In Defense of Food

2010 February 4
by Alan

In Defense Of FoodIf you haven’t heard of it, In Defense of Food is a book written by Michael Pollan that focuses on getting back to the basics of eating, and how the products that people consume today aren’t even considered real food, but tasty food-like substances that are simply edible products of food science. In other words, most of the food you are buying in the grocery store and consuming are really cans and boxes full of chemistry experiments.

Pollan refers to the nation being in a state of what he calls the American Paradox: the more people worry about nutrition, the less healthy they become. Real food, food that is bought fresh, raw, and delicious and cooked in many ways to make it enjoyable and different, needs defending from the food industry and diet programs alike, according to Pollan. Unfortunately, the food industry is in bed with the government as many top level mangers from the giant food conglomerates end up in high level government positions when they retire from their respective corporations. They then end up making government healthy and agricultural policy, giving favor to their friends in the food industry.

In Defense of Food talks of all the great food of the world that people seem to have forgotten about for the sake of processed foods and convenience. When people are confused about food, they tend to follow whatever the ‘experts’ say, including falling for labels that promote ‘healthy’ qualities of processed food and products that are more chemically altered than anything you’d find on your grandmother’s dinner table. These so called experts are really only promoting the agenda of the big food corporations who don’t have a clue as to what real food is.

The book states that 30 years of official nutritional counsel has only made Americans sicker and fatter because of all of the chemical processes that now go into everyday foods and things that people eat. What all the public policy from people who were once working for major food companies does is benefit the companies instead of the nation’s health.

‘Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.’ These seven words are the mantra of In Defense of Food, where Pollan strives to explain why people need to eat good food, real food, and food that isn’t processed, chemically altered, and then thrown into a can or a box to make service quick and easy. Eating should be fun, and cooking can be too. You don’t have to sacrifice convenience and saving time to eat healthy. There are plenty of ways that you can enjoy a good meal with raw, un-altered food in a short amount of time, as you can see in many cookbooks and TV shows.

In Defense of Food is written in a way that anyone can get the point that is being put across: just eat real food, not the junk the food companies claim is food. Enjoy what you eat, don’t eat processed garbage, and find fun ways to cook with items that you can find in their natural state. Buy fresh steaks, lots of vegetables (from the produce department, if you remember where it’s at), and a few potatoes. Starch and carbs won’t kill you if you eat them in moderation. What’s more, the chemicals in processed foods that are in boxes and cans and bags can make people fatter than the food itself because it messes with the hormones of the body. There’s a lot more to learn in this book, but it seems to have some sound advice about how to eat right and love food, real food.

With all the talk about healthcare lately from the Obama administration and the debate in congress, eating real food may be a solution to the health care crisis and in Defense Of Food may help people find a better solution to the problem than nationalizing the medical industry in this country.

If you are trying to lose weight, but don’t want to eat the expensive processed foods from some major weight loss programs, try the FBF Diet Plan.

Healthy Food On A Budget

2010 January 30
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by Alan

If you didn’t know it, Healthy Food on a Budget is a nutrition blog that is run by a registered dietician that lives in Boston. The site is approved by the Boston Public Health Commission, and serves to offer people ways to eat healthy on a budget, demystifying the rumor that healthy food is expensive. It does not have to be expensive and we will explore some of the many ways you can still eat healthy and do it in an inexpensive manner in this article.

There are a couple of ways to look at the expense of food. Healthy food can seem to be more expensive than regular food when you are buying lots of produce and buying some organic foods as well. The bottom line is that when you eat healthier, in general you will be healthier and it will also help your lifestyle in the long run. When you get up into old age or maybe even while you are young, giving your body the right nutrition will help you stay healthier much later in life and you may avoid the exceptionally high cost of medical bills that seem to hit many people as they age. Yes, you may spend more on food at this stage of the game, but later in life you may possibly save thousands on medical bills because you took care of yourself when it counted.

And of course the second way to look at eating healthy on a budget is that you can find lots of healthy foods that aren’t that expensive yet still taste good and that will also give you the nutrition that your body needs. Yes, organic food is expensive, but there are many other choices that are quite inexpensive, yet still are healthy alternatives to the packaged and processed junk that tries to pass for food. Remember, just because the labeling says it is mother tested and kid approved, doesn’t mean that it is healthy. Besides, lines like that usually have no basis in reality and are simply marketing gimmicks to get you to buy a specific product. Labeling and fancy slogans can be printed on cereal boxes in just a few hours and the next shipment out of the factory may have great healthy keywords display boldly on the front of your cereal without anything ever changing inside the box.

On the Healthy Food On A Budget blog you will find grilling recipes, baked foods, desserts, and more, proving that anyone can make healthy, delicious food without having to spend a lot of money. The blog is complete with pictures and descriptions of the food plus the exact recipes that are sure to make anyone’s mouth water no matter what they’re looking for. There really is something on the site for every one.

The blog was developed by Kathy, a member of the Boston Public Health Commission, as part of the Mayor’s Food & Fuel Campaign. It offers economical solutions for healthy eating to help address the rising costs of food and fuel. When we eat produce and foods from other countries that has to be shipped to various places in the United States, that costs the environment a lot of resources, especially in added fuel consumption. So it is always better to buy local foods and produce if you can.

It doesn’t have to be expensive to be healthy, and that is the main point that is reiterated throughout the blog. There are savings tips, coupons and specials, information on specific recipes, and other tools that can help anyone or any family save money on their grocery bill and still be able to eat a healthy meal when they want it, which should be as often as possible. What is really expensive for a lot of people is eating fast food. You typical fast food meal combo is somewhere between $5 and $6 today and when you add that up for a family of 5 that can cost around $30 for a single meal at a cheap restaurant for food that isn’t healthy at all. And $30 a day for 1 meal out can add up to $210 a week if you eat out every day which some families do. That $210 for the week can go a long way towards healthy food that can be prepared in your own kitchen. That’s where Healthy Food On A Budget comes in.

Kathy monitors and maintains the site, and encourages communication from visitors and among the reading community that visits the blog. There are plenty of informational articles about the CDC, reading food labels, what the Boston Public Health Commission does, and other helpful resources to help people learn more about what’s going on with this city’s plan to address the rising costs of food and how to eat a healthy diet. With Healthy Food on a Budget, even people outside of the Boston area can get great tips on food, recipes, and how to save more money without sacrificing healthy food.

Healthy Food on a Budget is one of thousands of blogs about healthy lifestyles, but one of the few that focuses on an economic solution to healthy living. So many of the plans, programs, and websites that you see trap you into thinking that if you want good food you have to pay for it. And some blogs focus of expensive or luxury foods that only a few can afford. However, if you take the time to check out this blog, it’s easy to see how anyone with a willingness to try something new can save money and eat great all the time.

If you’re looking for meat and potatoes or coupons to junky fast food pizza restaurants or delivery pizza on this blog, you won’t find much here except for the healthy alternatives mentioned earlier in this article. However, if you’re looking for fresh, healthy food and tips on saving money on it, this blog is a quality read for you and your whole family.

Healthy food can get you a long way towards your weight loss and dieting goals, but if you are looking for a specific weight loss program, we suggest the FBF Diet Plan also known as the Fat Burning Furnace.

The Shake Weight

2010 January 25
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by Alan

The Shake WeightIf you are a woman that has flab under your arms, you know, that extra skin that shakes or jiggles when you hold your arms up, then the Shake Weight gimmick may be for you. This little weight gizmo supposedly helps you tone the flab under your arms by focusing working out those muscles.

The Shake Weight is a unique barbell that you move from side to side by shaking it with a certain up and down motion of your arms. The technology in this little contraption is called Dynamic Inertia and the manufacturer claims that this unique motion increases upper body and arm muscle activity by 300% or more.

Of course this barbell that helps you lose arm flab is supposedly endorsed by Ellen DegGeneres, the Washington Post, Glamor Magazine, Personal Fit Coach and Gadget Reviews. According to the Shake Weight website all of these entities have either endorsed or written favorable reviews of their new workout dumbell.

One of the more incredible claims of this workout product is that you can get all the benefits offered by using it only 6 minutes a day. While you may get some benefits by using a piece of workout equipment only 6 minutes a day, we can hardly believe it will give you adequate exercise to tone your entire upper body.

While the company never claims that you can get rid of fat under your arms, they do say that their product is a flab buster which implies it will remove fat. The only problem with this is that you can’t spot remove fat from any part of your body, it must be removed all over your body by eating correctly and exercising, especially doing cardio exercises. Once the fat is burned off your body that way, you will then have less fat under your arms.

The Shake Weight costs $19.95 plus $7.95 shipping and handling. You also get a training DVD with that weight as well. Don’t be confused, you only get 1 dumbell with this offer not 2. Will the Shake Weight work? Our answer is that this sounds and looks pretty gimmicky to us, but at only $27.90 and no rebills like the rip off acai berry scams, it may be worth a try.

A better alternative may be to give The Fat Burning Furnace a try and get a whole body diet and workout experience.

Belly Fat Cure – How To Lose Four To Nine Pounds a Week

2010 January 24
by Alan

Belly Fat CureFor many people who want to lose stubborn belly fat, the last place they see results is with conventional eating plans. The Belly Fat Cure book by Jorge Cruise throws conventional thinking out the window. It is not so much the number of calories we eat, but the kind of calories we eat. The focal point is carb swapping. Instead of giving up foods we love, we are able to eat a version that contains less sugar. By eating less sugar, you are able to lower insulin levels. This is what has been locking in the belly fat and preventing weight loss for many people and keeping them from losing the weight.

We will show examples of a bad belly fat diet followed by a diet that helps you reduce belly fat and lose up to nine pounds a week. A typical, traditionally healthy breakfast contains low-fat yogurt and a banana. However, the banana has 14 grams of sugar and the yogurt has 31 grams, three times the amount of sugar the Belly Fat Cure recommends in a day. Smoothies are great low-fat meal replacements as an alternative to sugary cereals or prepackaged oatmeal. The downside is that a standard smoothie has 84 grams of sugar. This causes insulin levels to spike and prevents us from achieving our weight loss goals.

The 100-calorie snack packs seem like a great alternative to candy, but due to the amount of preservatives in them they have ten grams of sugar. For dinner, there’s grilled chicken breast with barbeque sauce. While the chicken is a low-fat meal, the sauce has 17 grams of sugar per serving. If you add fat-free chocolate milk to it, you also add 54 grams of sugar. This totals more than 200 grams of sugar in a day. For a Belly Fat Cure menu, start the day with a vegetable omelet with cheese, coffee with cream and a natural sugar substitute for meal with zero grams of sugar.

Have a panini chicken sandwich with bacon, cheese and pickles for a satisfying lunch with zero grams of sugar, but plenty of fat with the cheese, chicken and bacon. For a snack, have individual cheese balls. They also have no sugar. For dinner, keep the grilled chicken, but replace the barbeque sauce with pasta and vegetables. Add a glass of wine or unsweetened ice tea and 86% dark chocolate for dessert, and you have a meal with only 5 grams of sugar. That’s 195 grams less than the “healthy” meals. The Belly Fat Cure shows you how to choose foods that help lower insulin levels and lose weight. But because of the author’s obvious lack of belief in fat reduction (cheese and bacon on your checken sandwich) we can’t recommend this diet.

Related Posts: The Truth About Abs

Slim 4 Life Diet Part 2 Slimgenics Weight Loss Centers

2010 January 23
by Alan

During your time on the Slim 4 Life Diet, there are foods and beverages that are restricted and limited during the program, as well. Once the weight loss goal is achieved, these foods are re-introduced to the diet and allow everyone to get the help that they need. With a diet such as this it isn’t necessarily a good thing to change the way you eat and the go back to old habits and eat the same foods you ate when you experienced weight gain. Diets that help you change your lifestyle forever are always best.

The Slim4Life diet doesn’t have a structured workout routine or exercise program for its participants. They are recommended to increase physical activity and exercise, though. The program claims that people will be able to lose 3-5 pounds per week, but this all depends on the level of physical activity that you take on.

Generally speaking, the program costs around $600 to start and maintain. If you don’t reach your goals in the right amount of time, you may incur additional costs. The supplements and snacks that are offered are an extra expense not included in membership fees and other charges. Once the program has been completed and goals have been reached, there is a maintenance program that takes over to keep people healthy for the duration of their lives. Slim4Life has many success stories as well as some critics, but with so many diet programs out there it’s important to get the facts and figure out what works best for you.

Related Post: FBF Diet Plan, it’s a lot less expensive than $600, a lot!