(News Letters)              Nutrition is the Foundation of our Being         

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Welcome to Mind B4 Body Fitness Nutritional Website: We hope that you find this information interesting and helpful, so that you can re-visit or re-think your nutritional plan or guideline. If you are one of those people who eat just to eat for the joy of the food with no regards to the types of carbohydrates, fats, or the amount of simple sugar and protein that you ingest, let me assure you that you are headed straight toward obesity,  clogged arteries, Type II diabetes, kidney problems just to name a few.

Carbohydrates

Most of your daily calories should come from complex carbohydrates. That means that you should consume 55-60 percent of calories from things like, whole wheat bread, cereal, brown rice, grains and oatmeal. Complex carbohydrates are considered the ideal choice of “fuel” because they are easily converted to glucose, a type of sugar that is the body’s main energy supply. When choosing whole- wheat bread check the ingredients to make sure whole-wheat flour tops the list and don’t trust the food color for assurance that the wheat is whole-grained. Some manufactures add coloring to their bread and other baked goods to make them look browner and more “wholesome’.

Unless you need a quick pick-up, you should choose carbohydrates that break down slowly in your body and provide a longer steady flow of energy rather than a quick burst.Have you ever wonder why oatmeal satisfies hunger for hours longer than cold cereal?

The answer may be in what’s known as their glycemic index- that’s the speed at which a food converts to glucose in your body. Foods that convert more slowly provide energy for longer periods of time. To help you select some of the best steady-energy foods please visit http://www.shakeoffthesugar.com/ . The higher the number, the faster the food converts to glucose. The glycemic index measures the rise in blood sugar caused by a specific amount of each food compared to that caused by a reference food. In this case white bread has been chosen as the reference food and has been assigned a glycemic index of 95 percent.

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The Result of Excess Carbohydrate Intake

Excess carbohydrates also causes generalized vascular disease. The high-carbohydrate diet which is now so popular causes the pancreas to produce large amounts of insulin, and if this happens for many years in a genetically predisposed person, the insulin receptors throughout the body become resistant to insulin. Because insulin's action is to drive glucose into the cells, this results in chronic hyperglycemia, also called "high blood sugar." A large portion of this sugar is stored as fat resulting in obesity. Excess insulin also causes hypertension and helps initiate the sequence of events in the arterial wall which leads to atherosclerosis and heart disease.

Adult onset diabetes is known to be greatly benefited by the adoption of a low carbohydrate diet, moderate in fat, which stresses the importance of a regular intake of sufficient protein. You will not hear this advice from the American Diabetes Association, (or from most doctors) since they are still operating on the research as it was twenty years ago.

Many cancers, such as breast, colon and lung cancer, apparently have a hereditary tendency. However, it may be that nutritional habits are passed on from one generation to the next, thus accounting for the familial tendency toward cancer.

Excess fats damage the immune system through irradiation by free radicals during peroxidation of fats. 

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Protein

Protein is recognized as the muscle builder. Protein is what your body needs to build and repair tissue, to launch an immune defense, to make chemical messengers in your brain and to provide optimum energy.

“ A diet that includes adequate amounts of protein helps to stabilize blood sugar and insulin levels. How much protein you need depends on how much lean muscle mass you’re packing and how hard you work that muscle each day. You need a daily minimum of about a half a gram of complete protein from any source per pound of lean body mass just to repair the wear and tear on that lean mass. People working to build muscle with exercise may need almost twice that amount. A 125-pound woman with 22 percent body fat (average for women) would need 35 grams of protein a day. And a 170-pound body builder with 10 percent fat might need as much as 55 grams of protein per day. Example: 125 x 22 (body fat %) =97.5, 97.5 ¸ 2.2 = 44.3, 44.3 x .8 (grams of protein per day) = 35 grams of protein per day. The USDA requirements for protein is .8   grams of protein per pound of lean muscle mass. Highly active athletes and bodybuilders need more than .8 and therefore uses a different ratio of 1.0, 1.5 or 2 grams of protein per pound of lean muscle mass.

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Fat

Fat occurs naturally in food and play and important role in nutrition. A certain amount of fat and oil is essential to bodily functions. Fat regulates body temperature, cushions and insulates organs and tissues and is the main form of the body’s energy storage.

• Saturated Fats are found chiefly in animal sources such as meat and poultry, whole or reduced-fat milk, and butter. Some oils like coconut, palm kernel oil, are saturated. Saturated fats are usually solid at room temperature.  

• Monounsaturated fats are found mainly in vegetable oils such as canola, olive, and peanut oils. They are liquid at room temperature.

• Polyunsaturated fats are found mainly in vegetable oils such as safflower, sunflower, corn flaxseed, and canola oils. Polyunsaturated fats are also the main fats found in seafood. They are liquid or soft at room temperature.

The guideline for fat intake is well known: for healthy Americans, consume no more than 30 percent of total calories from fat. The “30 percent” guidelines means:

• 7 –10 percent of total calories from saturated fats

• About 10 – 15 percent of total calories from monounsaturated fats

• About 10 percent from polyunsaturated fats.

Cholesterol

Blood  (serum) cholesterol and dietary cholesterol are two different types of cholesterol. Dietary cholesterol is found in food of animal origin such as egg yolks, organ meats, and full fat dairy products. Blood cholesterol is a waxy substance, which occurs naturally in our body. It is used to make estrogen and testosterone, and bile, which is needed for digestion. But if the level of cholesterol in the blood is too high, cholesterol and other fats can stick to the artery walls.

Since blood cholesterol is waxy and cannot dissolve in water, it is carried through the blood in packages called lipoproteins. High-density lipoprotein (HDL) is a “good” package for cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) is a “bad” package for cholesterol.

HDL cholesterol gathers up excess cholesterol in the blood and carries it to the liver. The liver reprocesses or excretes it. HDL may also help remove some of the cholesterol deposited on the artery walls.

Excess LDL cholesterol can increase the risk of heart disease because it is LDL cholesterol that builds up on the artery walls. The type of fats and oils we eat helps control LDL levels.

• Eating too many foods high in saturated fat may increase blood levels of LDL and total cholesterol. High blood levels of LDL and total  cholesterol are risk factors for heart disease.  

• Eating foods high in monounsaturated fats may help lower LDL cholesterol levels and decrease risk of heart disease.

• Eating polyunsaturated fats in place of saturated fats decreases LDL cholesterol levels.

• For cholesterol, Healthy Americans should limit there in take to less than 300 milligrams per day.

How you can improve your Cholesterol Levels

• Reduce or maintain a desirable weight
• Exercise. Aerobic exercise four days per week for 30 minutes or more can increase the level of ("good") HDL cholesterol in your body
• Choose monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats in small amounts in place of saturated fats
• Avoid saturated fats.
• Eat fish once or twice per week
• Avoid hydrogenated or trans-fatty acids
• Reduce consumption of high-cholesterol foods
• Consume more soluble fiber 
• Graze. Eating 5 or more meals per day keeps insulin concentrations low and slows down the liver's synthesis of cholesterol

Fiber

The advantage of bringing fiber into your diet is that it moves food through your digestive system quickly, it protects you from absorbing toxins, which may be associated with your food (pesticides, for example), it modulates the absorption of simple carbs, and it keeps the walls of the intestine clean by removing toxins which are believed to cause cancer. Fiber also modulates the amount of salt you consume, containing just the right amount, and thus works to prevent hypertension and the results of hypertension: kidney and heart disease. Fiber is good stuff! You can get some at your local vegetable store.

Eating enough fiber is one of the best and easiest things you can do for your health. A diet that is high in fiber.

• Aids digestion and helps prevent constipation.

• Helps you maintain a healthy weight and fill you up more

• Helps lower blood cholesterol

• Helps keep blood sugar within normal range.

• Can prevent or reduce the symptoms of bowel disease and decrease the risk of colon cancer.

A healthy diet includes 20 to 35 grams of fiber a day. This may sound like a lot. But you can meet that goal by eating a variety of foods each day.  Adding fiber to quickly to your diet could cause gas, bloating or diarrhea. To prevent this, add high fiber foods to your diet slowly over several weeks. Increase the amount of daily water intake; drink at least 8 glasses per day. These foods are the best sources of fiber:

Does fruit make you fat? 

It is known that fruit is good for you and it is because fruit is fill of nutrients, high in fiber, vitamins, minerals, and low in fat and calories. It is common practice for bodybuilders during pre-contest preparation to omit fruit from their diets, as it should be for anyone looking to minimize body fat.

Our bodies can only absorb monosaccharides (glucose, galactose, or fructose), the single units of sugar starches. Once we ingest one of the substances it is then absorbed and circulated into the bloodstream through the liver as blood glucose, our bodies can put glucose to work in three ways:

1.                  It can burn the glucose immediately for energy if blood glucose levels are not at a stable level of 20 grams blood borne glucose circulating per hour.

2.                  If it is not needed for energy immediately, then it is converted into glycogen in the liver or muscles. The liver has the capacity to store 100 grams of glycogen. The muscles have the capacity to store between 250-400 grams of glycogen, depending on muscle mass and physical condition. Liver glycogen supplies energy for the entire body. Muscle glycogen only supplies energy to muscles.

3.                  If the body has an excess of glucose, and all of the glycogen stores are full, the surplus glucose is converted to fat by the liver and stored as adipose tissue (body fat) around the body. If needed, fatty acids can be burned as fuel (BUT the fat cannot be converted back to glucose).

Now that we have outlined how our bodies use glucose, we will discuss why fruit (Fructose or fruit sugar) is detrimental in an attempt to maximize fat loss. Since muscles have the specific purpose of contraction, they have a limited number of enzymes for glycogen synthesis.

Muscles only have the necessary enzymes to convert glucose and nothing else into glycogen. The liver, however, is able to make glycogen from fructose. Muscle glycogen, which is similar in structure to starch, contains hundreds of glucose units.

If you consume fruit or fruit juices the following occurs:

Referring to the three ways listed above that the body uses glucose, assuming that blood glucose levels are adequate, the glucose will then be stored as glycogen. Muscle does not have the enzymes to synthesize fructose into glycogen; therefore the liver converts this fructose into liver glycogen. It would only take three, 8 – ounce glasses of orange juice to fully replenish liver glycogen stores. Since the liver is responsible for supplying energy to the entire body, once its stores are full, your body will send a signal that the glycogen stores are full our body will then convert the excess glucose to fatty acid and store as adipose tissue (body fat) In essence, fruit sugar is easily converted to fat.

Chances are small amounts of fruit each day are not going to cause severe or adverse affects. However, it’s probably a good idea to avoid combinations of a great deal of table sugar, soft drinks, and large quantities of fruit on a regular basis.

It has also been noted that exercise has been shown to reduce the efficiency by which fructose has been absorbed just as with any other simple sugar, so that piece of fruit or high fructose carb drink right before or during your workout might not be such a good idea.

If your goal is exclusively to minimize body fat, then it is advisable that you consume more complex carbohydrate, which will go to replenishing muscle glycogen stores rather than fruit, which will only replenish liver glycogen stores, and is useless in muscle glycogen replenishment.

Don’t get the wrong idea. Fruits are obviously healthy. But as will all good things, should be taken in moderation.  

What's In A Food Label?

In 1990, the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act went into effect. The USDA and the FDA designed the requirements so that consumers would have useful information about the food they eat. But how do you make sense of a food label?

According to the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, all food labels must contain the following information:

• Common name of the product
• Name and address of the product’s manufacturer
• Net contents in terms of weight, measure or count, and:

Ingredient List – Lists the ingredients in descending order of predominance and weight. In Krispy Krunchies, the ingredients are listed at the bottom of the label. As you can see, the predominant ingredient is corn, next is oil, then cheese, etc.

Serving Sizes – Each package must identify the size of a serving. In Krispy Krunchies, one package contains one serving. The nutritional information given on the label is based on one serving of the food.

Nutrition Facts – each package must identify the quantities of specified nutrients and food constituents for one serving. From this information, you can gleam some very useful information. The most important thing to remember is this:

• 1 gr. fat = 9 calories
• 1 gr. protein = 4 calories
• 1 gr. carbohydrate = 4 calories
• 1 gr. alcohol = 7 calories

Therefore, we can tell the percentages of each nutrient in Krispy Krunchies:

FDA Specifications for Health Claims and Descriptive Terms

The FDA also provides guidelines about the claims and descriptions manufacturers may use in food labeling to promote their products:

Easing into a Healthier Diet

You want to eat healthier but you're not sure how to start?   Are you eating too much processed food and ignoring natural, healthy foods? 

Start by choosing foods from the following list each day. At first, you might try to eat 3-5 of the foods each day.   Then gradually add more and more servings from the foods below, until your diet consists mostly of healthy foods, and less on processed or prepackaged foods.  Try to eat from a variety of the listed foods to avoid boredom.  Go ahead - try something new! 

When preparing your meals, try to keep the foods as "clean" as possible from additional oils, butters, sauces or gravies.  If you're watching your weight, remember: bake, broil, grill, poach or sauté in water or broth. 

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Super Foods

Try including some of the following "super foods" into your diet. Each food contains vitamins, nutrients and/or minerals that are believed to contain special properties for health, disease prevention and/or longevity.

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Healthier Fast Food Choices

Eating on the run doesn't have to be disastrous to your health. Though most fast foods are higher in fat, calories and sugar than home-prepared foods, there are many healthier fast food choices. Try some of the fast foods listed below when your on the go. Nutritional data for calories, fat percentage, protein and carbohydrates are supplied.