Your Energy Bar Or Protein Bar May Actually Be Junk Food Cleverly Disguised

Expert Author Mike Geary

You see them all over the place these days… nutrition bars that claim to be healthy and good for weight loss or muscle building, but when you read the label, you see an endless list of chemicals, sugars, processed trans fats, and other harmful overly processed ingredients.

There are so many types of “health bars” and “protein bars” on the market today, how do you know if you are actually getting something healthy or just junk food in disguise?

Again, just as I’ve talked about grocery store food choices, you really need to know how to read labels if you’re going to stand a chance at finding a truly healthy food bar.

To be quite honest, most of the bars out there are pure junk… candy bars disguised through labeling as a health food bar.

Just a couple weeks ago, I was going on a bike ride with a friend and needed a quick bar to make sure I had enough energy for the bike ride.

Well, I didn’t have any bars on me, so my friend gave me an extra slim fast bar he had.

Keep in mind that these slim fast bars are marketed as health foods for losing weight.

These things are just a flat out joke…there’s nothing even remotely nutritional about them. In my opinion, these slim fast bars are WORSE for you than candy bars!

The first ingredient in this bar that my friend gave me was corn syrup! Then the second ingredient was sugar (hooray more sugar!), followed by hydrogenated oils (source of deadly trans fats). After that, the list went on with nothing but junk such as artificial flavors, colors, evil artificial sweeteners, more hydrogenated refined oils, and rounded out with some highly processed soy protein isolate (which despite popular belief, processed soy is NOT healthy for you… I’ll talk in detail about that in a future article) just to give your body some more junk.

So not only are these “weight loss” bars a disaster nutritionally for you, but the bar tasted absolutely horrible! It tasted like chemicals and was way too overly sweetened (not a surprise with all of the sugar, corn syrup, sugar alcohols, AND artificial sweeteners). This is a prime example of “over-engineering” of food.

So how do you determine a healthy protein bar or energy bar?

I look for simplicity in a good bar. Many of the healthiest and tastiest bars I’ve found have only a couple basic ingredients such as nuts, seeds, and fruit. I also look for organic ingredients and raw ingredients if possible.

A couple of my favorite truly healthy bars:

1. Organic Food Bars – This is actually the brand name.

Depending on which flavor, these are usually a base of organic almond butter (or cashew butter) with a certain type of fruit, organic seeds, organic biosprouts (quinoa, etc), and some organic rice protein. Some flavors include an organic dark chocolate as well. They also have a line of bars that use exclusively raw ingredients.

Not only are these bars extremely nutritious, but I think they are delicious as well and have a lot of flavors to choose from such as chocolate chip, blueberry, cranberry, high protein, and more.

You won’t find these bars at your local grocery store, but I have found them at several health food stores.

2. Larabars – These are even simpler in ingredients than organic food bars. Usually larabars are just 2 or 3 ingredients, and mostly raw… a blend of crushed nuts along with a type of fruit is the usual combination, but they have a lot of different flavors so it can vary.

These are also delicious and you will NEVER see a list of chemicals a mile long in their ingredient list… usually just nuts and fruit, and that’s it! Simple IS better. This is a very high quality bar. Again, you probably won’t find these at your local grocery store, but I’ve found these at various health food markets.

When you actually find truly healthy bars like these examples above, they make great quick snacks while you are traveling or while you are at work.

I carry some on me almost at all times, just to make sure I have healthy options to eat whenever I need a quick snack, so that I am not tempted by fast food joints or junk food vending machines. Good luck and be sure to read those labels to make sure you’re getting a health food bar and not a candy bar in disguise. See below for 5 unique tips to help you lose your stubborn belly fat.

Go to the following site to get a free report about belly fat and why even the best abdominal exercise will never help you lose stomach fat.

Mike Geary is also the author of the innovative fitness program for skiers that will show you how to get legs of steel for the skiing season with this effective  Skiing Fitness Workout also TruthAboutAbs.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Geary

Beware of Junk Foods Being Promoted As Health Food – HFCS is Not Healthy

Expert Author Mike Geary

You may have seen a whole new slew of advertisements online and on television trying to revamp the poor image of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).  They are basically trying to promote this junk food additive as “healthy”.

The advertising campaigns don’t come right out and make the claim that high fructose corn syrup is “health food”, but they do try to get clever and fool people into thinking that it’s not bad for your health.  In fact, they make these misleading claims:

“It’s all natural”

“It’s no worse for you than table sugar”

“It’s made from corn”

“It has the same calories as table sugar”

As you can see, these ads are trying to deceive us into thinking that HFCS isn’t so bad after all… I mean, they do say that it’s “all natural” and “made from corn”.  These ads are pure sleaze!

In my opinion, these ads are highly immoral.  For one, as if our nation, and the world for that matter, wasn’t already suffering an obesity epidemic, as well as skyrocketing degenerative diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.  Now, they’re trying to make matters worse by fooling innocent people into thinking that high fructose corn syrup is somehow healthy. Meanwhile, as society and our kids get fatter and more unhealthy, they’re lining their pockets with massive profits since HFCS is in the majority of processed food.

As for their claim that HFCS is “no worse for you than sugar”… I’m not even going to discusss any of the science about how HFCS affects the leptin and insulin process in your body, your blood sugar process, appetite levels, etc.  Instead, I want to make a more important point:

Who cares if HFCS is “no worse for you than sugar”… because sugar is one of the worst things you can ingest in your body anyway, so it is not even a valid argument!

The point you need to understand is that if you want to be lean and healthy for life, you should be minimizing, or even eliminating all sugar and high fructose corn syrup.  In fact, most processed food should be eliminated altogether if you want to be serious about getting lean.

As for their claim that HFCS is “all-natural”… don’t even get me started!  It’s just a ridiculous statement to begin with.  I don’t care if you call it “natural” or artificial, the bottom line is that it’s a highly processed, refined substance that makes you fat!

So the next time you’re thinking about drinking that can of soda, or eating that candy bar or cupcakes, just think about how that is only going directly against your efforts to lose body fat and can even lead to other health problems in excess.

If you want to lose your stubborn belly fat, check out these strategic workouts and diet tips at TruthAboutAbs.com

Also, learn some of the best tricks to live healthy and enjoy life while also losing body fat at TruthAboutAbs.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Geary

3 Tips to Eat a Healthier Diet to Lose Weight Faster

Expert Author Mike Geary

If you want to lose weight, we all know that eating a healthy diet should be your first priority.  Sure, exercise is important, but diet is king when it comes to lifelong weight management.  I hope this article gives you some simple, yet effective ways for you to make healthy changes in the way you eat on a daily basis.

1.  Make sure to eat at least some healthy fats in most of your meals.  Eating enough healthy fats is very important for maintaining proper fat burning and muscle building hormone levels in your body.  Adequate healthy fats in your diet also helps in keeping your appetite under control.

The healthiest sources of dietary fats are raw nuts, seeds, egg yolks (from organic free range eggs), avocados, extra virgin olive oil (highest antioxidant content of olive oils), coconut oil (a great source of healthy saturated fats in the form of medium chain triglycerides), and grass-fed meats (a great source of the healthy fat, conjugated linoleic acid, which can help burn body fat and build muscle).

Try this tip — eat a handful of raw nuts (pecans, walnuts, almonds are great healthy choices) 3 times a day about 30 minutes prior to meals.  This can help to quell your appetite and give your body some protein, fiber, and healthy fats so that you eat less calories overall at your meals and get more nutrition at the same time due to the high nutrient density of most nuts.

2.  Try to eat a high quality protein source with each meal and snack that you eat.  Quality proteins from grass-fed meats, grass-fed raw dairy, and even from plant sources such as nuts and beans provides good appetite suppression so you can control your calorie intake easier.

Getting ample quality proteins also helps you to build lean muscle (if you’re working out hard regularly) so that your metabolism can run at a higher rate from the increased lean muscle on your body.

Eating sufficient protein at most of your meals also aids your body in controlling blood sugar and insulin levels by helping to slow the breakdown of ingested carbohydrates.

3. Although I do not fully agree with extremely low-carb diets, I do believe that one of the main reasons that so many individuals struggle to lose weight for most of their lives is due to eating excessive processed carbohydrates such as refined grain-based starches and refined sugars on a daily basis.

The natural sugars in whole fruits and berries are ok because the fiber in fruits helps to slow the blood sugar response in your body.  Just make sure to avoid fruit juices, which are mostly sugar and have the fiber removed in processing the juice.

In my experience as a nutrition specialist, when people start to minimize their grain consumption (from cereals, bagels, breads, pasta, etc), they start to lose body fat much easier.  What I usually recommend is for people to minimize eating grains and focus their carbohydrate intake on fruits and vegetables solely.  This simple step alone usually helps people to start managing their weight more easily.

Try to implement these 3 tips for eating a smarter, healthier diet and I’m willing to bet that you’ll start to see a leaner body and more energy in no time.

For more great tips and ideas, visit here.

I hope you enjoyed this article and it helps you to start eating healthier and enjoying better health!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Geary

The Top 3 Fat Burning Foods – Surprising Hidden Gems

Expert Author Mike Geary

In all of my years as a professional Nutrition Specialist, I’ve noticed that most people are shocked to hear some of my picks for the top fat burning foods that are best for weight loss and good health.

I won’t bore you with all of the typical “healthy foods” that you hear about all of the time such as fruits and veggies… everybody knows those.  Instead, I’m going to show you some shockers that most people don’t realize are super healthy foods for fat loss.

1. Egg Yolks – yes, that’s right… full fatty egg yolks with all of their fat and cholesterol.  By the way, you’ve been mislead about the cholesterol in egg yolks — it actually raises your GOOD cholesterol and helps balance proper ratios, so don’t be afraid of the fat and cholesterol in these little nutrition power packed gems.  And if you choose cage-free eggs from free roaming hens, the omega-3 content is higher with a more balanced fat profile.

Egg yolks are also one of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet in terms of vitamins, minerals, and trace nutrients.  Trying to list all of the vital nutrients in egg yolks would take up an entire page so I won’t even try that here.  Just realize that egg yolks should NOT be avoided in favor of egg whites.  Even the protein is more bioavailable when you include the yolks!

So don’t be afraid to eat those delicious and healthy eggs and start burning belly fat faster.

2.  Avocados – This is yet another “fatty food” that is also one of the best fat burning foods! Not only that, but avocados make just about everything creamier and more delicious.  They are also power-packed with healthy fats, fiber, and antioxidants, as well as vitamins and minerals.  The healthy fat in avocados also helps control appetite and fat burning hormones in your body.

Try adding avocado slices or guacamole to everything from morning eggs, salads, sandwiches, and burgers, and starting burning body fat faster! I would definitely consider avocados one of the best healthy super foods.

3.  Grass-fed beef – While most beef you see at the grocery store is grain fed beef from cattle that are in poor health and has lower nutrition values and omega-6 to omega-3 fat ratios that are far out of whack, there is a better option… and that is Grass-Fed Beef!

Grass-fed beef is known to have much higher levels of healthy omega-3 fatty acids and lower omega-6 fats (which most people get too much of anyway).  Grass-fed beef also contains higher levels of many vitamins and minerals, as well as containing high levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which is a healthy fat that is known to help muscle building and fat burning.

So don’t be afraid to live it up a little and eat more beef, as long as you choose healthy grass-fed beef instead of grain fed beef. Enjoy and start burning more body fat with these so called “fatty” foods!

If you want to lose body fat faster, check out these 5 tips to Burn Stomach Fat the smart and effective way.
Enjoy, and good luck with your fitness endeavors!
Mike Geary
Author – The Truth about Six Pack Abs

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Geary

3 Important Tips to Build Muscle Faster – Get Lean and Ripped

Expert Author Mike Geary

Let’s face it… building muscle is not the easiest thing to accomplish even despite regular hard workout schedules and trying every type of workout and supplement.
I struggled for years to gain any significant muscle mass, but over the years in my personal training business and with my own experimentation have found some important things that have helped make significant muscle gains possible even for hardgainers.
So, I’m going to give 3 important tips here so you can start building lean muscle mass faster and easier.
1. Make sure that 95% of the exercises you perform regularly in the gym are big multi-joint compound exercises.  It doesn’t matter if your goal is fat loss or building muscle… big multi-joint exercises should comprise 95% of the exercises you do in your workouts if you want to get lean, ripped, and powerful.
It’s easiest to think of it in terms of the major movement patterns such as these (focus 95% of your workouts on these):
  • upper body horizontal press (bench press, pushups, dips),
  • upper body horizontal rows (1-arm dumbbell rows, seated cable rows, bent over barbell rows),
  • upper body vertical pull (lat pulldowns, pullups, chinups),
  • upper body vertical press (overhead dumbbell and barbell presses, barbell or kettlebell clean & presses)
  • lower body squatting movements (front squats, back squats, overhead squats, bodyweight squats, etc)
  • lower body deadlifting movements (regular deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts)
  • lower body single leg movements (lunges, step-ups, jump lunges, etc)
  • abdominal and core exercises (these are important, but still are 2nd priority after all of the major upper body and lower body multi-joint movements… your abs and core will be worked from most major multi-joint exercises anyway)
The other 5% of your exercises can focus on single joint exercises (isolation exercises) such as bicep curls, tricep presses, calf presses, shoulder shrugs, shoulder lateral raises, pec flyes, etc, etc.  However, these exercises are only accessory exercises to do after the main focus has been the multi-joint drills.
2.  Train hard and intensely 3-4 days/week for 45-60 minutes per weight training workout.  Keep your workouts to no longer than 60 minutes as training too much beyond this point can trigger excess catabolism.  You want to stay anabolic, but you still need to train your body hard and intensely enough to trigger muscle growth.
Try a super-set style of workout program to maximize the intensity that you can train.  My favorite combinations are opposing upper and lower body movement patterns that don’t interfere with each other, such as squats coupled with pullups as a superset, or bench press coupled with deadlifts as a superset.
Don’t underestimate the effectiveness of these types of upper/lower body supersets done with heavy weights and a high intensity.  The first time in my life that I experienced significant muscle mass gains were when I started doing these types of workout combos regularly (although still mixing up my training variables).
These are mainstays of almost any effective workout program — caloric intake can simply be adjusted whether your goal is fat burning or gaining muscle mass.
3.  Eat clean with quality whole foods… REAL foods instead of highly processed over-hyped supplement powders and bars.
The quality of protein (and additional nutrition from vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants) are best assimilated by the body from real whole food such as eggs, meats, dairy (preferably raw), fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, etc. instead of from processed protein powders, chemical-laden bars, and meal replacements.
Forget about the hyped up workouts in the muscle mags that only work for pro bodybuilders or people on steroids. Forget about the over-hyped supplement “stacks” that pay the bills for almost every muscle mag… Instead, make these tips in this article part of your lifestyle, and you’ll see muscle gains and a leaner, ripped body like you’ve never seen before!
If you want to get a lean chiseled body, check out these tips to Get Ripped Abs the right way.
Enjoy, and good luck!
Mike Geary
Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author – The Truth about Six Pack Abs

Powered by Yahoo! Answers