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There are many food products out there that create the illusion they aren’t so bad, when in fact they are just as highly processed as the next option. No matter what the front of the package says always read the ingredient labels!

Wheat Thins

On the front of the package these crackers boast that they are 100% whole grain with a “Garden Valley Veggie” flavor, but when you turn them over you see many offending additives including four different artificial dyes, soybean oil (which is refined and likely GMO), monosodium glutamate (MSG), and other questionable ingredients most people would not cook with at home.

Real Food Alternative: It’s always best to buy packaged foods plain—like crackers, oatmeal, yogurt, etc.—and flavor them yourself! Our favorite store-bought whole-grain crackers are Ak-Mak brand, and we also sometimes make easy cheesy crackers at home.

Only the food industry could pass off this product as “coffee creamer” when it contains no actual cream or milk. According to the ingredients, this is basically water, sugar, and partially hydrogenated soybean or cottonseed oil (i.e. transfat that is likely GMO).

Real Food Alternative: How about just using real cream and sugar (or honey or maple syrup) and a touch of pure vanilla extract the next time you need to add a little something to your coffee? Or you could make your own homemade flavored coffee creamers with these recipes from Deliciously Organic.

This “lemonade” product is rather disturbing. Right on the front Crystal Light says this is “Natural Lemonade,” yet it doesn’t even contain a single drop of lemon juice! Plus both its sweetener (aspartame) and yellow tint (yellow 5) are completely artificial. There are currently no regulations associated with the word “natural” on a food package, so don’t let this terminology fool you.

Real Food Alternative: Unfortunately, even if you make lemonade from scratch at home it calls for quite a bit of sugar. You are better off just squeezing a little fresh lemon juice into your water or saving homemade lemonade for an extra special occasion!

What’s so smart about imitation butter that’s artificially flavored and made with refined oils (that are likely GMO)?

Real Food Alternative: Just go for REAL butter (preferably organic, from grass-fed cows). If you are allergic to dairy, try coconut oil or olive oil instead, depending on the application. If you are just intolerant of dairy try clarified butter (a.k.a. ghee). Since the milk solids have been boiled off, leaving the clarified fat behind, it’s much easier to digest.

I couldn’t believe it when I looked at the back of this taco seasoning packet and saw “Maltodextrin” as the first item on the ingredient list (meaning what it contains the most of). Maltodextrin is a filler found in highly processed foods and is usually made from (GMO) corn. I don’t know about you, but it’s not an ingredient I cook with at home. So then why would it be the main ingredient in something as simple as taco seasoning?

Real Food Alternative: Throw together a big batch of homemade taco seasoning by combining 1 tablespoon of chili powder and 1 ½ teaspoons each of cumin, oregano, and salt. Add some red pepper to taste then store in an airtight container. I use 2 ½ teaspoons of taco seasoning per 1 pound of ground meat. Also check out my taco salad recipe for a different take on tacos!

These are just waffles, right? Wrong—they contain much more than a normal person would use to make waffles at home, including yellow 5 & 6 (both artificial dyes), artificial flavor and other questionable ingredients. And most of the time you see added vitamins and minerals on the label this is actually bad—not good!—because it means the original ingredients have been stripped of nutrition. As a result, food scientists attempt to add back in what they think is missing. But attempting to reconstruct nature is a hard job, and according to Melanie Warner (author of Pandora’s Lunchbox), these vitamins are “not the same thing as getting vitamins from real food, which includes a whole host of other beneficial components, some of which may be necessary for those vitamins to work most effectively in our bodies.”

Real Food Alternative: Stop messing around with this highly processed stuff and make (and freeze) your own waffles from whole-food ingredients…totally worth the $25 investment for a waffle maker! Check out our favorite whole-wheat waffle recipe that our family uses all the time.

And last, but certainly not least: I was truly disturbed when I realized that a Lunchable as simple as a PB&J with fresh fruit could contain 85—85!!—different ingredients! If you were to make this for lunch at home, you would not use the majority of what’s on this list, including: Hydrogenated oil (i.e. trans-fat), high-fructose corn syrup, artificial flavor, BHT, and propylene glycol, among many other disturbing items on this long list of ingredients.

Real Food Alterative: This one should be a no-brainer, but just make your own peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at home using natural ingredients (without unnecessary additives), real whole-wheat bread (made from only 5 or 6 whole ingredients), and fresh organic fruit.

Yogurt seems like a pretty innocent snack until you take a closer look (at the ingredient list) and see that these “Strawberry Milkshake” and “Banana Split” flavored yogurt tubes don’t actually contain any strawberries or bananas at all! The flavors come from refined sugar and artificial flavors. And did you know that the artificial dyes this yogurt contains are derived from petroleum and require a warning label in some countries stating they “have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children?”

Real Food Alternative: Why not make your own yogurt tubes by filling reusable silicone molds with homemade smoothies, plain organic yogurt (that you flavor yourself), or even applesauce? My kids love the homemade versions!

 

Tonight my head is spinning like a centrifugal juicer after attending a lecture by Joe Cross, star of the documentary Fat Sick and Nearly Dead. The movie, which chronicles one man’s journey to health through juicing, moved me a few years ago to purchase my first juicer. Which chronicles one man’s journey to health through juicing, moved me a few years ago to purchase my first juicer. It began what is now a regular practice of making fresh green juice several times a week and purchasing fresh cold pressed juice around town regularly.

Joe’s presentation on both using juicing as a method to “reboot” a sick body and mind and also as a supplement to an overall plant-based, whole foods diet was inspiring and medically very accurate. But why is it that juicing is an effective means of redirecting one’s health—whether the goal is vitality, weight loss, or even disease reversal?

Cells in the body require nutrients (i.e. vitamins and minerals) to function optimally. Many of these are referred to asmicronutrients, to distinguish them from the macronutrient classes of fats, carbohydrates and proteins. When cells receive adequate micronutrients, you feel energized and full. On the other hand, many foods provide calories from macronutrients, but are devoid of the essential micronutrients cells crave. These are calorie-dense, nutrition-poor foods and this characterizes most processed foods.

Let’s look at a few more reasons why vegetables, legumes, seeds, and nuts are so powerful. They provide:

1. Fiber. 

This is the indigestible portion of plants. Diets high in fiber are associated with lower risks of heart disease, colon cancer, diabetes, and obesity. In the Nurses Health Study, one of the longest-running studies of women’s health, women who ate more fiber were more likely to live longer. There is fiber in broccoli, beans and other members of the vegetable and fruit families, but none will be found in bagels, burgers and almost all other processed foods.

2. Phytonutrients. 

These are a family of chemicals found only in plants that often give the color to vegetables but also confer many health benefits. Many of these plant-based chemicals are anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer, such as the sulforphane found in broccoli. There are perhaps 10,000 of these health-promoting chemicals in the edible plant world. (You’ll never find phytonutrients in a bagel.)

3. Antioxidants. 

Many chemicals found in plants confer a resistance to the damage that can occur to the human body from oxygen and the process of metabolism. Just as rust can destroy metal, oxidation can lead to diseased arteries or brain cells, and contributes to diabetes and other conditions. Within plants are chemicals such as carotenoids, polyphenols, and flavonoids that are natural antioxidants.

4. Omega-3 fatty acids. 

These essential fatty acids, including DHA and EPA, are taken into cell membranes and used for the internal workings and repair of cells throughout the body. While seafood can provide Omega-3 fatty acids, they’re typically absent from other animal products.  Flaxseeds, chia seeds, walnuts, hemp seeds, algae and soy are some of the plant-based foods

So …. how does this get us back to Joe Cross and juicing? 

The USDA recommends five or more servings of vegetables and fruits daily while Canadian authorities set the bar higher, saying 10 servings a day is optimal.

In order to consistently ingest this large amount of plant-based material, we need to do some planning.

Some ideas to get your greens: preparing large salads, adding greens in soups, and blending smoothies with berries and greens for a power breakfast or a snack. Juicing is just one more tool you can use to build a plant-based nutrition program rich in phytochemicals, and it can make it easier to reach your goal of 5 to 10 servings a day of vegetables.

As Joe Cross said, “If you let people in white lab coats design your food, you’ll see people in white coats to treat your disease.”

*Warning – It is highly recommended that you listen to “Regulators” by Warren G and Nate Dogg before reading this article.

1. Because its a bad ass song.

2. So you understand all of the references.

Nate Dogg, where you been?

I’ve been chasing skirts out in the 4-1-5. Fool, you know how we do it.

Actually, I’ve just been busy as sh*t Hustlemania-style. But hey, that’s Da Life of a Regulator.

In my absence, I’ve seen a disturbing myth about carbs rise up and take over the streets.

It’s got my homies and some suckers all in a mix. And dude, they are totally jacking you.

Good thing when you “glanced in the cut”, you could see your homey Nate. Because I figured it was time “I best pull out my strap and lay them busters down.”

The Renegade Diet & Intermittent Feast

“The bulk of Lee’s education was gained informally from his voracious reading…Lee wrote notes, often verbatim transcriptions in longhand, from passages he found both true and helpful. Reviewing them would inspire him to further writing. These were his private journals, where Lee contemplated the thoughts of men and women of like mind.” – John Little on Bruce Lee in The Artist of Life.

With a combined 30+ years in the industry, I’ve contemplated how interesting it is that Jay and I — through our independent paths of reading, researching, applying, testing, refining, hacking away the unessential, simplifying, etc. — have come to similar conclusions in regards to optimizing diet structure.

Feast at night, baby!

I guess I could narrow it down to the fact that — it is based on our evolutionary history and instinct, it naturally aligns with engrained psychological and social patterns, it triggers fat burning during the day and anabolic activity at night.

And it is flat-out one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to eat in the real world, where most people are unsuccessfully struggling with dietary compliance.

In other words, it is effective as hell at getting the job done. Enough said.

Yet there I was the other night…

“It was a clear black night, a clear white moon…(I) was on the streets trying to consume” some carbs at night, of course, like I always do.

The goal was to refill my glycogen stores that had been depleted through a period of fasting and training, recover from intense anaerobic exercise, kick start some muscle repair and growth, and properly prepare for the next day’s training session.

My peaceful carb load was interrupted by a headline shooting across my computer screen — M.I.L.F. Patrol — hahaha, just kidding, but not really…

The other headline was — Why You Should Cut Carbs at Night.

I don’t know why — maybe to have a diet that you hate and can’t stick to?

They took my carbs, they took my Rolex, “I looked at the brotha and said, damn what’s next?”

Trying to cut calories and carbs at night goes completely against our evolutionary instincts, natural desires, and social patterns. That’s why it rarely works as a baseline diet plan in the real world, off the magazine pages.

Starving on lettuce leaves and low-carb shakes at night, and somehow pretending you’re cool with that, is a miserable way to diet.

Only a very small percentage of athletes can make this work as their standard, everyday plan. Even then, a lot of them can only make it work during their in-season, go crazy during off-season binges, and rebound/yo-yo.

You know the guy who went from ripped to waddling in six weeks. No skirts for you.

So I figured it was time to hit the Eastside of the LBC on a mission trying to find Mr. Rene-”G”-ade.

We need to set these suckas straight so we can get back into freak mode.

Why The Myth Persists

I get it. Eating BIG at night — particularly carbs — is different than what you normally hear in the diet world. And sometimes we just cling to tradition regardless of whether or not it actually produces results.

We fear the unknown.

But you gotta break through if you want to find the most efficient, most functional, and most sustainable path.

Cut your carbs at night. Ha! That is kind of like women running to elliptical machines because they still believe cardio is the best way to burn fat and shape up.

But the brave few that kick this myth to the curb and make strength training their foundation are the ones that ultimately build the bikini bodies us Renegades drool over and dream about.

You know what I’m talking about. The ones that seem to be shouting at you, “Hey, I’d like to have you over for a nice surf and turf dinner.”

Sorry. As always, I digress…

Back to Da Myth, my friends.

There is “sixteen in the clip and one in the hole, Nate Dogg is about to make some bodies (and a big fat carb myth) turn cold.”

Renegades! Mount up!

Carbs at Night- Da Truth

Eating at night doesn’t make you fat. Eating carbs at night doesn’t necessarily make you fat either.

You have to look at our suggested diet structure as a whole — not just isolated parts — to fully understand the big picture.

Eating too many calories or too many carbs over the course of the entire day makes you fat.

If you’ve eaten large and/or frequent carb-based meals throughout the day, and then eat another large dinner on top of that, chances are you will overshoot your daily calorie and carb needs, and gain fat.

It’s the total calorie and carb intake that’s the problem, not the distribution.

Numbers never lie.

If you fast, eat lighter and lower carb during the day, and train like a Renegade, chances are you enter dinner in a relatively large calorie deficit with depleted energy reserves, and even a large meal with a significant amount of carbohydrates will be used to restore energy reserves first, before spilling over into fat stores.

Carbs at Night – Da Proof

Honestly, I look to science to “explain”, not to “prove”. I let my results in the real world do the proving.

But for those who favor a more theoretical approach:

1. From the Obesity (Silver Spring) Journal. Greater weight loss and hormonal changes after 6 months diet with carbohydrates eaten mostly at dinner.

This study was designed to investigate the effect of a low-calorie diet with carbohydrates eaten mostly at dinner on anthropometric, hunger/satiety, biochemical, and inflammatory parameters…Greater weight loss, abdominal circumference, and body fat mass reductions were observed in the experimental diet in comparison to controls… A simple dietary manipulation of carbohydrate distribution appears to have additional benefits when compared to a conventional weight loss diet in individuals suffering from obesity. It might also be beneficial for individuals suffering from insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome. Further research is required to confirm and clarify the mechanisms by which this relatively simple diet approach enhances satiety, leads to better anthropometric outcomes, and achieves improved metabolic response, compared to a more conventional dietary approach.

2. From Metabolism Clinical and Experimental: Glycogen synthesis versus lipogenesis after a 500 gram carbohydrate meal in man.

The data imply that: (1) The capacity for glycogen storage in man in larger than generally believed, and (2) Fat synthesis from CHO will not exceed fat oxidation after one high-carbohydrate meal, even if it is uncommonly large. When a single high-
carbohydrate meal is consumed, dietary CHO merely has the effect of reducing the rate of fat oxidation. These findings challenge the common perception that conversion of CHO to fat is an important pathway for the retention of dietary energy and for the accumulation of body fat.

Now, I’m not saying you need to throw down 500g of carbs every night. But the reality is in a somewhat glycogen depleted state (ie. following a period of fasting, lower carb eating during the day, and training), the body has a metabolic preference to store carbs as glycogen first before “spilling over” into fat stores.

Yes, even at night.

Wrap Up

If you want the practical takeaway message from my ramblings, there are two of them:

1. Don’t fuck with Nate Dogg or his homies. The Renegade Crew runs deep, and we all got each other’s backs.

2. Fast like a hunter in the morning, train like a Renegade whenever, FEAST like a beast at night, and enjoy Da Surf “n” Turf with bikini babes regularly.

As you can see, Nate Dogg and The Rene-”G”-ade had to regulate first.

The next stop is the Eastside Motel, because “Nate’s got the freaks, and that’s a known fact.”

And I know before you got jacked, you were on the same track.

By Jesse Cannone

Everyone knows the basic requirements for losing weight: diet and exercise. But did you know there’s a lot more to it than that?

If you’re looking to stop your cravings for unhealthy carbs and other foods and lose weight, look no further than mastering chemistry – your body chemistry, that is.

The chemistry of your bloodstream – specifically your blood sugar – must be carefully regulated if you want to curb the cravings and lose weight.

Because with high blood sugar, it’s practically impossible to lose weight and keep it off. But in a moment I’ll show you how simple it can be to get those blood sugar levels back under control.

Healthy Blood Sugar Levels Are Key to Weight Loss

Once you have high blood sugar, you become stuck in a vicious cycle: high blood sugar causes you to crave carbohydrates and simple sugars in large quantities.

Your body gets used to having a certain level of sugar in your bloodstream. When it dips, you go into a “sugar crash.” You suddenly feel like you’re starving – you may even start shaking – and you begin to eat anything in reach just to get rid of that craving.

And it’s usually not a healthy, well-balanced meal you reach for, is it? Instead it’s that handy bag of chips just waiting to be torn open and devoured or even a leftover bit of Halloween candy stashed in the back of your freezer.

You can probably guess that binge moments like these are a killer for your waistline.

But that’s not all. Once you’ve given in to your cravings, you’ve just added even more sugar to your bloodstream. So, not only are you overeating between your regular meals, but all that extra sugar in your body turns into fat – FAST.

Now here’s the good news. Once you’re able to control your sudden onset cravings, you’ll no longer binge eat pints of sweet, simple sugars. And then you’ll finally be able to really start losing weight and keeping it off.

Of course, the only way to do that is to regulate your blood sugar.

The Secret to Keeping Healthy Blood Sugar

Thankfully, this vicious cycle can be cured naturally.

Diabetes research over the past fifty years has made multiple breakthroughs regarding substances that naturally help regulate blood sugar. One of the biggest is chromium.

The human body requires this mineral in trace amounts to promote the production of insulin, which helps your body maintain normal blood sugar levels.

This is great news for your waistline. The sooner the sugar in your blood levels out, the sooner you’ll quit craving simple sugars that your body doesn’t need – and the sooner you’ll start to lose weight.

As you probably guessed, most people don’t get nearly enough chromium. The government’s listed Adequate Intake (AI) of chromium runs between 20mcg and 45mcg for adults (dependent on gender, age and conditions like pregnancy).

That’s actually a relatively low amount of chromium. It’s simply not enough for getting your blood sugar back under control. In fact, if you get more than 35% of your calories from simple sugars, your body is excreting most of your chromium as soon as you get it.

This means your body is having an even harder time getting your blood sugar back to normal. It’s just another part of that vicious cycle.

How to Get Enough Chromium In Your Diet Quickly and Easily

There are plenty of apparent ways to get your recommended (low) dose of chromium. A half-cup of broccoli has 11mcg of chromium. A cup of grape juice has 8mcg. Whole wheat, potatoes, and garlic are also good sources. You’ll also find most multivitamins have chromium in them.

But there’s a big problem with just eating these chromium-rich foods or even taking a multivitamin – and there’s little you can do about it.

According to the Office of Dietary Supplements, your intestinal tract only absorbs between 0.4% and 2.5% of the chromium you take in. If you look at the dose of chromium in one of your multivitamins, you’ll understand now why it’s nearly 200% or more of the daily recommended value.

Trying to get even the low daily AI dose of chromium the “regular” way through healthy foods or a multivitamin is practically useless.

Excuses, excuses. If you think you’ve been good in the past, you allow yourself to behave badly in the future, finds new research in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

In other words, if you skipped out on that double bacon cheeseburger for dinner in favor of a salad, you believe it’s OK to have six beers tonight because it could have been worse. When study participants wrote down all the unhealthy things they could have done in the past week but decided not to, they didn’t work as hard to meet their weight-loss goals the next week.

“When people reflect on the unhealthy road not taken, they feel like they’ve proven that they’ve done a good job,” says study author Daniel Effron, Ph.D., of Northwestern University. “When they feel like they made progress, they think it gives them license to indulge in short-term pleasures.”

In a second study, people skipped out on unhealthy snack foods—and actually exaggerated how unhealthy those foods were—as a way to justify indulging in cookies. Effron says when people are tempted to cheat on their diets, they tend to inflate the “sinfulness” of foods they passed up.

Here’s one easy tip to quell temptation: get sweaty. Aerobic exercise can dampen your desire for the excess things you crave, like fast food, finds a 2012 study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.