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Posts tagged ‘Diet industry’

Jan 16

Don’t over-think this, permanent weight loss isn’t as hard as many people think it is, here’s a couple of top tips…

Two weeks in to January.

Just hitting week three.

According to surveys, this is the week “most” people give up on all the ‘new year, new me’ stuff, the diet, the weight loss efforts, the gym, all that.

So, if you are still fired up, motivated, enjoying it and pushing forward - kudos to you, well done, you are doing better than most.

But if you are struggling, here are two thoughts from someone who did it, pushed through, stuck it out and lost the weight, 101 pounds of it, and kept it off, now some 12 years later.

Perfection is bull****

Don’t strive for perfect.

Don’t be that person who ate one bad thing, made one small mistake, and then decided that everything had gone to rat sh*t as a result.

I’ve seen that so many times.

January 16th: “OMG, someone offered me a biscuit at work, by the coffee machine, I ate it, oh well that’s the diet screwed then, sod it, might as well cancel the gym membership and order pizza tonight and open a 6-pack of beers!”

That’s dumb.

Don’t be hard on yourself, it was just one small slip up, boo hoo, get over it and move on.

I can assure you, success comes from getting it right 90% of the time, not from being too hard on yourself all the time chasing 100% perfection.

So the only thing you should give up in the 3rd week of January, is this ‘set-yourself-up-to-fail’ idea of chasing ‘perfect’.

Let that go, and you’ll give yourself permission to be humanly imperfect, which is just what you need to be to navigate the crazy times we live in and keep making forward progress.

Consistency

Once you have let go of the trap of perfect, you’ll be far better equipped to survive the ups and downs of life, which is what you need to achieve success with Tip #2 - stick with it, foe the long haul, be consistent.

The number one pitfall for most people, is ‘fad diet mentality’.

A fad diet is just that - a fad. A temporary change in behaviour that will likely deliver you a temporary change in your results.

You eat less for a few weeks or months, and you weigh less for a few weeks or months.
When you return to eating how you always have, guess what? Yep, the weight returns too.

It’s the ultimate frustrating hamster wheel of modern life.

Instead, you need to adopt a permanent healthy lifestyle, to achieve, keep and enjoy, permanent weight loss results.

If your new January regime has involved cutting back on sugary foods, eating smaller meals, exercising more often or drinking less booze, that’s great, well done you. Now understand that sticking to it, making these changes at a level you can enjoy your life and stick to the changes long term, permanently, will give you long-term, permanent results.

If you want these changes to last, if you want 2019 to be the year you finally break the yo-yo diet cycle, then employ these two tips to work to your advantage:

  • Give up on perfection, just ‘be good’ and aim to make progress on your former self. Don’t berate yourself for small mistakes, just keep on moving forward
  • Stick to it. Don’t be an all-or-nothing maniac, don’t be a quitter, just be consistent. Put good new habits in place, at a level you can live with and enjoy, and stick to it through January, February and onward from there

Achieving weight loss isn’t as hard as many people think, permanent results are achievable, you just have to know what to do and apply yourself to it. If you want more help and simple tips and guidance, plus a full 28-day meal plan and home exercise routines for all levels and abilities, check out my brilliant little book on Amazon Kindle and it just might help keep you on track.

To your 2019, your year!

In good health!

Oct 24

1 Comment

The many reasons why we seem to be losing the fight against rising obesity

As I have written before, the classic weight loss advice to ‘eat less, move more’ has fallen from popularity in recent years. Frankly, those of us in this industry still promoting ‘eat less, move more’ as relevant advice in the face of the rising obesity epidemic are seen as rather outdated, rather old-school. As I have also written before, I do believe that the advice should be updated to ‘eat less, eat better, and move more’ which rather improves on, and corrects, the original expression.

But still, it’s far more current to besmirch all that old school talk as being fattist, as lacking understanding, as being outdated, outmoded and out-of-touch. It’s considered politically incorrect these days to suggest that obesity is on the rise because people eat too much and don’t exercise enough, and indeed it’s now becoming popular to say that any so-called health professional preaching such ancient wisdom is poorly educated and lacking in sympathy and understanding for the victims of the root causes of rising obesity.

To suggest that obese people ‘just eat less and move more’ is now seen as being about as constructive and helpful as telling a depressed person to ‘just get over it and cheer up a bit’. It’s now fashionable and politically correct to see obesity as an eating disorder, and to say that anyone preaching ‘eat less, move more’ is guilty of the most heinous of 21st century crimes - fat shaming.

In our complex modern world, with obesity growing at an alarming rate (or is that just changes to the system of classification?) there are many factors we can blame for rising obesity.

I could go on, but I think that’s enough for now.

All of these factors are relevant, they all play a role, they are all true, all valid, ALL OF THEM account for why some people are overweight, and all of them matter. I am not disagreeing with any one of the thigns on that list, or a dozen more, such as the role of environmental pollution, the rise in the number of TV channels, the role of anti-obesity attitudes in our society, the availability and nutritional content of school lunches, the increase in sugar content in foods, and so on and so on.

But here’s the thing. Read more

Apr 27

3 Comments

Stop reading crap in The Daily Fail!

Stop reading crappy articles in the media! They do almost everyone more harm than good, they really are hopeless, they serve only to sell newspapers and attract online traffic, to help the media site sell to advertisers.

We see all this garbage, news articles like “Drinking red wine does you as much good as going to the gym” and “Drinking coffee helps fight bowel cancer” and “Just 6 minutes of exercise is better for you than hours every day…” and “Eat more cabbage to prevent heart disease” or “Study shows eating sausages cures Parkinson’s” or whatever crap they write. What newspapers and media sites do, is take a grain of truth from a study and turn it into some kind of statement of fact. But the information we start with is NOT a statement of medical or biological fact in the first place, it’s often just an observation…only the dumbass newspaper tries to make it a fact.

The limitations of studies

So for instance, let’s look at a made-up, but realistic, example scenario. Maybe a team of researchers in Canada, or Finland, or California, conduct an observational study, known as a cohort study, to track a large group of people over a fairly long period of time. It may be that they follow 17,450 people for 14 years. At the start of the study, the people recruited were aged 30 to 50 and did not have heart disease, or at least no diagnosed condition or symptoms, such as high blood pressure. The study follows these people’s lives for 14 years, asking them to complete an online survey 4 times per year for 14 years, tracking a couple of hundred questions every time, to understand their behaviour, such as how much they smoke, how much they drink, how many coffees per day they drink, how many times per week they eat fish, how many times per week they eat meat, how many times per week they exercise, and so on. At the end of the study, the researchers primary target is to see how many people developed heart disease or signs of heart disease, such as obesity and high blood pressure.

Once the study is finished, the researchers will have a mass of data about 17,450 people (maybe 20,000 or 25,000 started, but a bunch dropped out along the way) which shows rates of obesity, high blood pressure, type-2 diabetes, and so on, at the start, and rates at the finish, including who developed heart disease or cancer along the way. They also have all this data on what those people ate and did in between times, so they can then look for trends in the data, like xx% of heavy smokers developed xx condition, or xyz% of people who took no weekly exercise, gained the greatest % of weight gain…and so on.

There are many strengths and weaknesses of these kinds of studies, which we won’t look into in detail here. The point is this; often such a study will generate a finding such as “People who drank 3 or 4 cups of coffee per day were at 17% less relative risk of developing coronary heart disease or suffering a myocardial infarction (a heart attack), than people who drank only 1 cup per day or less.”

This makes it to the average trash newspaper or media site as “Good news coffee lovers, drinking 4 cups per day prevents heart attacks!” Read more

Dec 6

Are we normalising obesity?

The rising obesity problem is a subject that is constantly in the news these days. As with every ‘latest thing’ that comes in and out of the public consciousness, when a topic is hot, we find every journalist and blogger out there writing about it, and opinions become varied, multitudinous and often contentious. And so it is with obesity.

In recent years we have seen many opinions about obesity, and read much shared research. We see that obesity can be blamed on genes, and we can read that childhood obesity is down to parenting, not junk food. We might read in the news that obesity could be classified as an eating disorder, or the next day the news will tell us that obesity is caused by poverty. We read that in the US, obesity is being treated as a disease, and we see obesity being blamed on something called obesogenic environments. Another day we may read about the obesity-promoting role of hyperpalatable foods, and we are constantly reading that sugar is to blame for obesity, and other addictive foods. We see the obesity epidemic blamed on the giant corporations of the food industry, and we may have even read that obesity is socially contagious.

Amid all this, while many derogatory words have been written about obese people over the years, now we see the tide turning. Many journalists and bloggers are now reporting that fat shaming does no good, it only makes things worse, it hurts people, and it’s time to stop blaming obese people for their condition; we must be more understanding and supportive. It is suggested that obesity is actually just a learned set of behaviours. We are seeing new reports that obese people are treated differently, to their detriment, by the doctors, and some experts are saying that if you put together everything above, then it plain isn’t your fault if you are fat.

Normalising obesity

It certainly is a contentious topic. I’m not going to go through all those news articles linked above and address each one of them in turn, giving my analysis and opinion on them all, that would take many pages of writing. Suffice to say that some of those articles I broadly agree with, some I largely disagree with, and most, or perhaps all of them, I would say contain some truth, but not ‘the only truth’.

The weight problem in the UK is accelerating rapidly. Official data from 2013 shows that 26% of men in the UK are obese, and 67% of men in the UK are either overweight or obese. For women, those figures are 24% and 57%, respectively. Of all the large, populous nations in Western Europe, the UK is the fattest. In the United States, the problem is even worse, with 71% of men and 62% of women overweight or obese.

To give that data some context, 50 years ago, in the mid-1960s, obesity in the UK stood at around 1.5% (1.8% men, 1.2% women, in 1965).  Read more

Jun 18

What’s wrong with us?

shutterstock_174268115

Human civilisation is truly at a pinnacle in many ways, the things we have achieved and the strides we have made in technology, medicine, construction and engineering are mind-bogglingly amazing. We can fly people out to space, build offices and hotels hundreds of meters high and perform amazingly complex medical operations. Over the last few hundred years, we have come out of the dark ages and largely fixed all the things that used to kill people – high infant mortality, infectious diseases, predators large and small, and rampant wars on every continent. We now live in times of technology, peace and prosperity (and population!) on a scale the human race has never known before.

And yet, for all our wonder and all we have achieved, something is wrong. In my opinion, something seems to be very wrong.

The biggest disease on the planet now is over-consumption. Folks are eating too much, food has become a leisure activity, hundreds of millions of people are literally addicted to eating sweet, tasty, desirable foods. People are eating their way to a global obesity epidemic (while millions in developing nations still starve), eating their way to a diabetes epidemic and eating their way to increasing rates of heart disease and cancer. Inactivity is arguably a global pandemic, and malnutrition is on the increase among the overweight faster than the underweight.

We now have devices that enable people to have a tube from their stomach out to an external pipe, so that they can overeat, then flush a third of their food directly into the toilet. What on Earth is wrong with us?
http://www.newscientist.com/article/2093802-stomach-tap-to-let-obese-people-empty-their-gut-after-eating
According to that article…the ‘most effective treatment for obesity is gastric bypass surgery’ – that’s a sad state of affairs, highlighting the massive problem we have. High-calorie, low-nutrient foods are a legal drug…where cocaine and heroin may only affect a small percentage of the population, sweet foods and junk foods are a ‘mass market addiction’ and in the UK alone we have gone from a situation where 1.5% of the population were obese in 1963, to 28% of the adult population obese 50 years later in 2013.

This is a sickness that risks engulfing the planet, Read more

Oct 31

5 Comments

Beware of hidden sugar.

This is a common theme, but always a topic worth revisiting. I was looking at the amount of sugar in certain foods the other day, and comparing a small fruit yoghurt with a chocolate coated tea cake,  and other items that may be consumed as mid-meal snacks, late-night snacks, or as dessert after a meal.

You see, the yoghurt is a classic example of the kind of foods that have become enormously popular over the last 20 or 30 years, as the words ‘low fat’ have been used as marketing tools to get people to buy these foods thinking they are opting for foods that are healthier options and may help with weight loss.

Typically, a parent buying foods in UK supermarkets for their children to have as dessert may consider a chocolate coated tea cake as a ‘naughty treat’ only for special days or holidays, but they may look upon fruit-flavoured low-fat yoghurts as healthy options for ‘every day’ consumption.

However, looking at the ingredients of this Tesco low-fat orange flavoured yoghurt, we see that sugar is the 4th ingredient listed, and Glucose-Fructose Syrup is the 5th ingredient listed. On food labels, ingredients are listed in size order. Glucose-Fructose Syrup is the UK name for HFCS, High-Fructose Corn Syrup. Read more

Dec 31

3 Comments

We NEED to educate people

Recently, a friend of mine blogged and his thoughts whipped up quite an interesting exchange of opinions.

In short, he basically noted that in the days after Christmas, ‘everyone’ was moaning of coughs, colds, bad guts, headaches, tiredness, gas and feeling bloated, and he commented that he tries to tell people that they are stuffing themselves with junk, and that leaves them feeling ill, but he said ‘people get so easily offended’. Then he said ‘we need to educate people’ and this use of the word ‘need’ whipped up some very interesting feelings and thoughts.

Serving ego

Others felt the use of the word ‘need’ was an ego-driven emotion, “we need to educate people”, suggesting that he was holding some kind of higher moral ground. I have seen this discussion crop up a few times before…and I find this a very interesting topic. There certainly is an element of the health and fitness industry who take this moral stance, they tend to be young, male and stacked with bulging muscles (but not always fitting that precise stereotype!) and they often treat others with a somewhat condescending attitude. They do assume some kind of “I have a right to educate you, whether you asked it or not” as if having muscles and a 6-pack makes you a ‘better person’ than someone overweight or out of shape.

However, I actually do think that ‘we’ (those enjoying abundant good health) do ‘need’ to educate those with health challenges, we just have to do it without the ego, the attitude and without giving anyone the feeling that we are trying to take some kind of moral stance, judging them for the mistakes they may or may not have made.

I believe that many people unwittingly fail to understand that their food and lifestyle choices are hurting them. Read more

Dec 11

Physician, heal thyself

I am not in the business of attacking anyone else, putting anyone else down or judging anyone. I think that kind of thing is already all-too-common online, and it is negative, it really doesn’t help anyone. I have been blogging for over 4 years, and I have not attacked anyone else in that time.

However, some self-proclaimed healthcare professionals, some folks with lots of academic qualifications, have told me I am a quack, a danger to the public, preaching pseudo-science and quackery.

Those of you who have been to my live Seminar, you be the judge of that.

Meanwhile, under the watchful guidance of the medically qualified, our great nation seems to be suffering -

  • National obesity EPIDEMIC
  • Diabetes EPIDEMIC
  • Heart disease at EPIDEMIC proportions
  • Cancer rates SOARING
  • Depression rates SOARING
  • Childhood obesity SOARING
  • Statins, antacids, anti-depressants and PPIs widespread
  • Now see this -
    - HALF of all the women in the UK, and NEARLY HALF of all men are now taking PRESCRIPTION DRUGS.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-30411246

Quote “The more medicines you take, the more contact you have with contemporary medicine, the less well you feel.” Read more

Dec 10

MND TV Episode 6 - Fat makes you Fat! No, It’s the SUGAR! Just eat your 5-a-day!

MND TV Episode 6 – a very brief word on some of the ever-changing advice out there in the land of diets, health and fad diet sales tricks!

“Don’t eat fat it will make you fat!”

“No, no it’s not the fat now, it’s sugar – just don’t eat sugar, it’s the cause of rising diabetes and the obesity epidemic.”

“Just eat your 5-a-day!”

“Oh no it’s not 5-a-day anymore, it’s 7-a-day, you must eat your 7-a-day to combat cancer and other diseases!”

Why these gems of wisdom are not helping, and society as a whole seems to be suffering more ill health despite decades of this advice.

http://mothernaturesdiet.tv/2014/09/16/mnd-tv-episode-6/

This Episode is short and is really just a follow-up to MND TV Episode 5.

Dec 4

You only know it, if you are living it.

I attended a seminar about wealth creation, and the speaker T. Harv Eker said that - “You only know it if you are living it.”

He meant it in the context of ‘Don’t take wealth creation advice from someone who isn’t rich!’ but I also think it applies to all other areas of life too, including health.

  • I’ve met weight loss coaches who are fat
  • I’ve met people who are broke, telling you how to make money
  • I’ve met fat unhealthy doctors who smoke
  • I’ve met people who help others quit addictions…who still drink
  • I’ve met personal trainers who aren’t very fit
  • I’ve met people teaching ‘how to make millions online’ who haven’t made millions online
  • I’ve met people teaching property investing who don’t own a large portfolio of investment properties
  • I’ve met people teaching relationship skills who are not in a blissful loving relationship
  • I’ve met people who teach marriage success who have been divorced 2 or 3 times
  • I’ve met nutritional therapists who teach weight loss and good health, who are fat and in poor health
  • I’ve met healers who need healing
  • I’ve met therapists who need therapy

I am sick and tired of this bullshit. Is it just me? Read more

Dec 1

No, you don’t have a “sweet tooth”!!!

The second episode of MND TV is ready for you to watch now.

MND TV Episode 2 – how to control those carb cravings. You really don’t have a ‘sweet tooth’!!

http://mothernaturesdiet.tv/2014/09/01/mnd-tv-episode-2/

Warning - this is a bit of a rant, so if you are easily offended…tough shit! Suck it up and get over it!

 

Nov 17

Healthy living the MND way is SO easy!!

IMG_3523Living the healthy MND way is really very easy.

Wake up.

Pee!

Wash!

Dress!

Drink a glass of water.

Go for a brisk short walk.

Enjoy a healthy breakfast - remember the MND food rules: no processed food, just eat real food, that’s plants and animals.

IMG_6319

I like eggs with greens for my breakfast, it only takes 5 minutes!

At some point in the day, try to get a work out. Maybe you will go for a bike ride or a swim or a run…

SOUTH DEVON CTS MARAshutterstock_119307160

Or another day, maybe you’ll lift weights, or use your own bodyweight to workout and load your muscles…

 

Make sure you eat whole, fresh, real food for lunch… IMG_6439

…like this picture of liver, kidneys and greens.

 

During your day, make sure you drink plenty of fresh clean water.

 

Make sure you go outside at some point and get some fresh air.

 

Ensure you take time for your friends and family, hug someone, share some love.

 

Eat a wholesome light dinner, again, just eat real, whole, fresh food, shutterstock_143497294
nothing processed with a long list of ingredients that sounds like a chemistry class.

 

Take some time to rest, and get plenty of sleep.

 

There, who said healthy living needed to be complicated?

MotherNaturesDiet - because nutrition doesn’t need to become rocket science.

MND for better living.

Aug 23

2 Comments

Fitness gadgets and gimmicks

I feel compelled to have a bit of a rant today…I’m sorry if I ‘knock’ something you like, don’t take it personally!!

Being a health and fitness freak and keen blogger, I am myself subscribed to many other blogs, newsletters and health or fitness related websites, so I receive LOTS of emails about health and fitness related topics. Some are great, and some are, well, crap. If you are a regular follower of my blog, you’ll know already that I try my best not to ‘name names’ as I don’t like to be negative or put anyone else down, I just don’t think there is any need. So I’m not going to name any person, company or product in this post if I can help it, I’ll be purposefully vague when it comes to names.

There’s an app for that

I read a lot, and for the last 17 years I have been professionally involved in the tech business, specifically in the mobile phone business. Over the last year or two, I have a growing nagging feeling that there are aspects of ‘the smartphone boom’ that are really starting to bother me. Increasingly, I worry that the devices in our pockets are doing so much for us, that our brains (especially the common sense part, and the ‘gumption’ part) are in danger of atrophying away to nothing. I am bothered by the ridiculous range of apps available, and the ridiculous ways they are encouraging people to become lazier, and the ridiculous ways they are filling all our time with nonsense activities. Image for infographic

In the last week, I have read of several truly ridiculous new apps. There is one that’s just been released which links a certain make of car (in the US) with a certain extremely popular make of phone. So you can buy the app, sync your phone with your car, and the app enables you to unlock the car and start the engine from a distance, as you walk towards the car and prepare to get in to it. I am forced to ask the question…WHY? Why the hell does anyone need such an app? Why would any developer/company bother to put up the development costs to make such an app? Are people really THAT lazy or in that much of a hurry?

Another new app helps people find their car, if they can’t remember where they parked it in a car park. This particular app specialises in doing this in places with no mobile signal, so it uses Bluetooth or satellite signals. Oh, however did we survive the last 50 years without such a thing? Read more

Jul 30

2 Comments

Eating the MND way every day - 17-a-day average!

Some days, actually pretty much every day, I am asked what I eat.

I eat an EXTREMELY nutritious diet, and this is important.

I have written about this, and it would be WELL WORTH you taking some time to read these links in this post, as this is fundamental to what MND is all about.

See, I don’t want an ‘average’ life, I want an exceptional life, so I don’t want to eat an ‘average’ diet, I want to nourish my body with exceptional nutrition. I don’t want to die at an ‘average’ age, I want to live to an exceptional age. I don’t want ‘average’ levels of energy, I want exceptional levels of energy. I don’t want to have the body of an ‘average’ 45 year old looking back at me in the mirror next year, I want to have an exceptional physique for a 45 year old. I don’t want to ‘show up’ in my career, my relationships or my sports at an ‘average’ level, I want to be freakin’ exceptional in every way that I can be. Maybe I’m an arrogant prick with lofty ideas, but if so, then to hell with it, that’s who I am, follow me or go read some other blog, ‘cos this is who I am and this is what I want and this is what MND is all about - you either ‘get it’ and like it, or you don’t.

I believe that packing my body with super-nutrition will help me achieve my goals…it’s certainly been serving me very well for the last few years. I have written about some of the advantages - as I see them - of this lifestyle, try reading these:

7-a-day offers health benefits and protection from cancer. Eat the MND way and get 17-a-day
- it’s long, I don’t care, it’s bloody good stuff, I urge you to find the time to read it and share it with everyone you care about!

And this - How eating an extremely nutrient rich diet can help you resist the signs of ageing

Another long one, sorry peeps: Are all calories created equal? - you need to read and understand this post, there is NO ROOM for “empty” calories in my diet. I want every gram of food I eat to offer me something, FUEL MY FIRE for LIVING, I don’t have the spare energy to eat crap that slows me down, I’m a man on a mission in life and every scrap I eat has to feed my body to do everything I want it to do - if those calories ain’t packing nourishment, I ain’t eating them!

And finally - It’s not just about weight loss!!! Skinny people die too!

So I thought I would post up just what I eat to pack in that AVERAGE of 17 servings of vegetables (and some fruit) every day.

Breakfast - eggs and greens. That’s 5 eggs, and then there is broccoli, kale, dandelions, spinach - more greens than eggs!

Lunch - turkey (free range) and lashings of veggies (including some deliciously sweet yellow courgette that my big sister grew in her allotment - delicious, thanks Sis, way tastier than supermarket courgettes!) (sorry, no idea why WordPress has put that image up on end like that!)

Dinner - MND home made kidney and steak and veggies. This is a kinda whacky MND version of steak and kidney pie…only we don’t eat pie, so we use veggies as carbs instead of pie casings! Otherwise, it’s just lambs kidneys, some tasty steak, loads of veggies and some herbs.

And if it’s warm weather and I don’t want 3 cooked meals in one day, maybe I’ll have a salad - when I make salad, I forage leaves from my garden, dandelions from up the lane, and my salad looks like art on a plate. I love a big salad!

During the day, I will eat 1 whole white grapefruit, and probably 1 apple.

THAT, is how you get 17 portions of mostly vegetables in you in 1 day, EVERY DAY, and enjoy your food.

If you want to know what a ‘portion’ is, you can download booklets and wallcharts here - http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/5ADAY/Pages/Portionsizes.aspx

MND is not “just another paleo diet” - if you know my story then you’ll know I was paleo 3 or 4 years ago, but I found the paleo movement getting all bent out of shape by too many people who think it’s just an excuse to eat their own body weight in bacon every day and lift heavy things. When they start making “paleo chocolate muffins” I moved on…caveman didn’t eat bloody chocolate muffins!!!

See my thoughts on the paleo diet here - Paleo-Reality Part 1: What’s right and wrong about paleo diets.

MND - fuel for inspired living.

Who’s with me?

 

May 11

3 Comments

I’m not fat, so I can eat what I like! My food choices don’t affect my health!! (And other bullsh*t beliefs!)

Forgive me going off on a bit of a rant today, but I was just having this conversation with a friend and I thought I would share this with you, as it’s a relevant ‘case study’ and applies to loads of people.

What is this post about?

  • There are a LOT of people around who are not over weight, so they take an ‘I can eat whatever rubbish I like’ attitude to their diet
  • This is deep-held belief that people have, that if they are not grossly over weight, then there is no further connection between diet and health
  • Last time I checked the scientific literature, slim people still get sick. Slim people still suffer coughs, colds, flu. Slim people still suffer chronic fatigue, tiredness, skin conditions and bowel conditions. Slim people still get heart disease. Slim people still get cancer. Slim people still die! Last time I spoke to one of my Doctor friends, I don’t recall “Not being over weight” as a cure-all solution to living forever and never getting ill.

Conclusions in this post:

  • There are many factors involved in whether or not you are over weight
  • Body fat serves numerous function in your body, some of them are involved in keeping you healthy
  • Eating a diet high in junk food affects your health in many ways above and beyond whether or not you carry excess body fat

Read on to learn more.

I’m not fat, so I can eat what I like! My food choices don’t affect my health!!

I hear this one a LOT. I could write an entire book (seriously, 100,000 words, 200 pages, no problem!) just tackling this myth and all the threads and sub-topics that come off this. In the interests of time and sanity, I will try to keep this post brief, as you and I don’t have time for a whole book today! Read more

May 9

Orthorexic control freaks…and other symptoms of quitting sugar

What is this post about?

  • A lady quit sugar for one year, and wrote a book about it
  • A reviewer slated her behaviour as orthorexic and obsessive!
  • That same reviewer, on other days, writes recipes for biscuits and pizza

Main conclusions:

  • In my opinion, they are both trying to sell stories to their readers, when they should focus on natural healthy living
  • MND circumvents all this bullshit, and just get’s on with abundant healthy living

shutterstock_160886558

Read on to learn more.

So a lady wrote a book “Year of No Sugar” which seems pretty sensible to me - for MND I preach ‘no sugar’ for life, so one year seems like a good starting point.

She seems like a nice and genuine lady, you can visit her blog here.

However, the book received this utter slating of a book review, titled ‘Year of No Sugar Reads Like a How-To Manual for an Eating Disorder’ - frankly, harsh! Read more

May 8

1 Comment

Real world, real workouts, real nutrition - keeping it simple and REAL with MND

As I wrote earlier this week, to help you get through my long posts, from now on I will put bullet points at the start, telling you in brief what the post is about, and in brief, the main conclusions or points that I come to.

This way, if you are short of time, you can read the bullet points, which only takes 30 seconds, and it should tell you the essence of the post – if it sounds interesting, you will find the 5 minutes you need to read the whole thing, but otherwise, the bullet points tell you enough to get the main idea.

I will try to remember to summarize all future posts this way. I hope this is helpful!

What is this post about?

  • We live in a time when we are drowning in information, the Internet offers more health, diet and fitness advice than you could ever read
  • The trouble is, most of it is rubbish!
  • The vast majority of diet and fitness information online, is unnecessarily complicated, usually because someone is trying to sell you something
  • I see far too many people wrapped up in all this time-wasting, complex detail, and yet they don’t have ‘the basics’ covered

Main conclusions:

  • In my opinion, the basics are simple things we can all do - eat real food, stay well hydrated, and demonstrate a solid. basic level of strength and fitness that can be adapted to all sports and fitness programs
  • Be able to run a few miles, do a few push-ups, lift your own bodyweight on a chinning bar - this is simple, basic stuff

Read on to learn more.

The diet and fitness industry online

In recent days, I’ve spent a few hours reading a variety of ‘health and nutrition’ pages on Facebook. I don’t want to put anyone else down, and I’m not trying to blow my own trumpet (well, maybe a bit, MND is the best page on Facebook!!)…but I have to say, there really is a total load of rubbish out there. There are loads of sites promoting supplements, loads focussed on weight loss, loads for body building, there are ‘disease-specific’ support groups, there are ‘tone up your tummy’ type diet pages, but there is an overwhelming amount of noise, with very little practical advice and sales-pitch-free useful information lost in the general hubbub of attention seeking marketing.

I’m not saying MotherNaturesDiet is all things to everyone, but this page is about REAL world stuff. I’m not a personal trainer, fitness model, yoga goddess, body builder or some other health and fitness professional. I’m a ‘normal’ guy, I have young kids, a day job and a busy life. I was fat and unhealthy for 20 years and I smoked and drank and made poor choices. But after 2 decades of making those poor choices, I figured out how to be healthy, and now I am sharing what I know with YOU. Read more

Apr 17

3 Comments

Carb Blocking Pills - another chemical abomination of the diet industry

I was in Boots the chemist a few days ago, and I saw this garbage on the shelf.

It absolutely breaks my heart to see this in the UK’s best known high street pharmacy - where ‘Joe Public’ places his trust.

So the idea is, rather than educating people to just eat real food, we let them carry on chomping processed grains, but then they take a “carb control” tablet to help their body NOT to absorb the carbs, to help them poop out the undigested foods instead? Oh my Lord that’s so screwed up. 

It physical hurts me inside, I find this chemistry-class bullshit so offensive that it actually makes me ache to my core, I want to scream and shout. 

EVERYTHING about this is wrong. The way for ALL OF US to enjoy fantastic abundant good health, is to go in the polar opposite direction to this ‘nutritional madness’ way of thinking. 

I could rant for hours about this stuff, it makes me so mad. If someone can’t stop munching ‘carbs’ to the point that they know they are harming their own health then they need to address the underlying psychological issues, not take more pills.

Authority figures 

Members of the general public PLACE THEIR TRUST in “perceived authority figures”. This is an important point. 

Imagine our anonymous person, Joe Public, he is overweight, unhealthy, middle aged, confused. He has spent years trying to lose weight, yo-yo dieting, but ‘nothing seems to work’. He looks around and sees all these diet books and self-proclaimed experts (people like me, perhaps!), he will see the Doctor saying one thing, the Pharmacist saying another, this diet book says low fat, that diet book says low carb, this online expert says get more exercise, that nutritional advisor says eat more fruit - these conflicting opinions go on and on, and the poor guy (or gal) ends up feeling lost and confused. Out of that confusion, MOST people chose to place their TRUST in the figures they perceive as respected, ‘legally recognised and respected’ authorities. They tend to TRUST the Doctors, and big companies like food companies and drug companies and Boots the chemist. Because these are established legal entities, his brain says “Well they wouldn’t be allowed to sell this stuff unless it was good for us” and that’s who he decides to trust. 

But here is the problem:

  • The Doctors are not trained in nutrition. They are not actually trained in HEALTH they are trained to TREAT DISEASE and INJURY - there is a big difference. They are trained to treat and relieve symptoms
  • The Food companies “wouldn’t be allowed to sell that stuff if it was bad for us” - errr, hello, companies still sell cigarettes? Right, that’s flawed logic - much of the food in our supermarkets is garbage, but ‘they’ are legally allowed to make it, promote it and sell it
  • The drug companies - they are in it to treat symptoms and make money. They are not in the “Healthy” business, they are in the making money business. If no one got sick any more, there would be no business for them. I’m not saying that I believe the whole conspiracy theory idea that ‘they’ have the cures for all ills but they are holding back on us in the name of profit. IF a drug company came out with a ‘miracle cure pill’ tomorrow that could reduce and eliminate 90% of cancer tumours, they would patent that drug and make trillions for the next 25 years - if they had it, they would do it. BUT, if the ‘cure’ was to help people not get cancer in the first place, just through natural healthy living…well, then they wouldn’t be so keen to promote that would they, as that is not something they could patent. I think it’s a case of ‘Drug companies are not in the business of stopping illness from occurring in the first place, they are in the business of selling pills to treat symptoms of illness.’

 

So Joe Public places his trust in health care professionals and big corporations, because among all the ‘noise’ and people like me (who am I? Who is MND, just another guy ranting online…not ‘qualified’ to tell anyone what to do…) he doesn’t know who else to trust. More books, articles and blog posts come online every single day than anyone could possibly read, so among the mass of conflict and confusion, people place their trust in the ‘perceived authority figures’. 

And companies like Boots the Chemist are the kind of company that the public trusts. Boots has been on Britain’s High Streets for 50 years or more, longer than anyone can remember - it is a 150 year old company. Flawed logic says “if they have been around that long, they must be good guys, I can trust them”. 

It’s actually quite hard to write about this publicly without looking like I’ve jumped on “the conspiracy theory bandwagon”. I don’t think there is a ‘big evil man in a black suit with a bald head and a diamond encrusted eye patch, with scars on his face and stroking a white cat planning the end of mankind’ - I don’t think these food companies and drug companies are inherently evil and laughing at ‘our’ demise as we all get fat and sick and die young. It really isn’t like that. I think it’s the system, it is flawed from the outset, there is no commercial connection between the National Health Service, the food companies and the drug companies. Unless government (the ultimate high level power that we place our trust in, right?) do something to instigate change, then the system is likely to remain broken. Because all these entities are operating alone - there is no mechanism that connects them.

If government was a bit more forward thinking, they would see that the tax dollars they are getting from the sale of sugar and junk food and diet pills, is a drop in the ocean compared to the rapidly booming cost of treating a nation of obese unhealthy ageing people. The NHS is set to collapse under it’s own lack of funding in the next 20 or 30 years, IN OUR LIFE TIMES, causing dramatic problems for OUR old age, and our children and grand children.

BUT if we could get people educated how to be healthy from the start - so they don’t need pills, powders, potions, so they don’t get obese and ill, then we could reduce the future burden. It needs someone directing national policy to understand that the sale of processed foods laden with salt, refined sugar and processed oils, is making the population sick. If they then used tax mechanisms to promote healthy food choices (tax breaks for organic farmers, tax BURDENS on the advertising of foods with added refined sugar) and if the NHS allocated some budget to national education, then we might make some progress on these problems. It’s all about fixing the cause, not waiting to try to patch up the effect.

The 12 Core Principles of MotherNaturesDiet are a 90% fix for 90% of problems for 90% of people. Not 100%, I don’t suggest this is a cure-all, it’s a way to live to be healthy, not a “can fix all ills” solution for people who are already sick - they need individualised attention to fix individual problems. But MND is a healthy natural lifestyle, it’s an abundant healthy way to live to stop people getting sick in the first place.

I shall continue ranting til the cow comes home, til people listen! I’m on a mission!!!!

Back to the carb blockers

So that is why it breaks my heart when I see this company selling ‘carb blocker’ pills on the shelf next to SlimFast garbage. I am afraid we have ended up in a world where people are being treated as UTTERLY STUPID. “They” have made “us” believe that health is a great, vast, mystical, complex problem, and you need their help to sort it out - ‘they’ now sell magazines to teach you how to ‘walk quickly’??? Really - https://mothernaturesdiet.me/2014/03/18/has-anyone-got-a-copy-of-this-months-how-to-breathe-magazine/ 

“They” would have YOU believe that you NEED to spend your MONEY (folks, sadly, it ALL comes down to money) on a magazine about walking, on carb blockers, slimming powders, fat blocking pills, meal replacement shakes, expensive lycra clothing and minimalist running shoes that seem to cost more for less materials than normal shoes? How figure?  Pills prices

Just look at the prices of these pills. Remember - this is a product you are expected to pay for, to eat AS WELL AS the food you pay for, this is not instead of, but on top of, your food. So these tablets, that contain a type of sugar, maltodextrin, that are designed to stop you absorbing sugar…and they cost 30 quid for a small box. What’s that work out at pound-for-pound? The shelf labelling says they are 42pence per tablet. The tablets weight less than 1 gram each. So let’s just say 1 gram, and I’m being generous. That means this product costs £420 pounds per KILO!!!!

Organic broccoli in Waitrose is £4:14 per kilo.

Go figure which is best for you!!!!!!!!!!

People are being ripped off in a way that offends me to my very core!!!!

One MND follower told me that the waste which comes out of you, if you use these tablets, it thick black, runny, stinky and disgusting. I have no knowledge of that myself, but I do not like to think of what these chemical concoctions do inside your digestive system. You want to know why I call this ‘nutritional madness’? These pills are designed to stop your body from absorbing carbs - carbs, once they get down into your intestines, are forms of sugar. Look at the ingredients. Basically, the tablets are made up of some proprietary blend of glycoproteins (that’s proteins with sugars chemically added?), and an anti-foaming agent, to stop you bloating and farting like crazy. Then they contain a bunch of compounds that are hard to pronounce, including maltodextrin (a carb) and something that says cellulose (starchy carbs you can’t digest) and some silicon, salt and talc. Sounds delightful.

carb control

It makes me sick. I believe that “an overwhelming majority” of the entire health, wellness, diet, slimming, beauty industry is a TOTAL RIP OFF. Companies charging a fortune for powdered supplements - https://mothernaturesdiet.me/2013/10/12/beware-of-health-and-wellness-industry-rip-offs/ 

I may be an unqualified heretic, a quack, a charlatan, whatever the people making these tablets would call me, but the point is, MND is the best way to live for supreme good health - no pills, no powders, no bullshit. 

Pills are not the answer!! - https://mothernaturesdiet.me/2013/12/10/pills-are-not-the-answer/

They should print health warnings on junk food - Health warnings on foods containing sugar and artificial additives

SlimFast and other Meal Replacement Drinks – the Bad, The Worse and The Plain Ugly

MND - plain common sense.

Just eat real food, move your body, spend more time outside, get sunshine and fresh air, drink more water. Good health can be so simple.

 

Apr 4

11 Comments

7-a-day offers health benefits and protection from cancer. Eat the MND way and get 17-a-day

Earlier this week, there was a lot of noise in the press concerning news released by University College London (UCL) about a study they conducted, the findings of which suggest that the UK guidelines for eating fruit and vegetables should be raised from 5-a-day to 7-a-day. I am sure you have heard about this in the press, so I just thought I would share a few of my MND thoughts with you.

Summary of this post:

  • Eating much more veg could CUT a QUARTER of all CANCER deaths
  • Vegetables are much more beneficial than fruit
  • The UK government should subsidise organic vegetables through tax breaks, and add tax on to sugar and junk food
  • MotherNaturesDiet offers ALL the benefits you need – lots of vegetables and good protection from cancer and heart disease
  • I personally eat an average of 17 per day, if you follow MND in full, you should too

Firstly, there seems to have been a lot of resistance to this new proposal, many members of the public complaining that they don’t like this idea. I find such resistance strange – I mean, why don’t people want to know how to be healthier, not get sick, and live longer? I would welcome any advice in those areas, not reject it. The results from the report conclude: Quote “Eating seven or more portions reduces the specific risks of death by cancer and heart disease by 25% and 31% respectively. The research also showed that vegetables have significantly higher health benefits than fruit.”

WOW, just WOW. I don’t see any reason why people are not leaping up and down with untold joy at this information. Cancer and heart disease are the two biggest killers in our society. Cancer is an utter scourge on humanity, it wrecks lives and hurts us all, we all know someone, we’ve all lost someone we love to cancer. And here, research proves almost beyond question, that ensuring you eat lots of vegetables is one way to STOP a QUARTER of all cancer deaths. HOLY SHIT BALLS. You know how “Cure cancer” is one of the great quests of the human race – EAT VEGGIES. That’s a quarter of the problem already solved. WOW, be excited, isn’t that an AMAZING conclusion!!!

It’s incredible!! If a drug company patented a new drug tomorrow and took it to market claiming “Will cure 25% of all cancer over the next 4 decades” they would make BILLIONS from it and every doctor in the land would be prescribing it, and every cancer patient or pre-cancer scare/high-at-risk patient would want that drug. Well, that drug is here, and it’s called broccoli. It’s called kale. It’s called cabbage. Just eat your veggies. Read more

Mar 18

4 Comments

Has anyone got a copy of this month’s ‘How to Breathe’ magazine…?

I stopped in at Sainsbury’s the other day to buy a bunch of flowers, and I spotted this magazine on the shelf - ‘Womens Walking’

What? Does someone think women need a bi-monthly magazine to tell them how to walk now? Is this a joke? Is it April 1st?

Look, I don’t want to put down anyone who engages in physical exercise - walking is the #1 best exercise going and we should all walk every day and I regularly encourage you to get up, get out and go walk. So I am not down on walking, and not criticising anyone who pro-actively makes an effort to get out and walk more often. BUT, I think this is a classic example of the complete rip-off of the ‘diet and health industry’ that they try to cash-in on healthier lifestyles, by trying to convince people there is some kind of science around going for a walk. There isn’t, don’t fall for it. I did NOT look in the magazine, it would have likely wound me up too much…but what comes next, I can imagine, you probably need special shoes that cost £130 quid, and you need nutrition tips, a hydration pack, blister-resistant socks, a training plan?

IMG_1912The articles  - kit guide, events, routes, weight loss. Folks, please don’t be fooled by the over-complication and over-scientific-complexity of going out for a walk…just walk! Any time, any place, any weather, just go for a walk. Do you think you need a ‘kit guide’ for that? Let me help:

Hydration - take a bottle of water.

Really long walk - take 3 bottles of water.

Fuel on long walks - take some food, carrots, apples, hard boiled eggs.

Lots of water and food to carry - get a rucksack - tends to have an opening at the top, you put stuff in then close it up and carry it.

Looks like it might rain - take a jacket.

Routes - find a hill, woods, a forest, a coastal path, looks for signs that say ‘Footpath’ - and go explore. Buy a local map.

Really, I just don’t think it needs to get any more complicated than that. You don’t need to spend a load of money. Read more

Mar 13

You think my food is boring? Try taking a look at your LIFE!

Someone recently said to me “Oh man I know it’s healthy and all that, but a lot of your food looks really boring, you eat the same thing all the time, eggs and greens, nuts and fruit, meat and veggies, it’s so boring. Don’t you want Chinese take away and pizza and chips and curry and loads of different things every week? Come on mate, you only live once, have some fun! Don’t you get bored?”

Erm, no, I don’t, thanks. Fortunately, I actually have enough going on in my life that I don’t need to look to my evening meal to find something thrilling and exciting in my day. Read more

Mar 8

3 quick Top Tips for a Healthy Weekend

Happy Weekend!!

Here are my top tips for a HEALTHY weekend:

Tip 1: Eat REAL food

  • That means things that grow in the mud or from a tree (think apples, broccoli, carrots, parsnips, pears)…   - and things that run, swim or fly, things that make noises and move (think chicken, lamb, salmon) Read more

Mar 7

1 Comment

Spring Special Offer - Get Excited Now!

Seasonal discounts available NOW on range of MND health and fitness products.

The sun is shining!!! Wooohooo!! The ceaseless rain in the UK seems to be coming to an end, and as spring is coming, here at MND we want to help put a spring in your step!

So grab yourself a bargain right now!

First on the list, we can offer you our revolutionary new health product called ‘Air’! This little beauty offers you a simply life-saving range of health benefits, just look what this fantastic ‘Air’ can do for you:

  • Without this, you’re dead in just 5 minutes! Boo yah, beat that SlimFast!
  • Research shows that every living person on Earth, now and EVEN back in the ‘Golden Era’ of the Paleolithic period, they ALL breathed Air! Boom! Take that ViSalus!
  • Suitable for vegans, vegetarians, pescetarians, breatharians, gnashing meat-eaters, cannibals and pretty much everyone else alive! Kapow! Who’s ya daddy now Multi-Vit tablet? Read more

Mar 1

1 Comment

Getting the macronutrient balance right - the simple way, with MotherNaturesDiet

I was recently asked for my advice on macronutrients in a healthy diet:

  • How much protein should I eat?
  • You seem to advocate a very low-carb diet. Should I eat more carbs, where do you get your energy from?
  • Do you eat lots of good fats?
  • What about saturated fats? Omega-3’s? Oils?
  • 3 meals per day, or 4, or 5, or 6?

I believe that eating has gotten far too complicated, we are all wrapped up in measuring calories, macronutrients and micronutrients, when I believe that if we are eating the right foods, then such ‘scientific detail’ is not really worth worrying about too much, not for most people. Read more

Feb 28

3 Comments

What’s gone wrong with our food?

What’s gone wrong with our food? Why are we so obsessed with nutrients?

For tens of thousands of years we humans were quite happy and quite healthy (and of mostly fairly normal body weight) just eating real whole foods, namely plants and animals.

Then ‘they’ came along and started poking around with microscopes and test tubes and Bunsen burners, and suddenly everything was broken down into science, and eventually they vilified animal fats. So everyone cut out animal fats, and fat was labelled bad, but the finger pointed specifically at saturated fat from animal sources. So people ate less red meat, and they cut out butter and in response the food companies made margarine, and started adding lots of extra sugar (because with no fat, the food tasted bland) and these odd ‘engineered chemical fats and oils’ to various foods. Then after a decade or two eating those, as people got fatter and diabetes and heart disease rates soared, then they changed stance, and now trans fats and cheap vegetable oils are vilified as the baddies, so we should all go back to butter and ditch the margarine.

And the people asked “But we stopped eating animal saturated fats, years ago, because they were bad…right?”

The people wanted to know “what is it that is supposed to be so wrong with animal foods? How come all that research linked high rates of disease to the consumption of animal foods?” Read more

Feb 13

1 Comment

It’s the sugar!

Regular readers of this blog will know that I have written about sugar MANY times before.

Sugar is Public Enemy #1 – stop blaming meat and fat!

Health warnings on foods containing sugar and artificial additives

Sugar and the Insulin Response – in plain, simple English

Of course, if you follow a healthy lifestyle, then you likely already know that refined white sugar is the ‘villain of the hour’ in the health and wellness industry, and quite rightly so! For the last few years, the evidence against sugar as the real ‘bad boy’ of the modern Western diet has been mounting.

Following that trend, you will be interested to see the results of a new research study that was posted just last week. The authors of the study wanted to see if the ‘anti-sugar rumours’ were based in truth, so they set out to study links between sugar consumption and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the United States, collecting and collating data from several surveys published between 1988 and 2010. Read more

Jan 5

Who is MotherNaturesDiet for?

  • What is MotherNaturesDiet really all about?
  • Who is this for?
  • What is the goal?

I am often asked what MND is all about, who is it for, who should follow MND and why?

I have spent a long time thinking about it all.

I have dear friends who have pointed out that on the one hand, I ‘preach’ moderation and clean living: I tell people to practice clean eating, to de-stress, I promote calm living in commune with Mother Nature, I tell people to de-stress, relax, walk in the woods, enjoy the mountains, get some fresh air and sunshine and chill out, I recommend that we all pay off our debts, treat our bodies with respect and love more.

Then on the other hand, I myself train like a maniac 5 days per week, I regularly try to motivate you with posts about my tough training sessions. I cycle miles and miles, I run marathons and ultra-marathons, I run over mountains, I rock climb, I have a climbing wall up the side of my house, I have done 1000 push ups in an hour and I throw 250 pound tractor tyres around several times per week.

People say to me “there seems to be a conflict” and I think about this myself, and I have finally figured out what it’s all about. Read more

Dec 31

2013 Popular Posts #3: Beauty, Photoshop and the Media – keep it REAL people

Heading into the top 3 most popular MND blog posts of 2013 now.

This post only went online 2 weeks ago, but it has already proved to be the 3rd most popular thing I wrote in 2013.

What we see in the media, the images used in advertising, selling us everything from bathrooms to holidays, slimming foods to make up, clothes to cars, are not REAL. We are being sold a lie, and REAL people in the REAL world can never look like the images the media use to sell us these dreams.

make up artist pro

Thanks to professional make-up artists, professional photographers, lighting, lenses, filters and of course, the airbrushing of finished images, the media distorts everything we see. It’s ALL about selling us an impossible dream, to keep us STRIVING (to keep us BUYING) for something that is truly NOT REAL and unattainable.

It’s like watching stars in Hollywood movies and aspiring to have their looks, bodies or lifestyles. It’s not real. In the movies you never see the stars doing ordinary things, like buying groceries, cleaning the house or taking a dump. A movie is not real, it’s just a made-up, edited image. So it is with pictures on billboards and in magazines. Photographers and photo-editors create images that are NOT real, and can never be achieved in real life, they are only there to make you DESIRE the image, and that will trigger you to purchase what they are selling, in your pursuit of an unrealistic, unachievable goal.

Read more…
https://mothernaturesdiet.me/2013/12/13/beauty-photoshop-and-the-media-keep-it-real-people/

 

Dec 31

2013 Popular Posts #4: The MND Guide to Body Composition – free eBook

  • How do we know what is ‘too fat’? We all know that it is unhealthy to be obese, but at what level does body fat start to become ‘too much’?
  • How do we define ‘too thin’ at the other end of the scale? Being grossly underweight can be as harmful as being grossly overweight. Where is the balance point?
  • Should men all aspire to the stereotype ‘6 pack hunk’ and are women unfairly pressured by the media to be ‘rail thin’ like catwalk models?
  • Is it healthier to be ‘a little chubby’ or ‘skinny as a rake’ or somewhere between the two?
  • Is it healthier to be ‘build like a brick outhouse’ or ‘built like a racing whippet’? IS it healthy to build lots of big muscles?
  • In short, what is the optimum amount of fat and the optimum amount of muscle men and women should aim for in order to achieve supreme good health and longevity?

This little book will answer those questions for you.

https://mothernaturesdiet.me/2013/08/13/the-mnd-guide-to-body-composition-free-ebook/

chicken salad

Dec 30

2013 Popular Posts #6: Meal Replacement Shakes (rip off!)

2013 Popular Posts #6: the Bad, The Worse and The Plain Ugly

If you have ever considered using Meal Replacement Shakes as a weight loss strategy, then you might find this post interesting.

This is a long post, actually it’s the single longest post I have written all year. If you don’t have time to read it all, then just go to the beginning, where you will find a handy summary of the key details, posted as a series of bullet points for you.

The specific products covered in this post are:
Maxitone Sculptress - Maximuscle Progain Extreme
Herbalife Formula 1
SlimFast
Body By Vi - ViShape
Shakeology by Team Beachbody
Rockin’ Wellness
Soylent
Ambro
https://mothernaturesdiet.me/2013/12/17/meal-replacement-drinks-the-bad-the-worse-and-the-plain-ugly/

Dec 29

2 Comments

2013 Popular Posts #11 (joint 11th place): Beware of health and wellness industry rip offs

This post is about supplements, in particular, so-called superfood supplements, and how they are being sold to health-conscious consumers at extortionate prices. This post looks at the prices of these supplements, pound-for-pound compared to the price of real, natural, whole foods.

This is a topic that personally really gets me fired up. The ethos behind MotherNaturesDiet is all about living in harmony with our natural world, it’s all about eating real, whole, natural food, enjoying the great outdoors, avoiding the poisons of modern living and embracing natural movement and exercise. So one of my pet peeves is the over-complication of good health. There is a segment of the ‘diet, health and wellness’ industry which seeks to profit from having you believe that the answers to good health, good clear skin, youthful abundant energy, vibrant wellness and graceful, painless aging are locked in complex scientific solutions, hidden away in little-known secrets that these elite chosen few have somehow, after millions of years of evolution, finally unlocked right now in the 21st Century.

https://mothernaturesdiet.me/2013/10/12/beware-of-health-and-wellness-industry-rip-offs/

This post will show you how some ‘green superfood’ supplements cost as much £138 pounds per kilo (that’s $100 bucks per pound in the US, or 150 Euro per kilo) when fresh organic broccoli costs just £4 pounds per kilo in the supermarket. There is no way these processed powdered supplements can deliver nutritional value to your body at that ridiculous price point. The supplement game is a RIP OFF in my opinion.

Read Part 1 of this expose of the supplement business here https://mothernaturesdiet.me/2013/10/12/beware-of-health-and-wellness-industry-rip-offs/ and watch out for Part 2 coming up in the next couple of days.

Dec 17

195 Comments

Meal Replacement Drinks – the Bad, The Worse and The Plain Ugly

This post is the second in a series of lengthy posts exposing the reality behind the lucrative market for diet and health supplements.

The first post in this series can be read here: Beware of health and wellness industry rip offs

For the last year I have been gathering my thoughts about MEAL REPLACEMENT and weight loss shakes. In this post, I will expose what I think is wrong with liquid meal replacement diets, I will look briefly at the companies selling these solutions to a confused public, and one by one, we will look at the ingredients and nutritional composition of several of the best known brands on the market.

 

If you don’t want to read this lengthy blog, then I’ll summarize it all for you here in simple bullet points.

  • They are all fake, synthetic formulas. Synthetic vitamins and other nutrients do not give your body the same benefits that natural nutrients do when consumed in whole fresh foods
  • Heavily processed powders full of synthetic ingredients, artificial sweeteners and chemically processed sugars have NO PLACE in a healthy lifestyle, in my opinion. Many of these shakes contain soy, rice, sugars, dairy (whey protein) and ‘fillers’, cheap sugary carbs to pack the product out and give it enough calories to fill you up
  • Meal replacement shakes, when taken as a weight-loss strategy, are not sustainable for the long-term. Any temporary behaviour can have a temporary effect. However, it requires long-term, permanent lifestyle change to effect long-term, permanent health and body changes. If you want to lose weight permanently, change your lifestyle, don’t resort to some powdered supplement as a quick-fix, short-term solution
  • You should be aware that many of the most popular meal replacement shakes and weight loss shakes, are sold under MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) schemes (what we used to call pyramid selling schemes but for some reason we are not allowed to call them that any more). These companies are not set up to help make you healthy, they are set up to make their founders and senior staff very rich. Pyramid schemes only work while people keep buying the product, so the goal is to get you in, get you on the program and keep you buying – your health and weight loss has nothing to do with it
  • The list of ingredients should be scrutinized rigorously – look for sugar, sugar and more sugar
  • The list of vitamins and minerals that the can, tub or packet claims the shake will deliver, cannot be taken as a definitive guide to what your body might absorb and use. You need to understand how synthetic nutrients are absorbed differently to nutrients delivered in real whole food, in order to understand why this is so
  • Meal replacement shakes are expensive, and that is money that you could spend on high quality, real, organic food. I never understood why people fall for these marketing tricks of the ‘diet food’ industry. I see it this way: if you are overweight, it’s extremely likely that you have either been eating too much food, or too much cheap, low-nutrient, high-sugar, junk food. Either way, just eat less, and eat real, plain, simple food. Think about it – SAVE money, just eat less. The solution to losing weight isn’t “go out and buy loads of extremely expensive powder to mix with some milk or water and spend half the day feeling hungry” – surely, the solution ought to be “eat less”. See, a solution that saves money, not one that costs more. Common sense thinking

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Oct 12

19 Comments

Beware of health and wellness industry rip offs

This post is about supplements, in particular, so-called superfood supplements, and how they are being sold to health-conscious consumers at extortionate prices. This post looks at the prices of these supplements, pound-for-pound compared to the price of real, natural, whole foods.

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Sep 18

9 Comments

Avoiding ‘Diet Perfectionism’ and the trap of crippling inaction

This post is about the pursuit of ‘diet perfectionism’

  • There is so much conflicting and confusing ‘diet advice’ around these days, that it can be really hard to know what to do to genuinely make the best healthy choices
  • Many well-intentioned nutrition and wellness ‘experts’ promote ideals of healthy eating that are virtually impossible for ‘the rest of us’ to live up to
  • A lot of people get caught up in trying hard to do “the right thing”, following all the fads, the latest craze, the health warnings and shopping for the latest superfood being promoted by some A-list celebrity
  • It can be so hard to navigate the endless advice and warnings, that many people suffer the “paralysis of analysis”, so fearful of taking the wrong action, they end up taking no action at all
  • This blog will help you not to get too caught up in the world of ‘diet perfectionism’, and help you to see that if you just focus on making the big changes you need for a healthy lifestyle, the detail can drop into place later

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Mar 2

2 Comments

Hot steamy sex…(and steaming hot broccoli)

I thought I should write a headline to get your attention, I hope it worked.

You know, I have noticed that the most popular posts, the ones that are read by the most people, have the most interesting or sexy or controversial headlines.

If I write "Recipe of the week” or “Practical cooking tips” or “Useful exercise advice” then very few people show much interest. If I write something with an interesting title about age, sex, dining out, alcohol, money...these subjects get much more interest. This trend is more visible and prevalent on the MND Facebook page than it is on here.

Now of course, this is nothing new...we all know that 'bad news sells newspapers' and we know that 'sex sells' and we know that gossip and scandal keep the tabloids in print, but it also raises a far more serious underlying trait of human behaviour, and one of the key reasons so many diets fail, and why so few people ever achieve the health or the body they dream of.

The sad truth is...

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