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).

Galeo's Miso Caesar Salad Dressing

A friend of mine just posted this on Facebook and I had to share it with you.

Lab Tests: Galeos Caesar Dressing Not What it Claims to Be
Mitch LipkaMitch Lipka RSS Feed
Nov 18th 2010 at 7:30AM


Editor's note: This is the first in a periodic series of stories in which Consumer Ally will commission laboratory tests to verify food label claims. If there's a food you think is too good to be true, let us know at ConsumerAlly@WalletPop.com.

Galeos Miso Caesar Dressing, a supposedly low-calorie and low-fat product hyped on NBC's reality show "The Biggest Loser" and endorsed by trainer Jillian Michaels, among others, is neither low-cal nor low-fat, lab tests commissioned by Consumer Ally found. Testing showed the actual calories per serving is almost 10 times what the label claims.

The dressing, sold at Whole Foods stores and other health-conscious grocers nationwide, is comparable in fat and calories to such non-diet brands as Marie's Caesar, and has more fat and calories than Kraft's Creamy Caesar.

The Galeos label claims 14 calories and 1 gram of fat per tablespoon serving. That's where the problems start. The serving size required by federal law on dressing labels is 2 tablespoons, creating the illusion - even if those numbers were accurate - that the dressing outdoes other diet dressings.

The laboratory showed the label should properly read: 120 calories, 11 grams of fat and 390 mg of sodium. The actual label claims 56 grams of sodium. Federal food labeling laws give companies a 20% margin of error.

Labels are frequently in error, but typically within that margin. A Consumer Ally reader suggested we test Galeos dressing.

Company owner Andrei Leontieff acknowledged to Consumer Ally the serving size could be an issue, but added the one tablespoon serving would be OK if it was considered a marinade. It isn't.

He didn't dismiss the lab findings nor express surprise. Upon further questioning, Leontieff explained tests he has commissioned backed up his label's claims.

"What I have is totally different," he said.

He declined to further discuss the results obtained by Consumer Ally, which paid for testing done at Specialized Technology Resources' food laboratories. Consumer Ally purchased Galeos dressing at a Whole Foods Market and shipped an unopened bottle for testing.

On the Galeos' website, Leontieff takes full responsibility for how the dressing is made.

"Under the watchful eye of Chef Andrei, Galeos Miso Dressings are prepared and bottled on site, insuring quality control from start to finish, every drop, homemade in America."

Quietly, among those promoting low-fat, low-calorie foods, there has been a buzz that this was a product that was too good to be true. Galeos has enjoyed strong support from healthy living devotees, including Michaels, based on what is written on the label.

Here is what she said in an interview earlier this year:

"But a salad dressing that I'm obsessed with ... - this is our one product that we joke has been around and stayed around since Season 1 of the Biggest Loser -- is a salad dressing called Galeo's and it's G-A-L-E-O apostrophe S, 17 calories a tablespoon, all natural and it tastes amazing and it comes in, you know, five or six different flavors."

Lisa Lillien, better known as "Hungry Girl" to the million followers of her observations on eating, told Consumer Ally this is good example of what health-conscious eaters should be wary of.

"If something tastes too good to be true it often is," she said. "So, be careful. I've seen this many times and am not surprised."

UPDATE (Nov.22): Here are the actual laboratory results before being broken down by serving size for Galeo's World's Best Miso Caesar:

    * Carbohydrates, g/100g – 7.8013
    * Fat, g/100g – 38.32
    * Moisture, g/100g – 46.39
    * Protein, g/100g – 4.1387
    * Saturated Fat, g/100g – 6.0
    * Calories, g/100 g – 392.64
    * Total Sugars, g/100g – 7.35
    * Sodium, mg/100g – 1306