His and Her Health

Is Your Healthy Diet Making You Fat?
JJ Virgin, CNS, CHFS

Lose those “light” coffee drinks
Please, you know me by now, if I could honestly find a coffee drink that didn’t have the potential to pump up your blood sugar, aggravate your insulin resistance and exhaust your adrenals, I would be shouting about it from the rooftop. Those “light” coffee drinks are made with nonfat milk, coffee and artificial sweeteners. They may not have sugar in them but the caffeine-milk combo will still crank your blood sugar and get your taste buds screaming for more sweet which may force you to succumb to the trigger foods staring at you from the bakery case. Pass up the java boost and grab an iced green tea instead.

Forego the standard breakfast
One of the worst urban legends going is that cereal and skim milk is part of a healthy breakfast. Which part? The part that raises your blood sugar and insulin, sets the metabolic tone for your morning so your body hears the message to store fat and then crashes your blood sugar before lunch sending you running for a “light” coffee drink and scone? Protein is a critical part of your breakfast and your cereal with fruit and a glass of juice routine is seriously deficient in this blood sugar stabilizing, satiating nutrient. So if you are still insisting on that morning cereal, try sprinkling a little of it on your protein shake or your organic Greek-style yogurt!

Keep the Low Fat “Healthy” Cookies out of the cookie jar
Remember that saying, “a rose by any other name?” well guess what, a cookie is a cookie is a cookie!!! Honestly, I have a real issue with the whole idea of a healthy cookie! If you are jonesing for a cookie, then have one, but have ONE and find the best one out there and savor it per my Three Bite Rule. There are several challenges with these “healthy cookies”. First of all, when they take the fat out to make them “low fat” they have to put something else in and often that something else is sugar and the worst sugar of all, High Fructose Corn Syrup*. Also I believe that you may be eating more of these cookies because you are fooling yourself (but ahem, not your body) into believing they are good for you and thereby giving yourself permission to eat more of them than you would if you were eating a “real cookie” and 2, they aren’t really what you wanted so you keep eating more in an effort to satisfy yourself.

*I call HFCS the nutrition devil, it may lead to diabetes, insulin resistance and heart disease AND due to the way it is has been processed, it may contain trace amounts of mercury (and NO amount of mercury is good for you.

Don’t go off half baked with Baked Chips
Again, I refer back to the idea of “healthy cookies” ditto that for healthy chips. But I feel these are even worse as let’s face it, chips are trigger foods. What I mean by that is there is no way you can eat just a few. How many times have you managed to make a serious dent in a family size bag? Trigger foods are NOT allowed in the house, there is no amount of willpower available to protect you from them when your evil twin comes out. And don’t be fooled that they are okay because they have been “baked” rather than fried….when they bake the chips, they may take the fat out but they leave all of the carbs in and whether corn or potato, they are what we call “high glycemic” which means they cause a big rise in blood sugar. These are the worst offenders for raising triglycerides and helping you lay down more fat around your waistline.
www.jjvirgin.com

Some times its true if people don't plan their diet according their needs.

ya true..unfortunately its a fact !