Christian Finn

Eat your way to a better body with these all-natural super foods

You've probably read a lot about how antioxidants can protect against disease, ease muscle soreness and keep you looking young. Antioxidants may also have a small (but beneficial) effect on muscle growth and fat loss by altering the testosterone-cortisol ratio in your body.

And if you're like many people, you probably take vitamin supplements that contain these antioxidants. But there's something even better. And it's so effective – and so easy – that you'll probably have a hard time believing it!

Are trans fatty acids hiding in your favorite health food?

Figuring out whether a food is "good" or "bad" for you by reading nutrition labels can be very difficult, especially when the least healthy form of fat isn’t even listed on the label.

Research shows that trans fatty acids, or trans fats, are worse for you than the saturated fat in butter or meat (which wasn't really that bad in the first place).

But food manufacturers don't even have to list trans fatty acids on labels. In fact, many people are surprised to learn that a product can proudly claim on the label to be "trans fat free"... and still contain a significant amount of trans fatty acids!

You're about to learn what trans fats are, what they do to your body, and how to avoid them.

The South Beach Diet put to the test

The South Beach Diet promises to help you lose weight, lower your cholesterol, reduce your risk of heart disease and diabetes, and get rid of cravings without feeling hungry.

"The South Beach Diet is not low-carb," writes author Dr. Arthur Agatston. "The South Beach Diet teaches you to rely on the right carbs and the right fats — the good ones — and enables you to live quite happily without the bad carbs and bad fats. As a result, you're going to get healthy and lose weight — somewhere between 8 and 13 pounds in the next 2 weeks alone."

Does it work? Let's take a closer look at what the South Beach Diet has to offer.

The Glycemic Index Myth Revealed

Pick up any popular diet book written in the last 20 years, and you'll probably find a section on the glycemic index in there somewhere.

But despite the popularity of the glycemic index, many people are surprised to learn that eating more carbohydrate-rich foods with a low glycemic index and fewer carbohydrate-rich foods with a high glycemic index — without making any other change to your diet — actually has very little effect on weight loss.

Should you worry about eating meat?

If you're trying to lose weight by following the wildly popular Atkins diet, then you may be increasing your risk of developing diabetes... or so the headlines tell us.

The reports are based on research published in the journal Diabetes Care linking red meat with type II diabetes [10].

Researchers followed just more than 37,000 women aged 45 or older for an average of eight years. All the women completed detailed questionnaires about their food choices at study entry.

A calorie is a calorie... right?

One controversial aspect of low-carbohydrate diets is the so-called metabolic advantage—the idea that more weight is lost calorie for calorie compared with diets higher in carbohydrate.

But not everyone agrees that the metabolic advantage even exists.

"A calorie is a calorie, regardless of where it comes from," says Dr. Elizabeth Pivonka, president of the Produce for Better Health Foundation. There are no foods that increase your metabolic rate, or help you burn calories, she says. Dr. Pivonka probably felt rather confused after seeing the results of a recent Harvard School of Public Health study.

The findings, which generated national attention, show that low-carbohydrate dieters lost more weight than low-fat dieters despite eating 25,000 extra calories over a 12-week period [3].

Is the concept of the metabolic advantage in conflict with the laws of thermodynamics? Is it a myth? If not, how does it happen? Where does the energy go? Let's take a closer look at the research.

The Anatomy of a Balanced Diet

You'll often hear nutritionists extol the virtues of a simple "balanced" diet. But what does that really mean? If weight loss were really that simple, why is there so much uncertainty and confusion? What does eating "right" actually mean?

The problem is not a lack of information. Truth is there's probably too much information. With one clock, you always know what the time is. With two clocks, you're never sure!

Speak to them in private, and you'll find that many weight loss "experts" are more confused than the people they're supposed to be helping.

After reading so many scientific papers, weight loss textbooks and conference proceedings, they're drowning in a sea of information. And when people don't know what to do, the end result is always the same — they do nothing.

How to get the right type of fat in your diet

In 1992, the U.S. Department of Agriculture officially released the food pyramid. The shape of the food pyramid shows the proportions that various food groups should contribute to the total diet. Fats, oils and sweets are at the top of the food pyramid, and are supposed to be consumed sparingly.

Even when the food pyramid was being developed, nutritionists knew that some types of fat are essential to health. Putting them all in one category ignores the fact that different fatty acids have a big impact on the rate at which you lose fat and build muscle.

The great big meal-timing myth

One of the more common recommendations in most diets is to eat your largest meal of the day in the morning, and avoid eating after a certain time of day. The idea is that reducing your calorie intake as the day progresses makes weight loss faster and easier.

Should you eat a raw food diet?

There are numerous benefits, or so we're told, of a raw food diet.

Supporters of a raw food diet — often called a living food diet — claim that many of the nutrients in vegetables are lost when they're cooked. Heating food (such as boiling an egg) is also supposed to make a lot of the protein unusable to your body.

In short, raw foods are supposed to be "better in every way" than their cooked counterparts.

Fruit and vegetables contain compounds called phytochemicals. The term "phyto" (pronounced fight-o) comes from the Greek word meaning plant. You'll see the terms "phytochemical" and "phytonutrient" used interchangeably. Essentially, they both refer to the same thing.

These "plant nutrients" are linked with a reduced risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and some forms of cancer.

But do we really need to eat these vegetables in their raw form to get the maximum benefit?