I’m adjusted to being home – because I love my home – but I miss the beach!  Here’s a pic of all the girls in our beach house, 3 are my daughters (1 daughter couldn’t make it) , 2 are friends. That’s Erin, daughter #4 Shelby, me, SaraRose, daughter #1 Megan, daughter #3 Macy.

In case you’re wondering, even when we’re on vacation, we don’t buy chips, crackers, cookies, or any kind of snackie/munchie junk foods to keep in the house “for the kids”.  I don’t buy them cigarettes either.  It’s all poison.

I have some brain ammunition for you today.  Hopefully, this helps cement the notion that food, weight, and health ISN’T about calories;  it’s about the nutrients and ingredients in food and the hormonal and systemic effects they have on your body.  If you keep thinking that food is just about calories, saying no to Bad Foods that call you is almost impossible.  You can always reason with yourself that you’ll somehow make-up for it later.  You can’t, because  every bite has an effect.  Every nutrient or every chemical has an effect.  Sugar, flour, bad oils, chemicals, they have negative effects EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU EAT THEM.  There is no starving away, or exercising away their effects.

Interesting article in The Telegraph that says that even though Britons are eating 600 calories less a day than in 1980, they’re heavier than ever.  It goes on to say they’re eating less red meat, more cereal, and more skim milk than ever, yet weight rises.

I did a post a while ago on Americans that said essentially the same thing.

Folks, IT’S NOT ABOUT THE CALORIES!!   It’s about the foods and the hormones.  High carb foods, like sugars and grains (even Healthy Whole Grains), stimulate the release of Insulin, which is an ANABOLIC hormone; that means it stores and builds.  It’s main job it to shuttle glucose out of the bloodstream and into the cells of the muscles and liver. Unfortunately, our body only wants to store a few TEASPOONS of glucose, so anything over that gets turned into TRIGLYCERIDES and stored in fat cells.

Foods loaded with chemicals, like every processed, refined, restaurant/gas station food out there, STIMULATE your hunger.  They’re CREATED – in laboratories –  to make you want more. As if that weren’t bad enough, these chemicals have various and sundry health destroying effects.

If you eat a diet high in fat and protein, and low in sugars and grains, you won’t have a lot of insulin in the bloodstream, sweeping up excess glucose and making triglycerides.   Fat (from animal sources, avocados, olives, nuts, etc)  doesn’t stimulate Inuslin production.  Protein stimulates very little insulin production (unless you’re diabetic, which changes everything.).  Nutrients get used – for thousands of jobs –  and Fat gets burned.  Both Fat and Protein trigger Satiety hormones.

Let’s look at a couple “Looks Healthy But Isn’t”, 🙂

Skim Milk:  When the Fat was separated off, so were the fat-soluble nutrients (vit A,D,E and K), ONLY synthetic A and D were added back in. W/o fat, they’re mostly UNABSORBABLE (hence the term “fat-soluble”).  W/o the fat, it’s an odd blueish color, so Skim Milk Powder, full of OXIDIZED CHOLESTEROL, is added to make it look more appealing (even Organic does this); there’s 12.3 grams of carbs, O grams of fat, 8 grams of protein, and just 80 calories per cup.  If low fat/low cal were good for us, we’d have a winner.

But study after study DOESN’T show an association with low fat/low cal and low weight/good health.  In fact, it’s the opposite.  The Harvard School of Public Health studied over 12,000 kids between 9 and 14 and found a correlation between those who drank skim milk and weight GAIN, not weight loss or healthy weight.  Researchers at UVa posted a similar study with similar results just last week.

Fat SLOWS the absorption of milk sugar (lactose) from the gut to the bloodstream, and allows for LESS insulin to be called for.   Fat ALSO signals SATIETY hormones.  We all want Satiety Hormones triggered, or we’ll just keep eating.

How bout low fat ice cream, as in Breyers Fat Free Chocolate?

SKIM MILK, SUGAR, CORN SYRUP, POLYDEXTROSE, MALTODEXTRIN, COCOA* (PROCESSED WITH ALKALI), PROPYLENE GLYCOL MONOESTERS, CAROB BEAN GUM, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, CELLULOSE GUM, GUAR GUM, CARRAGEENAN, NATURAL FLAVOR, ICE STRUCTURING PROTEIN, VITAMIN A PALMITATE.*

Honestly, does that look remotely like food to you?  A half cup has 90 calories, 0 fat, and 22 grams of carbs.  BTW, those mono and diglycerides are partially hydrogenated fatty acids, but the company who patented them had them classified as EMULSIFIERS, not fat.  Brillant move on their part.  The “ice structuring proteins” are a fermented yeast product.  Weird.  And the Polydextrose and Maltodextrin are sugar alcohols – known and labeled as potentially causing “stomach distress”.  (This definitely happens to me and I stay away from any artificial sugars now – good bye stomach bloat!) Anyway, here again, no fat to signal satiety hormones or slow the absorption of the sugars into the bloodstream = Weight Gain.  Loads of ingredients that actually STIMULATE  hunger and desire for more.  This won’t in any way help you lose weight or get healthy, just the opposite actually.

If you’re struggling with your weight and/or your health, that means you need to try something different than what you’re doing.  Honestly, if you’re “dieting”, you’ve already struck out.  Low calorie, small portions, high carb-chemicalized foods actually INDUCE you to keep eating and become fat-making machines.  There was an article in the June 25th  Wall Street Journal about the American Diabetes Association stopping a planned 13 year study early because the low fat/low cal diet they had obese diabetics on was actually CONTRIBUTING to heart disease.  Read that sentence again.  Here’s another nail in that coffin: after 9 years of these obese diabetics living on an average of 1200 calories a day (high carb, low fat), the average weight loss was just 13 pounds.  Nine Years, 1200 daily calories, 13 pounds lost.  A lot of food misery for very little benefit.

Ditch the belief system that tells you to starve yourself and over-exercise to lose weight and fight disease.  It’s not true.  You need fats, proteins, tons of vegetables, some fruit, some nuts and seeds, and some dairy. You need to space out your meals and not eat all day.  You need foods that supply the nutrients your body uses, and you need to stay away from the sugars, grains, bad oils, and chemicals that cause weight gain and disease.    You need to eat Real Whole Foods, and so do your kids.