By Womens Irvine Personal Fitness Training Contributor Ms. X

The big companies that make lots of the foods you eat have one mission…to make more and more money. If they put you at risk, but it makes money for them, then that is the way it is. You have to be really careful with these guys, and here are some little known pieces of information to help you eat responsibly for your health.

1. Most of the products that make all kinds of promises and have lots of colorful claims or are called vegetarian are the ones with the least nutritional value. For instance “meal replacement shakes”, certain supplements and things like Ovaltine. If you want real nutrition, go to the produce section, where interestingly enough, the FDA doesn’t allow any health claims at all.

2. What you read on the Nutritional Label may not list all of the ingredients. Like cancer. Trace amounts of cancer causing chemicals, pesticides, even solvents used in the factories may be present in your foods, but these things are not required to be listed. There is a bill being debated right now in Congress (The National Uniformity for Food Act) that would make it ILLEGAL for states to require cancer-warnings on foods that contain these above listed cancer causing chemicals. They want you to be clueless about what you are putting into your body.

3. MSG is all over the place, and it makes you fat. MSG is linked to the obesity epidemic in America through its addictive qualities. Basically, MSG is added to foods because it is addictive. They add it so that you will eat more of that food, and when presented a food with MSG and a food without, over time you will choose the food with the MSG because you are addicted to it. MSG disrupts normal appetite regulation as well, so you are hungry more often, and you are hungry for guess what? Foods with MSG added to them. On top of that MSG is listed under different names all the time, so if you are trying to avoid it, you can’t. Look for hydrolyzed vegetable protein, yeast extract, tortula yeast and autolyzed yeast. These chemicals are added to foods as “taste enhancers” and are loaded with MSG, in disguise. Read the labels, and know what to look for. The food manufacturers do everything they can to confuse you with the food labeling.

4. Artificial Sweeteners are not good for you and do not help you be healthy because they are calorie free. Aspartame (think NutraSweet, Equal) was denied FDA approval eight times before finally becoming approved, and the stories behind it are scary. Some of the fun side effects of aspartame listed by the FDA are migraines, reproductive disorders, memory loss, nerve cell damage, brain lesions, Alzheimer’s disease, nervous system disorders, mental confusion, hair loss, blindness, joint pain, bloating, food cravings and weight gain. Did you read that? Weight gain.

5. Splenda is no better just because it is made from real sugar. To make Splenda, they chlorinate sugar and change it’s molecular structure, creating sucralose. Splenda is praised for its lack of calories and that is supposedly safe for diabetics. The FDA says that Splenda is 98% pure. What is the other 2% you ask? Oh, that is made up of small amounts of heavy metals, arsenic and methanol. But wow! It has no calories! The fun side effects of this winner include: diarrhea, swelling of the kidneys and liver, decreased fetal body weight and damage to the vital organs, genetic, immune and reproductive systems. Start drinking more water and less Diet Coke!

6. ADHD in children can be blamed on processed foods and food additives like artificial coloring. Approximately 80% of children put on a diet free of processed foods are “cured” in about 2 weeks.

7. While we’re at it, have you noticed how girls that are 9, 10, 11 years old have the bodies of 18 year olds? You can thank growth hormones that are injected in to the chickens we eat, as well as added to milk and other products. If you are eating hormone enhanced foods, you too will be enhanced by the hormones. Don’t just buy the cheapest chicken that’s on sale, buy organic, range free, hormone free chicken. Drink soy milk or almond milk. The cows producing your milk have been injected with synthetic hormones, which have been banned by most nations in the world.

8. Plastic is made up of chemicals, but we store our foods and cook our foods in plastic all the time. Soft plastics are the worst (plastic bags, saran wrap) but hard plastics are bad too. Plastic leaks the chemical bisphenol A into foods, and if you cook in plastic (like heating up leftovers in a Tupperware container) it multiplies the levels of exposure. Bisphenol A is linked to hormone related cancers like breast and prostate cancer, and can also cause fun stuff like breast formation in men and severe hormonal imbalances in women. Use foil, people.

Bottom line is this: Know what you put into that body of yours, it is the only one you’ve got. If you read a nutritional label and it sounds like a science class, put it down and head for the fresh produce, hormone free meats, and organic foods. Your body will thank you!

Ms. X

Brought to you by your Orange County Personal Trainer and San Clemente Personal Training