Guilt Free Food - Always

Did you know that unnecessary negative stress in your life increases your chances of being overweight and decreases the chances of you losing any weight you might have to lose? It does. Cortisol, one of the key hormones released into your body in times of stress

• is catabolic (it helps break down muscle protein into glycogen that your body and brain can readily use),
• increases your appetite once the initial stressful situation has passed and adrenaline levels drop; and
• encourages the accumulation of abdominal fat (identified as the most dangerous to your health
  

None of these are conditions are what you're looking for when you're trying to maintain or improve your health. Of course, right now I could go on about how you can control and even eliminate the negative stress in your life, but it's not what got my bug-bear going when I sat down to write today.

What got me going was hearing these three words "Guilt Free Food". And my thought was ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Food should never be associated with anything so negative as guilt. Imagine what it feels like to be stressed out every time you consider eating (maybe you don't have to imagine). Here are the facts:

1. Your body needs fuel to maintain your optimal health
2. Food is Fuel
3. You need to eat

Bottom Line: If you get stressed about eating, your blood cortisol levels rise, your appetite increases, your muscle mass decreases and your ability to accumulate abdominal fat skyrockets - to say nothing of the other effects of being in a near permanent state of negative stress has on your life and health.

Read and listen carefully: Food is not "Good" and "Bad".
There are highly nutritious foods and less nutritious foods. Enjoy the high nutrition foods regularly and enjoy the less nutritious foods for fun sometimes, but NEVER, NEVER, EVER feel guilty. As you've read above: Feeling guilty only compounds the effect of consuming the less nutritious food. If you have a real craving for something like chocolate, twinkies or Cheezels...go for it: But let me clarify. I'm not talking about an addictive rush, when you're hungry for anything and everything in the fridge (or even the world) but what you're really doing is reacting to your feelings of anxiety and you're stuffing food into you to stuff down your emotions. No.
I'm talking about a ridgy-didge craving.
If you're truly craving something, your body is telling you that it needs something provided by that food choice - so first - have some water, and if that doesn't do it for you then have whatever it is that you're craving and really, really enjoy it, for your health's sake! Drop the Guilt - it doesn't serve you, or your health goals.

Want to know all about high and low nutrition foods and the effect they have on your health so that you can make well informed choices? Check out this book: Ultra-Metabolism by Dr Mark Hyman MD from Amazon.com or, in Australia, Dymocks Bookstores