These 4 Sinister Ingredients are Lurking in YOUR Foods

by Catherine Ebeling - RN, BSN & Mike Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist
co-authors - The Fat Burning Kitchen

Unless you eat a 100% organic diet, it's pretty much a guarantee that you eat genetically modified foods almost every day.  Most people don't think about the potential long term consequences of eating GM foods and how this could harm your health now or in the future, your kids, or even your future children.
First, watch this MUST-SEE video below to see some vitally important information about GM foods that you need to know.  Then read the article below the video and we'll discuss more issues with GM food.

http://tiny.cc/GeneticEngineering

4 Dangerously Doctored Foods You MUST Avoid to Stay Healthy and Lean
While it seems we don’t hear a lot about them, genetically modified foods have quietly made their way into our food supply in a big way.
So far, there have been no official scientific studies done on GMO’s and humans, but some reports about negative effects these foods have had on animals is downright scary.
One type of genetically modified corn brought onto the market in the late 1990's has had a gene inserted into it which produces a toxin called Bt toxin. This toxin actually causes the stomachs of certain insects to break open when it is ingested, and the insect then dies.
The biotech firm that produces this genetically modified product insists that Bt toxin does not harm the digestive system in mammals.  However, according to Dr. Joseph Mercola, there are peer reviewed studies showing that Bt-toxin does bind with mouse small intestines and with intestinal tissue from rhesus monkeys.  What about humans?  Nobody knows.
Hmm, maybe you should think twice about that next drink sweetened with corn syrup, or that next basket of tortilla chips made with corn.
According to Dr. Mercola, it was reported that doctors in a hospital in Quebec (Canada) actually found Bt toxin in the blood of 93% of pregnant women tested, 80% of their babies, and almost 70% of non-pregnant women.
If this toxin can cause the stomachs of insects to rupture, what does it do to humans? At the very least, it seems it could cause more digestive problems, allergies, autoimmune reactions, and other health issues.
And the American Academy of Environmental Medicine states that several animal studies showed serious health risks from eating genetically modified foods including:
“…infertility, immune dysfunction, accelerated aging, irregular DNA, insulin instability, and changes in liver, kidney, spleen and the gastrointestinal system.”
And the AAEM also goes on to state that there is a definite association between genetically modified foods and disease confirmed by several animal studies.
The recommendation of the AAEM is that physicians advise patients to avoid all GM foods, and to consider that GM foods could potentially be connected to certain health issues in patients and that GM foods need further testing to be considered safe for human consumption.
Genetically modified foods now contain new and unknown toxic substances that have NEVER been present in nature before.
We have no way of knowing what kinds of long term effects they will produce in humans, but they certainly seem to have negative effects on animals based on some studies.
And because genetically modified foods contain some scientifically modified proteins, they tend to cause more allergies in people. When GM soy was introduced in the UK, allergic reactions to soy reportedly increased 50% or more. And food allergies seem to be increasing in the US as well. Could this be from GM foods?
Do you want to eat dangerously doctored food? I sure don’t! There is no way of knowing for sure what kinds of health issues genetically modified foods can produce because no long-term studies have ever been done.
This means we need to protect our own health and avoid becoming a biological experiment ourselves.
The most common genetically modified foods are:

• Soy
• Corn
• Cottonseed Oil
• Canola Oil

According to Natural News, 90 percent of all canola, 88 percent of all corn, 90 percent of all cotton, and 94 percent of all soy grown in the U.S. today are of genetically-modified origin.
Just keep in mind that you very well might be eating GM foods the next time you're chowing down some corn chips, corn flakes or other corn cereals, soy milk or any soy products like tofu, soy protein, anything sweetened with high fructose corn syrup (which is almost ALL processed foods) or any foods fried in soybean oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, or canola oil, which is virtually anything that's fried at a typical restaurant.
Nutritionally, there's no valid reason to eat these foods anyway, as they offer nothing nutritionally, while only causing health problems.
The list of genetically modified foods can also include:
Sugar from sugar beets, Hawaiian papaya, some types of zucchini, and crookneck squash... but these are very minimal compared to the massive amounts of soy, corn, cottonseed or canola that are in our food supply.
Conventionally raised meat, dairy products, farmed fish and commercial eggs are also fed with GM feed frequently, mostly from corn and soy.  Scientists are still uncertain whether eating animals that fed on GM crops can have health consequences for humans.   I'd rather not be part of the experiment.
Always buy organic meats, wild caught fish, or 100% grass-fed meat (and grass-finished) to avoid this.
Aspartame, or NutraSweet have also been created with GMO’s. Artificial sweeteners are extremely unhealthy anyway, but here is just one more reason to avoid them!
Besides the health issues that have surfaced so far, genetically modified foods are a big unknown. These new forms of food could potentially lead to serious health issues, cancer or even some new diseases that modern medicine has never seen before.
As one biotech scientist in an article published in the International Journal of Biological Science said, “For the first time in the world, we’ve proven that GMO’s are neither sufficiently healthy nor proper to be commercialized.”
How do we avoid the potential negative health issues from GM foods?
It’s very easy if you eat a natural, healthy diet of real, whole, organic foods.
Avoid eating packaged, processed foods, especially those containing soy, corn, and vegetable oils or corn syrup sweeteners. The chances that you are eating genetically modified foods are very high if it contains any of these foods as ingredients.  And remember that canola oil is likely to be genetically modified too, and despite heavy marketing claiming that canola oil is healthy, there is nothing even remotely healthy about canola oil as that article shows.
It’s estimated that there are approximately 30,000 products on grocery store shelves that may be genetically modified.
Remember these three things to avoid eating GM foods:
1. Eat organic--any food labeled “Organic” or “Certified Organic” cannot be genetically modified in any way.
2. Look for “Non-GMO” on the label, or “Made without genetically modified ingredients.” Although it is not required yet by law in the US, many companies voluntarily label their foods as non-GMO.  We need to fight to force the government to mandate labeling of GM foods!
3. Especially avoid any food or food additives that contain: soy, corn, cottonseed oil, or canola oil... even if these ingredients are organic, there's really nothing healthy about eating these foods anyway.  Corn, soy, cottonseed, and canola were never a big part of the ancestral human diet. Also beware of commercially raised meat, fish, eggs or dairy that have been fed these GM foods as long term health effects to humans are not yet known.
Genetically modified foods look exactly like any other foods, so you cannot tell by just by looking at them.
Please note:  Many people have confused this topic, but new types of produce such as tangelos, seedless watermelons, seedless cucumbers and other new varieties of fruit and vegetables are created by natural breeding, not genetic modification, so these foods are fine to eat.
The bottom line is that genetically modified foods have not been tested enough in humans and scientists don’t really know whether these foods are safe or not.
Avoiding unnatural genetically modified foods is just one more reason why paying close attention to the foods you eat, and eating a diet of real, whole, organic foods is so extremely important.  Don't be like so many people out there that just mindlessly eat foods without thinking about what they are putting in their body.  Obviously, we are at an important time in history where diabetes, cancer, heart disease and obesity are at all time highs (to the point of a crisis), so it is time that people take responsibility for their health.
Don't let yourself be a guinea pig as part of a giant uncontrolled experiment on GM "frankenfoods"... only you can control what you choose to eat and to avoid GM foods fully.  Please share this article with all of your friends and family to protect their health.
Mike Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist & Cat Ebeling - RN, BSN
co-authors - The Fat Burning Kitchen

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The #1 MOST Important Diet Lesson You Will Ever Learn

The BEST Way to Eat a Truly Healthy Diet for a Lean Body and Disease Prevention
by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Author of best-seller:  The Truth About Six Pack Abs


This article might surpise some people... because most people don't view nutrition in this way that I'm about to explain.  Instead most people get thoroughly confused about nutrition and calories, protein, carbs, fat, diet foods, low-fat, low-cholesterol, low-carb, healthy label claims, vegetarian, raw foods, etc, etc.
However, if you view nutrition in this way that I'll explain below, it solves every single confusion about nutrition that you could ever have.  I will warn you though, this is very BIG PICTURE thinking, and it helps explain a lot about the human body when you think about things this way.
Ok, the #1 MOST important aspect about nutrition involves the study of ARCHAEOLOGY (and anthropology)!
What the heck am I talking about?  Well, let's dig in...
Yes, everything about the human body that is either healthy or bad for us currently, all stems from hundreds of thousands, or even millions of years of evolution and how the human body adapted to everything around us, including food, exercise, our environment (city vs nature), and lots more.
We know from archaeological records that our current human species (homo sapiens) originated approximately 200,000 years ago... however, our close cousins (ancestors prior to homo sapiens), such as homo erectus, date as far back as several million years.
If you study evidence about what our ancestors ate, it gives obvious clues about how the human digestive system evolved and what are the healthiest foods for us to eat in today's world.
This obviously explains why relatively new chemicals and food types (that humans were NEVER meant to ingest) cause so many health problems, such as artificial sweeteners, HFCS and other corn derivatives, white bread and other refined grain products, refined oils such as soybean and unhealthy canola oils, and so on.
Now this discussion could get pretty involved and encompass an entire book, so let me give some important statements to best summarize this:
1.  Despite what you'll hear from extreme vegans, extreme raw foodists, and other believers in "extreme" types of diets that eliminate entire portions of the historical human diet, the human digestive system evolved to eat a mixture of plants and animal foods (yes, we evolved as omnivores), as well as a mixture of raw food AND cooked food.
I know, I know... You'll get heated debate about both of these topics...meat eating vs veganism, and raw foodism... however, it's historical FACT that our current species (and historical ancestors back over a million years ago) in almost every culture around the world, ate at least some % of plant-animal food combination and raw food / cooked food combination (even if it was at different times of the day, or even different times of the year).
Some cultures, such as the Inuit of the arctic and several tribes in Africa, thrived in stellar health on almost an entirely animal-based diet, and other cultures around the world thrived on almost an entirely plant-based diet... But all cultures generally had some mixture of plant and animal foods, even if the amount of animal food was small in some cultures, or the amount of plant food was small in other cultures.
Similarly, virtually every culture around the world has also historically consumed BOTH raw foods and cooked foods in differing amounts of each... but there's no real evidence of societies thriving on 100% raw food diets.
But what about the argument that raw foodists make claiming that all animals in nature eat 100% raw foods, but humans are the only species that eats cooked food...
Well, there's a simple explanation for that... humans were the ONLY species with a well developed enough brain to understand how to control fire and therefore cook our food... And since we've been cooking a portion of our foods for the entire existence of our species (200,000 years) as well as our ancestors back several million years, our digestive systems have adapted to eating a portion of our food cooked.
This also explains why acrylamides are more harmful to animals that eat cooked food compared to humans... since humans have adapted some level of tolerance to acrylamides from eating a partial cooked diet for 100's of thousands of years, but animals have never historically adapted to a cooked food diet, and therefore, are more sensitive to acrylamides.
If you've never heard of acrylamides, they are formed when the outside of foods are burned during cooking (such as the browning on breads or other baked goods, browning on deep fried foods, or the charring of vegetables cooked over a flame, etc) and these compounds are potentially carcinogenic to both humans and animals.  Cooking foods with water, and also using high antioxidant herbs and spices in cooking helps reduce acrylamides and protect you against them.
The bottom line... we were designed through evolution to eat a mixture of both plants and animals as well as cooked and raw foods... But let's clarify an important point in #2 below...

2. Although I say that we were meant through evolution to eat an omnivorous diet of both plants and animals, one thing that we were NEVER meant to eat is factory-farm raised animals, or eggs or milk from factory-farm raised animals.
Factory farming is an entirely new phenomenon that's still only decades old, so essentially, these types of meat products were never meant to be part of the human diet.
Chemically (nutritionally), factory-farm animal products are VASTLY different from animal products that were raised the way they were meant to live and eat. Examples of these differences can be seen glaringly in the nutrition profiles of grass-fed meats vs grain-fed factory farm meat, free range eggs vs factory eggs, wild fish vs farmed fish, and so on.
We're talking about major differences in omega-3's vs omega-6's, differences in vitamins and minerals, differences in other healthy fats such as CLA, and lots more.
So although I don't fully agree with veganism at least from a nutritional standpoint (moral arguments aside), I also don't agree with our current state of affairs of the majority of our food supply of factory farm raised animal products (at least here in the US, where the condition of the factory farm animals and nutritional quality of the food is horrendous).
That's why I try to not support the factory farm industry as much as possible (which is most meats and dairy in your supermarket) and instead, I try to eat almost solely grass-fed meats from free ranging animals, wild game, wild fish, eggs from local farmers from free roaming hens, and dairy only from grass-fed cows that are allowed to graze almost entirely on forage.

3.  Although I point out that many historical cultures around the world thrived on vastly different percentages of animal products vs plant products in their diet, here is another type of food that we were NEVER meant to eat:
PROCESSED FOOD
Yes, I know it hurts to hear it, but cakes, cookies, crackers, microwaved meals, chips, sodas, granola bars, sugary sports drinks or energy drinks, and 1000's of other products that line our supermarket shelves were never meant to be part of the human diet, so it's obvious why it causes so many health problems for us.
This gets back to what I always say about trying to include as many "1-ingredient" foods as you can in your diet if you want to eat like we were meant to eat.
"1-ingredient" foods means healthy meats, eggs, nuts, seeds, beans, tubers, fruits, and veggies.  It's really that simple.

4.  Ok, this one starts to get a little controversial... but, remember that agriculture is also a relatively new phenomenon in the big picture of the human diet when you expand far back in history a couple of million years.  And when I'm talking about agriculture, I'm mostly talking about the massive influx of grain-based foods into the human diet that occurred with the invention of agriculture.
The mass production of grains through agriculture is only a few thousand years old... Compare that to our ancestors historical existence as hunter-gatherers as far back as a couple of million years, and our current species (homo sapiens) 200,000-year history as hunter-gatherers.
If you think about it, as hunter-gatherers, we would have had very limited access to grains, and they would have encompassed a very small % of our historical calorie intake, since they weren't mass produced and processed. Instead, we thrived on mostly game meats (including the organ meats, where most of the micro-nutrients are found), wild fish and seafood, eggs, nuts, seeds, beans, tubers, fruits, and veggies.
From this perspective, grains probably never accounted for more than 1-3% of our historical calorie intake... and as you know from one of my recent articles, currently our modern processed diet that the average person eats consists of 67% of total calories from grains such as corn, soy, and wheat and their derivatives... now THAT'S a shocking revelation in why our entire food supply is backwards, and how that affects your waistline!
It also makes you think about how ridiculously wrong our "food pyramid" really is, which promotes the bulk of our food to be eaten from grains.
I could go on with more examples, but I think you're seeing the major points here... the most important aspect to eating a healthy diet that promotes a lean, healthy body is to acknowledge what our ancestors ate throughout the millions of years of evolution.
And that certainly wasn't processed "diet foods" with fancy label claims deceiving you into thinking they're healthy... instead, it was the 1-ingredient foods I listed above, eaten in a combination of raw food and cooked food.
A couple final thoughts on how to fit these suggestions into your healthy eating plan:
1.  Try to become a "locavore" as much as possible... if you can get local farm-fresh produce, that is the most environmentally and socially responsible, as well as healthy way to get your produce.  Research if you have farmers markets and farm stands that might be in your area, or deliver to your area.
2.  Try to choose organic foods as much as possible... but local food will many times trump organic food that had to travel thousands of miles to make it to you.
3. When choosing meat and eggs, try to choose grass-fed meats as much as possible, free range chicken, turkey, and pork raised in a humane manner, and eggs from hens that truly roam free outside instead of being confined to "chicken factories".  Many times, this means making the effort to seek out local farms or co-ops that deliver to urban areas.  This site is a great source of meats that were raised in the healthiest manner, and they deliver right to your doorstep:  http://healthygrassfed.2ya.com
Remember that eating healthy and responsibly doesn't mean eating bland boring food... there are tons of ways to eat in a healthy and socially/environmentally responsible manner, and we describe in depth how to do this in our Click Here Fat Burning Kitchen Program.
Please share this article to help your family and friends eat healthier and to help us all collectively choose our food from more responsible sources than factory farms.  Please email this webpage link to all of your friends and family and share this page on your blogs, forums, as well as Facebook and Twitter pages.

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5 Tips to Eat Healthier, Exercise Smarter, and Get in the Best Shape of Your Life

by M. Geary, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist
1.  Consider eliminating grain-based foods from your diet, and focus more on fruits and vegetables for your carbohydrate sources.  Despite the fact that most so-called "health professionals" tell you to eat 6-9 servings of "whole grains" daily, they may be inadvertently leading you down the wrong path, and causing digestion problems, reduced energy, and even weight gain.
The truth is that the human digestive system has developed over almost 100,000 years to process a "hunter gatherer" type of diet most efficiently -- this means fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, eggs, and meat (from healthy animals, a far cry from today's factory farmed animals).
Grains, on the other hand, were not introduced to the human diet until more recent times with the invention of agriculture (only a couple thousand years ago), and therefore, our digestive systems are still not designed optimally for grain foods.  It's no surprise that it's estimated that the majority of the world's population has at least some degree of problem digesting gluten, a protein which is common to most grains (wheat being the biggest problem for most people).
My advice -- test out giving up grain foods for 1-2 weeks and see if you have more energy, feel better overall, and start losing weight.  I have another article here that talks about 2 foods worth doing a test for eliminating from your diet, and see if you notice improvements in energy and health.

2.  When it comes to eating meat, you MUST choose organic and grass-fed (or free range). Grass-fed meats (such as grass fed bison or beef) have as much as 2-5 times more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) than do conventional grain-fed meats.  CLA is a natural healthy fat that can help to reduce cancer risks as well as help to burn off body fat and build muscle (according to some studies).
Also, grass-fed meats contain a healthier, more balanced profile of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids, which helps to reduce inflammation in your body.  On the other hand, typical commerical grain-fed meats contain fat profiles that are far out of whack and way too high on the omega-6 fatty acids, and too low on the healthy omega-3's.
My advice -- forget about conventional meats and stick to only grass-fed or free range on the labels.  It may cost slightly more, but isn't your body and health worth it?  The same goes for wild fish vs farmed fish... Farmed fish are never fed a healthy diet, and are instead fattened up with grain-based meal pellets, which are not the natural diet of fish.  Wild fish that ate their natural diet will have much healthier ratios of omega-6 fats to omega-3s.  Also beware of this issue with toxic fish that you can get at grocery stores.
3.  For exercise, most people think that cardio exercise is the best way to lose fat.  What most people don't realize is that high intensity weight training (when done in a specific fashion) increases your metabolic rate to a higher degree than typical "same-pace" cardio exercise routines.  Not only that, but weight training done at high intensity has also been shown to have powerful effects on your body with reducing blood pressure and increasing your body's efficiency at processing blood sugar.
If you're not already making high intensity resistance training (weight training) the foundation of your exercise routines, start putting more focus on this, and less focus on the boring cardio exercise routines.
4.  You MUST ENJOY your workouts if you are ever going to be consistent with them for long term results.  Although sports are great (and the type of exercise that most people consider fun), and I highly recommend getting involved in sports to keep yourself in great shape, you also still need to incorporate weight training (or some form of resistance training) into your regular routines for many reasons.
The bottom line is... you need resistance training to keep maximum bone density as well as to keep your metabolism as high as possible.  Most sports typically won't give you the same benefit as the best basic full body weight training exercises.  If you want a lean strong body for life, resistance training on a regular basis is a must!
5.  Diet Pills are a TOTAL WASTE of your money!
Although you may have been duped in the past with flashy ads showing fitness models with perfect bodies, I guarantee you that they did NOT get their perfect bodies from taking any ridiculous diet pills (or so-called fat-burner pills)... they achieved their high levels of fitness and sexy lean bodies through dedicated exercise routines and smart healthy nutrition... after all, their career revolves around eating extremely healthy and working out hard on a regular basis!

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