The Energy Drink Scam -- Do Energy Drinks Help You, or Can They Actually Make You Fat?

by Mike Geary, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified
Nutrition Specialist
Author of best-sellers:  The Truth About Six Pack Abs
& The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging

Today I have a little rant on energy drinks...
I receive a ton of questions about all of these new "energy" drinks
that have hit the market over the last few years. They seem to be
all the rage, and they promise you the world with outrageous claims
of all of the super energy that you are going to have, and how you'll
become the best athlete in the world, start lifting cars over your head,
and get a perfect body.

So a couple questions arise:
Are these "energy" drinks really any good for you?
Do they actually increase your energy?
Do they really have some sort of magical energy formula?
Will they help you lose weight?

First of all, let's look at what most of these energy drinks are usually
made of. Most of them are simply carbonated water loaded with gut-fattening
high fructose corn syrup (or other added sugars), caffeine, the amino acid
taurine, and some crappy artificially-derived vitamins added for show to
trick you into thinking there's something healthy about these concoctions.

Let's start with the high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Well, here we've got
empty calories that will go straight to your belly fat, and that are possibly
even WORSE for you than plain old refined sugar (although that's up for debate,
but semantics in the big picture).  Some energy drinks use other added sugars
instead of HFCS, but it doesn't really matter, because they are all gut-fattening
empty calories with no nutritional benefit.

Ok, so you say that they also have low-sugar or sugar-free varieties as an
alternative to the HFCS-laden energy drinks. Yes, but now you have the problem
of the harmful chemicals in the artificial sweeteners which have their own set
of health dangers.

Another problem with artificial sweeteners is that there are some research
studies that indicate artificial sweetener use leads people to inadvertently
consume more calories and gain more weight in the long run... in addition to
having a negative hormonal effect in the body.  I won't go into all of the
details on that topic because that would fill up an entire discussion by itself.

Just trust me that artificial sweeteners and artificial chemicals in food in general,
are ALL bad news for your body!  It's never a good idea to try to "trick" your
body with artificial tastes.

What about the caffeine?

Well, first of all, caffeine doesn't in itself provide "energy". Technically,
the only substance that actually provides energy is calories
(from carbs, protein, and fat).

However, caffeine can be an aid for livening or waking some people up, by
means of stimulating the central nervous system.

Instead of caffeine artificially added to some carbonated "energy" drink,
I'd rather get my caffeine from a natural source like green, white, or oolong teas
(or my new favorite - yerba mate teas), which actually provide very powerful healthy
antioxidants too!

Keep in mind though, if you're a regular daily coffee drinker, you probably have
some level of addiction to caffeine and probably wouldn't receive too much benefit
from the caffeine in an energy drink anyway.

Tip:  try to drink more tea and reduce your coffee intake to only a couple days
per week max to reduce your dependency on caffeine.  Most teas contain much less
caffeine than coffee, and some teas (such as green, white, and oolong) contain
synergistic phytochemicals that work to slow the response of the caffeine that
they do contain.  This means you get a milder response from the caffeine in green,
oolong, or white teas compared to the harsher jittery response that some people get
from coffee.

Now what about that so called magical blend of taurine and B-vitamins that they
load into these energy drinks?

Well, big deal...you get taurine in almost any protein source.
And the vast majority of those artificially added B-vitamins are simply coming
right out into the toilet in your pee. Vitamins are best obtained naturally
from a REAL food source, not artificially added to some carbonated drink.
Your body just doesn't use fake sources of vitamins as readily as natural sources
from real food.

So as you can see, in my opinion, I give all of these energy drinks a big time
THUMBS DOWN!  Don't fall for the ridiculous marketing of all of these so-called
"energy drinks".

Instead, here's my recipe for my own home-made energy drink:

1.  Make a big iced tea mixture using green tea, white tea, and yerba mate tea.
I like to add a little fruit flavor, so I'll use 1 tea bag of a raspberry or
blueberry hibiscus tea, and then use 2-3 green and/or white tea bags, and 2-3
yerba mate tea bags, and make a gallon container of iced tea.
I just use a small amount of stevia to lightly sweeten the batch of tea.

2. I buy a container of organic coconut water from a health food store,
or buy fresh coconuts to obtain the coconut water from the inside.

3.  For my healthy energy drink, I mix a half of a glass of the white/green/yerba
mate iced tea mixture and fill the rest of the glass with the coconut water.

This is actually a delicious and truly healthy energy drink instead of the
chemical-laden crappy energy drinks that everybody is getting suckered into
buying these days.

The green, white, and yerba mate teas contain a small dose of caffeine along
with a diverse mixture of powerful antioxidants and synergistic phytochemicals.
Plus, the coconut water is a rich source of electrolytes and a diversity of
vitamins and minerals.  Coconut water is known to provide a good instant energy
source, and also contains a small dose of medium chain triglycerides (MCTs),
which are healthy fats that are readily used for energy and also aid your
immune system.

So enjoy this natural healthy energy drink, knowing that you're doing your
body good instead of filling it with chemicals with normal store-bought
energy drinks.

Want to learn surprising superfoods that help you to look and feel younger
and leaner...

Unusual superfoods, spices, and herbs that FIGHT aging, HEAL your digestion, 
protect your joints & improve your brain

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The #1 WORST Food that HARMS Your Brain (avoid!)

Some foods you might be eating daily can actually DAMAGE
your brain over time. In this article, we'll explore foods
that HARM your brain vs foods that PROTECT your brain.

by Mike Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist
Co-Author of the best seller:

The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging

First, the BAD NEWS...

Certain foods you eat can indeed harm your brain, both in
impaired learning ability as well as impaired memory.
Even worse, the wrong food and drink choices throughout your
life can even lead to the terrible and deadly disease
of Alzheimers.
A friend of mine just told me that her dad died of Alzheimers
recently and it was just a terrible disease where he didn't
even know who she was anymore towards the end.
It's time our society starts taking degenerative diseases
like Alzheimers, cancer, and heart disease more seriously
throughout our lives, and not just once it's too late.
Even in our 30's, 40's, and 50's, the choices we make with our
daily food can PREVENT these terrible diseases.

So let's dig in with the topic today of foods that harm your brain,
and what you can do about it...

Food #1 that HARMS your brain:  Fructose

In a 2012 UCLA study published in the Journal of Physiology,
researchers found that a diet high in fructose over time can
damage your memory and learning ability.

Beyond the harm to your brain, it's well known in the research
world that a high fructose diet can also cause insulin resistance
in your body over time, and possibly lead to type-2 diabetes and
extra body fat.  If that's not enough, a high fructose diet also
detrimentally affects your triglyceride levels in your blood as
well as small dense LDL particles that cause plaque in your arteries.

So what we have here is high-fructose intake = impaired memory and
learning in your brain, increased risk of diabetes, and increased
risk of heart disease. Oh, and we forgot to mention extra belly fat too...
Yum - who wants another can of soda pop or a large bowl of corn syrup
sweetened ice cream!

The average person eating a modern western diet of processed food
consumes a LARGE quantity of fructose without even thinking about it
from all of the soft drinks (high fructose corn syrup typically),
sweetened juice drinks, orange juice, processed junk foods such as
cakes and candies, as well as the HFCS that's added to store-bought
salad dressings, breads and cereals, and even condiments like ketchup.

Note that many sports drinks, even though marketed as "healthy", can
have large amounts of corn syrup or even crystalline fructose as their
main sweetener.  These sports drinks can be equally as bad as a soda for
your body and your brain.  Don't be fooled by the clever marketing showing
pictures of pro athletes guzzling this stuff.

Also note that agave syrup (aka, agave nectar) which is marketed as
a "healthy" sweetener as well, is one of the most concentrated forms of
processed fructose in sweeteners as well.  I personally stay away from
agave sweeteners as much as possible unless the amounts are very small.

All of these fructose-laden foods and drinks are easy to avoid though if
you choose to eat consciously... for example, make homemade salad dressings
from your favorite olive oil and vinegar with added spices, or choose to
drink unsweetened iced tea with lemon instead of sweetened drinks or juices.
If you use a lot of ketchup, try to reduce the quantity by mixing with mustard
or hot sauce, which typically don't contain HFCS sweetener in any significant
quantities.

Last thing to note about fructose... Yes, natural whole fruits do
contain fructose, but generally contain MUCH smaller quantities of
fructose than you would consume in a sweetened juice drink, soft drink
or sweetened junk foods.  Also, the phytonutrients, antioxidants, and
fiber that's contained in most whole fruits counteracts any negative
effects of fructose.  I personally try to keep fruit intake to no more
than 1-2 pieces a day due to the sugar and fructose content of larger
amounts of fruit.

Here's a trick:  Did you know that limes and lemons contain virtually
zero fructose, and only 3-4 grams of total carbs in a whole lemon or lime,
whereas a typical orange contains 6 grams of fructose and 25 grams of total
sugar per fruit.
I squeeze lemons and limes daily into either water or teas for a healthy
flavorful drink. Fresh lemon juice has even been shown to control blood sugar
response from a meal...another bonus!

Other Foods that HARM Your Brain:

You probably already know some of the harmful health effects
of these foods, but long term effects on your brain are yet another...

Trans fats -- strongly inflammatory in your entire body including
damage to cell membranes throughout your body.
Avoid hydrogenated oils in processed foods and deep fried foods.

Mercury -- studies show that mercury from pollution (coal burning
plants are the biggest source of mercury pollution to air and water)
and from fish that are high on the food chain such as tuna, shark,
swordfish, tilefish, etc can possibly cause long term negative effects
on your brain.  Limit these types of fish to a couple times a month and
focus more on fish such as salmon, trout, and many other types of smaller
fish to reduce your mercury load.

Wheat-based foods -- In the groundbreaking book, Wheat Belly,
Dr William Davis makes a very convincing argument that wheat has addictive
properties in the brain.  Wheat contains compounds termed "exorphins" that
have an effect in your brain similar to opiate drugs.
This explains why people have such a hard time giving up their beloved breads,
cereals, pasta, and muffins because these foods are mildly addictive.

I know personally from past experience that if I have have a pasta dinner,
I'll go back for seconds and thirds as I just can't seem to stop eating the stuff.
And then hours after dinner, I'll get cravings for more carb-based foods or sweets.
But if I pass on the pasta and just have meat, veggies, and salad,
I find myself totally satisfied after dinner with no cravings later at night.

The good news is...

There are plenty of superfoods, herbs, and spices that can protect your
brain and your other organs too!
In fact, did you know that turmeric is one of the highest antioxidant
spices that also exhibits brain-protecting effects? In India, where curry
containing turmeric and other spices is eaten daily, rates of Alzheimers
disease is among the lowest in the world, proving some of the brain-protecting
effects of turmeric.

In addition, the powerful DHA and EPA omega-3 fats in fish oil has been
proven in countless studies to protect your brain from damage over the years.
Want more...
I'll show you how to find dozens of delicious foods,spices,herbs,and unique
nutrients that PROTECT your brain, joints, organs, and skin by clicking the
click here button below!
Click Here

These unique nutrients and superfoods can be found at most stores and can
help PROTECT your brain from aging, HEAL your joints, reverse or prevent
type 2 diabetes, normalize your blood pressure, SLOW aging of your skin,
FIGHT against developing cancer, FIX years of digestion problems, and even
help to BOOST your metabolism...

You'll discover these powerful superfoods and nutrients.....Click here!

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The #1 WORST Food that CAUSES Faster Aging

Do you eat these foods that HARM your blood sugar and age your
joints and skin faster?  Some are even deceptively marketed to you as
"healthy" by giant food corporations.  Avoid or minimize these and look
5-10 years YOUNGER than your real age.

by Mike Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist
& Catherine Ebeling - RN, BSN

Due to biochemical reactions in your body that occur with every type
of food you eat on a daily basis, some foods age you FASTER than your
real age, while other foods help to FIGHT aging.

Eat the wrong foods regularly, and you can look and feel 10 or more
years OLDER than your real age (not fun!) ... but eat the right foods,
and over time, you can start to look 5-10 years YOUNGER than your real age.

Three of the processes that go on inside your body that have a MAJOR
impact on your rate of aging are called "glycation", "inflammation",
and "oxidation".

When we talk about aging, we're not just talking about wrinkles on your
skin or how thick your hair is... we're also talking about factors that
you can't see, such as how well your organs function, and whether your
joints are degrading.

Yes, I'm sure you'll agree this is much more important than just how you
look superficially (although we'll show you how to improve BOTH below!)

With the title of this article, you might have guessed that obvious answers
like sugar or trans fat would be what we talk about in this article.
Yes, we all already know those are bad, but I want to discuss another
food that ages your body faster than normal... and it's one that you
might not expect!

So let's dig right in and I'll show you how your rate of aging can be
directly related to the foods you might eat every day, and how to
protect yourself...

The #1 WORST food that ages you faster:

Wheat based foods (yes, even "whole wheat")

Before I tell you why wheat can actually speed up the aging process in
your body, let's clarify some simple biochemistry in your body...

This deals with "glycation" in your body, and substances called Advanced
Glycation End Products (AGEs).  These nasty little compounds called AGEs
speed up the aging process in your body including damage over time to your
organs, your joints, and of course, wrinkled skin.

So with that said, what is one of the biggest factors that increase
production of AGEs inside your body?  This may surprise you, but high
blood sugar levels over time dramatically increase age-accelerating
AGEs in your body.  This is why type 2 diabetics many times appear that
they have not aged well and look older than their real age.
But this age-increasing effect is not just limited to diabetics.

So, let's get back to how "whole wheat" relates to this...

Here is a little-known fact that's often covered up by the massive
marketing campaigns by giant food companies that want you to believe
that "whole wheat" is healthy for you... but the fact is that wheat
contains a very unusual type of carbohydrate (not found in other foods)
called Amylopectin-A, which has been found in some tests to spike your
blood sugar HIGHER than even pure table sugar.

In fact, amylopectin-A (from wheat) raises your blood sugar MORE than
almost any other carbohydrate source on earth based on blood sugar
response testing that's documented in studies.

This means that wheat-based foods such as breads, bagels, cereals,
muffins, and other baked goods often cause MUCH higher blood sugar
levels than most other carbohydrate sources.  If you don't believe me,
here's something you should know... I ran personal blood sugar tests
on myself using a blood glucometer about 45 minutes after eating 2 slices
of wheat bread vs eating a bowl of oatmeal, with equivalent grams of carbs.

The blood sugar test results:

2 slices of whole wheat toast:
45 minutes after consumption:  Blood sugar spiked from 86 fasting level to 155.

1 Bowl of Oatmeal (equivalent grams of carbs to 2 slices wheat toast)
45 minutes after consumption:   Blood sugar raised from 86 fasting level to 112

As you know now, the higher your average blood sugar levels are over time,
the more AGEs are formed inside your body, which makes you age FASTER.
Clearly, the whole wheat spiked blood sugar MUCH higher than the oatmeal,
and if you don't know, 155 is a massive blood sugar reading that will
certainly contribute to faster aging if you eat wheat frequently.

You've probably also heard about the potential health-damaging effects
of gluten (another problematic compound found in wheat that can cause
inflammation in your digestive system) in the news recently, but this
blood sugar aspect we just covered is not talked about that often,
and is yet another reason to reduce or eliminate wheat-based foods
in your diet.  Your body will thank you by aging slower and looking YOUNGER!

And losing bodyfat is typically another fun side effect of eliminating
or reducing wheat in your diet!

Yet another problem with wheat-based foods and aging...

As it turns out, baked wheat products contain carcinogenic chemicals
called acrylamides that form in the browned portion of breads, cereals,
muffins, etc.  These carcinogenic acrylamides have been linked in studies
to possible increased risk of cancer and accelerated aging.
Note that acrylamides are also found in high levels in other browned
carbohydrate sources such as french fries or any other browned starchy foods.

Don't worry though... There's a trick that you can use to protect yourself
from these carcinogenic acrylamides, and it has to do with eating the
RIGHT foods that COUNTERACT damage from these nasty chemicals.
I'll show you how to find the EXACT foods that protect your body on
the next page!
Other foods to watch out for that can increase aging in your body
include corn-based foods that also disrupt blood sugar highly
(corn cereals, corn chips, corn syrup), soybean oil and other "vegetable" oils
that contain excessively refined and processed fats that cause inflammation
in your body, and also excess sugars from candies, cakes, and sweetened drinks.

But the good news is...
We'll show you how to find plenty of delicious foods, spices, herbs,
and nutrients that PROTECT your body from aging on the next page!
You will also discover over a dozen surprising tricks you can use
daily to FIGHT aging, helping you to look 5-10 years YOUNGER...
click the button below to go to the FREE REPORT to discover unique
and delicious anti-aging foods, spices, herbs, teas, and other
potent youth-enhancing nutrients:

CLICK HERE TO LOOK 5-10 YEARS YOUGER

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7 "FATTY" Foods that Can Help You to Get a Flat Stomach (some of these will surprise you!)

by Mike Geary, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author of best-sellers:The Fat Burning Kitchen &
The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging


At this point, the anti-fat propaganda has died and almost everybody
understands by now that eating fat doesn't necessarily make you fat.
In fact, it's absolutely imperative to get enough healthy fats in your
diet to keep your hormones balanced, blood sugar under control, and
prevent cravings.
Here are 7 examples of "fatty" foods that can actually HELP you to get lean...

healthy chocolate

1.  Super Dark Chocolate (at least 72% cacao content or higher)

It might not be a secret anymore, but yes, dark chocolate (NOT milk chocolate)
can be a very healthy food, even though it is technically calorie dense.
However, I would contend that dark chocolate can actually HELP you to burn
off more body fat if you're the type of person that has a sweet tooth and
likes to eat a lot of desserts.In this case, just 1 or 2 small squares of
dark chocolate can many times satisfy your sweet tooth for only 30 or 40
calories as opposed to 500 calories for a piece of chocolate cake
or a piece of pie.
 Also some brands of dark chocolate that are in the mid 70's in % cacao
content or higher, can have a fairly high ratio of fiber content
(I've seen some brands have 5 grams of fiber out of 15 grams of total
carbs per serving), and relatively low sugar content compared to
the amount of healthy fats.
In fact, that's one of the "tricks" I use to select a good quality chocolate...
I look for more total fat than total carbs
(or about the same number of grams of each).
The importance of that fact is that it means many dark chocolates will
not greatly affect your blood sugar and will have a fairly blunted blood
sugar response compared to other "sweets".
In addition, dark chocolate is also very rich in healthful antioxidants,
including a powerful compound called theobromine which has been shown to
help lower blood pressure and have other health benefits.
The fat content in a good dark chocolate should come solely from the natural
healthy fats occuring in cocoa butter and not from any other added fats.
Any chocolates with added fats or other additives will generally not be as healthy.
The reason I say to choose dark chocolates with at least 72% cacao content is
that the higher the % of cacao, the lower the % of sugar.
However, this does mean that any chocolate over 80% cacao content will generally
start to get a more bitter taste and have very little sweetness.
If you like this type of taste, then the higher % cocao, the better.
Otherwise, a good 75% dark chocolate is in my opinion an almost perfect
combination of lightly sweet with a rich chocolate taste.
Just remember to keep those daily quantities of chocolate small as it is calorie dense!
You can also reap the benefits of the antioxidants and fiber without all of the
calories by using organic unsweetened cocoa powder in your smoothies or other recipes.
For the other six FATTY foods that can help to get your stomach flat please click on the link below.
6 More Fatty Foods to Help Flatten Your Stomach

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The 3 Best Abdominal Exercises that Are NOT Your "Normal" Ab Exercises

A unique ab workout that doesn't contain your typical boring stomach exercises - no crunches or situps here!

by Mike Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Author of best-seller:  The Truth about Six Pack Abs

Instead of the typical ab routines that we see so often with crunches, situps, leg lifts, etc... I like to give my readers better options for metabolism-boosting high intensity workouts that work their entire body while also working their abs... thus building rock hard abs & core, but also creating a much better fat-burning workout than a typical ab workout.

I'm going to show you an example today of one of my favorite "ab workouts" that doesn't include any direct "ab exercises" at all. This is actually a full body workout that works your abs pretty hard indirectly, and stimulates a good metabolism boost!  It's in a tri-set format (similar to a super-set but alternating between 3 exercises instead of 2).

Here goes:

1a. Renegade Dumbbell Rows
1b. Front Squats with Barbell
1c. Mountain Climbers on Floor

A good rep scheme to use with this could be 3-4 sets of 8 reps for each exercise, or more sets for less reps, such as 5 sets of 5 reps of each exercise. Mountain climbers can be done for a time interval (such as 30 seconds) instead of "reps".

Renegade dumbbell rows are done starting in a pushup position with the hands on 2 dumbbells. You then row one dumbbell up while stabilizing your body with the other arm. Bring the dumbbell back to the ground and alternate the rowing arm while stabilizing with the opposite arm. This stabilizing effect during the rows creates incredible work for your entire midsection core area. Trust me... you'll feel it in the abs!

Please click the link to see the pics & descriptions of all the exercises    Click here. 

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