The Shocking Truth about Dietary Fats and Saturated Fats

You've been deceived into thinking that saturated fats are bad for you, but let's look at some facts below...

by Mike Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer

I’ll preface this article by saying that it will help if you have an open mind and accept that some of these facts are a slap in the face to politically correct nutrition in this day and age where fats are admonished by many doctors, health "experts", and the mass media.

To start, eating an adequate supply of healthy dietary fats is vitally important to your overall health. Fats are one of the main components in all of the cell membranes throughout your entire body. If you eat enough healthy natural fats, your cellular processes will proceed normally.

On the other hand, if you eat man-made, heavily processed, chemically altered fats (damaged fats) that are found in most processed foods, your cellular function will be impaired as these damaged fats become part of your cell membranes, the body will have to work harder to operate correctly, and degenerative diseases can develop.

In addition, healthy dietary fats are necessary for optimal hormone production and balance within the body and are therefore essential for the muscle building and fat burning processes.  Other important functions that dietary fats play in a healthy body are aiding vitamin and mineral utilization, enzyme regulation, energy, etc.
I cringe every time I hear so called "health experts" recommend restriction of dietary fat, claiming that a low-fat diet is the key to good health, weight loss, and prevention of degenerative diseases.  Restriction of any one macronutrient (protein, carbs, or fat) in your diet works against what your body needs and can only lead to problems.

All three basic macronutrients serve important functions for a lean, healthy, and disease-free body.  As Dr. Mary Enig, Ph.D, and one of the leading fats researchers in the world, notes in several of her books and articles, there is very little true scientific evidence supporting the assertion that a high fat diet is bad for us.
For example, if these so called "health experts" that admonish fat are correct, and a low-fat diet is the solution to good health, then why did traditional Pacific Islanders who typically obtained 2/3 to 3/4 of their total daily calories from fat (mostly from coconut fat), remain virtually free from heart disease, obesity, and other modern degenerative diseases (that is, until Western dietary influences invaded)?

Also, why did traditional Eskimo populations, consuming up to 75% of their total caloric intake from fat (mostly from whale blubber, seal fat, organ meats, and cold water fish), display superior health and longevity without heart disease or obesity?

Why did members of the Masai tribe in Africa remain free from degenerative diseases and maintain low body fat percentages on diets consisting of large quantities of raw whole milk, blood, and meat? What about the Samburu tribe of Africa, which eats an average of 5 times the quantity of dietary fat (mostly from raw whole milk and meat) as overweight, disease-ridden Americans, yet Samburu members are lean, healthy, and free of degenerative diseases?

What about traditional Mediterranean diets, which are known to be very high in fat in some cases (sometimes up to 50-70% fat), and are also well known to be very healthy?

These examples of high fat diets and the associated excellent health of traditional populations around the world go on and on, yet it seems that many doctors, nutritionists, and media outlets still ignore these facts and continue to promote a diet that restricts dietary fat intake.

Well, the problem is that the good fats (the natural unprocessed health promoting fats) have gotten mistakenly lumped together in nutritional advice with the deadly processed fats and oils that make up a large percentage of almost all processed food that is sold at your local grocery store, restaurant, deli, fast food joint, etc. These deadly processed fats are literally everywhere and almost impossible to avoid unless you know what to look for and make smart choices in what you feed your body with.

Take note that I’m not recommending following a super high fat diet (although technically this can be more healthy than a high carb diet as long as you choose healthy fats).

However, in most cases, active individuals that exercise on a regular basis certainly also need adequate supplies of healthy carbohydrates for energy and muscle glycogen replenishment as well as good sources of protein for muscle repair. The above examples of the high fat diets of traditional populations and their corresponding excellent health were simply to prove the point that you don't need to be afraid of dietary fats as long as you make healthy natural choices and stay within your daily caloric range to maintain or lose body fat (depending on your goals).

Following is a list of some of the healthiest fatty foods (some will surprise you!) as well as some of the deadliest fatty foods to try to avoid at all costs:

The Healthy Fatty Food Choices:

• Coconut fat: Coconut fat is approximately 92% saturated fat, yet surprisingly to most people, is considered a very healthy natural fat. The health benefits of coconut fat lie in its composition of approximately 65% medium chain triglycerides (MCTs). Specifically, about 50% of coconut fat is a MCT called lauric acid, which has very potent anti-microbial properties helping to enhance the immune system. Also, MCTs are more easily utilized for immediate energy instead of being stored as body fat.  Coconut oil is also an excellent cooking oil for stir-frying, etc. since saturated fats are much more stable and do not oxidize like polyunsaturated oils when exposed to heat and light, which creates damaging free radicals. The best sources of healthy coconut fat are organic coconut milk, virgin coconut oil (available at http://coconut-info.com), or fresh coconut. 

• Extra virgin olive oil:  Olive oil is approximately 71% monounsaturated, 16% saturated, and 13% polyunsaturated. Choose “extra virgin” olive oil, which comes from the first pressing of the olives and has higher quantities of antioxidants. Unlike most other oils on supermarket shelves, extra virgin olive oil is not extracted with the use of harmful industrial solvents and is one of your healthiest choices for liquid oils. Try making your own salad dressing by mixing a small amount of olive oil with vinegar. This is healthier than most store bought salad dressings, which are usually made with highly processed and refined (chemically damaged) soybean oil extracted with industrial solvents. 

• Dark, bittersweet chocolate (>70% cocoa):  The cocoa bean is a very concentrated source of antioxidants and responsible for part of the health benefit of dark chocolate. The fat portion of the cocoa bean (cocoa butter) is a healthy natural fat, composed of approximately 59% saturated fat (mostly healthy stearic acid), 38% monounsaturated fat, and 3% polyunsaturated fat. I’ll limit the description of healthy chocolate to ONLY dark bittersweet chocolate with >70% cocoa content. Most milk chocolates are only about 30% cocoa, and even most dark chocolates are only about 55% cocoa, leaving the remainder of those products composed of high amounts of sugar, milk fat, corn sweeteners, etc. Look for a quality dark chocolate that lists its cocoa content like Chocolove Extra Dark (77%) or Dagoba New Moon (74%), which contain mostly cocoa and very little sugar. Keep in mind that although dark chocolate can be a healthy treat, it is still calorie dense, so keeping it to just a square or two is a good idea. 

• Avocados or guacamole:  The fat in avocados (depending on where they’re grown) is approximately 60% monounsaturated, 25% saturated, and 15% polyunsaturated. Avocados are a very healthy natural food that provides many nutrients, fiber, and healthful fats, while adding a rich flavor to any meal. Try sliced avocado on sandwiches or in salads or use guacamole in wraps, sandwiches, or quesadillas. 

• High fat fish such as wild salmon, sardines, mackerel, herring, trout, etc.:  Just about any fish or seafood are good sources of natural omega-3 polyunsaturated fats, but the higher fat fish listed above are the best sources of omega-3’s. Due to the radical switch to a higher proportion of omega-6 polyunsaturated fats like soybean oil, corn oil, safflower oil, etc. in our food supply during the middle of the 20th century, the average western diet is currently way too high in omega-6’s compared to omega-3’s, which wreaks havoc in your body. This is where good omega-3 sources like high fat fish, walnuts, and flax seeds can help bring you back to a better ratio of omega-6/omega-3.  I also recommend Krill Oil, which has been shown to possibly have even more health benefits than standard fish oil

• Nuts (any and all - walnuts, almonds, peanuts, cashews, macadamias, etc.): Nuts are great sources of healthy unprocessed fats as well as minerals and other trace nutrients. Macadamias, almonds, and cashews are great sources of monounsaturated fats, while walnuts are a good source of unprocessed polyunsaturated fats (including omega-3’s). Try to avoid nuts that are cooked in oil. Instead, choose raw or dry roasted nuts. 

• Seeds (sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds):  All of these seeds are great sources of natural unprocessed healthy fats. In particular, flax seeds have received a lot of attention lately due to their high omega-3 content. However, keep in mind that omega-3 polyunsaturated fats are highly reactive to heat and light, and prone to oxidation and free radical production. Therefore, freshly ground flax seed is the only way to go. Instead of using the store bought ground flax seed, you can buy whole flax seed and use one of those miniature coffee grinders to grind your own flax seed. Try grinding fresh flax seed into your yogurt, cereal, or even your salad.  If you’re using a flax oil, make sure it’s a cold-pressed oil in a light-proof refrigerated container, and use it up within a few weeks to prevent it from going rancid. NEVER cook with flax oil! 

• The fat in organically raised, free-range animals:  This is where most people have been misinformed by the mass media. Animal fat is inherently good for us, that is, if it came from a healthy animal. Human beings have thrived on animal fats for thousands of years. The problem is, most mass produced animal products today do not come from healthy animals. They come from animals given loads of antibiotics and fattened up with hormones and fed un-natural feed. The solution is to choose organically raised, free-range meats, eggs, and dairy. At this time, the price is still a little higher, but as demand grows, the prices will come down. I've found an incredible website that actually offers free-range grass-fed meats delivered right to your doorstep at very reasonable prices. Believe me, it's very hard to find grass fed meats at any grocery stores, so I was pleased to find this site.

The Deadly Fatty Foods:

• Hydrogenated oils (trans fats):  These are industrially produced chemically altered oils subjected to extremely high pressure and temperature, with added industrial solvents such as hexane for extraction, and have a metal catalyst added to promote the artificial hydrogenation, followed by bleaching and deodorizing agents…..and somehow the FDA still allows this crap to pass as food. These oils aren’t even worthy of your lawnmower, much less your body! They’ve been linked to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and more. Even small quantities have been shown in studies to be dangerous. If you care about your health, check the ingredients of everything you buy, and if you see partially hydrogenated oils of any kind, margarine, or shortening, protect yourself and your family by choosing something else.  

• Refined oils:  Even if the oils are not hydrogenated, most oils on your supermarket shelves are refined, even most of the so called “healthy” canola oils. Most refined oils still undergo the high temperature, high pressure, solvent extraction, bleaching, and deodorizing processes. Anything labeled vegetable oil, soybean oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, safflower oil, and even many canola oils have been damaged by this refining process (unless they say "virgin" or "cold expeller pressed"). This damages the natural structure of the fats, destroys natural antioxidants, creates free radicals, and produces a generally unhealthy product. Take note that the explosion of heart disease in the middle of the 20th century coincides quite nicely with the rapid increase in the use of hydrogenated and refined oils in the food supply. 

• Anything deep fried: including tortilla chips, potato chips, French fries, donuts, fried chicken, chicken nuggets, etc. All of this crap shouldn't even pass as real food in my opinion! 

• Homogenized milk fat - Milk fat is a very healthy fat in its natural raw state. Milk and beef from grass fed organically raised cows is known to have higher quantities of healthy fats like conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and omega-3 fatty acids compared with grain fed cows. Traditional populations around the world have thrived in perfect health while consuming huge quantities of raw, non-pasteurized, non-homogenized, full fat dairy products.  Once again, food processing ruins a good thing by pasteurizing and homogenizing milk fat, rendering it potentially dangerous inside the human body. Unfortunately, you will find it almost impossible to find raw milk in the US unless you personally know a farmer. Check out http://www.realmilk.com for more info on the benefits of raw milk and to find out if it’s available near you. As an alternative, cultured dairy products like yogurt have at least had beneficial microorganisms added back to them making them better for you.  Realistically, since you probably won’t find raw milk, sticking to skim milk is the best option to avoid the homogenized milk fat. If you use butter for cooking, your best option is grass-fed butter.

I hope this article has shed some light on the truth about dietary fats and made you realize their importance in a healthy diet.
A fully comprehensive analysis on dietary protein, carbohydrates, and fat, and how to compile all of this information into a diet that promotes a lean healthy body with a low body fat percentage is provided in my book “The Truth About Six Pack Abs”.  Give it a try and you won’t be disappointed!

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Is Your Microwave Cooking Making You Sick?

A look at how microwaved food can negatively affect your health
by Catherine Ebeling - RN, BSN & Mike Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist
co-authors - The Fat Burning Kitchen

Do you know what (besides a television) is in almost every home in America? It’s a microwave oven. Because microwave ovens are quick and easy and don't take up much space, they are used for meal preparation in the home, at the office, and even restaurants. Even your favorite healthy restaurant may depend on these electrical devices to quickly heat up or cook foods. So, the question here is —

Are microwave ovens safe, and is it ok to eat the food cooked in them?

Before we look at the science of how microwaved food can affect your blood chemistry and negatively affect your health, let's look at a bigger picture, common-sense thought process about this...

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My Top 55 Lean-Body Foods to Build Lean Muscle and Lose Body Fat

by Mike Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Author of best-selling program:  The Truth about Six Pack Abs


In most of my Lean-Body Secrets Newsletters, I like to provide a healthy snack or meal recipe that not only is delicious and healthy, but also helps to get you closer to that hard-body appearance that everyone is looking for, while also more importantly, improving your health for life. In this article, I'd like to give you healthy food ideas in a different way. This time, I figured I'd just give you some ideas of what I stock my fridge and cabinets with.
Remember, if you don't have junk around the house, you're less likely to eat junk!  If all you have is healthy nutritious foods around the house, you're forced to make smart choices. Basically, it all starts with making smart choices and avoiding temptations when you make your grocery store trip. Now these are just some of my personal preferences, but perhaps they will give you some good ideas that you'll enjoy.

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2 Veggies that KEEP You Fat

Very surprisingly, the newest scientific research reveals that your body is, in all likelihood, storing certain high fiber veggies as fat.

You see, Rice University Microbiologists have recently discovered up to 250 million Americans are unknowingly suffering from a toxic condition in which your body stores veggies and other “health foods” as fat.

And today you’ll see a breakthrough health presentation that will be revealing which veggies and “health foods” may actually be killing your chances of ever losing weight and why.

2 Veggies to NEVER Eat  <---  Click Here

Fortunately, newest research also proves that just eliminating these foods for about 2 weeks moves you out of this toxic, fat storing state and towards full fat burning mode.

Not only that, but simply removing these common foods (you’re probably having daily) for 2 weeks has been shown to boost your energy, focus, immune system, metabolism and overall health.

I think you’ll be pretty amazed at what you’re about to see:

2 Veggies to NEVER Eat  <---  Click Here

To your results,

Weight Loss Enigma

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7 "FATTY" Foods that Can Help You to Get a Flat Stomach (some of these will surprise you!)

These 7 shocking Fatty (but healthy) super-foods can actually help you to burn body fat faster!
by Mike Geary, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist

Author of best-sellers:  The Fat Burning Kitchen & The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging

At this point, the anti-fat propaganda has died and almost everybody understands by now that eating fat doesn't necessarily make you fat.  In fact, it's absolutely imperative to get enough healthy fats in your diet to keep your hormones balanced, blood sugar under control, and prevent cravings.  Here are 7 examples of "fatty" foods that can actually HELP you to get lean...

1.  Super Dark Chocolate (at least 72% cacao content or higher)
It might not be a secret anymore, but yes, dark chocolate (NOT milk chocolate) can be a very healthy food, even though it is technically calorie dense.

However, I would contend that dark chocolate can actually HELP you to burn off more body fat if you're the type of person that has a sweet tooth and likes to eat a lot of desserts.  In this case, just 1 or 2 small squares of dark chocolate can many times satisfy your sweet tooth for only 30 or 40 calories as opposed to 500 calories for a piece of chocolate cake or a piece of pie.

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These 4 Foods Accelerate AGING (beware!)

Do you eat these harmful foods that AGE you faster?  Some are even deceptively marketed to you as "healthy" by giant food corporations.  Avoid or minimize these and look 5-10 years YOUNGER than your real age.

by Mike Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist & Catherine Ebeling - RN, BSN
Authors of the best seller: The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging
Due to biochemical reactions in your body that occur with every type of food you eat on a daily basis, some foods age you FASTER than your real age, while other foods help to FIGHT aging.

Eat the wrong foods regularly, and you can look and feel 10 or more years OLDER than your real age (not fun!) ... but eat the right foods, and over time, you can start to look 5-10 years YOUNGER than your real age.

Three of the processes that go on inside your body that have a MAJOR impact on your rate of aging are called "glycation", "inflammation", and "oxidation".  When we talk about aging, we're not just talking about wrinkles on your skin or how thick your hair is... we're also talking about factors that you can't see, such as how well your organs function, and whether your joints are degrading.

Yes, I'm sure you'll agree this is much more important than just how you look on the surface (although we'll show you how to improve BOTH!)

So let's dig right in and I'll show you how your rate of aging can be directly related to the foods you might eat every day, and how to protect yourself...

Food #1 that ages you faster: Wheat (yes, even "whole wheat")

Before I tell you why wheat can actually speed up the aging process in your body, let's clarify some simple biochemistry in your body...

This deals with "glycation" in your body, and substances called Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs).  These nasty little compounds called AGEs speed up the aging process in your body including damage over time to your organs, your joints, and of course, wrinkled skin.

So with that said, what is one of the biggest factors that increase production of AGEs inside your body?  This may surprise you, but high blood sugar levels over time dramatically increase age-accelerating AGEs in your body.  This is why type 2 diabetics many times appear that they have not aged well and look older than their real age.  But this age-increasing effect is not just limited to diabetics.
So, let's get back to how "whole wheat" relates to this...

Here is a little-known fact that's often covered up by the massive marketing campaigns by giant food companies that want you to believe that "whole wheat" is healthy for you... but the fact is that wheat contains a very unusual type of carbohydrate (not found in other foods) called Amylopectin-A, which has been found in some tests to spike your blood sugar HIGHER than even pure table sugar.

In fact, amylopectin-A (from wheat) raises your blood sugar MORE than almost any other carbohydrate source on earth based on blood sugar response testing that's documented in studies.

This means that wheat-based foods such as breads, bagels, cereals, muffins, and other baked goods often cause MUCH higher blood sugar levels than most other carbohydrate sources.  If you don't believe me, here's something you should know... I ran personal blood sugar tests on myself using a blood glucometer about 45 minutes after eating 2 slices of wheat bread vs eating a bowl of oatmeal, with equivalent grams of carbs.

The blood sugar test results:

2 slices of whole wheat toast:
45 minutes after consumption:  Blood sugar spiked from 86 fasting level to 155.

1 Bowl of Oatmeal (equivalent grams of carbs to 2 slices wheat toast)
45 minutes after consumption:   Blood sugar raised from 86 fasting level to 112

As you know now, the higher your average blood sugar levels are over time, the more AGEs are formed inside your body, which makes you age FASTER.  Clearly, the whole wheat spiked blood sugar MUCH higher than the oatmeal, and if you don't know, 155 is a massive blood sugar reading that will certainly contribute to faster aging if you eat wheat frequently.

You've probably also heard about the potential health-damaging effects of gluten (another problematic compound found in wheat that can cause inflammation in your digestive system) in the news recently, but this blood sugar aspect we just covered is not talked about that often, and is yet another reason to reduce or eliminate wheat-based foods in your diet.  Your body will thank you by aging slower and looking YOUNGER!

And losing bodyfat is typically another fun side effect of eliminating or reducing wheat in your diet!
In fact, my own dad, who is in his mid 60's now, just removed 95% of the wheat from his diet about 3 months ago (aside from a little bit on 1 cheat day per week), and he's noticed that his chronic joint pain has completely disappeared!  Not only that, he also commented that he's finally lost those "love handles" on his sides that have been plaguing him his entire adult life...All by simply reducing his wheat intake!

Yet another problem with wheat-based foods and aging...

As it turns out, baked wheat products contain carcinogenic chemicals called acrylamides that form in the browned portion of breads, cereals, muffins, etc.  These carcinogenic acrylamides have been linked in studies to possible increased risk of cancer and accelerated aging.  Note that acrylamides are also found in high levels in other browned carbohydrate sources such as french fries or any other browned starchy foods.

Don't worry though... There's a trick that you can use to protect yourself from these carcinogenic acrylamides, and it has to do with eating the RIGHT foods that COUNTERACT damage from these nasty chemicals.  I'll show you how to find the EXACT foods that protect your body in a minute!

Food #2 that ages you faster: 
Corn-based foods -- corn syrup, corn cereal, corn chips, corn oil​
This is quite a variety of stuff that you might eat every day... we're talking corn chips, corn cereals, corn oil, and also the biggest health-damaging villain that gets most of the media attention, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

We already talked in detail in the last section about wheat regarding the blood sugar process and it's relation to age-accelerating formation of nasty "AGEs" in your body.
Well, corn-based starchy foods such as corn cereals, corn chips, etc also have a big impact on blood sugar levels and therefore can increase AGEs in your body and accelerate aging.

But here's another nail in the coffin for corn... it turns out that scientists have found out that the fructose in HFCS causes 10x more formation of AGEs in your body than glucose!  Yes, that's right... that means the HFCS you consume daily in sweetened drinks, and most other processed foods (yes, even salad dressings and ketchup) contribute to faster aging in your body... as if you needed yet another reason to avoid or minimize HFCS!

We're not done yet with corn... it gets even worse...

Another major issue with corn-based foods and corn oils is that these foods contribute excessive amounts of omega-6 fatty acids to your diet, which causes an imbalance in your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio and leads to inflammation and oxidation within your body.

Once again... another example of corn-based foods aging you FASTER.

My advice:  Avoid or reduce corn-based foods like corn chips and corn cereal as much as possible. These aren't as bad as wheat in relation to blood sugar, and they don't contain gut-damaging gluten like wheat does, but they are still bad for you.  When it comes to corn syrup or corn oil, avoid as much as you can if you want to stay lean, healthy and young looking.   


un 20, 2014

Food #3 that ages you faster: 
Sugar, sugary foods, certain starchy foods​

Again, we get back to the relationship between your average blood sugar levels and blood sugar spikes over time, and how that can increase those age-accelerating compounds called AGEs in your body.

Sugar is an obvious one to avoid.  You've heard how bad it is for you 1000 times before for many other reasons, including your waistline and developing type 2 diabetes.  But now you also understand the aging effect of sugar.

Instead of sugar, consider using a natural non-caloric sweetener like Stevia in your daily coffee, tea, in baking, or other sweetening needs.  This dramatically helps you control your blood sugar response and thereby help slow aging.

So this also means to think twice about sugary desserts, sugary cereals, candy, and other sweets that are contributing to aging you faster. 

My personal trick to satisfy my sweet tooth is to only have 1-2 squares of dark chocolate after dinner instead of a normal full dessert that most people choose.  You only get about 2 grams of sugar in 1-2 squares of dark chocolate as opposed to 40-80 grams of age-accelerating sugar in a typical cake, ice cream, or brownie type of dessert.
 
Keep in mind that some starchy foods like white rice, oatmeal, and white potatoes can also have significant impacts on your blood sugar and thereby can increase formation of AGEs in your body.  These foods are best kept in smaller portions if you decide to eat them, and balanced with healthy fats and protein to slow the blood sugar response

Food #4 that ages you faster: 
Soybean oil, canola oil, or other "vegetable oils"​

I know these have been marketed to you over the years by giant food companies as "healthy", but if you understand a little biochemistry about how these highly-processed oils react inside your body, you would quickly see how false that is.
First, anything labeled soybean oil, canola oil, corn oil, vegetable oil, or cottonseed oil (these are in a LOT of processed foods you probably eat) most times have undergone a refining process under extremely high heat and use of chemical solvents such as hexane.

This leaves you with an oil where the polyunsaturated fats have undergone a lot of oxidation and are therefore VERY inflammatory inside your body, producing free radicals, damaging your cell membranes, contributing to faster aging, heart disease, and other possible health problems.

If you want to avoid the health-damaging effects of soybean, canola, corn and other "vegetable oils", make sure to avoid them as much as you can, and instead opt for truly healthy oils and fats such as extra-virgin olive oil, avocado oil, virgin coconut oil (a healthy source of MCT fats), and grass-fed butter (a great source of healthy CLA fats).

We'll show you how to find plenty of delicious foods, spices, herbs, teas, and nutrients that PROTECT your body from aging on the NEXT PAGE!

You will also discover over a dozen surprising tricks you can use daily to FIGHT aging, helping you to look 5-10 years YOUNGER... click the button below to go to the next page to discover unique and delicious anti-aging foods, spices, herbs, teas, and other potent youth-enhancing nutrients:

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Which of these cooking oils are destroying your health?

(the truth may surprise you!)

Some of these oils are healthy and some are VERY unhealthy -- soybean oil, olive oil, coconut oil, corn oil, etc... Let's take a closer look.

by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Author of best-sellers: The Truth About 6-Pack Abs  & The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging

 

Today, I wanted to give you my take on a confusing subject to most people:

...why some oils and fats you may use in cooking, baking, or other food use are actually harmful to your body, and why some are healthful.

Here's the deal...

A lot of people seem to think that anything labeled as "vegetable oil" is good for you. NOT A SHOT!
 
Most of what is labeled as "vegetable oil" is simply heavily refined soybean oil (processed under high heat, pressure, and industrial solvents, such as hexane)... sometimes perhaps it may also be heavily refined cottonseed, safflower, corn, grapeseed, or other oils too.
In most instances, almost all of these processed oils are NOT HEALTHY for you.  I'll explain why below...

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3 So-Called "Healthy" Foods to STOP Eating (if you want a flat stomach & healthy body)

by Mike Geary, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author of best-sellers:  The Fat-Burning Kitchen & The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging

  I was reading a statistic in a nutrition book recently, and this is going to shock you...

Now before I tell you the statistic, let's keep an important fact in mind... according to well renowned nutrition author Michael Pollan in his book, In Defense of Food, humankind has historically consumed approximately 80,000 different species of edible plants, animals, and fungi, and approximately 3,000 of those have been widespread foods of the human diet.

Now get ready for a shocking and appalling statistic...

Currently, the average adult eating a typical modern western diet in countries such as the US, Canada, Australia, etc consumes approximately 67% of their total caloric intake from only 3 foods -- CORN, SOY, AND WHEAT (and their derivatives).

What would be considered a reasonably healthy amount of corn, soy, and wheat in the human diet?
Based on hundreds of thousands of years of human history, and what the natural diet of our ancestors was (indicating what our digestive systems are still programmed to digest most effectively), this would probably be in the range of about 1% to 4% MAX of our total calories from corn, soy, and wheat.

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The Hidden Truth About "Reducing Your Cholesterol"

You may be surprised at the REAL causes of heart disease -- and it's NOT saturated fat or dietary cholesterol

by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer

We all know that heart disease is one of the leading killers of people around the world, particularly highest in countries such as the US and Australia.

However, did you know that there are several medical studies worldwide that clearly show that higher cholesterol levels in the body actually increases longevity instead of decreasing it?

Yes, you heard that right! People with high cholesterol have been statistically shown to live longer and healthier than people with low cholesterol in several studies. There are multiple references for this phenomenon in Shane Ellison's controversial book, The Hidden Truth about Cholesterol Lowering Drugs, Dr. Uffe Ravnskov's (MD, PhD) book entitled The Cholesterol Myths, as well as Sally Fallon and Mary Enig's book, Nourishing Traditions.

So why in the world are the pharmaceutical and medical industry pushing for practically everyone on the planet to "lower their cholesterol"? Well, the first, and more innocent answer, is flawed medical studies from decades ago that have been accepted as fact and never fully analyzed for their validity. Another answer is that this practice of recommending that half of the damn planet takes a cholesterol lowering medication (such as statin drugs), regardless of whether they truly have any real risk for heart disease, creates insane multi-squillion dollar profits for the drug companies.

As a perfectly absurd example of how doctors have been wrongly influenced by the drug companies... about 8 years ago, I was a perfectly healthy 28 year old, in great shape, exercising daily, eating a balanced healthy diet full of antioxidants and quality nutrition, no smoking, and with no real risk factors for heart disease, and just because my cholesterol level has been consistently measured over 200 for my entire life, my doctor recommended I consider using a cholesterol lowering statin drug.

Consider how outlandish this scenario is! The drug companies have hypnotized doctors into prescribing unnecessary prescription drugs to healthy young people with perfectly normal cholesterol levels that just happen to be over this arbitrary number of 200 that they've come up with. Luckily, I refused to be a guinea pig and fork over my hard earned duckets for potentially dangerous drugs, and decided to start researching this whole cholesterol and heart disease connection myself. Consider also that my father, who is now over 60 years old, has had cholesterol levels slightly over 200 his entire life also (just like me), yet he is perfectly healthy at his ripe age of 60.

High Cholesterol is NOT the Villain!

As time goes on and scientists continue to learn more about heart disease, it has become quite clear over the recent years that inflammation within the body (NOT cholesterol levels) is what causes plaque build up in the arteries and eventual heart disease. Inflammation can be caused by many personal factors such as stress, smoking, viruses, consumption of refined and/or hydrogenated fats (man-made trans fats), an imbalance of omega-6 polyunsaturated fats to omega-3 polyunsaturated fats in the diet, excess refined sugars in the diet, etc.

Here's a quick and dirty of how it works in general. Cholesterol is a healing substance within the body (among many other important functions), and responds to arterial inflammation by getting deposited in combination with other substances, forming "plaque" as a healing agent on the artery lining.

Levels of inflammation in your body can be measured with what's called a CRP test (c-reactive protein). The accuracy of this test still has room for improvement, as it can vary depending on the time of day and other factors, but it is a much better indication of heart disease risk than a cholesterol test (which is practically useless for determining heart disease risk).

Another more important test than cholesterol levels for heart disease risk is a test for serum homocysteine levels. The next time your doctor wants you to get blood cholesterol tests, request CRP and homocysteine tests instead. He/she should be well aware of the validity of these tests if they are up to date.

Basically, if you have significant internal inflammation, this plaque will be deposited as a healing agent regardless of whether you have high or low cholesterol. On the other hand, if you don't have excessive inflammation, high cholesterol levels just keep circulating without getting deposited on the artery linings. Therefore, it is more important to control inflammation rather than trying to artificially "lower your cholesterol" with possibly harmful drugs. 

Lowering your cholesterol doesn't attack the root of the problem (what is actually causing the inflammation in you). Lowering your cholesterol does nothing except to make the drug companies rich, and possibly leave you with a whole assortment of possible negative side-effects.

Also keep in mind that "lowering your cholesterol" can have detrimental effects on your hormone balance as cholesterol is one of the building blocks for hormone production. 

The good news is that preventing heart disease is about living a healthy lifestyle and controlling inflammation, not about throwing down a dangerous drug pill everyday. Controlling your inflammation to prevent heart disease is as easy as reducing the stress in your life (try deep breathing exercises, meditation, yoga, etc as well as preventing stress in the first place by keeping a calm demeanor), maintaining a healthy weight, eating a high-antioxidant, highly nutritious unprocessed diet (as recommended in my Truth about Six Pack Abs program), and avoiding smoking, trans fats, junk foods, and other causes of heavy free radical production in the body.  Also, if you want a great tasting supplement drink that was designed to control inflammation, try this Superfoods Cocktail, which has 76 high-antioxidant superfood ingredients that help to control inflammation in your body (and it tastes amazing too).

I hope this article has given you some helpful info about the real causes of heart disease and not the propaganda that has been shoved down your throat for years, based on flawed medical studies from 40-50 years ago, making drug companies filthy rich.

If you or anyone you care about is currently taking statins, or if you just want to learn more about cholesterol and the controversy that is revolving currently around statin drugs, please read the book The Cholesterol Myths.

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Are Soy Milk, Soy Protein, Tofu, and other Soybean-Based Foods Good For You? Or are They Just Making You Fat and Un-healthy?

A look into some of the possible dangers and negative effects on your health of eating too much soy -- Can soy even increase belly fat?

I wanted to include this article because every day I see so many people that don't realize that soy is NOT A HEALTH FOOD!  Most people have been deceived and mislead by billions of dollars of advertising that soy protein, soy milk, soybean oil, and processed soy foods are "healthy"... when the truth is that soy has many anti-nutrients and negative factors on the body that we should be concerned about.

In fact, there is evidence that soy foods could possibly even INCREASE YOUR STOMACH FAT if you eat too much soy or too often.

Take a read below, and discover some unsettling facts about soy.

-Mike Geary, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist

Author -- The Truth about Six Pack Abs & The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging

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A unique exercise you can use to help flatten your stomach while driving in the car?

This may sound a little weird to do this in the car, but it actually WORKS to slowly help to flatten your belly over time if done consistently

by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Author of best-sellers:  The Fat Burning Kitchen & The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging

 With today's short article, I wanted to show you a VERY simple exercise that you can do anytime, anywhere to help get a flatter stomach over time.

Now I will preface this by saying that this specific exercise does NOT increase fat burning, but it CAN help to flatten your stomach by strengthening your deeper transversus abdominis muscles and hence "pulling in" a lazy stomach (aka beer belly or "pooch belly").

It involves doing an exercise called "ab vacuums"...

I find it a good time to get in the habit of doing daily ab vacuums while driving on your daily commute or another time that would get you in the habit of doing them regularly.

(please make sure this doesn't distract you from driving safely... I find that it doesn't distract me at all, since you can keep your eyes on the road at all times and both hands still on the wheel...it's certainly much safer than driving while on a cell phone!)

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