Keep Fit - Stay Healthy - Be HappyJuly 10, 2009Issue #029Healthier Choices at Fast Food JointsHealthier Choices at Fast Food Joints Hi < When was the last time you ate fast food? I have to hold my hands up and confess I ate it twice last week. But looking at the big picture, the last time before then was just under 3 months ago. Not bad overall. The first occasion last week was whilst I was picking my sister up from London, and both of us were crying out for some food. It was late at night so I caved for KFC. But instead of going for a normal meal, I decided to customize. Got the grilled chicken wrap, replaced the fries for corn on the cob and replaced the soda for a bottled water. It cost the same, took like 30 seconds extra to order. The second occasion was that stag weekend I told you about last week. Boy it was some weekend! Loads of fun but inevitably loads of indulgence too. I even cracked and had some Great British chips. But still managed to stay away from soda. Check out the photo of the great team of superheroes at the end of this email. Fun times! What influenced my fast food choices? Well, this article by Mike Geary is a huge eye opener: By Mike Geary Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer Author Truth About Abs Make Better Choices When Forced to Eat Fast-Food I was out recently with some friends and we stopped at a fast food joint. I hate fast food joints, but sometimes everybody else wants to go there, so you just have to make the best of it and find something at least somewhat healthy. If you're forced to eat fast-food, here's a tip to make sure that you're not doing much damage to your body... ALWAYS AVOID the soda and anything deep fried including french fries, hash browns, and anything breaded like chicken nuggets, chicken patties, or breaded fish sandwiches. These are all absolutely soaked in deadly trans fats from the industrial hydrogenated vegetable oils they use to fry all of these items. Note: Even though some fast food restaurants have vowed to not use hydrogenated oils any more, they are still using highly refined oils, which are still inflammatory and negatively affect your health. Remember, as I've said before, I've seen studies indicating that as little as 1 gram of artificial trans fat per day can have serious degenerative internal effects in your body such as inflammation, clogging and hardening of the arteries, heart disease, various forms of cancer...not to mention packing on the ab flab. That's as little as 1 gram! Consider that a typical fast-food meal of a breaded chicken sandwich (or fish sandwich), along with an order of fries can contain as much as 10 grams of trans fat! Add on a cookie or small piece of pie for dessert (which are usually made with deadly margarine or shortening), and now you're up to about 13 grams of trans fat with that entire meal. If 1 gram a day is slowly killing you, imagine what 13 grams is doing! And that was only one meal that you ate. Some people are consuming 20-30 grams of trans fat per day, and not even realizing what they're doing to themselves internally. Please realize that nobody, I mean NOBODY, is looking out for your health, except for YOU. Anyway, back to the topic of how to avoid this stuff and eat a reasonably healthy meal on the rare occasion that you're forced to eat fast-food. As for drinks, avoid the sodas...they're nothing but heavily processed high fructose corn syrup which will surely end up as extra belly fat. And yes, that mean NO DIET SODA either! This stuff is pure evil to your body. Here's an article I did about why diet soda makes you fat. Water is always the best drink, but if you need something with flavor, try unsweetened or lightly sweetened iced tea. At breakfast, the best choice is an egg, ham, and cheese on an english muffin (not on a croissant, which is full of nasty trans fats!), or a fruit & nut salad. At lunch or dinner, the best choices are a grilled chicken sandwich, the chili, a grilled chicken salad without croutons (again...croutons = more trans), or even just a plain cheeseburger. The main take-away point from this little fast-food article is that the nastiest stuff at these fast food joints are the sodas and fries, and any other deep fried items. For any of you that have seen the movie "Super-Size Me", you saw how eating fast food every day absolutely destroyed that guy's health, but did you happen to notice the one guy that was the king of eating big macs (or some kind of burger)? I don't remember what kind of burger it was, but basically this guy has eaten these fast food burgers almost every day of his life for the past 30 years or something like that. Did you notice that he stated that he almost never eats the fries or soda, even though he eats the burgers every day? And he's not necessarily overweight. Now I'm not saying that fast-food burgers made with their refined white bread and low quality beef and cheese are the healthiest thing, but the point is... it's the fries and sodas that are the real health disaster. Alright, so next time you're out at one of these places, remember these tips and choose smart! By the way, if you haven't heard yet, McD's has added a nutrition label to all of their food wrappers now. Remember that as little as one gram of trans may cause some internal harm and now you can actually see how many grams of trans fat you're eating right on the food wrapper. That might change your mind about finishing it. 
For a fully comprehensive program on losing as much body fat as you want by following a smart, scientifically designed training and nutrition program, check out The Truth about Six Pack Abs.
Thanks Mike. Words I always remember when I'm out and about. Talking of which, here's the photo I promised. Check out my Facebook profile (add me) for more fat loss, nutrition and motivational secrets (as well as more crazy photos!).
Your Friend and Motivator, Asad T. P.S. Learn how to make better nutritional choices whether you're out or at home, check out The Truth about Six Pack Abs - Click HERE. Thoughts and QuestionsAs always, if you have any questions you'd like to ask me, simply reply to this email and I'll respond as soon as physically possible. If you've been sent here by a friend and enjoy this issue, you can sign up for future issues of Fitness Wonderland, click here - you'll also receive a FREE fat loss report. Keep Fit - Stay Healthy - Be Happy Asad Tufail => www.Better-Exercise-Fitness-For-Life.com Fitness FUN => Share Your Fitness Photos and Tips Read about me and my fitness journey => My Fitness Journey Missed the 4 free gifts? => Free Gifts (they're at the end of "Asad's Thoughts") Join our Facebook group => Join The Community Are you on Twitter? (it's free too!) => Join The Get Fit Tweeps Video Blog Login: => Turbulence Training Transformation Video Blog => Password: gKpd6748 (case sensitive) New! CommentsHave your say about what you just read! Leave a comment in the box below. |
