One of the main reasons why women cannot meet their body composition goals is that they have been brainwashed into eating “healthy “ breakast cereals, as part a “great start of the day”, which in fact leads more to laying down serious lard, clogging your arteries, and making you pre-diabetic.
This a typical conversation that I have with a Health Conscious Female Client (HCFC) during her initial consult.
CP: What do you eat for breakfast?
HCFC: I always start the day off with a healthy balanced breakfast.
CP: Enlighten me.
HCFC: I usually have a bowl of healthy cereal like shredded wheat, in skim milk of course, and half a banana sliced into it. To avoid the evil saturated fats, you know. I am health conscious, you know. Either that or a low-fat bagel with margarine and honey on.
CP: Lets get a few things straight here...
One... Saturated fats are not evil. What fits into the evil category are Hitler, Stalin, chemical warfare, reality shows and Sarah Palin.
Two... Most cereal brands have a glycemic index that ranges from 60 to 110. The glycemic index is a measurement of the type or quality of carbohydrates in a particular food, and how fast 50 grams of this carbohydrate raises blood glucose levels, (and consequent insulin secretion and effects produced by the pancreas) as it is digested.
•Porridge (Oatmeal) 60
•Muesli 60
•Special K 70
•Honeysmacks 60
•Sustain 66
•Cornflakes 76
(Please note that there are no difference between Honeysmacks and oatmeal in terms of glycemic index. As a rule of thumb, when seeking fat loss you do not want to eat foods with a glycemic index of above 50.)
Three... Skim milk is horrendous if you want to lose fat.
Four... Bagels are the ideal food of choice to get a butt that qualifies for its own zip code. It has a glycemic index of 72! It so good at increasing blood sugar, that a study done on long distance cyclists showed that bagels are superior to Power Bars at raising blood glucose. And they are easier to chew those poor substitutes for a hockey puck.
Five... Margarine is for dorks. It is typically good at spreading arteriosclerosis. No pun intended.
Six... Honey may be more natural than some high fructose corn syrup laden jam, it is still a simple sugar.
Seven... Bananas have a glycemic load of 12, while cherries would have a glycemic load of 3.
**Glycemic Load Explained
- While the glycemic index classifies foods according to how fast 50g of carbs in them raises our blood glucose levels, Glycemic Load indicates how fast a standard portion of a particular food (like bananass) raises blood glucose, and thus gives an indication of glycemic and insulin response.
And finally, number eight... you are blonde and blue eyed, so the odds that you are sensitive to gluten are near perfect. So every single time, you eat your shredded wheat or bagel, your immune system and adrenal glands are under attack. No wonder, you get your mid-morning coffee fix in an IV form.
HCFC: But skim milk is low in saturated fat!
CP: So is Napalm. Skim milk certainly has a low glycemic index, but it has a high insulin index. Now when you combine a high glycemic food with a food with a high insulin load, you are asking your body to increase your cardiovascular risk factors and to age prematurely.
HCFC: But I read that breakfast cereal is part of healthy and balanced breakfast.
CP: Hey, if you believe that, you will also believe that Britney Spears read Leo Tolstoi’s War and Peace cover to cover at age 8. You want to lose fat, you got to change a few things. One, you got to go to grain less breakfast.
HCFC: What about Kashi? Isn’t that healthy?
CP: Actually the box it comes in is more nutritious. Rats fed the box, lived longer than the ones who ate Kashi.
HCFC: What if I switched to organic box cereal?
CP: Worse, yes it may have more protein, but the protein is also denatured. Hence, you are more denatured protein than it the standard one. A great way to induce more long term brain damage. Lovely!
HCFC: I am so stupid.
CP: You are not stupid, just misinformed by mass media. Being misinformed does not make you a bad person, just a misinformed one. Even Oprah gets misinformed.
HCFC: I feel so guilty.
CP: Feeling guilty is useless. My lawyer David Horowitz once told me that guilt was invented by the Jews, and perfected to a science by the Catholics. My Jewish colleague Moshe Berkowitz was born Jewish and raised Catholic. He used to bring an attorney to confession. I am a recovering Catholic myself, so I know how you feel. Please do know that feeling guilty is forbidden in my office. Lets move on.
HCFC: What should I eat then?
CP: Very simple, before our meeting tomorrow, do me a favor, and go on my website and read the following article on
the meat and nut breakfast.
If you need more information on insulin load, glycemic index, glycemic load etc… please go to
http://www.mendosa.com/.
Rick Mendosa does an impressive job with keeping current with all the information surrounding those topics.
CP:Before you go, give me two take home points.
HCFC:
1. I was delusional about what healthy eating because of the media.
2. Not all carbs are created equal.
CP: Be excellent!
Copyright ©2011 Charles Poliquin