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• Pass on the persimmons: did you know persimmons have high levels of sugar and carbohydrates? Seasonally they appear on the verge of winter when our bodies traditionally needed to store fat for the lean months ahead.

• Time to detox? Research indicates that humans may have more than 700 toxins in our body at any one time based on the food we eat and environment we live in. It could be time to dust off your blender to start detoxing. For a range of delicious
  de-toxifying smoothies recipes, check out my medicinal smoothie and home herbal medicines course.

 

 

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The following article appears in this months edition of Fitness Journal outlining my five favourite food myths...enjoy DM

There is a huge amount of misinformation around food and dieting. Below are five of my favourite food myths:

 

   We need carbohydrates to survive

According to Dr Eric C Westman (The American Society for Clinical Nutrition), the theoretical minimal level of carbohydrate (CHO) intake for humans is zero. In other words this is a myth. The primary role of carbohydrates is to convert to glucose and fuel our body - we can actually get glucose from protein, so humans could survive without carbohydrates.

 

Low fat diets help you lose weight

Prof David Haslam, chairman of the British National Obesity Forum, said: ‘As a clinician, treating patients all day, I quickly realised that high-carbohydrate, low-fat diets were deeply flawed.’ The increasing levels of obesity are perhaps the strongest indication that this is a myth, with research suggesting that a diet rich in full-fat can lower the chance of obesity and its associated health risks.

 

Cheat days are OK

Apart from the fact that cheat days feed your addiction, this myth can also lead to feelings of guilt and provide an excuse to derail your diet. Consuming whole foods eventually changes your palate, so unhealthy foods taste bad, but if you keep reverting to cheat foods, your sense of taste may not fully adapt. If you are on a ketogenic diet, cheat days can actually prevent your metabolic adaptation (to ketones) from happening.

 

You have to starve yourself to lose weight

It’s all about how you lose weight.  A weight loss plan emphasising whole foods that are minimally processed is the best weight loss strategy, says the American Heart Association, Harvard School of Public Health. And losing weight on ketogenic diets result in no hunger.  On my dietary protocols your body unlocks stored fat and uses it as fuel, because of this the body doesn’t suffer fluctuations in blood glucose which drives hunger and tiredness, rather you feel lasting energy and mental clarity.

   

Dieting means deprivation

If you know about the ketogenic diet, you would realise that this myth is completely false. High fat diets not only help lose weight, they mean access to delicious foods like French omelettes, cauliflower pizza, Thai crispy chicken and vanilla poached pears. For more information on these and more recipes check my website wholefoodsecrets.com

 

 

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