You are what you eat

People often say I write way too much about food- after all, this is supposed to be about creating a better, leaner, stronger, beautiful body right? 

Exactly why I talk about food so much.

Food to me is one of the most pleasurable things in life, I love food and I love to eat. I can power down with the best of them, and could probably be a contentor in one of those eating contest reality shows- if I actually wanted to.


In fact, Saturday I ate a pizza.... all but one piece! Screw the plate, I used the dish it came on. I am enjoying it....

Creating a body that is a work of art does not require just the physical training aspect, it requires the spiritual, emotional and functional health as well. When I say "spiritual" I mean whatever you count on as the higher force to get you through the day. It could be just your own determined mind.

I do not believe that "carbs are bad", in fact, I don't really think that any food group should be eliminated from a diet; and sugar, alcohol and packaged or processed foods are not considered "food groups".

You should eat plenty of vegetables, meats, fish, poultry, fruit, starches and water. At times, when working on changing body composition, of course the amounts of these foods will be changed, and some of the changes may be dramatic- but a figure or bodybuilding competition is not a diet for life, nor is it healthy, it is a diet for an specific event, period. 


I do eat bread- once in a while. I do drink wine, on occasion. I love a good dark chocolate bar, especially one with thick, gooey caramel. But this is not the norm for me nor is it something I even do weekly.


I make a point of buying some of the best food I can get. I am concerned with the source, it's one reason why I don't belong to Costco, and I don't buy a lot at Trader Joe's either. I prefer to get most of my vegetables and meats at Whole Foods and the farmers market.


There is a difference.


Tonight I brought home a crock of grass fed organic butter, made with sea salt for David and Cooper. They loved it on their baguette! Yes, it is more expensive, but we are putting it into our bodies right? Aren't we working hard to transform and/or maintain our bodies into the beautiful work of art that the human form is? If so, then why would anyone consider putting crap into their mouth? 


I work on databases a lot at work and we have a saying: "Garbage in, Garbage out". The same goes for your body, put garbage in it and what you end up with will be just that: garbage.


Below is a very interesting video about the difference between a regular sweet potato, and an organic sweet potato, and the dangers of a pesticide called Chlorprobham, which is used on many foods that we eat everyday. 

ACUTE TOXICITY

Chlorpropham is moderately toxic by ingestion . It may cause irritation of the eyes or skin. Symptoms of poisoning in laboratory animals have included listlessness, incoordination, nose bleeds, protruding eyes, bloody tears, difficulty in breathing, prostration, inability to urinate, high fevers, and death. Autopsies of animals have shown inflammation of the stomach and intestinal lining, congestion of the brain, lungs and other organs, and degenerative changes in the kidneys and liver 

CHRONIC TOXICITY

Chronic exposure of laboratory animals has caused retarded growth, increased liver, kidney and spleen weights, congestion of the spleen and death.

REPRODUCTIVE EFFECTS

Long-term exposure to chlorpropham may cause adverse reproductive effects. Chlorpropham may cross the placenta. 

Do you eat sweet potatoes? Take a look at this video (email subscribers will need to navigate directly to the blog).

Antibiotics in our meats

I often write about how important it is to know where your food comes from. I find it odd that people are extremely concerned about the label on their jeans and their over priced handbags, both costing hundreds of dollars, yet they will make valiant efforts to seek out the cheapest food possible.

What is that saying about how you feel about your body? You care more about what other people see than what you actually put into it for nutrition? 

I understand that some people may not be able to afford to eat organic all the time, it can be more expensive for many valid reasons; however, there are some things that you really cannot and should not take a chance on.

Factory produced meats, especially ground meats.

Yes, I will go out to a restaurant and eat ground beef on occasion, but not often. And I certainly do not go to fast food restaurants, that's just disaster on a plate. 

It's like Russian Roulette, only the end will be much, much more painful. Many people become ill and don't know what the reason is, could it be a 24 hour flu? More likely it was the home cooked meal they made themselves.

We all have a responsibility to speak with our actions, and that means our hard earned dollars. Spend your money on real food, not antibiotic and drug infused factory meats.

I have a couple exerpts from an article by Mark Bitmman, and a link to the entire article: 

Bacteria 1, F.D.A. 0

I urge you to read it and stay informed on the situation.

"So when you go to the supermarket to buy one of these brands of pre-ground meat products, there’s a roughly 25 percent chance you’ll consume a potentially fatal bacteria that doesn’t respond to commonly prescribed drugs."

"Plying “healthy” farm animals (the quotation marks because how healthy, after all, can battery chickens be?) with antibiotics — a practice the EU banned in 2006 — is as much a part of the American food system as childhood obesity and commodity corn. Animals move from farm to refrigerator case in record time; banning prophylactic drugs would slow this process down, and with it the meat industry’s rate of profit."

Organic Vegetables

We all want to be lean, or at least not have what some idiot came up with to describe a huge fat stomach that hangs over our pants - a "muffin top" right?

No one wants to feel hungry. Although, I must say, a great deal of "hunger" is thirst and also psychological, but that is way beyond this little blurb!

Anyway, we all eat garbage that may fill us up at the moment, may taste good at the moment, yet it does not sustain us, it does not build muscle and healthy bones, and it makes us fat.

We all know what these foods are- or do we?

Obviously cakes and cookies and ANY packaged snack- I don't care if it is "healthy baked sun-chips" is crap. You can indulge once in a while, and that does not mean every weekend.

Treat your body the way it deserves to be treated. It is a work of art (or it COULD be) and it needs to be treated as such. 

Only put healthy foods into it. Keep it clean with a mild soap, wax it (hee hee), decorate it, cover it at night and keep it warm and safe.

Oh- Eat lots of veg too will ya?

What you see above is my weekly CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) delivery. I get this at work every Tuesday. Here is what I received this week:

Eggs, potatoes, red leaf lettuce, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, beets, broccoli, sugar snap peas, strawberries and oranges. The food is all organic, just picked and it cost $27.00 (that's including the dozen eggs!)

I look forward to my "box" every week. On Tuesdays as I head out the door to run my stairs, I grab my cloth bag, because my delivery is dropped off at the University Food Science building. I run my stairs, jump my rope, then I run to the building where this is delivered. I usually munch on something as I walk back to my office, unless of course I am prepping for a competition, then fruit does not pass my lips, nor does any snack not on the schedule!

It is very important to eat a lot of vegetables not only for the vitamins and minerals, but to provide fiber and the feeling of fullness. When you are reducing calories, it will be the starches. The bread, rice, beans, pasta, the good stuff that we all fill up on. To counteract this, we need to eat more vegetables.

When I am striving to drop body fat, I reduce or eliminate starches at dinner most nights (but I do add it back in every few nights so my metabolism doesn't get used to this). So, I eat 2 to 3 cups of vegetables at dinner. I am full, I am getting carbs (but not starchy carbs) and it is satisfying.

Check out a CSA. I have found that it ensures I eat produce that is in season, not just what's in the store. It is organic, it is local and it is fresh. 

Lots of CSA's deliver to a home and people pick up there, many deliver to businesses. Google CSA today!

Pasture Fed Meat

I am reading two books right now, The Paleo Diet Solution by Robb Wolf and The Paleo Diet for Athletes by Loren Cordain, PhD (author of The Paleo Diet).

These two books hold much interest for me, not that I necessarily want to go on a paleo diet, but because I want to learn as much as possible about the effects of different foods on my body.

I am thinking of incorporating some of the philosophy and thought I would be ready by now, but things just are not moving along as quickly as I had anticipated, mainly because I have too much going on and haven't finished reading them yet!

I did find the information regarding free range or pasture fed meats quite interesting so decided to look into it further. I have always enjoyed meats from Prather Ranch, they are at the Campbell Farmers market and San Francisco Ferry Plaza market.

I know pasture fed is better, although more expensive. I don't mind, I figure I should treat my body like the prized possession it is, and be kind, only giving it the good things. I mean, I pump premium gas into my car, why should I pump regular food into my body? It's worth a hell of a lot more than my BMW and costs more to repair!

I poked around the Internet and found an article on Trusted.MD, the author is Vreni Gurd, and he has several interesting articles on the subject. I have an excerpt of it here, I think it does a good job of explaining why we should all eat pasture raised meats instead of feed lot.

It may be a no brainer that organic is better than conventional when it comes to meat, poultry, eggs and dairy, but why is pasture-fed important? 

Conventional meat and poultry are fed conventional food, that usually being grain (such as GMO soy), as carbohydrates are just as effective at fattening animals as humans. The pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and fertilizers in the grain are then stored as toxins in the fat of the animals.



Because conventionally raised animals and poultry are often kept in very confined quarters day and night, and are not given space to roam, they do not get the exercise needed to keep them healthy.  Between the poor quality food, the lack of exercise and the close quarters between animals, sickness is very common and spreads like wildfire through the barns.


Consequently, antibiotics and other drugs are used on an ongoing basis in an attempt to keep the animals healthy. In the United States, recombinant bovine somatrotropin (rbst) under the drug name "Prosilac" is used in dairy cattle in order to increase milk production.  This drug often results in very large, infected udders and consequently pus gets into the milk.  Prosilac is banned in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the EU and in Japan.


In meat cattle, five growth promoting hormones are used in Canada and the US, three of which occur naturally (estradiol, testosterone and progesterone) and two of which are synthetic (zeranol and trenbolone acetate).  These hormones were banned in the Europe in 1989.  For a fun look at the world of factory farming, see the short videos, The Meatrix, and The Meatrix Revolting.


Certified organic meat, poultry, dairy and eggs have been fed certified organic food, and are not medicated.  This immediately eliminates the risk of consuming the consolidated toxins found in the fat of the animals, and ingesting the residues of the antibiotics and steroid hormones that become a part of conventional meats, poultry, dairy and eggs. But "certified organic" does not mean that the animals were allowed to exercise, nor does it tell you what the animals were fed.


Ask any five-year old what a cow is supposed to eat, and they will reply "grass", not grain. Ruminants get digestive distress on grain as their digestive systems are not meant to handle it, and they don't get the nutrition they need from grain. Look for "free-range" poultry, eggs, meat or dairy, or "pasture-fed" meats. Pasture-fed poultry and ruminants are healthier, happier, and have far more omega 3 and less omega 6 in their  meat, dairy and eggs, which improves our omega 3/6 balance as well.


So, look for certified organic, free-range meat, poultry, dairy and eggs, and you will know the animals were more humanely treated, and the food products are more healthy. 

Full article: Conventional vs. organic vs. free-range meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy | Trusted.MD Network http://trusted.md/blog/vreni_gurd/2006/12/01/conventional_vs_organic_vs_free_range_meat_poultry_eggs_and_dairy#ixzz18F9XbJ6w
Visit Our Health Blogging Network Trusted.MD

Organic

So what is the big deal with organic produce? Seems you pay a lot more, the vegetables have bugs and don't look as good, and the fruit is small.

Well that may be partially true, but you have to consider the benefits of organic products.

Why are there holes in the lettuces, and the vegetables are smaller, and sometimes there are bugs in them? That would be because the vegetables are not treated with pesticide or genetically modified.

If a pesticide kills bugs, what do you think it does to your infant? Your elderly relative? Your child, you?

There are a lot of good reasons to choose locally-grown, organic produce when possible. However, organic food is admittedly more expensive. If you want to maximize the good you do to your body while minimizing the cost, you could choose to purchase organic produce for the fruits and vegetables which tend to have the most pesticides in the United States. 

It is estimated that if a consumer avoids eating non-organically grown produce in the top 12 ("Dirty Dozen") on this list, pesticide exposure can be reduced by up to 80%. This list was compiled by the Environmental Working Group from approximately 96,000 studies by the USDA and FDA of the 49 fruits and vegetables listed between 2000 and 2008. There are many fruits and vegetables that are not on this list -- these were chosen because they are most commonly eaten.

The scores given are simply a ranking of the different items, from the most problematic in terms of pesticides, to least likely to have pesticide residue. (Unlike other years, there is no attempt to make the numbers reflect the amount of pesticide residue found, only the ranking.)

The fruits and vegetables were washed or peeled as most people use the produce – for example, apples were washed, bananas and oranges peeled.

Pesticides on Popular Produce

   1. (worst) Celery
   2. Peaches
   3. Strawberries
   4. Apples
   5. Blueberries - U.S. Grown
   6. Nectarines
   7. Sweet Bell Peppers
   8. Spinach
   9. Kale and Collard Greens
  10. Cherries
  11. Potatoes
  12. Grapes – Imported from outside U.S.
  13. Lettuce
  14. Blueberries - Imported
  15. Carrots
  16. Green Beans – U.S. grown
  17. Pears
  18. Plums - Imported
  19. Summer Squash
  20. Cucumbers - Imported
  21. Green Beans - Imported
  22. Hot Peppers
  23. Red Raspberries
  24. Oranges
  25. Grapes – U.S. grown
  26. Cantaloupe
  27. Cucumbers - U.S. Grown
  28. Cauliflower
  29. Tomatoes
  30. Bananas
  31. Broccoli
  32. Winter Squash
  33. Cranberries
  34. Plums - U.S. Grown
  35. Honeydew Melon
  36. Sweet Potato
  37. Grapefruit
  38. Watermelon
  39. Cantaloupe - U.S. Grown
  40. Cabbage
  41. Eggplant
  42. Kiwi
  43. Asparagus
  44. Sweet Peas (frozen)
  45. Mango
  46. Pineapple
  47. Sweet Corn (frozen)
  48. Avocado
  49. Onions (least)