Fast Food restuarants and chains have recently been making a massive effort to clean up their tarnished image by marketing so called healthier foods.

In fact one American fast food company (not trading un the UK) has recently launched their ‘Drive Through Diet’ and they have claimed that one of their customers lost an astounding 23Kg in just under 24 months by following this diet.

What we are asking here is should you really trust what these companies are saying to us via their advertisments? Or is this just a feeble attempt for them to cash in on the current rising levels of obesity that they are potentially responsible for?

To help you make up your own mind we have come up with six compelling reasons as to why we think you should avoid the marketing advances of thes companies

Fast food is highly processed and generally contains the following pretty unpleasant ingredients that you should avoid at all costs:

• Trans Fatty Acids - trans fats are a hidden killer and the main cause of heart disease in the western world as well as bein a cause of high levels of cholesterol in the blood.
• Artificial additives – Sweeteners & flavour enhancers such as Aspartame and MSG have been linked to certain cancers. These are found in drinks, sauces and many toppings. Chinese food especially is high in MSG.
• Reconstituted meat – Just because your burger says it contains 100% beef does not mean the best lean cuts of beef are used. Usually it is the high in fat cuts that are otherwise wasted that are minced to make up your burger.
• Processed carbs – French Fries, white burger baps and baked goods use highly refined flours with added fat, salt & sugar that have little or no nutritional value and willleave you feeling hungry again in no time.
• Processed sugars – Loads of highly processed sugars are found in milkshakes, soft drinks and desserts. These have little or no nutritional value whatsoever and are also high in calories
• High in Calories – The main cause of obesity is taking in more calories than you burn over an extended period of time. Fast foods are some of the most calorific foods available. So our advice to you is that if you want to lose weight, you need to avaoid fast food.

If your diet mainly consist of fast food, you will not only be sabotaging your fitness goals, but also your long term health.

Our advice here at NorthWest Personal Training Manchester is to follow a sensible eating plan consisting of mostly fresh lean cuts of meat, fresh fish (not canned tuna), dairy produce, whole grains and plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Cook your meals from scratch and steer well clear of fast food and ready made supermarket meals.

Tags: bodyfat, diet, fast food, healthy eating, Nutrition, organic food, Weight Loss
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Many artificial sweeteners on the market in the UK today contain ingredients that may be quite harmful to your health. Our advice here at NorthWest Personal Training in Manchester is to check out your “diet drink”  or sugar free product for
the following:

Aspartame (E951) - has been know to produce the toxin methanol, which your body can process only in small amounts, and this has been shown to cause headaches and menstrual problems

Saccharin (E954) – another common sweetner has also been linked with bladder cancer and Acesulfame K (E950) which is found in many of the popular diet colas has also been linked with cancer, while sorbitol (E420) which is normally found in toothpase and mannitol (E421) have been associated with stomach bloating.

If you insist on having a Cola or a Fizzy orange we would recommend going for the “full fat” version as its likely to be healthier for you in the long run and if you need to sweeten up your coffee or tea, it’s best to go for brown sugar rather than white refined or try and cut it out gradually.

Update: Just found an excellent article on this subject on another site:
Aspartame is poison

Tags: diet, healthy eating, Nutrition
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1. Never skip breakfast (especially if you are trying to lose weight).
2. Eat more vegetables.
3. Try and snack on healthy fruits and nuts.
4. Eat more oily fish.
5. Remove as musch saturated fat from your diet as you can.
6. Cut out sugar.
7. Cut down on you salt intake.
8. Drink plenty of water and teas. Avoid fizzy drinks and coffee where possible.
9. Never ever skip meals (especially breakfast).
10. Avoid all fast foods including microwave and supermarket convenience meals.
11. Reduce your Alcohol intake and try and keep below 14 units a week if you are a female (21 for guys).
12. Avoid artificial sweeteners.

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Below are four healthy eating tit-bits you can and should use to help improve how you look and feel.

1. Cut down on the alcohol 

If booze is a major part of your social life, your waistline may end up suffering. Alcohol is not only high in carbs and empty calories which are of no nutritional value, but people tend to make bad food choices when they have had a few drinks as their inhibitions (and diets) are relaxed. A couple of beers, alcopops or glasses of wine can easily add up to a thousand calories (more than 50% average females recommended intake). North West Personal Training advise cutting out alcohol altogether, however if you are going to have a few drinks try and go for a glass of wine or swap the sugary mixers such as coke and go for soda water.

2. Fried food should be a no go areas

 ”Grill it, bake it, barbeque it, steam it, but please don’t fry it,” advises North West Personal Training’s Liam Thompson. Frying food that is otherwise pretty healthy, such as chicken, removes a lot of the foods nutrients, while adding fat and many extra calories. In addition to this, by eating fried foods especially when eating out in restaurants that use trans fats (fats your body cannot use), you increase the risk of highering artery blocking bad cholesterol and good cholesterol levels.

3. Cut down on carbs in the evening. 

You dont need to cut out the carbs altogether, however you should be aware of when you consume them. By eating high carbohydrate foods such as bread, potatoes, white rice and pasta, earlier in the day, you have more time to use the energy they provide as you go about your daily routine. At night, carbohydrates are more likely to go unused and end up getting stored as body fat.  A good rule is to try and only eat high protein foods and vegetables after seven pm.

4. Give up processed / highly refined foods. 

Everyone knows that fresh foods are much better for us, but we often end up going for processed food products because it is a more convenient option especially with todays busy lifestyles. Even though it would be pretty hard to cut out processed foods altogether from our diets, there are certain ingredients you need to try and avoid, especially high fructose corn syrup, Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), white flour sweetners such as aspartame and processed sugar. The closer a food is to nature and the less processed it is the better it is for you. Even better still if it is organic.

Tags: healthy eating, Nutrition, organic food, Weight Loss
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Many of my personal training clients regularly tell me that they miss out on breakfast either because they don’t feel like eating as soon as they wake up or because they don’t have the time to make breakfast before they go to work.

However the truth of the matter is that scientific study after scientific study shows that people who eat a breakfast that includes a healthy balance of carbs, protein, and good fats lose more weight than those who skip this meal altogether.

This is because after a night of fasting and inactivity when you are asleep, your metabolism has slowed down to a crawl. We need to think of breakfast as the action that switches on your body’s metabolism, allowing you up to burn calories for the whole day. In fact think of the name breakfast, it is so called as it is designed to break the fast from the previous 12 hours since your last evening meal. Some people skip breakfast altogether and dont eat until mid morning or even luch time and if they haven’t eaten since 7pm the night before this can mean a fast of over 16 hours. The human body is not designed to go without food for that long and this can cause us to go into starvation mode and hold onto body fat rather that burn it. As a result of this our body will use up valuable muscle tissue as fuel and in turn this will decrease the amount of calories we need on a daily basis and make it harder for us to shift unwanted body fat and lose weight.

Studies have also shown another reason why having a nutrient-dense, satisfying breakfast is important in the quest to lose weight is that it prevents us from overeating later on in the day.

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