February 14, 2017

Everyone alive these days is probably aware that pop (or soda, if you live outside the Midwest, or Coke, if you live in Atlanta) is bad for you.

But what your might not know is just HOW bad.

Because it’s BAD.

So, today, we decided dust off the old boxing gloves and put pop to the test against water. We thought about sorting out the categories based on the benefits of each. But then we realized (Spoiler Alert) that one of the competitors has zero benefits to speak of.

You know who’s going to win, of course. But sometimes, like some of the early afternoon college football games on Saturdays, it’s fun to watch one side just torch the other.

Let’s get to it:

Bizarro Fat Locales
People can get fat accumulation in a lot of places. In the belly area, the thighs, arms, etc. That’s sort of “normal” fat. It’s not good, but we realize it happens.

There are other places that fat can accumulate, however, that seem… well, sort of creepy.

Skeletal fat is one of these. It’s basically exactly what it sounds like: Fat starts wrapping around your bones like the pink insulation in your attic.

Which is gross.

Another place fat can build up is around the liver. “Fatty liver” might be two of the worst words ever put side by side.

So, which of our competitors causes this?

Answer: Pop! Of Course.

A recent Danish study found that people who drank one non-diet soda per day for six months saw their liver fat bump up 6%, their skeletal fat nearly double, and had a 30% increase in cholesterol.

That’s impressive, pop. That’s a lot of new fat.

Oh, and guess what? Diet pop makes you fat too.

A study conducted by University of Texas Health Science Center showed that people who drank one diet pop every day for ten years had their waistlines balloon 70% more than the group that didn’t drink diet pop. The diet stuff also apparently causes obesity in mice, most likely because the liver responds to artificial sweeteners in almost the same way that it does to normal sugars—that is, it converts them to fat in order to store them for later.

Water, by the way, essentially does the opposite. Instead of leaving stuff behind in the body, it flushes the bad stuff out.

Water wins!

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Cancer
Cancer is bad.
Which one is linked to cancer?
Answer: Pop
This is going to be a short list full of a lot of bad stuff.
Here are some ingredients in pop that have been shown to cause cancer:

Caramel coloring: Pepsi and Coke aren’t naturally brown. They become brown when caramel coloring agents —namely, 2-methylimidazole and 4-methylimidazole—are added in. The problem with these two chemicals is that they are known carcinogens.

BPA: Bisphenol A (BPA) is used in pop cans to keep the acids in the pop from eating away at the metal cans. If that weren’t a problematic enough image, BPA is a pretty good thing to expose yourself to if you’re looking to drastically up your chances for reproductive and breast cancers.

Aspertame: Diet pop contains aspertame. Aspertame causes cancer. Therefore, Diet pop causes cancer.

*Water, of course, doesn’t cause cancer. The caveat there is that it’s a good idea to drink filtered water since there could be carcinogens and other toxins in there from environmental runoff.

Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis occurs when bones lose their density.

Which one of our competitors causes osteoporosis?

Answer: Pop

(You’re starting to get the theme here, huh?)

Whether you’re drinking diet or regular, all pop contains phosphates. And while phosphates occur naturally even in whole foods, the issue here is one of volume. Too much of it results in early aging, kidney malfunction, and—yes—loss of bone density.

Water does not do any of that. Two-thirds of your body weight is water. Your bones are made of a lot of water and a little bit of other stuff.

Water wins.

Hormonal Storms
Science is starting to come to the conclusion that a lot of our society’s health epidemics are related pretty closely to hormonal imbalance.

So, which one of our competitors here causes hormonal issues?

Answer: Pop.

Although, it’s not quite fair since it’s actually the can causing the problem and not the actual liquid, we’ll still include… our old friend BPA again!

Along with causing cancer, BPA also plays a role in obesity and messing up your hormones.

Water, again, is good. It’s nice to your hormones.

Accelerated Aging
No one wants to look prematurely old…

And yet: Pop again!

The anti-aging industry (creams, lotions, salves, etc.) is a $19 billion industry globally.

But, the average American alone drinks 44 gallons of soda per year.

Which doesn’t make much sense simply because there are at least two ingredients in pop that studies have shown age us prematurely.

The first are the phosphates (see above).

The second is the fact that roughly 77% of the corn used to make the corn syrup in pop is from GMO corn. It’s still too early to get a good handle on what GMOs are doing to us, exactly. But from what research has been done so far, it’s pretty clear that if nothing else it’s speeding up the agin process.

Water doesn’t have genes, so by definition it can’t be genetically modified.

Once again, water wins.

The Final Score
So, here’s the deal. Water wins. It’s good for us, we’re made of a lot of it, we need to drink half our body weight in ounces each day. You can drink less of it if your diet is more plant-based, but if you’re eating a lot of processed foods, you need to drink even more to counteract their dryness.

But, we knew that already.

What’s baffling to me is that even though it’s widely known that pop isn’t good for us, it’s still a multi-multi billion dollar industry in this country alone.

Or, maybe it isn’t so baffling. The yearly average of marketing spend for the big soda conglomerates is $3.5 billion. We talk about kids not being able to figure out the truth behind advertising, but I’m not sure that we’re all that different.

It’s around us constantly. The messaging works.

But knowing something is bad for you and taking a step toward building better habits are two different things.

So, quit the pop. Just stop it. All of it.

It doesn’t have a Surgeon Generals warning label on the bottle, but don’t let that fool you. Pop is the new cigarette. And you owe yourself the chance at a healthy life.

Do that, and you win.

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June 7, 2016

What do all of the following (totally real, you can google it) “fad” diets have in common?

The hCG Diet, wherein people are encouraged to be injected with the hormone hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin), which the body naturally produces while pregnant and (not a surprise!) produces breasts in men, while maintaining a 500-800 calorie/per day restriction.

The Cotton Ball Diet, during which all you eat are cotton balls dipped in orange juice (only 4 per day allowed!) so as to curb your appetite with what amounts to be chemically treated synthetic fibers that, more often than not, end up damming up your intestines. (You lose weight, yes, but mostly because you are now dead.)

The Baby Food Diet: All you are allowed to eat for a month is baby food. Which supposedly causes you to lose weight… totally ignoring the fact that most babies double in weight in their first year. Plus: Gross.

The 24 Hour Hollywood Diet: You buy some “special” juice, eat nothing else, get the shakes, and supposedly lose five pounds (and your retirement fund, no doubt, given the price) in your first day.

The Feeding Tube (K-E) Diet: For ten days you have to go to work, walk your dog, and keep from creeping out your neighbors beyond all hope of repair, all while keeping a feeding tube filled with oils and “nutrients” from falling out of your stomach through your nose.

The answer?

Besides being totally crazy, ridiculously difficult, and completely impractical, they also DON’T WORK.

There has to be a better—and much less INSANE—way to do things.

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Diet Vs. Diet

The very fact that I have to make this distinction shows how screwed up we are these days when it comes to food.

The first definition of “diet” (and the one that got used almost exclusively until about a century and a half ago) is as follows: “the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.”

Simple, right?

The second definition of “diet,” though, is the one we generally hear now: “a special course of food to which one restricts oneself, either to lose weight or for medical reasons.”

Notice the bolded word there: Restricts.

That word alone is why every “fad diet” out there ultimately fails. We as humans aren’t built to run on just a few kinds of food. And who would want to? There are SO many great whole foods to eat! We don’t eat everything in the world. Dirt, for example, isn’t generally on the menu unless you’re trying out for a spot on a reality show. But there are so many great things we NEED TO—eat!

At the Wellness Training Institute, we approach diet in the first sense of the word.

Forget the faddy stuff.

Here are five easy nutritional hacks you can start using today to get your health back on track.

1. Add two servings of vegetables to every meal.

Notice that I said “add.” That’s important. I’m not telling you not to eat what you normally would. We’re not playing the restriction game here.

If dinner for you means four cans of Pepsi, six Hostess Raspberry Zingers, and a shoebox full of gummy worms, then fine. Just add in a green salad and some grilled asparagus. Change happens in baby steps.

And if you don’t want to do the math on what exactly a “serving” is, think of it this way: Picture your plate. Half of what is on it should be veggies.

2. Eliminate Processed Foods.

After you’ve completed step one, next we’re going to eliminate processed foods.

What’s a “processed food,” you ask? Well, the easiest way to approach this step is to just not eat anything that comes in a box or a bag.

Here’s an even easier way to think about this: When you are at the grocery store, don’t go down the aisles. Keep to the perimeter. That’s where the good stuff generally is. Bad stuff in the middle, good stuff around the edges.

And why shouldn’t you eat processed food? The short answer is this: They’re high in refined sugar and simple carbs; low in nutrients, good fats, and whole grains; and… they’re addictive. Literally, they are addictive.

Oh, and they will kill you. Maybe I should’ve mentioned that reason first.

3. Stop. Eating. Cheese.

I’d like to say cut out all dairy here, but.. well, baby steps, right?

My advice instead is to at least cut out cheese. Casein protein, which cheese is high in, is extraordinarily addictive. When it breaks down it releases something called a casomorphin. Look at the last part of that word. It’s no accident that it’s only one “e” short of morphine. Your brain responds to it in the same way that it responds to heroin.

Another reason I’m picking on just cheese here is because casein is present in all dairy products, there’s way more of it in cheese. It takes ten pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese. A lot of what is lost is water, so all the casein that was in the milk sticks around and gets concentrated by a thousand percent when it turns into cheese.

Also, cheese is in everything these days. It’s everywhere. I mean, just take a gander at this:

That right there is an autoimmune disease wrapped up in a soggy napkin and served with a side of fries. Just by looking at that, your eyes now need to start jogging.

(If this step freaks you out, take heart. There are some great alternatives. For example, here are some recipes for nut cheeses, which are delicious. And not made of, you know, hard drugs.)

4. Stop the Pop.

Quit drinking pop (or soda, if you’re from anywhere but the Midwest.) It’s terrible for you. Stop drinking it.

Even diet soda… especially diet soda. Anything with artificial sweeteners is going to cause all sorts of problems down the line. And, for the record: Crystal Lite is not healthy.

Instead, make some infused water. Cut up a lemon or some oranges (or really, whatever plant or vegetable you want) and put it in your water. It’s both delicious and will work with your body, not against it.

5: Go Organic.

Here’s where I usually get some pushback. I tell you to start eating more organic food, and you come back at me with something like, “Well, isn’t organic just a marketing buzzword and really doesn’t mean anything, aren’t there a bunch of products labeled organic that really aren’t, or how do we know if something’s really organic?”

And I say: Perhaps. You are correct… we have to be careful who we trust. After all, our FOOD is our MEDICINE.

But.

Usually when I hear this argument it’s being used as a crutch. It’s usually being said because that person doesn’t want to go to the effort of eating organic (which is really just a perception; eating organic is actually very easy these days) and sort of goes right to the nuclear option: “Well, if all this ‘organic’ stuff isn’t really organic, I might as well go back to my wheelbarrow full of M&Ms.”

Nope.

Sure, there are going to be things labeled in a misleading way, but if you commit to eating as much organic stuff as you can, it will still be so much better for you than what you’re currently eating. Even better… eat local! Go to farmers markets and get to know the farmer. Know the integrity of the hand that feeds you!

So, drop the crutch and go do it.

So there it is!

I hope you’ll take these five easy nutritional hacks and implement them into your life today!

As humans we are creatures of habit. And slowly changing our bad habits into good ones, step by step, will make a huge difference in your health journey in less time than you ever could’ve imagined.

Get to it!

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