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FAT DIET LIE NUMBER THREE:Believe everything you read in the media

In this part of the course we’ll look at the scams used by health magazine publishers. Naturally, they’d rather you didn’t know about them.

If it’s in the news, committed to print, or broadcast over the radio or television, you’ll usually believe it.

For some reason, the media has gained exceptionally high credibility. If it’s on the news, it must be true.

In fact, much of the “news” we hear is deliberately contrived, and the same goes for the so-called “facts” that appear in healthy eating periodicals – much of it is contrived and deliberately slanted.

Building on the understanding that most of their readers will believe anything they see in the printed word, publishers created the combined food supplement/magazine partnership.

Publishers have come to rely not only on the revenue from corporate advertisements of food supplements, but also on the corporations themselves. And here’s the kicker to that. Often the advertising companies and the publishers are one and the same company! In other words, their magazines are the vehicles used to advertising their own goods. So, you pay that company twice – first for their advertised publication, and then for their advertised product.

In time, the health food publishing industry learned how to direct their money-spinning energies toward marketing food supplements, rather than selling magazines.

And there’s more.

You’ll find it difficult to distinguish the advertising from the editorial comment, and this is neither incidental nor accidental.

It’s well-known that editorial content is more credible than plain advertising – which is why the advertisement wording is notably similar to the editorial in style and content.

So, what look like an informative, well-researched piece of unbiased research is little more than advertising copy made to look that way – even down to the strategically-placed telephone number somewhere on the page!

When there is no direct financial interest in the food additive company, the magazine’s publishers will not want to offend or upset the additive company investing thousands of dollars of advertising space with it – so don’t expect that same magazine to tell you the truth and nothing but the truth.

They advertise food additives heavily (one way or another) to stay on the favorable side of the companies that will advertise more to help them sell more. The more they sell, the more they advertise…it’s a one-hand-feeds-the-other gravy train.

Even though these magazines are clearly out to promote their food additives, you’d be surprised how many people – especially those new to the fat loss industry – fall for every word that’s printed, and throw away their money (literally thousands of dollars of it) on additives that do no good at all.

If you take counsel from anyone, let is be from someone who has no vested interest in the food additive industry or the magazines that champion it – that’s the only way to gain a truly unbiased view of the matter.

FAT DIET LIE NUMER FOUR: Supplements or products that replace whole meals actually burn your body fat.

Do all these protein powders, shakes, diet drinks and meal replacement products (MRP's) genuinely do that?

The well-worn dieting slogan runs something like this:

“Down a shake first thing in the morning, again at midday, and then eat what you like in the evening.”

That’s a dangerous situation into which you could put your body or its metabolism, and for the following reasons:

It’s almost certain to leave you seriously deficient in calories and headed for a constant feeling of being starved (plus, liquid protein diets are dangerous in themselves.)

Many such diets contain unsound formulations; they’re saturated with refined sugars or corn-syrup, which is in direct opposition to what you should be eating on a diet to lose body fat.

Take a look at the list of ingredients of some of the products on sale. You’ll horrified by what they contain.

Even if you’re ingesting enough calories to burn the body fat without decelerating your metabolism, even the best-made drinks, shakes or MRP’s do nothing to burn fat or build muscle better than normal food will.

Normal food is much better for you, because of the way it influences your metabolic rate.

MRP’s are, quite simply, foods in powder form – liquid foods that may be more convenient to make, but no better for you than normal food.

Although they might be of some benefit to build muscle after physical exercise, shakes come in a poor second when compared to normal food, because the body’s digestive system has adapted foremost to normal food through evolution.

It has been scientifically demonstrated that the very act of digestion accelerates the body’s metabolism, and does so by means of a process is known as dietary thermogenesis.

The relevant text is Katch, Katch & McArdle’s, Sports And Exercise Nutrition. It reveals that the thermal effect of digestion can account for up to 10% of daily calorific utilization.

The study also identifies two parts of the thermal effect – the first being obligatory thermogenesis, the product of the energy used to digest and absorb food.

The second part is facultative thermogeneis, the effect on the neurological system of eating food and the consequent impact on the body’s metabolism.

Neither of these thermal effects is realized by the ingestion of liquids or shakes.

It might seem cockeyed, but you burn off body fat by eating.

It’s like keeping your furnace regularly fueled to make your home cozy. If you don’t, the furnace burns out, and you become cold. The fuel keeps you warm.

When you eat, you’re stoking the furnace, increasing your metabolic rate and raising the metabolic heat. Therefore, it’s the normal food that should be seen as the fat burner, and the MRP’s and protein powders that should be used for convenience.

Regard food in this manner and add a sensible workout program. In sequence, your body’s metabolism will prove to be an efficient incinerator of that body fat.

Martin Collins, fitness expert

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Please Note: The information presented throughout Lose100Pounds.org is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Please see your physician before starting any diet and/or exercise program.