Authors: Jillian Michaels
Slim for Life (12 page)
Most of the advice in this book is pretty straightforward, but here’s where it can get confusing: not all processed foods are bad for you. The term
processed
has a broad definition. It essentially means “prepared for ease of consumption.” Frozen vegetables or 100 percent whole-grain oatmeal are processed foods, and I’d never tell you not to eat them. The way to differentiate the healthy and slimming from the disease-inducing and fattening is to learn what to look for on the labels. That’s what I’m going to show you now: how to decode labels and dodge food-marketing trickery so you never get fooled or confused again.
SERVE IT UP • • • 3 POINTS
Many food labels hide the true amount of calories in that food by splitting up servings. For example, if you buy a regular-size bottle of Snapple (which I hope to God you never do), it’s highly unlikely that you planned on sharing it. Common sense dictates that the whole bottle is one serving. The label says it’s 120 calories per serving, which sounds fine. Look more closely at that label, however, and you’ll see that this one bottle is meant to serve 2.5 people. Drink that bottle, and you’ll be swigging down 300 calories. You just drank almost your entire calorie allotment for a meal, without even eating a sandwich. Moral of the story: when you read a food label, always check the number of servings first,
then
the number of calories per serving. The serving size is the amount you would have to eat to ingest the nutrition shown on the rest of the food label, no more, no less.
Buy food with as few ingredients listed on the label as possible. If you’re wondering how many ingredients are too much, keeping them to five and under is a good rule of thumb.
Ingredients are listed in order of their quantity in the food. So the top three ingredients are pretty much all you’re eating. And while you might think something is healthy because it has pomegranate in it (or some other fruit or vegetable), the top three ingredients might also include high-fructose corn syrup, enriched flour, and cornstarch. Don’t be deceived. If the top three ingredients are crap, then the food is crap. Put it back and make a healthier choice.
SLIM MYTH:
Ingredient lists on food products are designed to inform consumers.
FAST FACT:
Ingredient lists are used by food manufacturers to
deceive consumers
into thinking their products are healthier (or of better quality) than they really are. See all my tips on decoding labels to keep from getting duped.
Have you ever played with a little kid who matches up the same animals or the same shapes in a puzzle? This is essentially what I want you to do when you look at ingredients on a label—match up the ones that are the same thing, even if they have a different name. One of the most common label deception tricks is to list sugars as different ingredients so that sugar doesn’t appear in the top three. For example, the label for a high-sugar food might list sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup, corn syrup solids, brown sugar, dextrose, and other sugar ingredients to keep sugar out of the top position on the ingredients list. So if you see a label that lists two separate forms of sugar, put it back on the shelf on principle alone, not just because it will make you fat.
If you can’t pronounce it, don’t buy it. Chances are that if an ingredient is not a common food or spice, then it’s a GMO or a manufactured, fake, chemical ingredient. It’s also likely an obesogen. You don’t want it. Your body doesn’t need it. Let it go, and pass it by.
It’s amazing how clever these marketing people can be, and they work in ways you would never imagine are even legal.
Here’s how to read between the lines and sniff out the BS.
•
“Gluten free.”
Just because something is gluten free doesn’t mean it’s low calorie or good for you. Gluten is a protein found in wheat or foods processed with wheat. Unless you
have
celiac disease or you’ve been tested for gluten sensitivity, you don’t need to worry about it. In fact, as I said on
this page
, gluten-free foods are often higher in calories, have less fiber, and are more expensive. Don’t buy into the hype.
•
“All natural.”
This food claim literally means nothing. Sure, it brings to mind thoughts of fresh, minimally processed food. Many people even confuse this claim with “
organic,” but they’re not even remotely the same. The word
natural
has no regulatory meaning, while
organic
does. Food manufacturers can put “all natural” on a label even when the ingredients are not at all natural. Be sure to read exactly what is in the product before you buy it.
•
“Fortified.”
Lots of processed foods are “fortified” with fiber, omega-3s, calcium, and the like to make you think they’re healthy. The problem is that the quality of the nutrients used is often garbage. Take
inulin, for example, a cheap fiber processed from chicory root. A manufacturer may claim that since its product is “fortified” with inulin, it will help you get your daily fiber requirements. Studies have shown, however, that inulin doesn’t lower cholesterol or create feelings of fullness the way 100 percent whole-grain fiber does. Similarly, the omega-3 that is used to “fortify” food is often ALA, which pales in comparison to the varieties that come from fish like DHA and EPA. Again, fortified foods are usually junk that’s been enriched with cheap versions of vitamins and minerals to mislead you into thinking they’re healthy. Don’t fall for it.
•
“Fruit Flavor.”
There’s no fruit in fruit flavoring. Although the label might say that a food contains “natural flavors,” this just means that at some point it originated from a plant or animal. Nowadays food scientists create flavors using bacteria and call them, say, “natural strawberry flavor” (sans strawberries). Why do food manufacturers use them, you ask? Because they’re cheaper.
•
“Heart Healthy.”
This claim is often used on products that contain corn oil. If you look closely at the packaging, though, you’ll see the fine print, which says it all: “The FDA concludes there is little scientific evidence supporting this claim.” Corn oil is actually high in omega-6, a fat that studies in the
British Journal of Nutrition,
among others, have linked to obesity and high cholesterol.
Here’s an amazing con that food manufacturers run that can lead you down the road to ruin: they round down. Legally they’re able to say that a food contains “0 grams of
trans fats” or “0 calories” when the food is actually loaded with trans fats or calories. This is my all-time favorite example: back when I was still an idiot eating a ton of “fat-free” diet foods, I fell in love with I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter spray. I put it on
everything
. I sprayed it on popcorn, cooked eggs in it, and smothered my toast with it. You name it—I found a way to flavor some crappy diet food with it. I mean, why wouldn’t I? It tasted just like butter, and it had zero calories and zero grams of trans fats—right?
Wrong!
I looked at the label. The top ingredient listed was
hydrogenated soybean oil. Now, I’m not a genius, but it doesn’t take a genius to know that oil is not calorie free. Having been around the block a tiny bit at that point, I knew that
hydrogenated
was also synonymous with
trans fat
. How could this be? Confused and pissed, I called the food manufacturer, and the truth came out. Because there were 0.9 calories in one spray and a serving size was one spray, they were legally able to round down. So they were saying that it was zero calories and zero grams of trans fats, even though there were about 1,200 calories in that tiny bottle—nearly all of which were from trans fats.
To sum up my long story, if a food claim sounds too good to be true, investigate and get to the truth. If you don’t have
time but you’re in doubt, ditch it. Make a different, more clearly healthy choice.
Although
sodium is a transient mineral with zero calories, it
can
adversely affect your weight. Some studies suggest that sodium can even influence
cortisol levels in the body (and high levels of cortisol have been linked to increased belly fat). Also,
foods that are high in sodium are usually highly processed and high in calories. Excess sodium is bad for your blood pressure and makes you bloated. So with this mineral, a little goes a long, long way. Make sure that your food choices have fewer milligrams of sodium per serving than calories per serving. And as a general rule of thumb, people 50 years of age and under should aim to consume no more than 2,000 milligrams of sodium per day. Those 51 and older should shoot for no more than 1,500 daily milligrams.
Large amounts of sugar are bad for your diet, but not solely because processed foods that are high in sugar are also usually high in calories. Sugar-laden foods also cause insulin levels to spike. These spikes will crash your blood sugar, lead to hunger, and so promote fat storage. To avoid this problem, for any packaged food, keep your sugar intake below 5 grams per serving.
FIBER • • • 3 POINTS
Did your grandmother ever tell you how important it is to get enough fiber in your diet? Mine was obsessed with making sure we kids ate our fiber each day. Grandmothers are smart. You know that I want you to buy grain products that are 100 percent whole grain. But if, for some reason, that isn’t an option, make sure that the product you choose has at least 2 grams of fiber per 100 calories. Remember, fiber is important because it helps stabilize your blood
sugar and fill you up, diminishing your hunger and inhibiting a tendency to overeat.
Cooking
All right, now that you’ve brought the healthy food home from the grocery store, just what the heck do you do with it? It’s not enough that the food is intrinsically good for you. Any healthy food can be made unhealthy in the way it’s prepared.
Let’s make sure that your cooking strategies stack the scales in your favor (or in this case, unstack them).
BREAK THE RULES • • • 3 POINTS
Many recipes don’t have weight loss and health as their main focus. So don’t always follow a recipe—
modify it to meet your needs. That doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice flavor. In most cases, though, a large amount of the salt, sugar, and fat that a recipe calls for is unnecessary. You can cut out the extra, and it will still taste good, I promise. Try these approaches to make your dishes way healthier while still retaining their flavor:
• Cut out a third of the fat.
• Cut the sugar in half.
• Cut the salt in half. Then continue to reduce it slightly each time you prepare a favorite recipe, until you have gone as low as possible while still retaining the food’s flavor.
Instead of reducing the amount of unhealthy ingredients, you’re going to
replace
them with healthier, lower-calorie ones:
• For savory dishes, instead of using butter or oil, try low-fat, low-sodium chicken broth.
• For baked goods, instead of using butter, replace it with:
✓ unsweetened applesauce
✓ mashed bananas
✓ prunes
✓ olive oil or coconut oil (They’re not lower in calories, but they provide health benefits that corn oil doesn’t.)
SLIM MYTH:
You should only eat egg whites, not the yolks.
FAST FACT:
For years now (I mean like years and years), egg yolks have been demonized, supposedly being terrible for your cholesterol. We now know that that’s not the case.
Eggs won’t affect your cholesterol balance unless they’re fried in butter and served with bacon. In fact, one study at the University of Connecticut found that the fat in egg yolks helped reduce
LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. And if that’s not enough to persuade you, the yolk contains most of the vitamins and minerals in the egg, plus half its protein.
• For baked goods, instead of using frosting, use a meringue or low-fat yogurt.
• Instead of using cream, try coconut milk (from the carton not the can).
• Instead of using jam or syrup, use puréed fruit.
• Instead of using full-fat sour cream or mayonnaise, use low-fat yogurt.
• Ditch the sugar and instead use:
✓ unsweetened apple sauce
✓ agave
✓ organic maple syrup (It’s not lower in calories, but at least it has health benefits.)
✓ raw honey (Again, it’s not lower in calories, but it offers health benefits.)
✓ stevia
✓
xylitol (It’s as sweet as table sugar with 40 percent fewer calories and 75 percent fewer carbohydrates; it’s not thought to spike blood sugar.)
✓ erythritol (This sugar alcohol contains almost zero calories and has no effect on blood sugar; it’s primarily used in baking.)
• Replace white flour with:
✓ spelt flour
✓ whole-wheat flour
✓ almond flour
EZ CALORIE CUT
For 8 ounces of chicken fingers, substitute an 8-ounce grilled chicken breast.
CUT: 272 CALORIES
Using
dry rubs to season your meats is a great way to save calories, as they help you avoid fattening dressings and sauces. You can purchase many good premade rubs. Mrs. Dash is a great brand and it’s sodium free. If you feel like putting in a little extra effort, here are some good options you can throw together yourself:
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon dried thyme, crushed
1½ teaspoons allspice
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground red pepper
