Commonly Mistaken As Healthy
- Issue #2 -
As more than 45 million Americans go on a "diet" each year it becomes very important for food companies to market to people who are desperate to lose weight.
This many people...times 45.
After all, weight loss is conservatively a $35 billion industry. Broken down, that comes to an average of $7,777.77 per dieter in potential revenue up-for-grabs. So it's really difficult to separate fact from fiction when it comes to deciding what to put in your cart at the supermarket. So today I'm going to talk about some of the things that I've found while researching this topic. Again, I'm not a doctor or nutritionist. As with anything, become a student of everything. Research and try things.
So let me ask you a question. If you had a specific issue and I had the perfect cure, how many times would you need to buy my product? Five times? Twice? Nope. Once. So if my product cured on the first use then how long would I be in business? Not very long. I would need my cure to work just well enough to make some progress but not so well that I cure my whole market. Look, I'm not claiming that with everything there's a giant conspiracy. I'm saying that it makes perfect logical sense that abundance and sustainability is the mortal enemy of profit. It's as concrete as the law of gravity.
So have we been fooled? Maybe. That's subjective really. Maybe some of the common misconceptions are advertised into us and some are just pure wishful thinking. In the last issue I talked about being a "master justifier." Sometimes if I just plain want a certain thing I'll talk myself into it being okay. Sometimes it's totally subconscious.
I'm out of tin foil and I'm rusty on my hat making skills. So I'll try to stay away from conspiracy theories. But the following are just a few products (Some food. Some not food.) that are commonly regarded as good for you but are quite the opposite.
Most weight loss/diet pills and supplements.
Most of these are not inspected by the FDA. Because these are classified as "supplements" or "herbs" they are not considered a food or a drug. I could literally take grass clippings from my front yard, put them in a capsule and after starting my company, sell them on the shelves of your local chain drugstore 100% legally. I worked in pharmacy for several years and this is something commonly talked about among pharmacy professionals. Many of these pills don't ever dissolve inside your body. They come out completely whole. Without getting into the gory details, I talked to a man that drains septic tanks for a living. He told me I'd be amazed how many thousands of diet pills he sees completely whole still inside septic tanks.
Acne treatments. Pads, scrubs, foams. Etc.
Many of these have loads of alcohol and peroxides in them. Just don't use them. Regular soap works just as well. When I was a teenager I had breakouts like everyone else. I used the pads, the scrubs, "apricot" this, "aloe" this, "oxy" that. The same thing would happen every time. I'd use this product, my skin would sting or burn, my Mom would say something like "that's how you know it's working" and then my skin would dry out. The main spot would clear up but next to that I'd break out. One day when I was about 16 I decided I'd try using Ivory soap and warm water to see what would happen. Lo and behold I had clear skin within a week. Imagine all the money my mother spent on those products over those few years.
Here's what was happening. I was putting those harsh alcohols on my skin. And since the body is made to adapt, it did what it was supposed to do. When the alcohol dried out all the natural oils in my face, it triggered my body's oil production. This resulted in worse acne and another trip to the dreaded Wal-Mart for another quick fix. My point? Warm water, soap and balanced diet works better than anything.
Artificial Sweeteners
Okay, I'm the world's worst at this. I love soda. I would marry soda if I could. I would marry a bunch of soda if I could. It'd be like one really weird episode of Sister Wives.
Pictured from left to right: Cherry Pepsi, Mountain Dew, random surfer guy, Dr. Pepper, Code Red Mountain Dew.
Here's the thing (when I say that, you know it's serious), artificial sweeteners metabolize into toxic compounds inside the human body. During metabolisis, aspartame (Sweet n Low) is broken down into various poisons such as formaldehyde and aspartic acid and circulated by your blood. Most artificial sweeteners are excitotoxins which directly attack the immune system. This basically causes your own immune system to attack your body causing a whole host of illnesses such as brain cancer, memory/concentration loss, fibromyalgia, sleep problems, cardiac problems, circulatory problems, diabetes and so many other life threatening neurological disorders.
Chewing Gum
By now you think I'm completely nuts. Nope. "But Mike, it's sugar free...it helps clean teeth...it strengthens the jaw...it helps to break bad habits like smoking cigarettes or chewing!!!"
Well it can do those things. But with anything you have to weigh the benefit with the risk and make your own decisions. Besides having those horrible artificial sweeteners I've already talked about, if you look on the package in the ingredients most say "gum base." I take this as code for "not enough room on this label for the chemical names." The history of chewing gum is close to that of tobacco (I'm not advocating smoking). Neither was near as horrible as it is before it's chemical additives.
Lettuce-based salads
Lettuce is mostly water. There's less nutritional value that you'd think in lettuce. An even better idea? Instead of lettuce use raw spinach leaves. This is so much more nutrient dense and will give your body energy and endurance.
Fruit Juice
I'm not going to spend too much time on this one. These are simply packed with refined sugars and high fructose corn syrup. You may as well drink sugar water. But really, don't do that. If you want vitamin C and the benefits of fruit, eat an actual orange, banana or apple. It would take more than ten apples to make one 8oz glass of apple juice. That's just too much concentrated sugar. Sugars are the first thing your body goes for when processing what it needs for energy. So about an hour before a workout eat two fruits and a handful of cashews. This will give you quick sugars for performance and the protein and fats in the nuts are slower to metabolize and give you endurance. This is why when someone's blood sugar gets too low the nurse gives them a small glass of orange juice and maybe some peanut butter crackers. Juice to bring your sugar up quickly and peanut butter (protein) to keep blood sugar steady once insulin spikes in reaction to the orange juice. Note: I recommend watching the documentary King Corn. I believe it is on Netflix instant.
Fluoride
Consumer fluoride is literally a toxic waste product from the aluminum, nuclear and fertilizer industries. There's no "high purity" pharmaceutical fluoride for our toothpastes and municipal water supplies. Through lobbying and bribery we've been tricked into buying industrial waste. Fluoride weakens the immune system and can cause brittle bone disease. This tends to be a tricky topic that is unfortunately associated with all kinds of kooky theories and suggestions. So I'll just leave my opinion out of it and let you do your own research on the topic.
Body Wraps/Weight Loss Wraps
Let me get this straight. You go to a sales meeting. No wait, it isn't a sales meeting. It's a "party." Just a little get together with a few gals in the living room. You're going to sip wine and eat pizza? Then you're going to wrap yourself in this wrap and when you take it off, twenty pounds of fat will magically vanish? What's the point in eating right? What's the point of exercise? Then you're going to get ten people that work under you, and they'll each get ten people to work under them and the profit will flow uphill. Sounds like a pyramid of success to me. Wrong. THEY DON'T WORK. Not only do they not work, they don't make you stronger and more able to fight diseases. They don't help stabilize your body to prevent you from breaking your ankle when you accidentally step off a curb. They may smooth out dimples or cellulite. The wraps maybe tighten the skin. But you do not lose fat. Please do not fall for this scam.
It's like Photoshop but in real life.
And on that note, I bid you farewell. Until next time. Stay classy San Diego.
- Mike Mc.
(In the last few months I've been able to ride bikes with my daughter finally.)
And now your recipe...
Amazeballs Paleo Turkey Meatballs
Needed ingredients: 3 lbs ground turkey, 1 cup coconut flour, one green bell pepper, one small white onion, 3 tablespoons red pepper flakes, two eggs, 1 tablespoon garlic powder, 1 jar Tomato And Basil Bruschetta (found at Wal-Mart), Sriracha sauce
- Combine ground turkey, garlic powder and red pepper flakes in large mixing bowl. Preheat oven to 425.
- Dice onions and green peppers in food processor or magic bullet.
- In separate bowl scramble the two eggs.
- Combine all ingredients and coconut flour with the turkey mixture in the mixing bowl. Mash together either with hands or wooden spoon. Add approximately three tablespoons Sriracha sauce (more or less depending on how much or how little you like spicy food)
- Cover flat baking sheet in extra virgin olive oil.
- Roll the turkey mixture into balls about the size of a golf ball and place about an inch apart.
- Bake for approx. 25 minutes until they are starting to golden on the outside. (May need to rotate pan)
- Cover each meatball in Bruschetta and put back in the oven for 5-10 minutes.
Serve. You're welcome.
