Most people who know me, know I am not a TV watcher. Actually, I don’t even have cable at home (A rare thing these days, I know.) Very often, I have no idea which show is the “latest craze” and which commercials are all the rave.

Last week the TV did catch my attention. I was at my parent’s house and my mom had the TV on in the background. I was helping her cook and I nearly chopped my fingers off because I couldn’t believe what I was hearing!

“Eat Cheerios to lower your cholesterol.” “Three or more glasses of skim milk a day are a great way to lose weight”. Then it got ugly “Splenda is just like sugar and is great for kids”.

The worst of them all (the one where my mother had to nearly restrain me from attacking the TV “There is nothing wrong with High Fructose Corn Syrup. It comes from corn and can actually be good for you.” I nearly passed out.

I can see why people are totally confused about healthy eating. I can also see why obesity, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes are at an all time high in this country and in many others as well.

After I was done hyperventilating, I decided to first turn the TV off (because my heart just couldn’t take anymore) and then write this newsletter to clear up a few misconceptions.

1. Cheerios biggest claim to fame is that eating them will help you lower your cholesterol. I am here to tell you that eating processed grains, especially in the form of cereal can actually make your cholesterol go up! The cholesterol study done showed how soluble fiber can help the body eliminate bad cholesterol from the body. Cheerios has 1 gram of soluble fiber per serving. Woop-dee-doo. Big deal. I can get 2 grams of soluble fiber from an apple, 3 grams from broccoli and carrots, and more than 4 grams from kidney beans. (Beat that Cheerio Man). Honestly, I don’t think there are many foods in a box that are healthy at all. They have to be highly processed to stay shelf stable, many times loading them up with chemicals and fillers that are making us gain weight. My recommendation is ditch the cereal and pick up some wholesome natural foods like fruits and veggies. Natural grains like brown rice, millet and quinoa are 10x’s better than any boxed cereal.

2. Milk does a body bad! That’s really what the commercial should say. Ok, that is not entirely true. Conventional milk does a body bad. If you have read the Dairy chapter in The Diet Solution Program, you know my stance on milk: Organic is a must and Raw Milk is even better. If you didn’t catch my past newsletter on milk, you can read it here:

I Hope You Don’t Have A Milk Mustache

But don’t go yet until you read #3.

3. Give Splenda to my children? Never! Splenda has not been out on the market long enough to show whether it is actually safe or not. Until then it is a public health experiment (No thanks, I don’t’ want to be your guinea pig). Being the organic chemistry nerd that I am, I know exactly how sugar is converted to Splenda. I will spare you the chem lesson but tell you that Splenda (or sucralose) is a synthetic compound stumbled upon in 1976 by scientists in Britain seeking a new pesticide formulation. Huh? Did you say pesticide? Yup. Many chemists believe this molecule resembles a pesticide much more than it resembles natural sugar. If this is still in debate, I will not be a test subject. I highly recommend you take yourself and your children out of this experiment as well. My tip: Stick to natural sweeteners like whole fruits, stevia and agave syrup and stay away from artificial sweeteners like Splenda, Equal and Sweet & Low.

I could probably go on and on. If I watched TV long enough (or if I actually purchased cable) I could probably find 10, 20, 100 more commercials that are giving us false info, all in the name of selling products.

No, I did not forget about High Fructose Corn Syrup. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s newsletter where I will share 2 short videos on these crazy commercials and how you can find and eliminate High Fructose Corn Syrup from your meal plans.

Now, go shut the TV off will ya?

In health and happiness,

Isabel De Los Rios
www.TheDietSolutionProgram.com

This week, my business partner Jeff is in town from Colorado (He keeps the Diet Solution Program running smoothly).

Jeff and I go way back to college. Yesterday, over lunch (grilled pecan crusted salmon over organic greens, just in case you were wondering) we were reminiscing about the good ol’ days. Jeff so painfully reminded me “How funny was it that my roommates and I used to call you Quadszilla?”. (Thanks Jeff. Just when I thought I had dealt with that in therapy.)

Let me explain.

My weight loss efforts began in college when I thought I was doing all the right things, exercising and eating healthy. Unfortunately for my 5 foot nothing frame, instead of getting lean and defined, I was actually starting to get bulky! Every woman’s fear of getting bigger when weight training was actually happening to me…so much so that my friends were calling me “Quadszilla” at the increasing size of my legs. AAAHHHH…This is just about the worst thing that can happen to any girl, especially in college, when all you want is to be the cute girl on campus (trust me, big quads on me was not cute).

What was I doing wrong?

1. The “diet” I was following was all wrong. After reading many so called health and fitness magazines, I started eating protein shakes, health bars, processed diet foods, and kept a low-fat diet….and guess what? I was getting LARGER!

2. I was also following the exercise programs in these magazines. They were filled with countless hours of cardio and worthless machine based exercises that were all wrong. Again, making me LARGER!

3. I was drinking Diet Coke and Diet Iced Tea as my drinks of choice. (I don’t need to repeat the larger thing again do I?).

What should I have done?

1. I should have followed a realistic nutrition plan filled with natural, un-processed foods such as organic eggs, natural meats, fruits and veggies and good healthy oils.

2. I should have followed an exercise program that consisted of circuit training, interval training and full body exercises that used bodyweight and dumbbells (most machines are so unnecessary).

3. I should have focused on drinking a lot more water and let go of the diet drinks. As I have said before, diet drinks make people fat! I know. I was one of them.

These lessons I learned the hard way. And it took me quite a while to figure it all out. But, thankfully, now, many years later, I’ve got this down to a science and I’m happy to share it with you.

Are you making any of these mistakes in your nutrition and exercise plan? Is it time to finally make a change?

And if I see you walking down the street, don’t you dare call me “Quadszilla”. Those days are over!

In health and happiness,

Isabel De Los Rios
www.TheDietSolutionProgram.com