NUTRITION

You are what you eat! Your success in achieving your fitness goals is directly related to your diet. Food companies are our enemies in this respect. We continue to buy convenience foods lining the shelves at supermarkets to save time. We buy packaged, tinned and boxed “food” that keep for months on our shelves at home. Food companies don't care much what they put into these “foods” to ensure they stay fresh and perfectly preserved on the shelves. They don't care what you eat as long as they make PROFIT. If we look at the endless list of ingredients in your typical packaged food, some of them are hardly decipherable.

Take note of the ingredients in the things you eat. Be aware of Hydrogenated Vegetable Fat, also called Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, which is something cooked up in a lab to change the physical properties of margarine, biscuits, chocolates and fast food to name a few. It preserves the items so the food companies have less spoilage and make more money. Your body does not know how to process this synthetic oil and it causes all sorts of chaos. If you think about the toll large amounts of hydrogenated vegetable oil can take on your body, it's hardly surprising that cancer is far more prevalent in today's society than before. Preservatives and colourants (E numbers on packaging) are also unnatural and potentially disease causing ingredients.

Furthermore, the packaged, tinned and bottled “food” items we are buying are contributing to heart disease. The hydrogenation process creates trans fats which are artificial unsaturated fats. These raise levels of bad cholesterol, lowers levels of good cholesterol and cause inflammation.

Food rules to live by:

• If it has more than two or three ingredients, it's not good for you.
• If it is packaged, boxed or tinned - bar obvious things like nuts and dried fruit - it's not good for you.
• If it can last six months in your pantry, it's not good for you.
• If your great-grandmother wouldn't recognise it - skip it!