal and Quaker oatmeal.  It was a tough head to head challenge that in the end resulted in a winner.

http://www.quakeroats.com/

http://www.naturespath.com/

By now, most people are somewhat familiar with the negative impact mass production has had on the beef industry.  Though beef was once seen almost universally as a great source of protein and nutrients, increased demand from ubiquitous fast-food chains like McDonald’s transformed the way beef was raised, and in so doing, transformed beef into an unhealthy food to avoid.  For those who read the articles about Grass Fed beef vs. Grain Fed, you’ll recall how transitioning cows from a grass diet to a seemingly more efficient grain diet was greatly responsible for this unfortunate transformation.

You may not realize that similar mass-producing strategies are being employed with salmon.  The mass production of salmon is putting it at risk to go from an amazingly healthy food to one that should be avoided.  The difference between the types of salmon need to be noted as you may think they are similar products but in fact are getting can be completely different.

Wild caught salmon is a nutrient-rich fish that has long been known for its health benefits.  But those very health benefits and the increased popularity of Omega-3 fatty acids have put a strain on supply, leading to the increased use of “salmon farms.”  If you’ve ever looked for salmon in a grocery store, you’ve most likely come across the words “farmed” or “farm-raised.”  These terms refer to fish raised in small bodies of water called “net pens,” which the food industry relies on to meet demand.  Thousands of salmon are raised in these oversized fish tanks, with very little room to move around.  Though naturally carnivorous, inside net pens salmon are fed grains. The high volume of fish and closed quarters yield an exponential amount of waste, which causes a lot of diseases for the fish.  To counteract the illnesses, the fish are fed antibiotics, which get caught up in their bloodstream and stay with them all the way to the store shelf and eventually onto your plate.   As a result, farmed salmon should be avoided whenever possible, though wild-caught salmon should be a regular part of your diet.

Why So Good?
Wild salmon is naturally loaded with Omega-3 fatty acids, which provide amazing health benefits.  Omega-3’s have been found to increase brain function, aid in heart health and work as a major anti-inflammatory.  What’s more, just 3 ounces of salmon yield about 18g of protein, which is right on par with beef.  But due to several unnatural and unsanitary farming practices, farm-raised salmon lacks the nutritional punch of its wild-caught brethren.  For example, the grain-fed salmon raised in net pens lack astaxantin, a carotenoid that wild salmon get from the krill and shrimp they eat.  Responsible for salmon’s pink hue, astaxantin also holds some amazing antioxidant properties, even more so than beta-carotene, a well-known antioxidant.  Wild-caught salmon also contain high levels of potassium, niacin, vitamin B12 and selenium.  Not only do farm-raised salmon miss out on many of these great health benefits, they also boast some harmful side effects.  In addition to all of the toxins you get from the antibiotics and grains, farm-raised salmon are also high in Omega-6’s, an inflammation-causing fat.

Clearly the difference between wild-caught and farm-raised salmon is significant, and while wild-caught may be a bit harder to find, it’s well worth the hunt.

How To Eat?

Salmon can be cooked many different ways and depending on your preference it can have many different tastes as well.  If you are a sushi lover, find a sushi-grade salmon and eat it raw or smoked.  You can also bake, grill or sauté salmon, using any number of seasoning rubs or marinades. Salmon goes well on a bed of rice and beans or as part of a salad for a power lunch.  This Web site has a ton of different recipes that can be used to make your salmon the way you like it http://www.thesalmons.org/lynn/salmon-recipes.html.  If you’re not a big fan of the taste of salmon, just remember how healthy and great for you it actually is.

Americans have never consumed more animal products than we currently do today.  It’s estimated that over 25 million cows are killed each year in order to keep Americans bellies satisfied.  With over 300 million people and only about 5% of the population not eating meat (vegetarians/vegans) it’s easy to see how we consume so much beef.  The American diet has been based around the cow, as we consider a Hamburger to be about the most American thing there is to eat and we’ve made McDonalds the largest restaurant in the world.

Shadow Fit is not out to push any agenda, but more or less open peoples eyes to some information that may change the way they eat.  We try to open your eyes when it comes to picking a healthier diet each week (as we will in this post) but sometimes we find it necessary to open your eyes to what goes behind that food your eating.  If you see the way these animals are slaughtered it will definitely gross you out a bit.  We know that for most, seeing an animal slaughtered is not on their list of things to watch and realistically we don’t expect you to stop eating meat because of it.  If you knew that the ground beef you get from a fast food place is likely made up of a few thousand cows and a bunch of “filler” to help protect you from the E. coli, you would likely be grossed out but still would eat it.  If you knew that you could get beef that was raised humanely, was much healthier for you and had a much lower risk of getting you sick; would you consider eating that?  There is beef out there that embodies all three of those topics, its called grass-fed beef.

Why So Good?

John wrote a bit about grass-fed beef last week in his post encouraging you to get selfish.  He didn’t go into too much detail on why grass-fed beef is so good for you.  That is what will be explained in the following portion of this post.  Think back at how cows lives were a few hundred years ago.   They scoured the grounds slowly eating tons and tons of grass and thats pretty much it.  Today cows are fed grain which has far fewer nutrients than natural growing grass.  This means that the cows themselves are becoming much less healthy.  On top of that, the grain messes with the cows enzymes and changes their natural biology completely.

This change in the cow leads to a major change in the meat that we get.  When comparing a grass-fed piece of meat to a grain-fed piece, the nutritional differences are very obvious.  Grass-fed cows have nearly 60% more omega-3 fatty acids than their grain-fed counterparts.  Along with that, grass-fed cows have a much higher amount of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) which not only has been proven to reduce belly fat but also has anti-cancer properties.  Studies have also shown that grass-fed beef is higher in amino acids which are the building blocks for protein.

How To Eat?

Just about everyone knows how to eat beef, whether it be a steak, hamburger or strips.  The question you should be asking is where to find the grass-fed beef.  It is considered to be a specialty item and depending on where you live, it may take a little work to hunt some down.  Many of the beef stands at farmers markets will have grass-fed beef.  If you don’t have a farmers market near by, check out your local Whole Foods or similar health food stores.  You can also find individual farms that offer grass-fed products on www.EatWild.com, they have a list of farmers in each state that grow wild animals.  You should also ask if the cow was grass fed and finished.  Sometimes they will claim that its grass-fed but the farmers will give it grain in the final few weeks to fatten it up.  Although this is still a better choice than the fully grain-fed option, it is best to have it fed and finished with grass.

Eggs have been known for a long time to be a healthy food.  The big problem is that most peoples thoughts regarding eggs have been dominated by myth for the last few years.  At some point America became obsessed with the idea of egg whites and decided that the little yellow spot in the middle was a ball of liquid heart attack.  Because of the cholesterol and fat content in the yolk, it was assumed that leaving out the yellow was a good idea.  Sure, you may be cutting out the fat and calories by removing the yolk, but you are also cutting out some very powerful nutrients.

Why So Good?

True, the yolk in the eggs have cholesterol, the unknown truth is that the yolk also contains Choline.  Without choline both fat and cholesterol accumulate in the liver, so choline actually helps keep liver health optimum.  Choline also helps lower homocysteine which is a risk factor for heart disease.  The egg yolk is the only part of the egg which has this powerful nutrient in it.  The egg yolk also holds the healthy Omega-3 fats that everyone has been raving about recently.

Between the great health benefits from the yolk’s good fats and the power packed protein in the egg white, eggs are almost a perfect food.  Eggs have nutrients in them that have been proven to help keep the brain, heart, liver, eyes, hair and skin all healthy.  A study done in 2005 shows that eggs can even prevent breast cancer in women!  A women’s risk of breast cancer dropped 44% when they ate six eggs per week as opposed to two.

How To Eat?

Eggs are one of the most versatile foods you can buy.  You can have them sunny side up, scrambled, poached or even raw.  The more the cholesterol in the eggs gets oxidized, the more it loses it positive benefits.  In other words, the less you heat or cook them, the less they get oxidized.  Your risk of getting salmonella from raw eggs is nearly zero if you buy some really good free-range, organic, Omega-3 enriched eggs.  If the idea of raw freaks you out, poached or hard boiled are the next best options.