Home Featured Posts Don’t Eat That! Five Ingredients You Don’t Want In Your Food

Don’t Eat That! Five Ingredients You Don’t Want In Your Food

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deep fried butter
Deep fried butter? Really?! I think that’s taking junk food a little too far.

Marquette, Michigan  –  May 28, 2014  –  If you’re working out hard at the gym and you’re not seeing the results you want — the numbers on the scale aren’t changing, your physique isn’t improving, or you’re feeling exhausted and unmotivated — you may want to take a closer look at your diet. Registered Dietitian Sherri Rule shared with me the top five foods to avoid when you’re trying to improve your health and lose weight.

  1. Trans fat – The FDA lets companies claim their products are zero grams of trans fat even if they have up to 0.49 grams per  serving! So zero grams trans fat on the label does not mean trans fat-free. So how can you tell if something has trans fat in it? Look for “partially hydrogenated” anything in the ingredients. If it’s in there, you’re eating artery-clogging trans fat.

    Donut stand
    Ditch the sugary, overly processed foods.
  2. Sugary foods (more than 12-15 grams of sugar per serving) – Our liver metabolizes sugar. If our glycogen stores are low, like after a long run or an extended workout, our bodies use the sugar to replace glycogen stores. However, most of us are consuming way too much fructose and not working out long enough to need it — in other words, our livers are full of glycogen already and we just add more to it when we eat sugary foods. When our body doesn’t need the it to restore glycogen, the liver turns fructose into fat. Excess fructose can also cause insulin resistance and elevated insulin in the bloodstream which can lead to obesity and diabetes.
  3. High sodium (anything higher than 450 mg of sodium per serving) – Eating too much sodium causes your body to retain water, putting extra strain on your heart and blood vessels. This can lead to high blood pressure. The American Heart Association warns that people with high blood pressure are ore likely to develop heart disease or have a stroke.
  4. Enriched flour – “Enriched” flour is actually the baking companies adding back a few of the vitamins that are stripped away when whole wheat flour is processed. Why do the vitamins have to be added back in? The processing of the flour is so harsh that it has to be added in to give the resulting flour some nutritional value. Don’t be fooled by the term “enriched”… it isn’t any good for you. It’s a sign that the food product you’re about to buy has been highly processed.
  5. Corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup – Corn syrup is not a natural food. It is a chemically altered substance that can trigger spikes in insulin. Consuming corn syrup can lead to increases in appetite and weight gain which in turn can lead to diabetes and heart disease. Corn syrup on the nutritional label should signal to you that the food product is not good for you. It is a processed food with little nutritional value and full of empty calories and artificial ingredients. You’d be much better off with real foods full of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber.
banana pear watermelon cantaloupe grapes
Eat real foods to fuel your body – not processed foods or chemically altered foods.

Staying away from these five poor food choices could meant the difference between feeling sluggish and not motivated to work out and having a great workout filled with energy. Start reading nutritional labels. You might be surprised at how much of these items you’re consuming.

Registered Dietitian Sherri Rule leads a dynamic, discussion-driven class at Synergy Fitness called New-Trition. Classes will start up again in the fall, but scheduled one-on-one appointments with Sherri are available. For more information, call Synergy Fitness at 228-7600.

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