restartmed.com http://www.restartmed.com/nutrition-facts-common-sense/

38 Nutrition Facts that need to be common sense but aren’t

Are you tired of hearing conflicting information about nutrition every time you open up Facebook?

Me too…

I’ve got some good news for you,

There are some clear-cut facts about nutrition that you NEED to know. These facts will help you make sense ofeverything else you read and will help you build a foundation of information for future weight loss and better health.

So if you’ve ever felt confused about nutrition then this is for you:

1. There is no one size fits all diet that works for everyone

Just like you physically look different from your neighbor you both will thrive on different diets! This means you willmost likely need different amounts of food, different macronutrient ratios, different types of carbs, etc.

It should go without saying, but many people get sucked into this trap. Especially if someone they know had successwith a specific type of diet.

Just remember, everyone is different!

That being said you can follow some basic guidelines for finding a diet that jibes with your body and biochemistry…

1. Eat real whole food that doesn’t have a label

2. Try to eat vegetables with every meal

3. Eat the rainbow

4. Eat organic and grass-fed when possible

5. Avoid refined carbohydrates, sugars and zero calorie sweeteners

Use these guidelines as a place to start, from there refine your diet to your personal preferences! If you find you thriveon higher protein or more meat then go for it! Likewise, if the thought of meat turns you off then focus on morevegetables or fish.

If meat, protein and low carb is your game you can find more information on the paleo diet here.

If your body thrives on plant-based diet look into Dr. Dean Ornish’s diet here.

If you want something in between then I would recommend the mediterranean diet.

2. When you eat consider the little bugs in your gut

If you haven’t heard about the microbiome, let Dr. JillCarnahan (Expert in Functional Medicine and Digestivediseases) fill you in…

“Research now shows that a dramatic alteration indiet such as eliminating sugar and refinedcarbohydrates can alter the microbiome in as littleas 24 hours! We also know that the microbiometalks to the immune system and regulates cytokineproduction, which can cause inflammation andincrease intestinal permeability. This is why thenumber one intervention I recommend for patientswith autoimmune disease and leaky gut is changein diet to foster a healthy microbiome.”

Your body contains around 100 trillion bacteria, which outnumberyour human cells 10 to 1!

In other words you are 10% human.

Science is now finding that the type of bacteria you have in yourgut changes based on what you eat, your stress and how you exercise.

They are also finding that certain species of bacteria can even help you lose weight!

Remember that every time you eat you aren’t only feeding your body, but you’re feeding the little bugs in your gut.

They need and love prebiotic foods, especially foods high in fiber.

Don’t neglect your little guys and they may just turn around and help you lose weight.

3. If you’re trying to lose weight stop weighing yourself and start measuring your body fat

Weight is a notoriously inaccurate way to measure fat loss– which really is the goal when people go on diets or makelifestyle changes.

The problem is…

Once you start losing fat mass from exercise and dietarychanges your body compensates by increasing musclemass! This usually results in a wash when you measureweight (unless you have > 50 pounds to lose).

A better way to assess how well your body is respondingto changes is to measure your body fat percentage. Thisused to be expensive but nowadays you can get a fairlyaccurate reading with scales that have built in bioelectricalimpedance analysis.

It works by sending a current through the body andassessing the resistance. From there it estimates your

total body water, fat free body mass and body fat.

If you don’t want to spend any money on a fancy scale then you can also measure your waist and mark your progressin inches lost!

The scale I recommend can be purchased off of amazon for $50.

4. Avoid low fat diets for weight loss

(The A TO Z Weight Loss Study: A Randomized Trial )

Low fat or no fat is synonymous with high sugar. For this reason anything that claims to be low fat or no fat should beavoided at all costs.

Unfortunately this low fat diet is promoted heavily by doctors and nutritionist alike, despite the fact that it has beenshown in many studies to be inferior to low carb diets for weight loss and has very little to no effect on heart disease.

If you like the idea of eating low fat then focus on real whole foods that are low in fat like fruits and veggies. Avoidanything in the grocery store in a box or marketed as low fat, because these foods contain high levels of sugars andrefined oils.

5. Eating a low glycemic load, anti-inflammatory diet with healthy fats and no added sugar orrefined grains can help you with many different medical conditions…

From high blood pressure, autoimmunity, acne, aches andpains to obesity – what you put in your mouth has an impacton your health.

I’m always amazed at what diet alone can do for mypatients.

In fact, before you start on medication for any medicalproblem I would strongly recommend changing your diet tosee if your problem persists. A 3 week round of a healthy dietis worth it, wouldn’t you say?

The mediterranean diet is known to decrease the risk ofcardiovascular disease,

AND…

It’s pretty clear that there is some association between dietand longevity (with blue zones around the world)…

so give this one a try.

6. Cholesterol isn’t the bad guy

With heart disease as the leading cause of death in the United States it’s easy to jump on the bandwagon of “good”and “bad” cholesterol.

The truth is something far more complicated…

We do find cholesterol at the scene of the crime (the blocked coronary arteries in the heart) and we do tend to blamethem for the heart attack, but this isn’t the whole story…

This logic is similar to blaming crime on the police because cops are found at crime scenes!

The truth is that cholesterol can’t run around in your blood without being carried in a protective protein like ball called alipoprotein.

It makes sense if you think about it – your blood is mostly water and cholesterol is fat. It’s like putting oil and watertogether, they just repel one another. To prevent this our body create a tiny little protein package to carry around thecholesterol through the body.

It’s the actual NUMBER of cholesterol carrying particles that increases your risk of heart attacks, NOT the cholesterolnumber itself.

Unfortunately the only way to test for your LDL particle number is with the NMR lipoprofile, so if you want to look at thisyou will most likely have to ask your doctor for it.

7. “Gluten free” and “organic” doesn’t automatically mean healthy

Don’t be confused into thinking that gluten free cookies orcupcakes are somehow better for you than regular cupcakesor cookies.

Likewise spending time to make your own homemadeversions high sugar containing gluten free baked goods athome, they still aren’t good for you!

Stick to foods that are naturally gluten free and stay awayfrom gluten free junk food.

Similarly, don’t think you’re somehow getting better sugarwhen you buy organic sugar from costco. Sugar is still sugarand gluten free junk food is still junk food.

8. You can’t out exercise a bad diet

It should go without saying, but no matter how much you exercise you simply cannot out e xercise a bad diet.

Just look at the numbers: if you consume a 20 ounce soda, you would have to walk four and a half miles to burn it off.

Calories aside, this example doesn’t take into account the impact that sugar has on insulin levels and how that effectsother hormones such as testosterone, estrogen and thyroid hormone.

The moral of the story:

Exercise is still very important, but you have to include a good diet if you want to see any changes.

9. There is such a thing as skinny fat

I’m sure you’ve heard the term Skinny fat. Or thin on the outside fat on the inside.

These names refer to a condition where people can have all the metabolic problems that overweight people have, butthey still have a “normal” BMI or weight.

This is actually a huge problem and something I deal with in my practice frequently.

Many people who aren’t overweight falsely believe that they have nothing to worry about! When in fact many of thesepatients still have the same risk of heart attack, stroke, alzheimer’s, and cancer risk as obese people.

How can you tell if you are skinny fat?

The best way to test is with a blood test called the Hgb A1c which tests your average blood sugar. If your Hgb A1c is >5.7 and you have normal body weight, then you most likely are skinny fat.

Many people who fall into this category are people that can eat “whatever they want” without gaining weight. Theyconsume tons of sugar, flour and carbs and don’t seem to gain a pound.

10. When looking at health food labels don’t forget the “added sugars”

Most people when they look at food labels go right to the calories.

While calories are important, you may be sabotaging your weight loss efforts using this method.

Don’t forget to look at the “added sugars” on the food label, you can find this under the Carbohydrates portion of thefood label.

As a rule of thumb do not eat more than 25g of added sugars per day. This recommendation comes from the WHO.

The scary part?

Many “healthy” and “low fat” foods can have as much as 20-30g of added sugar per serving!

Take for instance “healthy” vanilla flavored greek yogurt. This little sugar bomb (depending on the brand) contains asmuch as 20g of sugar in a small self serve package! That’s almost the entire amount of sugar you should eat in anENTIRE day in a small yogurt cup.

When you start looking at food labels you will see just how much added sugar you are eating every single day.

11. High fat dairy will help keep you thin

For years nutritionists and doctors have been telling you that eating fat will make you fat. It turns out that when youlook at the scientific literature this doesn’t seem to be the case, especially when it comes to dairy.

Take for instance this study…

Which is a meta analysis of 16 different studies and it shows that there is an inverse relationship between eating full fatdairy products and obesity!

Put into simple terms: those that ate low fat tended to be more obese vs those that ate high fat dairy who tended to bethinner.

While it’s still not completely understood why full fat products make you thinner it’s thought to be because of thebeneficial compounds such as butyrate, phytanic acid and conjugated linoleic acid.

Next time you’re at the store ditch the skim milk and go for the whole milk.

Your taste buds and your waist line will thank you.

12. Eating fat won’t make you fat

The last 50 years of nutritional science could easily be termed as the ‘great fat scare’. During this time we wereconstantly told that eating fat will clog your arteries can cause you to gain weight!

It turns out this couldn’t be farther from the truth…

We’ve seen in several journals, including the British Medical Journal that eating saturated fats doesn’t actuallyincrease your risk of cardiovascular disease or obesity.

We also have plenty of studies that show that eating HIGH fat diets (I’m talking up to 70% of daily calories asfat) actually help people LOSE weight, better than low fat diets.

13. Your diet influences your sex hormones

Ever wonder why so many women are suffering from PCOS, infertility and estrogen dominance? Look no further thaninsulin resistance and high sugar diets.

Diets high in sugar and refined carbohydrates increase insulin levels which directly effect estrogen and progesteronelevels. These changes result in either an absolute and relative decrease in the ratio of estrogen to progesterone (infavor of too much estrogen).

Diet also impacts men in a similar way by decreasing testosterone! This is why there is so many “Low T” clinicspopping up everywhere. The problem is low testosterone, it’s a bad diet.

Are you suffering from estrogen dominance or sex hormone related problems? Take a look at 10 steps I outlined in aprevious post about how to take care of endometriosis naturally.

14. You don’t need to eat every 3 hours for your metabolism

For some reason many people believe that in order to boost your metabolism and lose weight you must eat every 2-3hours.

Despite the fact that several studies have shown this isn’t the case, it just doesn’t even make sense from a practical orevolutionary standpoint.

It’s also more important to spend more hours in between meals to sensitize your body to insulin.

Don’t worry about your metabolism, it will be fine. Focus on eating high quality meals when your body is hungry – NOTwhen a clock says you should eat.

15. Stop listening to the media about nutrition

Remember that the media is focused on getting attention.They aren’t overly concerned about science or truth.

Because of the media it seems like every other weekthere is conflicting information.

Butter is good. Butter is bad. Meat causes cancer. Meat ishealthy. Etc.

Most of the time the headlines from the media are grossexaggerations of small findings that are taken out ofcontext.

Stick to scientific journals and experts in the field as yoursource of quality information.

16. Also… stop listening to your doctor aboutnutrition advice!

I hate to say it, but many doctors are behind the timeswhen it comes to nutrition.

It turns out that doctors only get about 19 hours ofnutrition education during their entire training.

This is pretty sad when you consider that food is far andaway the most powerful medication and that up to 40% ofannual deaths from the 5 leading US causes arepreventable.

Another concerning statistic?

The average doctor is practicing medicine 17 yearsbehind the current scientific studies!

Not all doctors are behind the times, but in the mean time it’s better to get your dietary advice from those who are up todate on the current science.

17. Eggs (including the yolk) are healthy for you!

Eggs are not tiny little cholesterol bombs that are going toclog your arteries.

Yes, they do contain cholesterol but eating eggs doesn’tincrease your cholesterol in the way you think.

This study showed that eating eggs increases the amountof large buoyant *healthy cholesterol particles andchanged the pattern of cholesterol to one that is actuallyhealthy for the heart.

Eggs also contain antioxidants, lutein and zeaxanthin,which can help prevent age related macular degeneration.

Next time you’re at the store opt for cage free whole eggs,not the yolk free substitute.

18. Stick to the outside of the grocery store to eat healthy

If you want to eat healthy the safest place in the grocerystore is the outside perimeter.

Grocery stores are set up so the healthy foods are on theoutside and the bad foods are on the inside.

When you’re shopping practice the “eye-ball test”…

That is – you should be able to eye-ball food and tell if it’sreal or not. If it’s fake, then chances are high that it’s nothealthy for you.

Stick to the outside of the grocery store and practice theeye-ball test next time you go shopping.

19. Fruit juices are no better than soda

Unfortunately, many people believe that fruit juices arehealthy for you.

This couldn’t be farther from the truth.

In fact, fruit juices have the same impact on yourhormones, blood sugar and insulin as sugar sweetenedbeverages.

This is primarily because fruit juices don’t have any fiberin them. When you eat a whole fruit the absorption ofsugars is slowed by the fiber that acts as a glue in yourintestines.

Without the glue your body rapidly absorbs all of thesugar!

Stay away from fruit juices, especially if you have kids.

20. Sugar sweetened beverages may be the most unhealthy food in your diet

Added sugar in liquid form is the worst.

Sugar sweetened beverages destroy your hormonalsystems, cause changes in insulin and lead to increasedlevels of diabetes.

One of the major problems with drinking your sugar is thatyour brain doesn’t realize how many calories you aregetting.

In return it doesn’t compensate to lower the amount offood you eat. You just keep eating more and more.

Cut out sugar sweetened beverages from your diet. It maybe the healthiest thing you do all year.

21. You should be eating natural fermentedfoods

If you aren’t consuming natural fermented foods you aremissing out on a huge health benefit.

From kefir, to sauerkraut – these foods are loaded withbeneficial probiotics, prebiotics and vitamins.

Take kefir for instance…

Studies show that this probiotic drink contains beneficialyeasts and bacteria that help lower inflammation, fight offbad bacteria, lower blood pressure and improve immunity!

If you like taking probiotic supplements, then don’t missout on natural probiotic foods. They are loaded with WAYmore probiotics and have more diverse microbialpopulations.

22. Low carb diets shouldn’t be ultra high in protein

While low carb diets can be great for weight loss (theybeat out all other diets in most studies). There are somethings you should know to prevent self sabotage.

1. Low carb means low refined carbs – It also doesn’tmean no carbs. To get the best results cut out sugar,refined grains (bagels, pizza, breads, pastas, etc.) butKEEP in carbs from vegetables and fruits like berries!

2. Don’t replace your carbs with only protein – Cut outthe bad carbs, keep the good carbs (veggies/fruits)and replace the carbs with a combination of healthyfats (olive oil, avocados, coconut oil, etc.) and healthproteins. High amounts of protein can still stimulateinsulin and prevent weight loss during low carbdieting.

3. Don’t forget to eat vegetables! Veggies are still considered carbs but they hardly have any effect on your insulinlevels because they are loaded with fiber and contain very little free sugars.

4. Don’t severely restrict your calories – The low carb diet causes changes to your hormones (especially insulin)that result in weight loss. Severely restricting your calories can lower metabolism by up to 30% in as little as 25days.

Try these tips next time you decide to hop on a low carb diet for weight loss.

23. Stop counting calories, they matter but not like you think

Everyone loves to talk about calories in and calories out.

More important than the amount of calories you consumeis what your body is doing with those calories.

Let me explain…

Hormones direct what your body does with calories. Areyour insulin levels elevated? Then your calories will beshunted into your fat cells.

Are your estrogen levels or cortisol levels high? Thencalories will be shunted to your fat cells.

Are insulin levels low? Then your calories will be shuntedto your muscles and other tissues.

Also, don’t forget that eating higher amounts of proteinresults in automatic reduction of calories without eventhinking about it.

Stop counting your calories and focus on eating real whole foods that impact your hormones.

24. Insulin resistance is linked to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cancer and alzheimer’s

Many terrible diseases are associated with high insulinresistance and diabetes.

This is both good and bad.

Bad in the sense that we are doing this to ourselves, butin the sense that you can prevent these diseases!

Take for instance Alzheimer’s disease. Recent studieshave now linked insulin resistance in the brain withimpaired memory.

The same is true for cancer, high blood pressure and highcholesterol.

Moral of the story?

Start making lifestyle changes to improve your health and prevent these terrible diseases.

25. Yes, junk food is addictive

Ever get the craving in the middle of the night forchocolate or ice cream?

You aren’t going crazy but you may have an addiction tojunk food.

Not only do food addictions exist. But certain chemicals ingluten, dairy and cheese have addictive properties.

Not only that, but the food industry has spent millions ofdollars to research what foods trigger your brain toconstantly snack.

These chemicals actually activate the same receptors inthe brain that are activated when people drink alcohol oruse drugs.

It may make sense now why so many diets fail and why 100 calorie snack packs don’t work for weight loss.

It’s like given an alcoholic 1 sip of alcohol per day and expecting them to kick their addiction.

Not only is sugar available on every corner, food addiction isn’t taken as seriously as it should be.

If you are struggling with addictive behavior towards food the best way to kick the habit is to completely eliminate thefood from your diet.

26. Never trust health claims on processed foods

The bottom line:

The food industry doesn’t have your best interests inmind.

They are looking to sell more products and make moremoney.

Not only that but they are GREAT at advertising andmarketing.

They know just what to say to get you to buy their foods.They use low fat, low carb, non fat, diet this and high fiberto their advantage.

If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is.

One of the most recent examples is the high fiber and low net carb marketing gimmick that certain brands are using.

They want you to think that by increasing fake fiber in their foods that you can eat all the carbs you want without havingan impact on your blood sugar and insulin levels.

This has been shown to entirely untrue. The truth is that these foods still increase your blood sugar, mess up yourhormones and increase your risk of diabetes just like regular versions of the food.

You can find more information of the Dreamfields pasta fraud here.

27. If the food you are eating was made in a factory, it’s not good for you

Many people struggle with understand what food isactually healthy for them.

I’ve already talked about the eye-ball test before and howyou can use that to help you find healthy foods.

Another good strategy is this: if the food was made in afactory, don’t eat it.

Eat the food that god made, not the fake foods that manmade.

28. Stop focusing on glycemic index and startpaying attention to glycemic load

Focusing solely on glycemic index without taking intoaccount can be very misleading.

The glycemic index focuses on the impact that certainfoods have on your blood sugar.

The glycemic load says how much of that certain food youhave to eat in order to raise your blood sugar.

Lets use an example:

Take for instance watermelon. It’s pretty high on theglycemix index (72) but it’s glycemic load is about 4. Thatmeans if you looked strictly at glycemic index you wouldassume that watermelon is bad for you.

Instead of focusing on glycemic index alone, make sure to look at the glycemic load.

29. Trans fat is poison to your body

If you haven’t already stopped eating trans fat now is thetime.

Trans fat have been shown to increase the risk of heartdisease in several studies.

Still not sure if you are eating trans fat? Check out thesefoods that still contain high levels:

1. Canned frosting

2. Packaged pie

3. Frozen pizza

4. Margarine

5. Coffee creamer

Avoid these foods at all costs!

30. Cereal is sugar in milk, treat it like a dessert not a breakfast meal

Do you know what the difference is between sugar withmilk in it or cereal with milk in it?

There is no difference to your body from the neck down…

It’s time to consider cereal as a dessert and not abreakfast cereal.

If you are struggling with obesity or trying to lose weight,make sure you aren’t sabotaging your efforts by eatingbreakfast cereal.

It’s hard to believe because it’s such a quick andconvenient food to eat. But cutting it out may be just whatyou need.

31. Fasting can balance hormones, help you lose weight and cure diabetes

Let’s tackle this one head on.

Adding intermittent fasting to your weight loss routine just may be thebest thing you can do.

Fasting used to be a normal part of life. In fact the cycle of feast andfamine was part of human life for thousands of years.

The difference between now and back then was that the feast wasbalanced by the famine.

Nowadays, we have nothing but feast all year round!

Studies have shown that small periods of fasting, as little as two timesper week can help you reduce insulin levels and lose weight!

Don’t let the word fasting scare you.

You can try intermittent fasting by simply avoiding eating after 7pm anddon’t start eating until 11am the following morning. Do this twice perweek and you are set.

Doesn’t sound too bad, does it?

32. Eating fat and protein help keep you full

We’ve touched on this before but it’s worth talking aboutagain.

Not only does eating fat not make you fat, it also keepsyou full for long periods of time!

The same is true with protein.

When you increase the amount of healthy fats and healthyproteins, your body automatically reduces the amount ofcalories it wants and your blood sugar stays stable.

33. Eating healthy doesn’t have to beexpensive

This is a lie that the food industry wants you to believe.

You’re made to think that the “value menu” fromMcdonald’s is cheaper than buying your own groceries.

This couldn’t be farther from the truth!

If you shop wisely and use help from some of theseguides you will find healthy nutritious food for a veryreasonable price! Cheaper than eating out and muchhealthier.

Also, don’t forget that while fast food may seem cheaper right now, you will pay for it in the long term with costlymedical bills 20-30 years later.

34. Cooking with spices can help you get healthier and lose more weight

Not only is cooking for yourself incredibly healthy you alsoget the added benefit of nutritious spices!

Take turmeric for example:

This spice may just be the healthiest spice on the entireplanet.

It’s been shown to reduce inflammation, kill cancer cells,prevent diabetes and so much more!

This is only the tip of the iceberg. There are so many otherhealthy spices.

35. Diabetes and prediabetes can becompletely reversed with fasting and dietary changes

Nowadays diabetes is treated as a chronic andprogressive disease.

Put in simple terms:

Once you get diabetes you will have it for life and it willslowly get worse over time.

This isn’t true at all!

Diabetes can be completely reverse with dietary changesand fasting regimens.

You can read more about Dr. Fung here, who has a clinicthat specializes in reversing diabetes through dietarychanges.

36. Dark chocolate can be healthy for you!

Ok, ok, so maybe you already knew about this one. Butit’s worth mentioning again.

Dark chocolate is loaded with antioxidants andpolyphenols that can help fight inflammation and obesity.

The catch?

You need to eat 70% dark chocolate or higher to get themost benefits.

AND, you shouldn’t have more than 1-2 ounces per day.

But still… it’s chocolate.

37. Eat less + exercise more = 99.9% failurerate

Even if you haven’t read the study you probably know from personal experience that the mantra eat less and exercisemore just doesn’t work.

How do you know?

Because we’ve all tried it at one point or another.

The truth is this:

if you approach weight loss from the standpoint that calories are all that matters, you will fail 99% of the time.

If you want to attack weight loss head on, then you need to keep real whole foods center stage with the goal to balanceyour insulin and other hormones.

38. Yo-yo dieting can lower your metabolism by up to 20% for years

Not only does calorie restriction not result in weight loss, it can also wreck your metabolism.

Studies have shown that chronic yo-yo dieting can lower your metabolism by up to 20% for years to come.

Don’t fall into this weight loss trap.

Want more awesome content like this? I’m Dr. Westin Childs and I write this content – sign up to get this kind ofcontent straight into your inbox and get some free gifts.