Have you heard the recent hype about the "Twinkie Diet"? If not I will sum it up for you. A professor at Kansas State University recently ate nothing but Twinkie's for 10 weeks to prove that losing weight isn't about nutrition, its strictly about calorie counting.
While this "diet" worked for this particular individual over the 10 week trial, I must address the obvious. Clearly as a health professional, I believe that nutritional content trumps caloric intake. Calories are a very important part of maintaining a lifestyle, but the nutrition that your body receives from the foods you eat is the most important. Let me tell you why.
Processed food that contains trans fat and sugar causes cellular inflammation. Dr. Barry Sears, a well-respected medical doctor and author of the Zone Diet boldly claims that much of the current thinking about good nutrition -- a diet high in carbohydrates, low in protein, and fats -- is "dead wrong."
An anti-inflammatory whole food diet is about balancing your hormones within a specific range to control hunger. It balances three macronutrients – protein, carbohydrates and fat at every meal and snack. Receiving these macronutrients from whole, unprocessed food is essential. Whole foods provide vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients whose synergistic effects provides the cellular nutrition your body needs to have energy, heal and repair, maintain optimal weight and feel satisfied.
Processed foods raise silent inflammation in your body which has been linked by researchers and scientists to be an underlying cause of chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, chronic pain, new millennium diseases, and increased weight gain. Processed (man-made) foods contain a combination of trans fats, sugar, and chemicals (toxins) that alter satiety centers in the brain altering hormones that tell you "I'm full" and telling your body to use fat as energy.
Have you tried dieting and exercising and still struggle with weight loss? New research is shedding light on the old weight loss strategy of calories in versus calories out. It's not working any more. What you eat matters...
So how do you get started?
Start by eating smaller, more frequent meals that consist of whole food sources of protein, carbs, and fats. For example, my breakfast took me 5 minutes to make and consisted of Protein (3 free range eggs) fried in Fat (1 tsp coconut oil), and Carbs (steel cut oats with blueberries).
