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Health & Fitness

Is there such thing as the perfect diet?

In this edition of Bodyshots: Which diet is the best? World's most fraudulent foods? The skinny on weight loss foods?


THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET MAY BE BETTER

As most of you have already read, the Mediterranean diet may be better for your heart than cutting down on fat.
The gist of the study concluded that people who are at high cardiovascular risk, a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts reduced the incidence of major cardiovascular events.
The problem with studies that reach the general public is the filters that media or author of the article imposes on the study itself. One can interpret the conclusions vastly different from others thus giving the general public confusing information. Or they take a snippet of the conclusion and report those findings because it coincides with their belief. That's why it is also called media bias. So who do you believe? Well that takes work. Real investigative work. And that requires one to read the study in question themselves. For the most part, studies can be tough to decipher but with a little patience and critical thinking, you can draw your own conclusions even if it coincides with the author or not. Here's my take.
Pretty misleading title if you ask me. Right off the bat, whenever I read a title that has the words 'BETTER' , then I need to read the study to decipher just what is BETTER. Also when a title has the word "MAY' in it, that also implies 'MAY NOT'. This study used 3 groups. The first was labeled the Mediterranean with Olive Oil. The other was labeled the Mediterranean with Nuts and finally the control group labeled Low-Fat. As I read through the study, the one problem that jumps out at me was that the control group wasn't followed as closely as the other 2 groups. They were given a booklet educating them on the low-fat diet and a questionnaire for follow-ups. After 3 of the 5 years of the study, the control group was then followed as closely as the other two. Another problem was that many in the control group just dropped off and did not continue much more than the other two groups. That alone can cause the whole thing to crumble.
For most people they'll assume that olive oil is the 'magic pill' or that red wine is the ticket or that you can go nuts over those nuts. Here's a kicker: The human body processes food and its nutrients synergistcally. Meaning, it takes it all in and filters what the body needs then expels what it doesn't need. It doesn't say, "Hey, now that's some good red wine. So I'll think I'll put that away separately in the heart pantry and use it to lower my risk of heart disease."
The one factor also in the study that doesn't get much attention is the lifestyle of the participants. The European lifestyle is very different from the US. Their view of food in general is totally different too. They eat food to live and celebrate the food experience. But in the US, we live to eat and stress every time a plate of food is placed in front of us. One more thing, the diet given to the first two groups was pretty balanced. So the message could be 'Eating a balanced diet may help reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease.' Geez, where have you heard that before?
Now, the one point that was not made to the general public was that the Mediterranean Diet may be beneficial for those with HIGH RISK of cardiovascular disease not for people who are suffering from cardiovascular disease. The point is that the title makes a blanket statement, implying that it is better than low-fat for all. I'm not a fan of low-fat either but when you peel the onion more, you'll eventual reach the core.
CLICK HERE FOR STUDY: http://bit.ly/YVD7eB

WORLD'S MOST FRAUDULENT FOODS

Wait! Could it be?!! Could some of the foods deemed healthy be fake? Imposters?!! Well apparently so!
Food companies have been cutting a primary ingredient with something less expensive. The horrific thing is that these are foods that we eat pretty much every day. So here they are:
OLIVE OIL: To cut cost, olive oil is cut with hazelnut oil, corn oil, peanut oil, sunflower oil, vegetable oil, soybean oil, or palm oil. Yes, even extra virgin olive oil. Look for first-pressed.
MILK: Companies have asked the Federal government to allow them to put aspartame in milk. Yummy! Yes, aspartame is a sweetener linked to variety of cancers. Currently, your milk most likely has the milk of sheep, buffalo with goat-antelope. It also contains milk powder, urea, rennet.
(ASPARTAME IN MILK)
HONEY: You may find sugar syrup, corn syrup, fructose, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, beet sugar, and “honey from a non-authentic geographic origin” in that bottle.
ORANGE JUICE: OJ has been shown to have unlisted lemon juice, mandarin juice, grapefruit juice, high fructose corn syrup, paprika extract, and beet sugar and also illegal fungicide.
COFFEE: There just might be twigs swimming in your morning joe. Also found in coffee are roasted corn, ground roasted barley, and even roasted ground parchment.
APPLE JUICE: Grape juice, high fructose corn syrup, pear juice, pineapple juice, raisin sweetener, fig juice, fructose, and malic acid have all been detected in apple juice.
TEA: Found in tea are other plants, color additives and  colored saw dust.
FISH: 39% of seafood sample found in NYC were actually mislabeled as a different species! Fish labeled 'White Tuna' are usually a fish called escolar which is banned in several European countries due to its waxy esters that may cause food poisoning.
WOW!!!! What food companies do to increase their bottom line and deceive the public is nothing but scandalous. Be Careful!
SHOW ME THE FRAUD: http://bit.ly/YZ7JB5

WEIGHT LOSS FOODS ARE MISLEADING

For the most part, when you ask a fitness professional what is the best way to lose weight, they will undoubtedly mention calorie control. Well that's a small part of the equation which I'll address in another post but for the purposes of this post, the calories labeled in your foods are misleading. For instance, did you know the calories labeled in a food can be off by as much as 10%. There are many factors why this is true and that includes where the food was grown, how it has been processed and shipped, how it has been stored, etc.
One of the culprits is fiber. Many people may over eat a 'healthy' food because it contains fiber thus increasing their caloric intake. In the US, carbohydrates are divided into Total, Fiber & Sugars but the fiber isn't calculated into the energy stored in that food so you can subtract that from total and get a better idea.
Also, scientist have known that the calori counts in food do not take into account the energy expended by the body in eating and digesting a particular type of food. Raw foods, compared to cooked food, provide lesser calories because the body expends more energy breaking it down.
What does this mean. Well, the public has been given erroneous information about the energy value of many foods. The public has been misled. (That's a shocker)
So does calorie counting work? It can give you a very general idea on how much energy a food contains but you should not be obsessed over it. Use calorie counting as a guide and that's it.
WEIGHT LOSS FOODS ARE MISLEADING : http://ind.pn/12Dheqc
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