SAY NO TO NANO!

I’m sure you have heard of nanotechnology, but have you heard of nano foods? They are microscopic bio engineered ingredients that alter the way your taste receptors work, and you may be eating them already if you’re consuming processed foods.

A nano food that tricks you into “tasting” sugar or salt when it is not really there is already being used as an ingredient in many common foods. It allows the manufacturer to claim it contains “Less Sugar” or “Less Salt,” while still offering the full taste of the previous version.

Senomyx, the biotechnology company behind this particular food additive, has already developed several chemicals that, although they contain no flavor of their own, either activate or block taste receptors on your tongue.

Don’t bother looking for them on your labels however. None of these chemical compounds need to be listed by law. Instead, they’re included with a general ingredient category already on most processed food labels, namely “artificial flavors.”

Now if that’s not another good reason to eat organic, I don’t know what is!

GREEN LEAN TUMMY TUCK MACHINE

In a recent study, extracts from green tea helped men burn 17 percent more fat during a workout. It’s not yet clear how green tea boosts fat burning, but researchers suspect that something in green tea makes the body use fat as the primary fuel source over carbs.  [American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2008 Mar;87(3):778-784.]

SAME NUMBER OF CALORIES, DIFFERENT FAT LOSS RESULTS

I talk to X Gym members all the time about the fact that the number of calories don’t matter. I even dedicate much of my book, “Cracking Your Calorie Code” to the subject, and have claimed for years that the calorie-in, calorie-out theory is worthless and misleading. It’s not about how many calories you eat and burn – it’s about the TYPE of calorie and the TIMING of that calorie.

Lots of studies confirm this fact, but a recent one addresses both type and timing. In this study, subjects either ate a bagel for breakfast, or two eggs instead. The calories were the same between the two groups, but the subjects who ate the eggs had the following results:

• Lost 65 percent more weight
• Exhibited a 61 percent greater reduction in BMI
• Reported higher energy levels

[American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, May 2008; 87(5):1554s-1557s]

ARE YOUR KIDS DOOMED TO BE FAT?

If the trends of the past three decades continue, it’s possible that every American adult could be overweight by 2048. The figure might sound impossible, but two-thirds of the population is already overweight, and the trend lines really are scary.

The new projections are based on government survey data collected since the 1970’s. If these trends continue, researchers estimate that 86 percent of American adults will be overweight by 2030, with an obesity rate of 51 percent. By 2048, all U.S. adults could be at least mildly overweight.

The health care costs directly related to excess pounds would also double each decade, reaching $957 billion in 2030 and could account for one of every six health care dollars spent in the United States.

Your kids are of course not predestined to be fat, but the reason for our current trends is our own fault. We blame our weight problems on genetics, metabolic disorders, under active thyroid, and anything else we can come up with to avoid accepting personal responsibility, but the bottom line is that being overweight is a symptom of a behavior in the vast majority of cases.

Your habits and behaviors are also your legacy to your children. These are the “genes” they inherit that will dictate whether they are healthy and lean, or sick and fat. Change your behaviors now and hand down a new legacy for your kids to enjoy and pass on to future generations! For quick and easy tips on changing habits fast and permanently, check out my book, “Cracking Your Calorie Code” through www.crackingyourcode.com.

TAKING A BREAK ON THE WEEKENDS EXPANDS YOUR HIND END

In a study of weekend behavior, people who took time off from their diet or exercise routines showed a weight gain of almost 9 pounds a year. This might not sound like much, but 10 years later with this repeated pattern, it certainly adds up!

The study participants not only ate more on weekends but also exercised less — a double whammy for the waistline! [Obesity 2008 Aug;16(8):1826-1830.]

I never tell anyone to be perfect 100% of the time. That’s not reasonable or even practical, but just be mindful of your attitude about weekends. It is very common for us to “take the weekend off” because that is the attitude we often have about work, and this causes us to have different patterns on the weekends.

I have talked to many X Gym members who report they have no problems during the week when they are in their “routine”, but when the weekend comes, everything falls apart.

We are indeed creatures of patterns, and interrupting our unhealthy patterns is necessary for permanent fitness success. I mention many ways to do this in my book, but here are a few to try this weekend:

Do active projects like mow the lawn or wash the car. Walk the dog, or take your kids to the park and play with them (instead sitting by the side of the playground and letting them have all the fun).

Creating a new active pattern every weekend will actually make you feel more recovered and rested when you start the next week than if you sat around “thinking” you are relaxing. It has even been shown that 1/2 hour of mild exercise is more rejuvenating than an hour nap, so when you feel like snoozing, get moving instead!

The easiest way to break bad food patterns on the weekends is to plan ahead and prepare food specifically for the weekend. It doesn’t have to be the same food patterns you have during the week. Indeed, it might be a nice change to add some variety, but still make it healthy and have it ready to eat. People get in the most trouble on the weekends by not planing ahead and having nothing prepared. This causes them to “wing it” when they get hungry and get something processed or go out to fast food because, ” heck, it’s the weekend.”

Another easy technique to break bad food habits is to change the place you put those foods. Eating patterns can be automatic, and we often don’t even realize we ate something we are trying to avoid until after we have eaten it. If you put it in a different cupboard or make it more inconvenient (i.e. put the pop in the garage instead of the pantry or fridge), you will remind yourself to choose something more healthy – or at least give yourself the fighting chance of a better option instead of just running on autopilot!

ADDICTIONS CAN FORM INSTANTLY WITHIN YOUR BRAIN

A Canadian study found that it may take only one cigarette for some people to get addicted to nicotine – not because of physical cravings – but because of how their brains are wired.

By manipulating receptors in the brains of rats, researchers were able to control whether the first exposure to nicotine was enjoyable or repulsive. They experimented on two types of receptors for dopamine, a chemical messenger in the brain’s reward circuitry.

By blocking the receptors, the researchers were able to switch how nicotine was processed — from repulsive to rewarding or positive.  [The Journal of Neuroscience, August 6, 2008, 28(32):8025-8033]

Physical addictions take time to form, and then a few days to break. I’m not just talking about drugs here either. Food can be as addictive or even more so than drugs. Food releases certain chemicals in the brain that cause nerve pathways to be activated. These pathways become brain addictions and are often harder to break than physical addictions.

Brain addictions can form in an instant, and left unchecked, can become deeply grooved and very difficult to break. It can take weeks with traditional therapy to break a brain addiction, but with techniques like EFT (www.emofree.com) and pattern interrupt techniques, it can take just seconds or minutes.