Tag Archives: health

Eat Potatoes White Foods – for a Leaner-Body?

I think it about time we started a little discussion about carbohydrates… and in particular, “white foods” including potatoes. One reason I wanted to talk about this is because so many health and fitness professionals trash talk potatoes about being a bad carbohydrate choice because of the high glycemic index. Some people are saying such ridiculous things as “avoid any and all white carbohydrates”.

Now while I agree that white bread and refined white sugar are two of the worst things we can be feeding our bodies. I don’t believe in avoiding any and all “white carbohydrates”.

Believe it or not “White Foods” aren’t always the enemy.

It’s true that colourful foods are great, but it is also a big mistake to specifically avoid white foods! There are plenty of white foods that have specific nutrients that are hard to find elsewhere. Let’s take a look at a few examples…

Onions and Garlic

What about onions and garlic? They are both white and they are chock full of protective phytonutrients, vitamins, and trace minerals that aren’t easy to find elsewhere in a normal diet… such nutrients as allicin, quercetin (an important flavonoid), chromium, and other unique anti-inflammatory nutrients.

Cauliflowers

Here is another example of something white, that is great for you is cauliflower. Cauliflower is full of vitamin C, trace elements, fiber, and special compounds such as glucosinolates and thiocyanates, which are abundant in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, kale and cabbage. One little-known fact is that some of the compounds in cruciferous vegetables help to counteract other estrogenic compounds in our food supply and environment and can help prevent excess belly fat. So eat up that cauliflower!

Mushrooms

Not many people realize this, but even white mushrooms have high levels of unique nutrients and antioxidants. Ordinary white mushrooms are high in antioxidants called polyphenols and ergothioneine.

Potatoes

Now that also leads us to another example – white potatoes. Many health professionals claim that potatoes are a bad carbohydrate because they are thought to have a high glycemic index. If you’ve read my Truth about Six Pack Abs book, you will understand that glycemic index is not necessarily the most important factor in choosing your carbohydrates.

While making the assumption that most low glycemic index carbohydrate choices will help you lose body fat easier than high glycemic index choices, it is not all that it’s cracked out to be. There are many other factors that determine how your body will react-to and process the carbohydrates you ingest, such as glycemic load and also how you combine the high GI food with other foods.

For example, using glycemic load as an example… it is known that watermelons have quite a high glycemic index. However, the glycemic level of a normal serving of watermelon is just way too low for your body to start packing on body fat just because you ate a high glycemic index fruit. You would have to eat such an enormous quantity of watermelon just to get enough grams of carbohydrates to have any negative glycemic effect, that’s just not logical.

Not to mention that watermelon is also a great source of vitamins, minerals, and lycopene. There’s just no reason to avoid it simply because it has a high GI. The point that I am trying to get across is… candy bars, cupcakes, and donuts etc make you fat. Not because they contain fat but because of all the added sugar… NOT watermelons, carrots or potatoes… French fries excluded of course.

Also, as i mentioned, food combinations are important in how your body processes the carbohydrates and the associated blood sugar and insulin response you receive. e.g if you mix a high glycemic index carbohydrate with an extra source of fiber, and healthy fats, or even certain proteins, effect of the increased blood sugar and glycemic response will be slowed down considerably by the way you combined the food. I talk in great detail about this topic in my book.

Back to my point that white potatoes are actually a healthy carbohydrate as long as you eat them in the right form… with the entire skin, and please don’t ruin them by deep frying them into french fries either! French fries or Chips whatever you want to call them, are one of the most evil things ever invented for your health, but only because we ruin them by soaking them in a scorching bath of trans fats in the deep fryer from the hydrogenated oils that are typically used.

Will eating 8 potatoes per day make you fatter? of course not.

On the subject of potatoes not being bad after all, I don’t remember where I read this, but I saw a study that had participants eat at least 7-9 whole potatoes per day for several weeks.
At the end of the study, the potato eaters had consistently lost weight! I’d venture a guess that the reason the people lost weight is that they were probably so full from eating all of those potatoes. They consumed less calories than normal! An average sized potato has about 100-120 calories, and I can imagine you’d be constantly full from eating 7-9 potatoes each day.

I would never recommend going to those extremes, but my point is that an occasional potato is not going to affect your efforts to get leaner, especially if you combine it with some other fibrous vegetables, and maybe a healthy fat, and some protein. Let me share with you one of my favorite recipes for you to try, using potatoes.

Mikes’s Lean-Body Potato Side Dish

* Desired quantity of baby potatoes (I like to use this mixture I found recently at a health food store… it is a mixture of white, red, yellow, and purple baby potatoes)

* 1 red pepper

* 1 green pepper

* 1 yellow pepper

* 1 or 2 onions

* a couple cloves of garlic, finely chopped

* 1 or 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil and / or coconut oil

* a little salt and pepper to taste (I like using a sea salt instead of normal commercial salt)

Cut the baby potatoes into smaller pieces and place in a steamer until soft all the way through. Slice up the peppers and onions into strips and add with the chopped garlic into a pan with the olive oil. Slowly fry the peppers, onions, and garlic until tender, and then add the steamed baby potatoes. Mix together and serve. Its is a delicious and healthy side dish that goes great with chicken or red meat.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little topic today about potatoes, healthy carbohydrates, glycemic index, and my healthy potato recipe idea!

Mike Geary

Certified Personal Trainer

Certified Nutrition Specialist

Truth about Abs

Eating Oily Fish to Lose Weight

Eating Oily fish such as Salmon, Trout, Mackerel, Pilchards, Sardines, etc, which are known to contain many important dietary elements that will improve a person’s overall health. Many health experts have long stressed the importance of switching from red meats to fish to improve weight loss. They have based their logic on the fact that fish contains less fat per serving compared to beef, chicken, and pork. However the real benefits that the body receives from eating oily fish. Is not from the lower amounts of fat that fish contain, but the type of fat that fish contain.

The human body can’t produce all of the essential elements that it needs to function. Some of the elements must come strictly from diet. The fatty acids alpha-linolenic acid(ALA) and linoleic acid (LA) must come from diet. ALA is an omega-3 fatty acid, while LA is an omega-6 fatty acid. Research has shown that omega-3 fatty acids play an important role in the health of humans. The body uses ALA to create eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which are both omega-3 fatty acids. These omega -3 fatty acids play a key role in the health and regulation of our heart.

The problem is that this process relies on an enzyme called delta-6-desaturase, which can be in short supply, especially after a viral illness, (viruses deactivate this enzyme in order to survive, and in many chronic health conditions). It is also a slow and inefficient process, which means that the majority of us, are probably deficient in these essential fatty acids.

There are not many foods that are high in EPA and DHA fatty acids. These foods include organ meats such as kidney, liver, and intestine; the other source is from fish. The fat that fish contain in very high in both EPA and DHA fatty acids, and they contain other nutrients that make them far better for the body to digest in comparison to organ meats.

Research has shown that people who are training that eat three to four servings of fish a week absorb more oxygen into their system. So puts less strain on their heart compared to people on other diets. This means that people who are ingesting omega-3 fatty acids will be able to train longer, and lose more weight compared to people who aren’t getting enough omega-3 fatty acids in their diet. Research has also shown that people in western society’s get around ten times the amount of omega-6 fatty acids in their diet compared to omega-3 fatty acids. A healthier ratio would be around four times the amount. Eating oily fish would be an enjoyable way to achieve this rebalance.

Even with the substitution of fish into a person’s diet it is hard to contain a regular amount of omega-3 fatty acids in a diet. It is important to have a continual supply of omega-3 fatty acid, because it takes weeks for the fatty acids to be incorporated into your heart’s muscle cells. It is important to take a supplement that contains the fish oil that is high in omega-3 fatty acids.

Try to get supplements which have a much higher ratio of EPA to DHA, as these have been found to be more effective. Taking a supplement in addition to eating more fish in your diet will ensure that you get all the benefits that omega-3 fatty acids have to offer.

Understanding that our body requires certain fats and oils in order to function more efficiently will help you to lose more weight. In addition to the weight loss benefits of essential fatty acids. Studies have shown that omega-3 fatty acids have helped to prevent heart disease, and joint inflammation, in addition to helping both the hair and skin to be more healthy and vibrant.

If you want more info on omega 3 and fat loss, why not check out Mike Geary’s “Fat Burning Kitchen” ebook which can be purchased here.
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Appetite – Omega-3s may help control appetite, satiety and promote weight loss. Parra D, Ramel A, Bandarra N, et al. A diet rich in long chain omega-3 fatty acids modulates satiety in overweight and obese volunteers during weight loss. Appetite. 2008;51(3):676-80.

Obesity – Omega-3 fatty acids prevent increases in abdominal fat. Sneddon A, Tsofliou F, Fyfe C, et al. Effect of a Conjugated Linoleic Acid and omega-3 Fatty Acid Mixture on Body Composition and Adiponectin. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2008; [Epub ahead of print]

Is the kitchen too domineering, get control back

Most people who know me well, would have never put money on that happening. But when you meet an amazing woman things soon change.
Jen & I were supposed to kick off our celebrations on Thursday night by going to see The Killers at The Hollywood Bowl then follow it up with The Stones at Staples Center last night and dinner at one of our favorite restaurants tonight.

Unfortunately, I’ve been laying on my mothers couch in Jersey since last Tuesday, absolutely sick as a dog, so we never made it back home to do any of that.
I crushed myself for a few weeks, capped off by a nonstop party weekend in New York on almost no sleep a couple weeks back and paid the price for it. This will be a lesson for me to learn from, that’s for sure.
While staying at my mothers place, I noticed that she had masses of toxic stuff in her kitchen that was becoming to domineering, which had to be thrown out immediately. I’m talking about the kind of stuff that makes you fat, unhealthy, depressed, hormonally fucked, and very sick.

Thing is, a lot of people have this same crap in their kitchens. So I figured I’d make a list of stuff to get rid of immediately, get the food preparation right, and get some control back.

  • Plastic spatulas They melt into your food. They leach nasty chemicals into your food. You want wood or bamboo; never plastic or rubber.
  • Plastic cutting boards, all those little chunks that are missing from them? Yeah, they’re inside you right now.
  • Aluminum and Teflon nonstick pans Both leach deadly chemicals into your body. Get stainless steel or enameled cast iron post and pans instead. Glass Pyrex cookware is good to have as well.
  • Toxic, non-green cleaning supplies Any brand name cleaning spray is not healthy. Go to a store like Whole Foods and get some green, eco friendly brands.
  • Vegetable oils The only oils you want to use are coconut, red palm and olive. The first two are the only ones safe for cooking with.
  • Microwaves They kill vital nutrients in food and blast you with a little dose of radiation. Which I’d be all for if it gave you extra human strength, but since it doesn’t I think its best to avoid it.
  • Anything in a Bisphenol A (BPA) containing can. Canned goods in general aren’t great but if you have to buy something in a can make sure it says BPA Free.
  • Wheat Depending what you read up to 80% of people are intolerant to gluten when tested. But I’ve known people who were tested for it and were told it wasn’t a problem. Then they cut out gluten for 90 days and all of their ailments disappeared. It’s just not a food worth eating. If you’re not healthy you don’t have a choice. Try it.

So come on!, throw all of that crap out, get your kitchen utensils clean, and lets get healthy now!
Jason Ferruggia

Strength & Conditioning Specialist

Training Adviser to Men’s Fitness & LiveStrong

MGS Banner Red 2

Try Wheat free foods for better health

The gluten contained in wheat products can cause or contribute to digestive disorders and joint problems. If you suffer with either of these conditions, a wheat free diet may be just what you need to ease those uncomfortable symptoms. Do you need another reason to consider going wheat free?.

Eliminating this food out of your eating plan can also help you drop those unwanted pounds (I guess that got your attention).

Millet for Gluten Free Diet
Millet is commonly used as a wheat substitute in both gluten free and wheat free diets, as well as foods such as quinoa, brown rice, and sprouted grains.

A wheat free diet is often confused with a gluten free diet. Although wheat products contain gluten, these two types of diets are not the same thing. When you’re on a wheat free diet, you are simply eliminating all foods that contain wheat. When you follow a gluten free diet, you not only give up wheat, you also need to eliminate barley and rye as well.

Digestive problems and wheat consumption

The symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome vary from person to person, and they can come and go. Gluten intolerance has been shown to make IBS symptoms. Since gluten is discovered in wheat, eliminating it from your diet can help decrease the symptoms.

You don’t have to have irritable bowel syndrome, for wheat to cause digestive problems. When you consume wheat, it can clog up the intestines and make digestion difficult. A wheat-free diet can encourage a wholesome digestive tract by allowing nourishment to flow through easier.
Go Wheat-less and Drop a Few Pounds

Wheat is found in bread, pasta, baked goods, pasties, cereal, beer, ice cream, pizza’s, gravies and other processed foods. These types of foods have no nutritional value and they make it hard for you to lose weight. On top of all those empty calories you get when you load up on processed wheat products, you ingest all kinds of unhealthy chemical additives, think insecticides pesticides etc.

When you boot wheat out of your diet, there’s nothing left to eat but lean meats, fish, poultry, fruits, beans, nuts, legumes and vegetables. These foods are nutrient rich and are lower in calories than processed foods. When you choose healthier foods, you automatically reduce your calorie intake, so you have an easier time slimming down.

Eliminate the Wheat to Reduce Joint Pain

Gluten can hinder your body’s defenses against joint pain initiated by osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. If you have either of these ailments, a wheat-free diet may help decrease discomfort. Also, when you suffer from joint pains, being overweight will intensify the pain, there’s more pressure on the joints, they wear out faster. The reduction in weight from a wheat free diet will take some of the force off of your joints and help alleviate the agony and increase your mobility.

When you’ve been consuming wheat all of your life, the prospect of eliminating it from your diet can be daunting. If going wheat-free is difficult for you, try taking small steps. Start by cutting your intake by half. After you have done this for a while, continue to reduce the amount of wheat you consume. Before you realise it, you’ll be wheat-free and on the route to better health.
As a treat and delicious meal, try the following wheat free recipe:

MUSHROOM RISOTTO

Serves 6

1 litre of stock-either chicken or vegetable – ensure that any stock cubes are gluten free
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 finely chopped shallots
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
400g risotto rice
255g mushrooms, cleaned and slices.
Small handful of thyme, picked and chopped
1 tablespoon of olive oil
a handful of parsley freshly chopped
100ml dry white wine
25g unsalted butter
50g freshly grated Pecorino or Parmesan cheese

First prepare the mushrooms, by heating a tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan. Once hot, add the mushrooms and the thyme. Toss them for about a minute, until cooked, which should take approximately three minutes and then season with salt and pepper. Place to the side off the heat and prepare the risotto.

Heat the stock. In a separate pan heat a tablespoon of olive oil and add the shallot, a pinch of salt and sweat for about three minutes. Add the garlic, fry for another minute and then add the rice.

While you’re slowly stirring the rice so that they’re all warm, add the wine, stirring continuously. When the rice has absorbed the wine. Add the mushrooms and stir until the rice again absorbs the moisture from the mushrooms.

Add a cup of stock and stir continuously, until the liquid is absorbed. Continue doing this until you use nearly all the stock, and the rice is soft, but with a slight bite, rather than mushy.

Remove from the heat and season to taste, add the butter, cheese, most of the parsley, leaving a bit for garnish and stir gently.

Serve with the remaining parsley sprinkled on top.

Glycemic Index, and White Foods

In this article I would like to start a little discussion today about carbohydrates, in particular “white foods” as well as potatoes. One of the reasons I wanted to mention this is because so many health and fitness professionals dismiss potatoes as being a bad carbohydrate choice because of the so called high glycemic index. Believe it or not potatoes have a medium index. Some people say such ridiculous things as “avoid any and all white carbohydrates”.

OK, now while I certainly agree that white bread and refined white sugar are two of the worst things we can be eating when feeding our bodies. I don’t agree with avoiding any and all of these so called “white carbohydrates”. Now I know all the excitement lately has been about colorful foods and the protective antioxidants that they contain. They tell you to focus on colours and stay away from white.

“White Foods” aren’t  always the enemy

It’s true that colourful foods are great, but it is generally a mistake to specifically avoid white foods! There are plenty of white foods that have specific nutrients that are hard to find elsewhere. Let’s look at a few examples…

Onions & Garlic

What about onions and garlic? They are both white and they are full of protective phytonutrients, vitamins, and trace minerals. These aren’t easy to find elsewhere in a normal diet. Such nutrients as chromium, allicin, quercetin (an important flavonoid), and other unique anti-inflammatory nutrients.

In fact, onions are so powerful for our health, that one study of people that live to over 100 years old. Identified that a common thread of these amazingly healthy individuals was, that they ate a lot of onions throughout their lives. We also know that garlic is one of the most powerful substances for a strong immune system.

Cauliflower

Another example of something white that is great for you is cauliflower. Which are surprisingly high in vitamin C, fiber, trace minerals, special compounds such as glucosinolates which are anti cancer in nature, and thiocyanates (a lack of which can damage a persons immune system). These are specifically abundant in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. Another little-known fact is that some of the compounds in cruciferous vegetables, help to combat other estrogenic compounds in our food supply and environment and can help prevent excess abdominal fat. So eat up on that cauliflower!

Mushrooms

Not many people realize this, but surprisingly, even white mushrooms have high levels of unique nutrients and antioxidants. White mushrooms are high in a couple types of antioxidants called polyphenols and ergothioneine. Some types of mushrooms, such as portobella mushrooms, are surprisingly good sources of Vitamin D.

Potatoes

Now that also leads us to another example – the humble white potato (which by the way, can also be found in red, yellow, purple varieties, etc). Many health professionals claim that potatoes are a bad carbohydrate because they are thought to have a high glycemic index.  If you’ve read my Truth about Six Pack Abs ebook, then you’ll understand that glycemic index is not necessarily the most important factor in choosing your carbohydrates.

While a generalization can be made that most low glycemic index carbohydrate choices will help you lose body fat more easily than higher index choices. It is not all that it’s cracked up to be. There are many other factors that determine how your body will react-to and process the carbohydrates you ingest. Such as glycemic load and also how you combine the high GI food with other foods.

For example, it is known that watermelon has a high glycemic index. However the rise in blood sugar of a normal serving of watermelon is just  too low for your body to start packing on body fat, just because you ate a high index fruit. You would have to eat such an enormous quantity of watermelon just to get enough grams of carbohydrates to have any negative glycemic effect, that it just does not make any sense.

Not to mention that watermelon is also a great source of vitamins, minerals, and lycopene. There’s just no reason to avoid it simply because it has a high Glycemic Index. The point I am making is that, chocolate bars, cupcakes, and donuts make you fat. Because they are full of sugar. NOT watermelons, carrots or potatoes. French fries are excluded of course.

I also should mentioned, food combinations are important in how your body processes the carbohydrates and the associated blood sugar and insulin response you receive. Again, I will talk about this in detail about the entire topic in my Truth about Six Pack Abs book, from a weight loss perspective.

Alright, so back to my point that white potatoes are actually a healthy carbohydrate as long as you eat them in the right form – that’s with the entire skin left on. Please don’t ruin them by deep frying them into french fries either. French fries are one of the most evil things ever invented for your health. Because we ruin them by soaking them in a scorching bath of trans fats in the deep fryer from the hydrogenated oils that are typically used.

Keep in mind that potatoes contain so many vitamins and minerals that the list is way too long to even try. If you eat the skins, you’ll get some fiber too.

Are eating 7-9 potatoes per day going to make you fatter?

There was a study which found that potatoes not being so bad after all. I cant remember where I saw this referenced. But I recently saw a particular study that had participants eat something like 7-9 whole potatoes per day for several weeks. Here’s a good newspaper article on why potatoes are good for you.

At the conclusion of the study, the potato eaters had actually consistently lost weight! I’d venture a guess that the reason the people lost weight is that they were probably so full from eating all of those potatoes, that they actually consumed less calories than normal. An average sized potato has about 100-120 calories, and I can’t imagine you’d be full constantly from eating 7-9 potatoes each day.

Of course, this does NOT mean that french fries are ok to eat. Those will only make you fat, and the trans fat will lead to an early death. Seriously french fries / potato chips are one of the most deadly foods in our food supply.  Deep fried potatoes accumulate dangerous acrylamides absorbed from the frying oil that reacts with the starch, and these compounds are cancer causing.

Anyway, back to the 7-9 whole potatoes per day. I would never recommend going to those extremes, but my point is that an occasional potato is not going to hurt your efforts to get lean, and lose weight. Especially if you combine it with some other fibrous vegetables, and maybe a healthy fat, and some protein. On that note, here is one of my favorite recipes, using potatoes.

Geary’s Lean-Body Potato Side Dish Recipe

Desired quantity of baby potatoes, preferably a mixture of white, red, yellow, and purple baby potatoes.
1 red pepper.
1 green pepper.
1 yellow pepper.
1 or 2 onions.
a couple cloves of garlic, finely chopped (or mashed garlic from a jar, organic preferably).
1 or 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil and / or virgin coconut oil.
a little salt and pepper to taste (I like using a sea salt instead of normal commercial salt).

Cut the baby potatoes into slightly smaller pieces and place in a steamer until soft all the way through. Slice up the peppers and onions into strips and add with the chopped garlic into a pan with the olive oil. Cook the peppers, onions, and garlic until tender, and then add the steamed baby potatoes. Stir it all together and serve. This is a truly delicious, and healthy side dish that goes great with chicken or red meat.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little topic today about potatoes, healthy carbohydrates, glycemic index, and my delicious healthy potato recipe. If you want more recipes like this get a copy of my book Truth about Six Pack Abs, which is full of information on weight loss and how to get lean and fit.