Addicted to Food

This is one of the first articles I wrote for Bella magazine.

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Food, Inc.

I'm in the middle of watching Food, Inc. and I am crying. I feel terrible that I ever ate meat! I am so overjoyed that I have made the decision to switch to a plant based (mostly raw food) diet. 

This is what a fellow blogger had to say about the film on her blog: Where My Heart Resides

Upon watching this film, I realized my own level of naivety while casually strolling down the aisles in the grocery store.  Being the self-proclaimed health nut that I am, I take grocery shopping very seriously and was somewhat appalled at the amount of information that is being hidden from me as a consumer.  I always try to make the best decisions when I shop for food, choosing organic when it’s available and making sure that the meats I buy have been raised naturally.  However, this film brings a whole new perspective to where our food comes from; the bottom line being– we need to buy food from companies who treat their employees, animals, and the planet with respect.

The most alarming part of this film was the testimony of Barbara Kowalcyk, whose two year-old son died in twelve days after eating a hamburger infested with E.coli.  Hearing her speak about her little boy brought tears to my eyes and I was shocked to learn that he went from being completely healthy to dying in twelve short days.  Can you even imagine losing your child from a hamburger?  Barbara and her mother are now active advocates fighting for stronger food safety legislation. According to the CDC, approximately 76 million Americans are sickened, 325,000 are hospitalized, and 5,000 die each year from foodborne illnesses.  To learn more about current legislation fighting for food safety, check out the Center for Foodborne Illness.

In addition to Barbara’s story, there were a number of other issues presented in this film:
1. The practices of factory farming (which essentially made me want to become a vegetarian)
2. Pesticides in your food
3. Genetic engineering
4. Cloning livestock
5. The environmental impact of transporting food around the country
6. Diabetes and obesity

Although 75% of the film focused on exposing the truth and raising awareness for everything that is wrong with the food industry, the last 25% of HOPE is what caught my attention the most– we all have a choice in what we eat. Every time we buy a product, we are casting a vote for that company and everything they believe in.  Without even realizing it, we are supporting hormone-fed animals, genetically modified foods, and companies who treat their employees poorly.  Despite the high amount of corruption in our food system today, the power resides in the hands of the consumer–YOU can make a difference and YOU can change this system for the better.

Buy local.  Buy organic.  Cook dinner.  Visit your farmer’s market.  Read your labels.  Fight for healthy lunches in schools.  Support the passage of laws related to food safety.  SEE THIS FILM.
You are what you eat– so eat healthy, be healthy, and spread the word.

Check out the following links for more information:

Food Inc.

Take Part- Hungry for Change

Discombobulated!

Day before yesterday I consumed a coffee, a half can of NOS and a double shot of espresso. Well, guess what? I haven't slept since that day!

As someone living with Bipolar Disorder, I walk a very thin line and once I cross that line, it gets dangerous.

Consuming things (like N.O.S.) with High Fructose Corn Syrup in them is tantamount to brain suicide for me.

So here I sit. Grumpy. Tired. Stressed and just basically wanting to go back to bed.

Tell me, what is it about human beings that lead them to do things they know are not good for them, but do it anyone just because it tastes good or feels good for one fleeting moment.

Time for another 12 hour nap and an attitude adjustment!

Rethink Your Drink

A Strange Brew May Be a Good Thing

By MALIA WOLLAN

SAN FRANCISCO

NAOMI MOST, a devoted brewer of a fermented tea called kombucha, keeps her “big momma” in the garage. The big momma in question is a 20-pound pancake of gelatinous and, well, rather gross-looking bacteria and yeast floating atop a vat of kombucha, a drink that enthusiasts tout as a tonic for digestion, hair loss and all manner of bodily ailments.

It’s not for everyone.

“I live with my boyfriend and he finds it really weird,” said Ms. Most, 30, a manager for a nonprofit group in Palo Alto, Calif. “He doesn’t like the smell.”

Looks and aroma notwithstanding, kombucha is gaining popularity among those who favor organic beverages, and it is showing signs of turning into a gold mine for some companies. While the poor economy and worries about health and the environment have diminished the national thirst for soda and bottled water, sales of kombucha and other “functional” juices in the United States topped $295 million last year, up 25 percent over a two-year period, according to SPINS Inc., a market researcher.

In 2009 Americans bought more than a million bottles of GT’s Kombucha, the leading commercial variety made by Millennium Products. The chief executive, G. T. Dave, started the company as a teenager in his parents’ kitchen in Beverly Hills, Calif., but the drink has grown beyond the mom-and-pop scale. Recently major companies like Red Bull and Honest Tea (of which Coca-Cola owns 40 percent) began distributing their own brands.

In the Bay Area, many fans have taken to making their own kombucha, trading recipes and selling good brews. Craigslist, for example, is full of those selling fermented patties. Several foodie groups organize regular swap meets for fermented cultures.

To make kombucha, brewers rely on what’s called a starter — a bit of already fermented tea—passed between makers and referred to reverentially as “the mother.” Once the mother is added to sweetened tea and allowed to sit in a glass jar unrefrigerated for 7 to 14 days, a glop known as a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast grows over the surface.

This “mother” will expand and split into smaller patties called “babies,” which brewers often give to friends or sell online. “I have kombucha babies available in several different types of tea (pu-erh, oolong, white tea, some others),” reads a post by Ms. Most on the Kombucha Exchange, an online forum catering to kombucha brewers worldwide who want to exchange recipes, fermentation techniques and viscous offspring.
Ms. Most gives her babies away free with an explainer pamphlet. Similar offers can be found from Argentina to Luxembourg.

The rise in kombucha’s popularity is part of a larger trend in “probiotic” foods containing bacteria, which some studies suggest benefit digestion and boost the immune system.

“It’s become incredibly trendy lately in the 20-to-30-something, foodie, intelligentsia set,” said Dr. Daphne Miller, a family practitioner and professor of nutrition and integrative medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. “Kombucha is like their Coca-Cola.”

Kombucha is said to have originated in ancient China, but various forms of fermented tea exist in many countries, said Dr. Miller, who traveled the world researching healthy traditional diets while writing her book, “The Jungle Effect.” Some medical professionals, however, think the drink is dangerous.

This most recent growth in popularity is actually the tea’s second act in the United States. In the early 1990s, before commercially bottled varieties were available, the drink became popular with health food enthusiasts and those with H.I.V. and AIDS who believed it would help compromised immune systems and increase T-cell counts. Several mail order companies shipped “mothers” across the country.

In 1995, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report linking kombucha to the death of an Iowa woman and the illness of another woman. Both experienced severe metabolic acidosis, excessive acid buildup in the body that health officials thought may have been related to their daily use of kombucha. Though the federal center did not definitively cite the tea as the problem, the incident put a damper on kombucha consumption.

But kombucha has cycled back into vogue. The tipping point in the tea’s return came around 2003 or 2004, pushed by the low-carbohydrate craze that had those people on the Atkins diet looking for a healthy, fizzy drink to replace sugary soda and juice.

In 2003, orders for GT’s Kombucha surpassed the company’s production capabilities. The next year Whole Foods supermarkets began distributing the tea nationally.

These days in college towns and cities like Portland, Ore., around the country small-batch kombucha brewing has become something of a cottage industry.

The Bay Area has at least a half-dozen kombucha start-ups, selling their products at farmers’ markets, health food stores, yoga studios, on blogs and on Twitter. Flavors range from cayenne and mango to fennel and watermelon jalapeño. It’s not uncommon to overhear people talking about their devotion to the products, all of which prompted a San Francisco food blogger, Tamara Palmer, to say recently that kombucha was on its way to becoming “the new bacon.”

But the drink’s standing as the cure-all of the moment was not the attraction for some..

Lev Kilun, 51, was an unemployed telecommunications engineer when he bought his first bottle of kombucha several years ago. He immediately recognized the distinct effervescent tang. “I called it tea kvass,” said Mr. Kilun, who emigrated in the late 1980s from what is now Uzbekistan. “In Russia it was very popular. It was like an old women’s drink. My grandmother used to make it.”

Seeing a business opportunity and feeling something akin to a birthright, Mr. Kilun started his own company, Lev’s Original Kombucha. He now bottles and sells six flavors brewed with green tea and distributes kegs to restaurants and cafes around the Bay Area. Mr. Kilun says the tea is thought to help cure a hangover, which he says makes for brisk sales in liquor stores.

Kombucha’s popularity has also attracted home brewers. Tim Anderson, founder of a 3D printer technology company, moved from Boston to Berkeley, Calif., with his “mother” — passed on to him from a friend who got it, as the story goes, from gypsies in Russia.

Mr. Anderson, an advocate for all things do-it-yourself, made step-by-step kombucha brewing instructions complete with videos for Instructables.com (one of over 200 tutorials he has made on everything from tire sandals to wheelchair shopping carts). Nearly 60,000 people have viewed the kombucha guide to-date, according to the site’s page-view statistics.

“I’m surprised people would pay to get this stuff,” Mr. Anderson said. “The kind you can buy tastes vinegary and dry, whereas the one you can make yourself is so incredibly delicious.”

Mr. Anderson has given kombucha culture to dozens of friends and strangers. Recently he put out a call to get some back after he neglected his brew and let the fermented patty dry out. “You can’t go around saying you killed your mother,” he said. “It freaks people out.”

Would You Bathe in High Fructose Corn Syrup?

No, of course you wouldn't. Neither would I. The only time I go near the stuff is when I drink a half can of N.O.S. which is only about once every 4-6 months. Other than that I won't touch it.

Every time I drink it I get the same result. The next day I feel like pure shit.

Startling NEW Evidence: This Drink Causes Your Neurons to Stagnate for 20 Minutes...

The latest Public Service Announcement warning New Yorkers about the dangers of excessive soda consumption shows exactly how much sugar you might be inadvertently drinking.

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Glucose and fructose are both simple sugars, but scientists have long suspected there are differences in the way your body processes them.

In a new study, researchers scanned the brains of nine subjects after they got an infusion of equal volumes of glucose, fructose or saline. The brain scans were looking at activity in the hypothalamus, a part of the brain which plays a key role in setting appetite levels and controlling production of metabolic hormones.

According to the Chicago Tribune:

“The researchers ... found that ‘cortical control areas’ -- broad swaths of gray matter that surrounded the hypothalamus -- responded quite differently to the infusion of fructose than they did to glucose. Across the limited regions of the brain they scanned ... glucose significantly raised the level of neural activity for about 20 minutes following the infusion. Fructose had the opposite effect, causing activity in the same areas to drop and stay low for 20 minutes after the infusion.”

Sources:

• Chicago Tribune February 10, 2011
• Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism March 2011; 13(3): 229-234

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

People everywhere are finally waking up to the indisputable fact that all simple sugars are not the same when it comes to the physical end results they create. The latest Public Service Announcement warning New Yorkers about the dangers of excessive soda consumption is a powerful illustration of this increasing level of awareness.

When these differences are understood, it's easy to see how and why fructose—mainly in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)—is in large part responsible for the meteoric rise of obesity and its related health problems.

It's a staple ingredient in a vast majority of sweetened beverages and processed foods of all kinds, from pre-packaged meals to baked goods and condiments. And the number one source of calories in America is soda, in the form of HFCS!

Your Brain Reacts to Fructose and Glucose in Very Different Ways

This latest study is intriguing, as it shows that the difference between fructose and glucose is not just limited to how they're metabolized in your body; your brain also reacts to these two sugars in entirely different ways.

Nine healthy, normal-weight subjects received either glucose, fructose, or saline (as the control). Their brains were then scanned to evaluate activity around the hypothalamus, which is a key player in appetite control and production of metabolic hormones.

Interestingly, the researchers discovered that the "cortical control areas" surrounding the hypothalamus responded very differently to each substance:

• Glucose significantly raised the level of neural activity for about 20 minutes
• Fructose reduced neural activity in the area for about the same amount of time
• Saline had no effect on neural activity

So, what does this mean?

At this point, the implications of these differences are unclear. The Chicago Tribune reported that:

"At this point, said [lead researcher] Purnell in a phone interview, it means nothing more than that the two substances did prompt different responses in the brain--that the brain did not respond to them identically. Within some of the "cortical control areas" where differences were seen, lie some important neural real estate, including regions where notions of reward and addiction are processed.

As scientists have a closer look in future studies, they should be able to zero in on which specific areas are affected differently by the two forms of sugar."

So, time will tell what these latest findings really mean, but we already know that fructose has a detrimental impact on two hormones involved with satiety and hunger, namely leptin and ghrelin, and that this influence sets in motion a vicious cycle of hunger, increased food intake, and increased fat storage.

Fructose Packs on the Pounds Faster than Any Other Nutrient

Part of what makes HFCS so unhealthy is that it is metabolized to fat in your body far more rapidly than any other sugar. The entire burden of metabolizing fructose falls on your liver, and it promotes a particularly dangerous kind of body fat, namely adipose fat. This is the fat type of fat that collects in your abdominal region and is associated with a greater risk of heart disease.

Additionally, because most fructose is consumed in liquid form (i.e. soda and sweetened beverages of all kinds), its negative metabolic effects are magnified. Because while HFCS has about the same amount of fructose as cane sugar, the fructose in HFCS is in its "free" form and not attached to any other carbs.
The fructose in fruits and in cane sugar is bonded to other sugars which results in a decrease in its metabolic toxicity.

Consuming foods that contain high amounts of fructose—even if it's a natural product—is, to put it bluntly, the fastest way to trash your health. Among the health problems you invite with a high-fructose diet are:

• Obesity, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes
• Elevated triglycerides and LDL (bad) cholesterol levels
• Elevated blood pressure
• Liver disease
• Depletion of vitamins and minerals—Unbound fructose, found in large quantities in HFCS, can interfere with your heart's use of minerals such as magnesium, copper and chromium.
• Cardiovascular disease, arthritis, gout, and cancer

Adding insult to injury, HFCS is most often made from genetically modified (GM) corn, which is fraught with its own well documented side effects and health concerns, from an increased risk of developing food allergies to the risk of increased infertility in future generations.

Let's Grow!!!

The “Let’s Grow” project, initiated by the Leadership Pensacola class (LeaP) of 2011, is a program that provides children an opportunity to cultivate healthy foods through school gardens and gain real world knowledge about nutrition to achieve greater health and wellness.

The group so far has raised over $30,000 in funds to support its project. These funds have gone to create gardens in five area schools. The group’s goal is to have all of gardens built by the end of March 2011.

With childhood obesity at 37 percent in Escambia County (a figure that is 20 percent higher than the national average), this challenge is a perfect fit for the current LeaP class. Research on the growing problem of obesity sprouted into a project with a mission to foster the growth of Fit Kids through the nutritional side of a fundamental health equation, Good Health = Regular Exercise Plus Good Nutrition.

Leadership Pensacola is committed to breaking new ground in the fight against childhood obesity through school gardening projects. The goal is to feed our children’s hunger with knowledge and opportunity to grow with good nutrition and plant healthy roots for their future health and wellness. Our children are looking to us for guidance in making responsible choices, saying “Let Us Grow.”

If you need information about Leadership Pensacola, give us a call or look us up on Facebook.

If you’d like to help with this very worthy cause, please become a fan of our Let’s Grow page on Facebook or contact Andre Hall at 850-206-6678.

Running in the Rain

I love this picture because I truly do love running in the rain...especially when there are rainbows and unicorns waiting at the finish line. Okay, maybe not so much the unicorn.

Fit for a Good Cause

Below you will find an article I wrote for Bella magazine last October for our annual BREAST CANCER AWARENESS issue.

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The Importance of Water in Weight Loss

This is an article I wrote for Bella Magazine last summer when I started running. 

CLICK on the PICTURE to ENLARGE the Article so you can read it. 

BMI for Athletes

The Body Mass Index or BMI is a very basic body measure which can be misleading for Athletes. The BMI is based on height and weight and applies to both adult men and women. However it does not account for muscle mass and can give questionable results in athletes and sports people.

Here is a selection of Gold medal Athletes from the Athens 2004 Olympics who would be categorised as overweight based on the BMI calculation. One particularly amusing statistic shows all members in the famous GB coxless four would be considered overweight using this scale. This highlights the problems with using a simplistic measure, such as the BMI, for athletes. As an alternative, use our list of body fat calculators based on anatomical measures and skinfold values.

Overweight Gold Medal Olympian Athletes according to the Body Mass Index (BMI)

Shawn Crawford (USA) Sprinting (200m)
(Overweight: 177cm, 81kg, athlete BMI=26)

Mark Lewis-Francis (GB) Sprinting (100m Relay)
(Overweight: 183cm, 89kg, athlete BMI=26)

Matthew Pinsent (GB) Rowing (Coxless four)
(Overweight: 196cm, 108kg, athlete BMI=28)

James Cracknell (GB) Rowing (Coxless four)
(Overweight: 192cm, 100kg, athlete BMI=27)

Ed Coode (GB) Rowing (Coxless four)
(Overweight: 193cm, 96kg, athlete BMI=26)

Steve Williams (GB) Rowing (Coxless four)
(Overweight: 189cm, 96kg, athlete BMI=27)

David Cal (Spain) Canoeing (C-1 1000m)
(Overweight: 183cm, 91kg, athlete BMI=27)

Khadjimourat Gatsalov (Russia) Wrestling (84-96kg)
(Overweight: 180cm, 96kg, athlete BMI=30)

Artur Taymazov (Uzebekistan) Wrestling (96-120kg)
(Obese: 189cm, 112kg, athlete BMI=31)

Roman Sebrle (Czechoslovakia) Decathlon
(Overweight: 186cm, 88kg, athlete BMI=25)

Ryan Bayley (Austria) Cycling (Sprint)
(Overweight: 181cm, 84kg, athlete BMI=26)

Odlanier Solis Fonte (Cuba) Boxing (81-91kg)
(Overweight: 180cm, 91kg, athlete BMI=28)

Alexander Povetkin (Russia) Boxing (over 91kg)
(Overweight: 188cm, 91kg, athlete BMI=26)

Ihar Makarau (Belarus) Judo (90-100kg)
(Obese: 180cm, 100kg, athlete BMI=31)

Yuriy Bilonog (Ukraine) Shot put
(Obese: 200cm, 135kg, athlete BMI=34)

(Note: all heights and weights were taken from the official Athens 2004 web site)

For more information about the BMI, ideal weight and the relationship with body fat see the body mass index FAQ.

You can calculate here your BMI with out BMI calculator simply enter your weight and height. Please remember this is only a guide and as we have highlighted does not take into account body frame or large muscle volume for example in olympic gold medal athletes!

The BMI values correspond to the following BMI classification:

• Underweight = <18.5
• Normal weight = 18.5-24.9
• Overweight = 25-29.9
• Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

“Eat This! Not That!” Goes about Dieting the Wrong Way

“Eat This! Not That!” presents the solution to the wrong problem

I noticed that the book, "Eat This! Not That!" is getting a lot of media attention lately. But something is wrong with this picture. I don't know about you, but my goal is not only to lose weight, but to have a healthy mind. It's almost like saying, "Here we have two piles of cow dung, but this one is lower in calories, so you should eat that pile."

Fast food is loaded with chemicals and preservatives that alter the chemicals in our brains. No wonder depression is so prevalent in our society today. We don't eat what God put on this planet for us to eat. Plants. Fish. Fruits. Veggies. Labels are for CANS, not for people.

That being said, I came across an interesting article I want to share with you here. Happy reading!

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By Ali @ 11:15 am on 25 July 2008.

http://www.ethicurean.com/2008/07/25/eat-this-not-that/

“Get yourself a copy of ‘Eat This, Not That,’" someone told me recently. “It’s flying off the bookstore shelves.”

I did pick up a copy. And I’m confused.

Written by David Zinczenko, the editor-in-chief of “Men’s Health” magazine, "Eat This, Not That” is highly accessible and fun to read. The premise is simple: You don't have to change your lifestyle to lose weight. Don’t eat less. Keep eating out. Fast food is OK. Just make some simple food swaps and you'll shed pounds, be healthier, feel better, and ultimately be more successful.

Zinczenko presents thousands of simple “swaps” that you can make, most of them at popular chain restaurants. About 125 of these swaps are presented on two-page spreads, with a photo of the “healthy” alternative (Eat This!) on the left, and a photo of the “unhealthy” alternative (Not That!) on the right. These swaps, he says, can save you “10, 20, 30 pounds — or more!”

Zinczenko makes a lot of promises: The book will help you “strip away belly fat, build lean, firm muscle, and look and feel fitter, healthier, and happier, than you have in years.” Not only will you reshape your body and enjoy greater physical well-being, says he, you will also gain the respect of your coworkers and bosses, potentially earning 20% or more than you currently do.

Which is all good. I’m all for Americans getting healthier. I would love to boost my income by a fifth. And I don’t doubt for a moment that there are better and worse alternatives at Taco Bell, Burger King, and Dunkin’ Donuts, some of them surprising. For example, one spread notes that that a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder without cheese (Eat This!) has 410 calories, 19 grams of fat, and 730 milligrams of sodium, versus a McDonald’s Premium Grilled Chicken Club (Not That!) which has 570 calories, 21 grams of fat, and 1,720 mg of sodium.

But. Wait. What are we doing in the drive-thru window in the first place? I thought we wanted tight abs. I thought we wanted leaner muscles. Does it really matter what we’re ordering as long as we’re sitting in our cars, placing a food order into a clown?

In a way, it definitely does. After all, it’s good to know that if I’m ever at an Outback Steakhouse, I should avoid the Aussie Cheese Fries with Ranch Dressing, unless I am prepared to ingest a whopping 2,900 calories and 182 grams of fat. (Holy Gut-Buster, Batman!)

But let’s get back to that McDonald’s example. To actually lose 20 pounds simply by switching from a Premium Grilled Chicken Club to a Quarter-Pounder without cheese (a difference of 160 calories, which drops to 120 calories if you hold the mayo on the chicken club), I’d need to be eating at McDonald’s 37 times a month. Thirty-seven times a month. To reach the 30-pound goal, we're talking 55 times a month.

Dude, if you’re eating at McDonald’s more than 30 times a month, I’m willing to venture your food challenges are bigger than which sandwich you order.

Yes. I know that many, many people genuinely can't afford healthful foods. And I know also that many people live in neighborhoods that are "food deserts," where fast food is the only foodlike substance available. But my hunch — and it's just a hunch — is that those folks aren't the target audience for the book. You know, because people who can't afford good food don't tend to drop $19.95 on books. And in my experience, food deserts also tend to be bookstore deserts.

I'm pretty sure that the target audience is ... well ... the rest of us.

And it's true: occasionally we do wander in to fast-food establishments and chain restaurants. Say, on road trips, or when the kids are cranky and starving. But if it really is “from time to time” — if we’re really limiting it to a once-in-a-while experience — do we really need a book to help guide our choices while we’re there?

The thing is, Zinczenko’s not just devilishly handsome and wildly successful. He's also smart. He knows all about real food. At the start of the book, he recommends that we eat spinach and yogurt and carrots and blueberries and black beans every single day. He’s deeply (and correctly) concerned that America’s teens have “crossed under the golden arches to a likely fate of lifetime obesity.” In his previous book, “The Abs Diet: The Six-Week Plan to Flatten Your Stomach and Keep You Lean,” Zinczenko warned that trans fats and high fructose corn syrup are two of the worst things one can ingest.

And yet the majority of these pages are dedicated to helping people make smart choices by purchasing foodlike substances from companies who fill their products with those very things.

So, yes. I’m confused. There are other things that confuse me, too. Like, how a packet of Skittles, or a Milky Way Bar, or Tyson Buffalo Chicken Wyngs, or a factory-made Rice Krispie Treat, could ever deserve to wind up on an “Eat This!” page. Is there room for those products in a healthful diet? Maybe  — although I personally wouldn’t go near those “Wyngs” with a 10-foot cattle prod. But how much room is there, exactly? Enough that we need a whole book steering us toward them?

In many ways, "Eat This! Not That!" is a successful package. It’s got great graphics, lots of stats and tips, excellent menu decoders. Zinczenko rightfully takes chains to task for their unwillingness to divulge their foods' nutritional profile, and he is plenty funny at times. But in the end, any book that implies I can achieve tight abs and better health by eating meals prepared by Burger King, Chili’s, KFC, Popeyes, or Pizza Hut, probably isn’t the book for me.

It's apparently the book for 2 million others. That’s how many folks are carrying it to the drive-thru. And I genuinely hope it works for them.

But me? I'm not buying it.

Cracking the Coconut Oil Myth

I love the new Coconut Milk made by Silk. It's smooth and creamy texture is simply dreamy. Mix it with chocolate protein powder for an extraordinary treat!

Okay, I know what you're thinking. Coconut oil is highly fattening, right? Well, let's take a look at a recent article from Yahoo to clear up some common misconceptions.

 

Cracking the coconut oil myth

By Eric Steinman

Posted Tue Mar 8, 2011 1:42pm PST

In Sri Lanka, nearly everything has its origins in coconut. Not exactly as exaggerated as the island caricature set forth by pop culture touchstones like Gilligan’s Island’s coconut radio and coconut car, but it is pretty damn close. And cooking with coconut, whether it is coconut meat or coconut milk, is a ubiquitous staple.

Despite the fact that coconut oil, and many coconut products, have a longstanding bad rap in mainstream, health-conscious culture, Sri Lankans, as well as many South Asians in the region, subsist off of copious amounts of coconut derived products. As one who has been scared away from coconut, because of its naturally high levels of cholesterol and saturated fat, would presume, any culture eating its weight in coconut oil would probably be plagued with heart disease and a general low mortality rate – not so.

Is it possible that what we know, and have been told, about coconut oil and coconut-based products is not the whole truth?

According to The New York Times, distinctly coconut oil’s bad reputation caused a panic at the concession stands back in 1994, when the Center for Science in the Public Interest put out a study claiming that a large movie-theater popcorn, hold the butter, delivered as much saturated fat as six Big Macs. This was enough to turn off a good percentage of the population and make coconut oil a big greasy no-no.

Nearly two decades on, coconut oil has experienced a bit of a resurgence, as reported by Melissa Clark for The New York Times. Annual sales of coconut oil in the natural food sector have boomed, and this is not because people are searching out a sure-fire way to raise their cholesterol levels.

Despite previous reports about coconut oil being the devil riding a tidal wave of trans fats, certain health professionals are touting the many health benefits of coconut oil (everything from weight loss to reducing the susceptibility of developing HIV and cancer).

Some of the confusion around coconut oil resides in the initial data. Seems the studies and reports that labeled coconut oil as entirely unhealthy had been done with partially hydrogenated coconut oil, which is high in trans fats, and is known for destroying many of the good essential fatty acids and antioxidants naturally contained in virgin coconut oil (the raw form of the more processed partially hydrogenated coconut oil). Therefore the results from this data branded coconut oil, in general, as something to be avoided at all costs (the ultimate cost most likely be your life).

But new research has shown that virgin coconut oil does not possess any of the same qualities found in partially hydrogenated coconut oil, and, while it is a saturated fat, it is actually a relatively healthful and fairly delicious alternative to animal fats and nut oils. Vegans and those with nut allergies are especially enthusiastic because, while virgin coconut oil is nutty and rich in flavor, it is also free of animal products and nut-derived oils. And cooking with coconut oil lends a buttery and near-sweet flavor to just about everything.
While this should not give you license to eat coconut oil by the spoonful, it does provide some comfort that this maligned cast off possesses something more than just a bad reputation.

Recipe: Coconut Milk Protein Shake

Ingredients

• 1/2 Cup Coconut Milk
• 1/2 Cup Water
• 2 Scoops Chocolate Protein Powder
• 1 T Cinnamon
• 1 Banana (Optional)

Instructions

1. Combine all of the ingredients into a blender or Magic Bullet (my mixer of choice)

Cooking time (duration): 5

Diet (other): High protein

Number of servings (yield): 1

Meal type: snack

My rating: 5 stars:  ★★★★★ 1 review(s)

Copyright © StartBeingFit.com.

Nutritional Information:
Calories: 525
Fat: 25g
Carbs: 34g
Protein:  49g