You really can’t change your body without changing your thoughts. If your thoughts about food have been dominated by Calories and Fat Grams, then you’ve probably either been in a yo-yo weight pattern, or a gaining pattern, or you’re always hungry. Because thinking of food in terms of Calories and Fat is NEVER a winning, healthy, long term strategy. (70% of Americans are overweight, and Diet Foods are a Multi-Billion Dollar Industry.)
It’s the INGREDIENTS in our food, and the amount of SUGAR/CARBOHYDRATES that have the biggest impact on your hormones, your mood, your willpower, and your hunger. Here’s what I mean.

Look at Odwalla Juices, which you’ll find in the healthy section of your grocery store.
Wow, their Website looks Natural!! They’ve got soft colors, what looks to be hand-drawn leaves and flowers, and you can even help them Plant Trees for the Environment. You have to keep their juices refrigerated, and they have little “gluten free” signs on their bottles. Surely this would be a healthy food for you or your kids? A Real Whole Food??
I pulled out 10 different product lists, some of which had 16 ingredients, and they all contain HUGE amounts of carbohydrate. 43 grams/bottle, 30 grams/bottle, 28 grams/bottle, and so on.

All Carbs Become Sugar/Glucose In the Body. Period. Always. Carbs are Sugar/Glucose. So under the Carbohydrate line in the ingredient list, where it has a sub catagory for sugar, DISREGARD that line. It’s deceiving. All Carbs Become Sugar In the Body.
4 grams of Carbohydate equals 1 Teaspoon of sugar. Our body can handle about 2 teaspsoons of Sugar in the Blood before the pancreas has to spit out Insulin and do Damage Control.
I’ll go into this further later, but for now know this: All Excess Sugar/Carb/Blood Glucose gets remade into Triglycerides and deposited in the midriff area. Plus, this amount of sugar leads to a blood sugar high, and a blood sugar drop.
High Blood Sugar and High Insulin do a lot of damage to every area of the body: your brain, your organs, your hormones, your extremities, your eyes, your arteries.
Lots more on Blood Sugar later.
Let’s examine a FEW of the many ingredients on the ingredient lists. Soy Protein, and Soy Protein Isolate: soy is usually GMO and always a Phytoestrogen, – no one needs phytoestrogens!!! Not males, and not females. Think excess female hormones, thyroid problems, and cancer. “Invert Cane Sugar” is on several lists, that’s just Sugar. Tricalcium phosphate is on several lists, which is listed on the Hazaradous Chemical Data base as having possible side effects of irritation to the skin, eyes, lungs, and gastrointestional tract. There’s also plenty of “added” vitamins. If they’re ADDED, they’ve usually been synthesized in a factory. As opposed to Real Vitamins and Minerals and PhytoNutrients that are Naturally contained within Real Whole Foods. The ability of the body to absorb and use Real nutrients as opposed to Synthetic nutrients is very different.
The bottom line is, if you want some fruit, grab an apple or a banana, or some strawberries.
Let’s go back to my subject line: you can’t make a physical change without making a mental change. If you’ve been struggling with your weight or your health, and thinking of food in terms of just calories and fat, it’s kept you in your holding pattern. Thinking of food in terms of Real, and Whole, and Nutrients will make you Healthy. Leanness is a Side Effect of being Healthy.