What's in My Food?: Whole Grain White Wonder Bread

In this blog series, I show you how many of the 7 Deadly Foods are found in various processed and prepared foods. In this post, you get to see how healthy the Whole Grain White Wonder Bread is. (1)

Ingredients (that are from the 7 Deadly Foods)

Here's the ingredients break down:

• Wheat: Enriched Wheat Flour (Flour, Barley Malt), Whole Wheat Flour, Wheat Gluten, Wheat Starch.
• Soy: Soy Fiber, Soy Flour, Soy Lecithin.
• Gluten Grains: Enriched Wheat Flour (Flour, Barley Malt), Whole Wheat Flour, Wheat Gluten, Wheat Starch.
• Refined Sweeteners: High Fructose Corn Syrup or Sugar, Honey.
• Chemical Additives: Enriched Wheat Flour (Ferrous Sulfate [Iron], B Vitamins [Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate (B1), Riboflavin (B2), Folic Acid]), Calcium Sulfate, Dough Conditioners (Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, DATEM, Mono and Diglycerides, Ethoxylated Mono and Diglycerides, Dicalcium Phosphate, Calcium Dioxide and/or Azodicarbonamide), Yeast Nutrients (Ammonium Sulfate, Ammonium Chloride, Monocalcium Phosphate and/or Ammonium Phosphate), Enrichment (Vitamin E Acetate, Ferrous Sulfate [Iron], Zinc Oxide, Calcium Sulfate, Niacin, Vitamin D, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride [B6], Folic Acid, Thiamine Mononitrate [B1] and Vitamin B-12), Calcium Propionate (to Retain Freshness).

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Interesting Stuff (11Feb12)

Every week (or so), I'll list a few interesting web links, books, and success stories. This is all designed to encourage you to get more involved with changing your life for the better.

Web Links

• Dr. Oz's Prehistoric Diet Plan
  I'm not sure what pre-history Dr. Oz is referring to, but his diet plan isn't even remotely close to Paleo. His plan is anti-meat, high in grains, and full of high-omega-6 oils. You can't get healthy on that stuff. For a good idea of what a faileo diet looks like, check out his prehistoric diet plan.
• Is Honey Good for You?
  The short answer is YES, raw honey is very good for you. But you should avoid the cheap honey.
• Why You Should eat Foods high in Sulfur 
  Sulfur-rich foods (like onions and garlic) are very healthy for you. Have you ever noticed that a lot of meal recipes include onions and garlic? Maybe humans have always instinctively known that these two sulfur-rich foods help reboot your health.
• Do Artificial Sweeteners Cause an Insulin Response?
  Not always, but that doesn't mean that you should consume them. If you need to sweeten your coffee or tea, use raw honey.

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What's In My Food?: Big Mac Meal

In this blog series, I show you how many of the 7 Deadly Foods are found in various processed and prepared foods. In this post, you get to see how healthy the Big Mac Value Meal is. (1) This meal is comprised of a Big Mac, fries (with ketchup), and a Coke Classic.

Ingredients (that are from the 7 Deadly Foods)

Here's the ingredients break down:

• Wheat: Big Mac Bun (Enriched flour [bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour], contains 2% or less of the following: wheat gluten),  Big Mac Sauce (vegetable protein [wheat]), vegetable oil for french fries (natural beef flavor [wheat derivatives]).
• Soy: Big Mac Bun (soybean oil and/or partially hydrogenated soybean oil, contains 2% or less of the following: dough conditioners [soy flour], soy lecithin), Pasteurized Process American Cheese (soy lecithin [added for slice separation]),  Big Mac Sauce (Soybean oil, vegetable protein [soy], soy lecithin), vegetable oil for french fries (hydrogenated soybean oil).
• Gluten Grains: Big Mac Bun (Enriched flour [bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour], contains 2% or less of the following: wheat gluten), Big Mac Sauce (vegetable protein [wheat]), vegetable oil for french fries (natural beef flavor [wheat derivatives]).
• Refined Sweeteners: Big Mac Bun (high fructose corn syrup, sugar), Big Mac Sauce (pickle relish [high fructose corn syrup, sugar, corn syrup], high fructose corn syrup, sugar), dextrose, Ketchup (high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup), Coca-Cola Classic (high fructose corn syrup).
• Chemical Additives:  Big Mac Bun (contains 2% or less of the following: calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, dough conditioners [sodium stearoyl lactylate, datem, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, mono- and diglycerides, ethoxylated monoglycerides, monocalcium phosphate, guar gum, calcium peroxide], calcium propionate and sodium propionate [preservatives]), Pasteurized Process American Cheese (sodium citrate, citric acid, sorbic acid [preservative], sodium phosphate, artificial color, lactic acid, acetic acid), Big Mac Sauce (pickle relish [calcium chloride, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate (preservative), polysorbate 80], propylene glycol alginate, sodium benzoate [preservative], caramel color, calcium disodium EDTA [protect flavor]), vegetable oil in french fries (citric acid [preservative]), dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate (maintain color), Ketchup (natural flavors [vegetable source]), Coca-Cola Classic (caramel color, phosphoric acid, natural flavors [vegetable source], caffeine).

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Building Your Own Disease-Fighting Diet

For tens of thousands of years, humans have eaten high-quality whole foods from both plants and animals. While hunter-gatherers arguably enjoyed optimal health, humans who embraced agriculture about 10,000 years ago had also figured out how to be very healthy while consuming grains.

Then humans entered into the industrial age. Through the mindless application of heavy industry to food, we started eating refined sugar, wheat flour, hydrogenated vegetable oils, chemical additives, as well as food raised/grown to produce maximum quantity, not quality.

Despite the effective infectious disease protection that came from modern medicine in the early 1900s, human diseases didn't go away, they simply shifted. Instead of dying from cholera, tuberculosis, diphtheria, pneumonia, or influenza, we are now struggling to control obesity, diabetes, cancer, stroke, and heart disease. The sad truth is that most (if not all) of the health problems that we are currently plagued with have little to do with the normal consequences of aging and more to do with the consequences of consuming modern denatured, highly processed, nutrient-poor, and toxin-filled foods.

7 Simple Rules for Healthy Eating

But there is a silver lining to this depressing news. You can inexpensively repair and reverse many health problems by making a few critical changes to your current diet (and lifestyle). They are: 

1) Prepare Your Own Meals

When you prepare your own meals, you control the quality of the ingredients used. This ensures that you are not consuming much of the 7 Deadly Foods. It also helps to control the cost of higher-quality foods and can actually save you money if you make all your meals.

2) Avoid Energy-Dense Foods/Eat High-Quality, Whole Foods

Energy-dense food have more calories per nutrient than nutrient-dense foods. Typical energy-dense foods are sugar, wheat flour, pasta, bread, breakfast cereal, candy, soda, and many engineered foods that come in a bag or box. Energy-dense foods require nutrients to be processed in the body, but return little to no nutrients of their own, which has the affect of making you malnourished over time. If you eat a lot of energy-dense foods, then switching to nutrient-dense foods (e.g., meats, eggs, vegetables, and fruit) will dramatically improve your health.

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What's In My Food?: Hungry-Man Roasted Turkey Dinner

In this blog series, I show you how many of the 7 Deadly Foods are found in various processed and prepared foods. In this post, you get to see how healthy the Hungry-Man Roasted Turkey Dinner is. (1)

Ingredients (that are from the 7 Deadly Foods)

Here's the ingredients break down (if any of the ingredients found in this food does not fall into one of the seven deadly foods, then it is not listed):

• Wheat: Gravy (Wheat Flour), Stuffing (Breading [Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour]).
• Soy: Mashed Potatoes (Margarine [Soy Lecithin]), Cooked White Meat Turkey (Soy Protein Concentrate), Stuffing (Breading [Soybean Oil], Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Turkey Flavor [Monosodium Glutamate, Soy Lecithin]), Sauce (Margarine [Soybean Oil, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Soy Lecithin], Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil).
• Gluten Grains: Gravy (Hydrolyzed Corn Gluten, Wheat Flour).
• Refined Sweeteners: Apple Cranberry Dessert (Sugar, Apple-Cranberry Compote Seasoning [Dextrose]), Stuffing (Breading [Sugar], Turkey Flavor [Maltodextrin, Sugar], Sugar), Sauce (Sugar).
• Chemical Additives: Gravy (Turkey Type Flavor [Monosodium Glutamate, Caramel Color, Flavors, Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate], Caramel Color, Mono and Diglycerides), Mashed Potatoes ([Mono and Diglycerides, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Citric Acid], Margarine [TBHQ and Citric Acid as Preservatives, Mono and Diglycerides (BHT, Citric Acid)], Potato Flavor [Natural Flavors, Calcium Chloride]), Cooked White Meat Turkey (Carrageenan, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Sodium Phosphate), Stuffing (Breading [Dough Conditioners (Ascorbic Acid, L-Cysteine Monohydrochloride, Azodicarbonamide), Yeast Nutrients (Ammonium Chloride, Calcium Sulfate)], TBHQ and Citric Acid as Preservatives, Turkey Flavor [Natural Flavors, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Monosodium Glutamate, Disodium Guanylate, Disodium Inosinate, Caramel Color, Sodium Lactate), Sauce (Margarine [Mono and Diglycerides, Natural Flavor], Salt, TBHQ and Citric Acid as Preservatives).

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Interesting Stuff (28Jan12)

Every week (or so), I'll list a few interesting web links, books, and success stories. This is all designed to encourage you to get more involved with changing your life for the better.

Web Links

• The Truth About Protein and Fat Gain
  Some low-carb gurus like to argue that you can eat protein until you are blue in the face and never gain a pound. Why? Because it takes more energy to process protein, giving it a so-called "metabolic advantage." Unfortunately, this metabolic advantage is just wishful thinking. A calorie is a calorie, and if you overeat, then you will gain weight, even if you overeat protein.
• Mother keeps McDonald's Happy Meal for a whole year... and it still hasn't gone off!
  A woman in the UK keeps a happy meal sitting in her house, unrefrigerated, for an entire year and the food doesn't decompose. This can't be healthy. If bacteria and flies want nothing to do with heavily preserved food, then neither should you.
• The 42-Day Program is Updated!
  I added my daily "optimal" micro-nutrient and supplement intakes to my 42-day Rapid PT program. This should help to further accelerate your body and fitness changes during your 42-day preparation for taking the PT test.

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Interesting Stuff (20Jan12)

Every week (or so), I'll list a few interesting web links, books, and success stories. This is all designed to encourage you to get more involved with changing your life for the better.

Web Links

• No Proof Paula Deen’s High-Fat Southern Cooking Caused Her Diabetes
  There seems to be a lot of backlash against Paula Deen for keeping her diabetes a secret for about 3 years (which I think was a mistake). Unfortunately, a lot of writers are blaming her use of butter as the cause for her diabetes. Really? Maybe it was her extensive and creative use of frying (which destroys nutrients in foods, as well as creating unhealthy bi-products). I mean, she fried butter (why?), mac and cheese, and cheese cake! 
• The Potbelly Syndrome
  I'm very much enjoying The Potbelly Syndrome, by Russel Farris. It does a good job of arguing that many diseases (e.g., heart disease, stroke, cancer, obesity) can get their start from infections. But for me, its contention that cortisol has a central role in Metabolic Syndrome has helped me to understand some diet and health observations that have never really made sense to me. 
  
  The link above goes to his website, which summarizes Farris' main arguments. But his book is so much more detailed. Everyone should pick up a copy.

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