My guess is your going to get a MINIMUM of 5 emails over the next week.

You’re going to here all kinds of stories of why you absolutely MUST get a meal plan.

And, surprisingly (under the correct circumstances) even I am going to be one of those people!

Here’s the deal:

I’m not just blindly promoting some random product – I am promoting it for a specific purpose AND
for a specific reason.

That reason is I lost a HUGE debate with Eat Stop Eat science editor John Barban.

This debate led to John creating meal plans.

It was about 2 months ago, we were sitting in Williams Coffee Pub in Burlington Ontario, I was having a cappuccino and John was having a black coffee (he was fasting).

Out of the blue, John drops this line on me

John: “You know, you basically turn your back on people who don’t want to fast”

Obviously, my first thought was a good right hook…but seeing as John outweighs me by about 25 pounds, I decided that might not be the brightest idea.

Brad: “What are you talking about?” (this was my substitute for the right hook)

John: “Well for people who don’t want to fast, you simply tell them to eat responsibly”

Brad: “Exactly”

John: “Well, for people who have been completely confused by the obsessive compulsive advice from diet books and diet gurus…no one has a clue what eating responsibly means anymore”

Now, this made me really angry. I go to great lengths in this blog trying to explain what ‘eating responsibly’ means…but in reality, I could see John’s point.

Brad: “Well, what would you suggest?”

John: “Meal plans”

This is where I almost walked out of the coffee shop.

Brad: “F&*ck Off” (I’ll be honest, this was the most intelligent thing that I could get out of my mouth at this point)

Brad: “No. No way. Meal plans are a perfect example of OCE, they force people into a style of eating because of some BS pseudoscience rational of why people MUST eat one way…I don’t care what you say, meal plans ARE NOT the answer”

John: “Well, what if they were just simple plans that are made up of whole foods and mixed meals and some cooking instructions, no science story, just meals at various calorie levels.”

Brad: “nope, still way to restrictive, I want people to be flexible with their diets..that’s the whole point of Eat Stop Eat”

John: “Brad, some people need some form of schedule in their lives, especially when they are attempting to diet. You have to admit, even people following Eat Stop Eat sometimes ask for help trying to
figure out WHAT to eat when they ARE eating.”

Brad: “OK , that’s true, but still….I can’t condone eating according to a meal plan for the rest of your life, that’s just…torture”

John: “OK, so what if it wasn’t a ‘rest of your life thing’, what if it was meant as a guide to follow for 12 weeks to get back on track with your eating style’

Brad: “12 week meal plans?”

John: “Yes, 12 week meal plans. The exact same type of meal plans that are used successfully in hospital settings…you have to admit, they have an excellent track record for effectiveness”

Brad: “OK, under those circumstances yes.  But to be a respectable idea it would have to have ZERO pseudo science, no magic hormone manipulation stories, and it would be perfectly blunt that is ONLY a 12 week plan to be used to learn how to eat a certain amount of calories in a day?”

John: “yes”

Brad: “Fine…actually, yes…that would be something I could stand behind…I still prefer people be flexble with their eating habits, but for those people who REALLY want some sort of structure to work with this could be useful…but only if you make sure it’s done properly…you can market the hell out of it, but make sure the product is just as good as you say it is”

That is pretty much how the conversation went…I’m sure I missed some random thoughts and a ton of tangents (and I’ve edited out a bit of swearing), but that is basically it.

It was a debate, and a debate I lost. John had a valid point, a valid problem and a valid solution to that problem.

Therefore I can support this product because in my own way I was involved in its creation and because John gave me his word that it wouldn’t have any crazy pseudoscience or any misleading marketing.

(Obviously there was going to be marketing, I just didn’t want it to be misleading – all diets work if they create a calorie restriction; it’s the people who make up false reasons WHY their diets work that infuriate me!)

Now, I wasn’t involved in the design of the plans or any of the marketing (John teamed up with a guy named Pat McGuire and a guy named Vince Delmonte for this project), but I trust John enough to believe he’s done a good job following through on his idea.

So if you want to check out the meal plans the John helped develop then visit www.qualitymealplans.com

Again, I encourage you to be flexible with your eating, however If you are having a hard time figuring out how much to eat, or have been so confused by diet books and diet advice that you would like a simple 12-week refresher on what to eat, then again these plans may be helpful.

I’m not saying they are magic by any means, but they could be a valuable tool in your weight loss tool box.

www.qualitymealplans.com

BP

***

Good Foods, Bad Foods

I was recently reading some comments about ESE and some other diets and people seem to keep using the words “Good foods” and “Bad foods” .

I think this is a dangerous distinction to be making because it presents the potential for us to label almost anything good or bad depending on our focus and opens the slippery slope towards full blown Obsessive Compulsive Eating.

Let’s look at a mythical example of a ‘good food’ and a ‘bad’ food.

Our mythical “Good’ food = Orange Juice

Our mythical “Bad” food = Cake

If you label orange juice a “good food” you might want to consider all of the following points:

1) Do all brands of orange juice get this distinction?

2) Would the nutritional label of your ‘good’ orange juice have to fit into a certain parameter of sugar, salt, calories, additives etc, per serving? (you could simply adjust the serving size to make it fit, half cup vs full cup)

3) What about the source of oranges used and whether or not they are genetically modified

4) Pesticide use on the oranges used to make your juice

5) Artificial flavors and colors?

6) Political implications of where the oranges came from; was any farmer or region exploited in order to get these oranges into the juice you are drinking, were they paid a fair price, were there government subsidies etc.

7) Environmental impact and fuel usage of transporting the oranges and manufacturing the juice and the container that ended up on the store shelf in your town

…and on and on and on…you could take this more in the political direction, or more environmental, or more biological and the specific effects the juice has on your body (this last one is what I am assuming most people mean when they say ‘good’ or ‘bad’ food).

My mythical ‘bad’ food =A slice of Cake

If you label cake as ‘bad’ food you might want to consider all of the following points:

1) Is store bought pre made cake the same as home made cake even if it contains the same amount of fat, sugar, salt etc?

2) is it only bad because of the amount of calories or fat or sugar it contains? (is one bite just as bad as a whole slice)

3) Does the frequency that you eat the cake make a difference for how ‘bad’ it is. Ie: only once every couple months at a celebration is ok, but once a day is bad?

4) Environmental impact and fuel usage of transporting all the ingredients to the store then ending up in a mixing bowl on your counter then the oven then on your plate.

5) If it were the only piece of food you ate today would it still be ‘bad’

6) If you are in good health, happy with your weight and have no measurable ‘health’ issues before and after you eat the cake is it still ‘bad’

…and on and on and on…

It is my contention that there is no such thing as good and bad foods, there is only this…

The food you choose to eat, and the impact this food has directly on your body (both physiologically and emotionally) and the environment impact if purchasing that particular food item.

When you look at it this way food choices become much more personal than general lists of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ and you can start to become a much more responsible, eater, shopper, consumer, citizen, parent, spouse, person.

John
(please feel free to leave a comment, however, if you want to talk to me directly, feel fee to email me at john (at) adoniseffect.com)

I mean it.

You can’t really blame the ‘certified nutritionists’. They probably paid good money for their certification and thus they probably beleive what they have been taught is true.

Most of them do not have advanced degrees in nutrition, and the vast majority of them are truly trying to help you lose weight and eat better.

So they are not the ones we should be blaming when they promote ridiculous nutrition myths – it’s the people who gave them the horrible education that we need to blame.

In case you didn’t know – No one certifies the certifiers. There is no governing body of nutrition that oversees the content of these courses.

Many of these course are multiple-choice mail-in style tests.

(Even the prestigious CSCS examination is a simple multiple choice test – When I wrote it in 2003 there was no practical or hands on component)

So it’s not the certified nutritionists you should be mad at, it’s the people who are misleading THEM that deserve our wrath.

These people are singled out at taken advantage of. They fall for clever marketing that prays on the fact that they really, truly want to help people eat better and lose weight!

If you get bad pseudo-science style advice – look at the true source – they are the people who need to be reprimanded.

BP

To tell you the truth this was going to be the topic of my next book (it still might be), but it’s become so important lately that I need to share this with you RIGHT NOW.

Variety is the ‘the one word key’ to eating healthy.

The one word that DOES NOT mean healthy is:

Avoidance.

Yet this is where 99.99% of all of our nutrition recommendations come from…foods to avoid. Bad foods. Evil foods. Food that you should never EVER eat.

“At all costs, avoid caffeine, sugar, white potatoes, saturated fat, trans fats, artificial sweeteners , artificial colors, artificial flavors, bread(gluten), legumes, dairy and anything cooked.”

I’m sure you’ve read this before.

Scaremongering.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say it is dietary extremism masquerading as healthy eating. Plain and simple.

Despite what so many people are telling you, there are NO BAD FOODS.

As Pericles said,

“It is the dose that makes the poison”.

You can have 4 slices of pizza EVERY MONTH for the rest of your life and you will NOT decrease your health (In fact, many people would suggest you would be improving your health).

If you had 4 slices of pizza EVERY DAY for the rest of your life, this is when you have a problem.
But the problem might NOT be the pizza. It could be lack of the other foods.

Again – Variety…as much variety as you can fit into your life.

What’s that old saying? “Variety is the spice of life” well this should be your healthy eating credo.

You DO NOT NEED to avoid simple sugars in your diet. If you increase the VARIETY OF FOODS you eat, it becomes VERY DIFFICULT to overeat any one food. Sugar, fat, protein, salt, you name it.

Sadly, most of us have given up on variety and have replaced it with monotonous repetition (in the name of health of course).

In the next two days, count the different types of food you eat.

I’m guessing that you surprised at the number (I didn’t make it over 20!).

Yesterday I did a tour of my local grocery store.

As I grabbed a head of boston lettuce, these were the items to the left or right of the boston lettuce:

Anise, Rapini, Beets, Radicchio, Belgain endive, leeks, green kohlrabi, swiss chard, dandelion  bok choy.

Most of these are foods that I have not eaten in AT LEAST the last two months.

When I picked up my blueberries these were the items in that row that I have never tried:

Lychee nuts, ataulfo mango, red tamarillo, gooseberry.

NEVER. I have NEVER had these foods. What an absolute shame.

Even foods we have been led to believe are SUPER healthy fail in comparison to variety.

A breakfast of raw cashews, organic yogurt, and coconut flakes followed by a cup of Matcha green tea may sound SUPER HEALTHY, but without variety it fails.

A person who eats this type of breakfast every day for months on end would probably benefit greatly from the occasional breakfast of eggs and bacon, or oatmeal and blueberries…just something DIFFERENT.

Unfortunately this type of person would probably feel horrible after not having their normal breakfast, because they’ve been lead to believe that repetition equals dedication, and dedication equals healthy.

The bottom line is – To lose weight you need to eat less, and to improve your health you need to eat with more variety. I am really beginning to believe that everything else is just over hyped nutrition marketing.

BP

PS- Here are two simple tricks you can use to increase the variety in your diet-

1-    Next time you go to the grocery store, pick the item to the left of the item you would normally buy. (Instead of fresh basil I bought fresh arugula)

2-    Next time you go out to a restaurant pick the item below the item you would normally order.

PPS- Here is a super simple trick to help you eat less while enjoying the foods you eat ==> fasting for weight loss

The current nutrition wisdom is that a diet high in processed and refined foods is bad for you, can decrease your health, and lead you to an early grave.

While it’s always fun to label something as the ‘Darth Vader’ of foods…let’s take a closer look and processed and refined foods.

A quick google search would tell you that processed foods are to be avoided AT ALL COSTS.

you will find statements like this:

The more a food is processed, the fewer nutrients remain. In some cases, additives or preservatives are added and can act as toxins in the body.

Wikipedia describes “processed food” as any food that is changed from its natural, raw state. And while this sounds ‘bad’ (funny how that happens), let’s take a look at 5 examples of EXTREMELY processed and refined foods:

1. Vitamin and Mineral Supplements
2. Protein powders
3. Fish oil
4. Powdered green drinks
5. Egg whites

I’m sure that we could argue about the degree to which these foods will benefit your health, however I am equally sure that we can agree that these foods are not completely bad for you, and will most likely NOT lead you to an early grave.

The truth is, processing has made the world’s food supply much safer to eat.

I live in southern Ontario, where 2008 was a particularly bad year that included a listeria outbreak, multiple salmonella outbreaks and an e. coli outbreak.

These outbreaks are typically prevented from well controlled food processing techniques.

Processing kills pathogens, and extends the shelf life of food. Processing even increases the bioavailability of some nutrients, such as lycopene, found in tomatoes.

The bottom line is that most of us could benefit from eating a little less sugar, and more fruits and vegetables. However, the hysteria building around the words ‘processed’ and ‘refined’ is unfounded, and is one more thing that we are being asked to obsess over in our already overly complicated world of nutrition advice.

Do your best to eat high quality foods, but be wary the extremist view of avoiding ALL processed or refined foods.

BP

Specifically in an QnA in their Diet and Health section the following question was asked:

Is it true that when your metabolism slows down (e.g. from exercise, age, etc.), adding calories proportionally will “kick-start” it back to prior fat-burning levels? In my case, my rate slowed from 2,000 to 1,500, and the gym’s nutritionist recommended an increase in calories from 1,600 to 1,900. Thank you.

This question was answered by Dr. Melina Jampolis.

Now don’t I agree with Dr. Jampolis’s answer 100%, (and I REALLY dislike the use of the term ‘metabolism’ in place of metabolic rate), and I suspect that Dr. Jampolis had the same immediate thought that I did – How did a gym measure your metabolic rate??

But, considering she is an MD, and is giving advice on CNN, and has to consider the millions of people that are reading her advice, and the limited amount of information she was given, I think she did very well in giving some sort of action plan.

Her reasoning may have been a bit…much, but the actual suggestions aren’t too crazy.

(Remember, more than likely a junior writer wrote the answer and Dr. Jampolis probably signed off on it)

So this isn’t my example of nutrition confusion.

For that you have to go to the comments section AFTER the article.

It says there are 31 comments, but there have to be over 100.

In the comments people are ALL OVER THE PLACE.

Here are a couple quotes:

interval based weight training burns about 900% more calories than cardio for the same amount of time.

Old-fashioned oatmeal in the morning is a GREAT way to get your metabolism going

Eat as much as you want, but eat a vegan diet (no eggs, dairy, or meat). You CAN’T get fat, it’s impossible, and incredibily healthy

It has been proven than 6 smaller meals is more productive.

It is important to consume more than 75% of your daily calorie intake before 1pm

Do away with all processed starches including white bread and rice, high fructose corn syrup, and any processed sugar-based food for EVER!

I am an NSCA-CPT. This Dr. is old school way of thinking. Geez.. it amazes me the amount of bad information out there.

Granted there was the occasional post that made sense. But the bottom line is this – in my opinion, this is a perfect example of just how confused we are about nutrition.

And you can’t blame the people posting. Not at all. The vast majority of them have no background in nutrition. They are simply trying to convey what they have been told. It is the people marketing OCE, the magazines and their nutrition tidbits, the websites and their fanatical craze for nutrition information, these are the true culprits.

It is getting to the point where I think the very best thing you could do for your health is to SEVERELY limit your intake of ‘health information’. The less of this garbage your read, the better off you will be.

The marketing of health trends and health food is very similar to the marketing of junk food…they both have the goal of convincing you to CONSUME something.

The more rules, the more magic ingredients, the more foods you should avoid, the less likely the advice will help.

BP

If anyone has ever come across a research study that used ANY form of diet manipulation or weight training (that doesn’t involve the use of steroids) AND where the subjects gained MORE than 10 pounds (4.5 kilos) of LEAN MASS over ANY time frame…could you please send me the reference.

Happy hunting

BP

PS – The subjects have to be human, and not children.

PPS – I’ll post if I find anything

What is becoming a major trend on-line is mistaking EXPERIENCE for EXPERTISE.

Learning from your own personal experience and telling people what worked for you is absolutely fine.

Learning from your personal experience and telling people WHAT worked and WHY it worked, without having the proper scientific background to do so, well that’s a whole other story.

When reading health and nutrition information, we need to ask ourselves, “is the source qualified to be reporting this information?”

For instance, someone who has transformed their body by losing a large amount of weight is a valuable resource for anyone who is also trying to transform their body by losing a large amount of weight.

This person has EXPERIENCE that he or she can share.

Now, if this same person starts sharing WHY things worked, without the scientific background to do so, this is simply an example of lying (if done on purpose) or arrogance (if done without knowing it was deceitful).

And this trend is what is very quickly watering down the value of the information that is available on-line (or off-line for that matter).

Bottom line – Being lean, having a monstrous bench press or being a manager of a gym does not mean you are qualified to interpret scientific data. Having a background in statistical analysis and methodology as well as an understanding of the scientific history within your SPECIFIC FIELD qualifies you to interpret scientific data.

Even scientific education is limited in its scope of EXPERTISE.

I have an undergraduate degree in human nutrition, 7 years experience working in clinical research overseeing weight loss and muscle building studies, and a graduate degree in human biology and nutritional sciences were I concentrated my research on the metabolic effects of fasting and its use in weight loss.

So even though my background is in an area of human health, this does not mean I should comment on the science of shoulder injury prevention.

Similarly, I have a colleague who is a PhD in athletic therapy with expertise in shoulder injury prevention, and thus while an expert in his own field knows not to comment on the usefulness of fasting for weight loss.

in 2009 I believe we should begin to openly question the qualifications of the sources that are trying to provide us with weight loss EXPERTISE.

In the scientific community there is nothing wrong, demeaning or rude about asking someone for their qualifications, and I believe this should the same within the on-line community.

If you’re not sure, there is no harm in asking.

BP