Fitness, Health and Beauty

There has been an interesting change in the foods we consume over the past century. The Industrial Revolution brought about faster mechanized ways of creating products and it was only a matter of time before this extended to food. This is not to say that all factory made food is bad, in fact there are many businesses that create their food products with minimal preservatives and ingredients. The issue of today is that many people are uneducated as to what goes into their food or how to feed themselves properly. The hidden danger to eating the copious amounts of ready made food is the increased sugar consumption. Sugar now comes in various forms be it high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, glucose, and many other pseudonyms. This increased consumption leads to weight gain and learning to recognize what is bad for you will lead you toward a diet for real weight loss.

Lecturing you on how much sugar you eat will never accomplish anything because you most likely had no idea. Your consumption is the result of ignorance. To beat this subliminal addiction, detoxifying your body is the best place to start.

To stay away from unneeded sugar easily, you should restructure the way that you approach your neighborhood grocery store. The whole foods, foods that are fresh and non-manufactured are usually found on the outsides of a market, this is where your produce, meat, dairy, eggs, and bakery sections are located.

This is not to say that all processing as bad, canned tomato sauce for instance does not contain many ingredients. A good rule of thumb of processed food is to see if you can recognize the ingredients. Eating something with only five ingredients is infinitely better than going for the food that contains over twenty and is unintelligible to those who are not food scientists.

These rules and incorporating more made foods will only come after a two week detox. Throw out any juices and sodas you have in your house and this includes diet soda. While it does not contain any calories, the fake sugar has been found to stimulate appetite. It also acts as a crutch to your system to never really get off of sugar.

With just water for your main source of liquid, increase your protein consumption in terms of eggs, chicken breasts, and lean beef. Eat as many vegetables as you like. There are no limits to something so natural, but don’t ruin it by boiling them into sogginess or adding ranch dressing. Olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon juice can go a long way in terms of flavor.

This is not to say that you should bypass flavor. The best foods are full of flavor, but that comes from cooking technique, like roasting as well as any added spices. This is the time to see what you can do when you are not relying on something prepackaged.

This is also not a carb free week, you can incorporate carbohydrates that are good for you, like the aforementioned whole grains. Potatoes are fine, but sweet potatoes are better and with these you will get some natural sugars. Your second week in, start bringing in some fruits and you will have a better appreciation for the taste of real sugar. This will make you a more conscious eater which is all part of a diet for real weight loss.