Lost and Found – a Novel by Ron Rink

What Makes Us Fat?

What Makes Us Fat?

So far we’ve talked about how much water we drink, how many miles we walk, what effect genetics might play, how getting older might play a role in our nutrition and weight loss goals, what that awful junk food will do to us, our need to avoid calorie-rich foods, how eating out can be fun if we use some caution about what we order and how much we eat, and yesterday, how alcoholic drinks can have a major effect on the size of our waistlines.

Today I want to revisit a topic that I’ve talked about rather frequently in these articles — Reading Food Labels

I guess my mantra is something like this:

Just as an example — the other day I made the mistake of NOT reading the food label on a product. I try really hard to avoid products that have a lot of sugar in them, and I am also careful to stay away from anything that has bad fats in the ingredients.

There I was in the “health food” section of a large supermarket and saw a package of “Sugar-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies”.

Oh, my!

Back in the days when I was busily putting a rather sizeable spare tire of fat around my middle, I was an avid “cookie-monster” — especially when it involved a chocolate-chip cookie. I loved them!

So, to find a chocolate-chip cookie that was SUGAR-FREE was the ultimate discovery — so I bought them — and I did so without taking a minute to read the label.

When I got home — and after eating a few of these cookies (they really tasted quite good, by the way!) — I noticed that the hydrogenated fat content was much higher than good health would allow. Since I also try to avoid anything that isn’t whole wheat, this package of cookies also lost in that regard — they were made from the usual enriched, bleached flour.

No — I didn’t eat any more of them! But, I should have read the label.

For anyone who is working on their nutrition and weight loss goals, not knowing what the calorie count is for the food they are consuming is a pretty silly way to meet your goals.

If you don’t read the labels, how do you know if the food you’re buying is even healthy? Just because the big print on the package says “fat-free” or “sugar-free” doesn’t mean a hill of beans if you don’t check the label to see the calorie count or how many other refined carbohydrates there are.

And when you look at the list of ingredients, pay attention to how long the list is. Those really long lists are a major clue that there’s a bunch of glop in that product. And — if you can’t pronounce most of the ingredients, then you’re probably better off just not eating them at all.

So, why not adopt my mantra — you will lose weight!

I’ll be back on the weekend.

Until then, remember to follow a good-fat — good-carb diet and stay with your regular exercise.

Here is some information about the nutritional supplements I add to my nutrition and weight loss program. These have helped me more than I would have ever imagined. I’m not kidding. Click on the links in the box below — you won’t be sorry!

Have a great day. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more nutrition and weight loss thoughts for you.

Shanti,

Ron
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What Makes Us Fat?

What Makes Us Fat?

So far we’ve talked about how much water we drink, how many miles we walk, what effect genetics might play, how getting older might play a role in our nutrition and weight loss goals, what that awful junk food will do to us, our need to avoid calorie-rich foods, and how eating out can be fun if we use some caution about what we order and how much we eat.

Today the subject can be a touchy area for many people, but it is a subject that has to be included in any discussion about why we get fat. That is the subject of alcoholic beverages — and how much of them we consume.

I would guess that there would be very few people who read this blog that aren’t aware of the fact that alcoholic beverages are loaded with calories. Beer, wine and liquor have tons of calories in them. Not only are they loaded with the stuff that makes us fat — they are easily consumed. That’s a bad combination.

It seems that alcohol should have the same slogan as one of the potato chip brands — “I’ll bet you can’t eat just one!” — or, in this case — “I’ll bet you can’t drink just one!”

When you go out to eat — or you’re entertaining guests in your home — or you just want to kick back and relax for awhile in the evening with a nice drink — the next thing you know you’ve had the equivalent of three or four drinks. (I know, the wine drinkers among us are all saying, “I never have more than two glasses”). Here’s some news for you — the average wine glass holds enough to equal two drinks — so those two glasses really need to be counted as four drinks.

The point to be made here is not whether it’s two glasses of wine — or four beers — or two cocktails — the point is that any of those scenarios will total up about 400 to 500 calories in one sitting. And if you’re also munching on some snacks while you’re sipping away — you have to add in the calories of the snacks as well. So, while this is all happening you’re piling on a bunch of extra calories at the time when you should be subtracting about 500 calories a day from your diet if you’re on a nutrition and weight loss program.

There are also a couple more good reasons why you need to cut back on the alcohol if you’re trying to lose weight — and those are:

(1) Alcohol is a depressant. When you are taking in a depressant your mood could be altered negatively. Often when a person is feeling low, they tend to want to eat. Usually, the food choices at times like these are the wrong ones. So, if you find that you want to snack when you have a drink, you’ll need to be extra careful. Make the snack something healthy like fresh fruit — or just avoid the snack altogether.

(2) Alcohol is an appetite stimulant. This sort of goes right along with the item above. There seems to be something in alcohol that makes us want to munch on something — usually something sweet or salty. Whether that is a learned behavior, or whether the intake of alcohol really does make us think we’re hungry, I don’t know. Either way, drinking and munching seem to be closely related — and that means more fat for us! (Or, should I say, “on us”.)

The main point about all this is — we need to be aware that when we decide to have a couple of drinks we’re adding lots of calories to our intake for that day. I’m not a teetotaler by any means — I like a nice relaxing drink as much as the next guy. But, if we’re trying to lose weight, we need to find a way to compensate for the calories we took in with the drink (or drinks).

I’ll be back with some more good tips for you tomorrow.

Until then, remember to follow a good-fat — good-carb diet and stay with your regular exercise.

Here is some information about the nutritional supplements I add to my nutrition and weight loss program. These have helped me more than I would have ever imagined. I’m not kidding. Click on the links in the box below — you won’t be sorry!

Have a great day. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more nutrition and weight loss thoughts for you.

Shanti,

Ron
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What Makes Us Fat?

Wow! It’s snowing like crazy here this morning. Schools are closed and we’re expecting up to 5 inches before the day is over. Makes you want to jump up and down and proclaim, “Happy Spring!” Yeah, right! I guess I’ll have to try to remember how to fire up the snow-blower a little later on.

Okay, back to work here …

What Makes Us Fat?

So far we’ve talked about how much water we drink, how many miles we walk, what effect genetics might play, how getting older might play a role in our nutrition and weight loss goals, what that awful junk food will do to us, and yesterday we looked at how calorie-rich foods can put on more tummy than we want.

Today, the topic is one that I have trouble keeping under control — and that is eating out. I really do enjoy going out to eat, especially if the restaurant is a good one. I don’t do fast food joints, but I have learned that they aren’t the only culprits for fat.

Yep, even my favorite restaurants can cause more fat problems. Let’s face it, they want to make their food taste good — they want to provide plenty of flavor so we’ll come back for more, right? Of course, that’s just good business.

But it should come as no huge biggie surprise that lots of that flavor comes from two major sources — fat and sugar. It is true that some of the really good restaurants will use herbs and other healthy methods to provide their flavor, but unless you’re wealthier than the average bloke (which I am not!), those high-class places are out of reach, financially. At least, you can’t go to them very often.

The other problem with eating out too often is that most restaurants have a tendency to give us too much to eat. Too much of a calorie-fat-sugar-rich food is a sure way to tip the scale up another pound or two.

A good way to combat this overload of food is to have the mindset, before you even go, that you will be bringing half of the dinner home for another meal. It will feel like you’re getting two meals for the price of one!

You will also want to be careful what you order. A lot of the menu choices in most restaurants is fried, or even worse, deep-fried. There are two fattening reasons why you want to avoid these foods — the oil used to fry food is calorie-dense (remember that?) and the batter used to dip the food in is usually made of refined white flour. That’s a major dose of simple carbohydrates and calories that you just don’t need when you’re on a nutrition and weight loss program.

Advice: Cook at home as much as possible. But, don’t avoid going out to eat. It’s fun to go out once in a while. When you do go out, stay away from the fast-food joints — at the restaurant be careful of your menu choices — bring half your meal home for a second meal the next day — and stay away from fried foods.

That’s it for today. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more.

Until then, remember to follow a good-fat — good-carb diet and stay with your regular exercise.

Here is some information about the nutritional supplements I add to my nutrition and weight loss program. These have helped me more than I would have ever imagined. I’m not kidding. Click on the links in the box below — you won’t be sorry!

Have a great day. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more nutrition and weight loss thoughts for you.

Shanti,

Ron
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What Makes Us Fat?

What Makes Us Fat? So far we’ve talked about how much water we drink, how many miles we walk, what effect genetics might play, how getting older might play a role in our nutrition and weight loss goals, and yesterday we tore into the awfulness of junk food.

Today we’re going to take a look at calories and their role in our weight loss efforts.

Do you feel as though you get too many calories just by eating too much or too often? I suppose that could be a part of the problem, but it does boil down to something a little more complex than just eating too much.

We get too many calories by eating the wrong kind of foods! (Here we go again — this discussion just picks up on what we were talking about yesterday, doesn’t it?) The kind of food that makes us fat — and gives us too many calories — is calorie-dense food. Anytime you eat a food that has been processed with refined carbohydrates (sugar-laden food), hydrogenated oils and saturated fats, that is a calorie-dense food. Not only is it loaded with calories, it has absolutely no nutritional value.

When you eat something that has no nutritional value, your body doesn’t know that it has consumed anything because the body is waiting for something that will give it value (or energy). If it doesn’t get that fuel to stoke it’s energy furnace, then it keeps sending signals to your brain saying, “I’m still hungry!” Since your brain is getting that “feed me” signal, you commence to eat more food. If it’s calorie-dense food (like junk food) then you just keep repeating the cycle over and over — and you get fatter and fatter.

The secret to cutting back on the weight gain is to eat food that is high in nutritional value. As I mentioned yesterday (and in many, many of these articles), this includes things like fresh fruits and vegetables. When you eat this sort of food, it is really hard to eat too much. You can — especially if you eat too fast — and that’s not good either — but if you really slow down, savor the taste of this good food, and pay attention to your body you will see that you’re not getting any messages to your brain about being hungry. You are feeding your energy furnace what it needs and you will feel satisfied.

Be sure to check back here again tomorrow, when we’ll continue our journey towards achieving your nutrition and weight loss goals.

Until then, remember to follow a good-fat — good-carb diet and stay with your regular exercise.

Here is some information about the nutritional supplements I add to my nutrition and weight loss program. These have helped me more than I would have ever imagined. I’m not kidding. Click on the links in the box below — you won’t be sorry!

Have a great day. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more nutrition and weight loss thoughts for you.

Shanti,

Ron
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What Makes Us Fat?

Hello — I sure hope you’re having a great weekend. It’s been very busy around here so today’s article will probably be a short one. (Then again, once I start writing, I do have a tendency to say more than I’d planned. I’ll bet you’ve noticed that, huh?)

So far, in our articles about “What Makes Us Fat” we’ve talked abut how much water we drink, how many miles we walk, what effect genetics might play, and how getting older might play a role in our nutrition and weight loss goals.

Now, let’s take a look at one of my primary peeves …

… and that is JUNK FOOD!

Junk food is everywhere. No matter where you are — in the supermarket, at the gas station, in the drug store, in your kid’s school (that one gets me more than most of the others!) at the restaurant, at the movies, at your workplace, just about every waiting room in the world, at the motel or hotel on your vacation trip, at the rest stops on the highway, airports, bus and train stations, museums, theme parks — I’m beginning to wonder if there’s anywhere that you can’t get some junk food. Other than doctor and dentist offices (Yes, I know you can get plenty of junk food in a hospital! — go figure!), I can’t think of many other places where it isn’t readily available. I even saw a junk food vending machine in a church once!

If you know of any other places that are “junk-food-free”, I’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment at the end of the article. If I get enough response, I’ll write an article about where you can go and not find junk food. I think I’ll call it, “How to Avoid Junk Food”. I’ll bet it will be a best-seller.

The sad thing is that junk-food has the label “food” attached to it. Folks it’s not food. Almost all junk food is made up of refined, simple carbohydrates that have little, if any, nutritional value. Add to that the fact that junk food is loaded with calories and is usually swimming in fat — the bad kind.

How often have you eaten a few chips and then had to wipe your hands from all the grease on them? That grease is just awful stuff — it’s heart-stopping glop. In fact, I would venture to say that most things that we categorize as junk-food are literally dangerous to your health.

Here’s my advice about junk food — just don’t eat it! It is really bad for you. It is very unhealthy. And — it will make you fat!

Instead, get in the habit of eating food that’s alive — food like fresh vegetables and fresh fruits. Put some of that into your kid’s lunch boxes instead of a bag of chips. If you have a tendency to wander off to the vending machines at work, get some carrots, or celery, or some of those little tomatoes, and keep them in a little cooler or the fridge. (Celery sticks and peanut butter make a great snack.)

You’re probably thinking, “Where’s the fun in that?” Well, the minor reason is that once you start using good food for your snacks and meals, you will begin to crave these foods rather than the junk food. (Believe me, that’s true. You will lose the cravings for the bad stuff once you teach your body what the good stuff can do for you.) The major reason is that you will see yourself thrive on good health. Your body will react in good ways to being fed good food.

And, you will find it easy to keep your weight under control.

I’m going to stop there for today. I will be back tomorrow with some more thoughts along this line.

Until then, remember to follow a good-fat — good-carb diet and stay with your regular exercise.

Here is some information about the nutritional supplements I add to my nutrition and weight loss program. These have helped me more than I would have ever imagined.

Have a great day. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more nutrition and weight loss thoughts for you.

And give the South Beach Diet a try. That’s what I follow. Here’s where to go to learn more:

Shanti,

Ron
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