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 and stevia 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

  

Just a few months ago, 2 good friends of mine called me with quite the concern:

“Isabel. Our daughter has just been diagnosed with high cholesterol. She’s only 10. We stay away from whole eggs and she doesn’t eat much red meat. How is that possible? ”

Wow, 10 and high cholesterol already. That’s pretty scary. Remember when the term “high cholesterol” was only used to describe your grandma and other old folk? (No offense granny). Well not anymore. Kids are being diagnosed with all sorts of things we once only considered “adult” conditions including high cholesterol, high
triglycerides and diabetes.

So, first things first. How does anyone get high cholesterol? And how was I going to explain this to a 10 year old? Follow my little analogy….

Imagine we lived in a high crime city where criminals could be
found on every street corner. In order to resolve the problem, the
mayor decides to put a police officer on every street corner. Now,
imagine that your friend comes to visit your city and says “Oh, I
know why there is so much crime here. It is because there are
police officers on each corner.” Silly right? The reason why the
officers were put there was because of the criminals, not the other
way around!

Well, here is the mass cholesterol confusion.

The criminals are sugar and processed foods. The police officers
are cholesterol.

If you eliminate the officers (cholesterol), the criminals (sugar
and processed foods) continue to create damage, in this case, they
are damaging your arteries. Cholesterol (police officer) is only
there to help. It is coming to the rescue. So isn’t it silly that
people who need cholesterol to save them from more harm to their
arteries are being put on cholesterol lowering drugs?

I know this is a lot to take in. So read the little story again if
it still does not seem clear. The truth is, you need to wipe out
the criminals, not reduce the police officers!

So now the question is, how can you keep the criminals at bay?

Stop eating an excessive amount of sugar and processed foods and
adopt a healthy eating regimen that includes natural foods.

1. Include organic eggs, natural meat and poultry, veggies, fruits,
raw nuts, coconut oil and olive oil into your daily eating regimen.
Natural, natural, natural is the name of the game.

2. Reduce sugar drinks and drink water, water, water. Amazing
things will happen once your body is hydrated (including regulating
cholesterol).

3. Move it or lose it. Or in this case, move it to lose it.
Exercise is one of the best ways to regulate your cholesterol
levels. Even if it didn’t affect your cholesterol, would there be
anything to lose by trying? Oh yeah, FAT, I forgot.

4. For those of you that have Shane’s bonus already (included in
your Diet Solution Program), he goes into the nitty gritty: Good
vs. Bad, High vs. Low, and Meds vs. Vitamins.

Commit today to taking one step towards taking control of your
cholesterol, your weight or your health and finally shoot down the
criminals once and for all!

In health and happiness,

Isabel De Los Rios
www.TheDietSolutionProgram.com