Butter: Good Fat or Bad Fat?

People are often shocked when they see how much butter I use and eat in one day. But I know the real truth; Butter is a good fat and can actually help you lose weight.

Unfortunately, people thinking butter is unhealthy is a very common misconception. People still think that butter and saturated fats are the reason heart disease is one of the top killers in this country (and now in many other countries as well). The truth is that it’s not the natural fats that are causing this epidemic, its the sugar, processed and packaged foods and overconsumption of refined oils that are causing so much disease (and you can add Diabetes, High Cholesterol and High Blood Pressure to this list as well).

I go into this topic in much greater detail in the Fats Chapter of the Diet Solution Program but here are a few nuggets of info to ponder:

1. Did you know that during the 60 year period from 1910-1970, the proportion of traditional animal fat in the American diet declined from 83% to 62%?

2. During this same time butter consumption plummeted from 18 pounds per person each year to 4 pounds per person each year.

3. During the past 80 years, the consumption of dietary cholesterol intake has increased only one percent.

So where is the problem? Why all the heart disease?

1. During the same period, the average intake of dietary vegetable oils (margarine, shortening, and refined oils) increased by about 400%.

2. During the same period, the consumption of sugar and processed foods increased by about 60%

Those are the facts, but there’s never better proof than the results I see with my clients and my readers. When people finally stop eating margarine, refined oils, “fake” butters, sugar and processed foods, their health sky rockets! (and by sky rockets I mean, gets better, greatly improves, elevates to whole new levels). Not to mention all the body fat they lose off their body (now isn’t that just an awful side effect?)

It’s important to mention that the butter I use is organic and grass fed. It has this beautiful deep yellow color and is not white like most conventional butters. It has gone through minimal processing and has no added growth hormones and antibiotics. I get all my butter from http://www.grasslandmeats.com/

Now that I told you butter is ok to eat, here is a delicious chicken recipe you can enjoy:

(Please remember that the mad scientist in me sometimes forgets to document the exact amounts so you may need to play around with this a bit.)

Chicken with “I’m not afraid of butter” dressing

Ingredients:

2 large chicken breasts (approximately 1 lb of chicken)
6 Tbsp of melted butter
lemon juice from 1/2 large lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste

Directions:

Melt 1 tbsp of butter in a large pan. Season chicken breasts with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Cook chicken breasts in butter covered on very low heat. Do not let the butter get brown. Pour lemon juice in a seperate bowl. Slowly stir in the remaining melted butter as you stir mixture. Then slowly add the olive oil as you stir mixture. Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Once the chicken is cooked through, served on a plate and pour the “dressing mixture” over your cooked chicken breasts.

Don’t be surprised if you are tempted to pour this dressing on your veggies and just about every other food item you can think of. It’s delicious!

Find out the real truth behind healthy fats and get started on your own fat loss goals right away with this free Weight Loss Guide.

The Diet Solution Program

So just what is The Diet Solution Program? As you probably know most of the new fad diets focus on removing primary food composition categories; that is, fats, carbohydrates, or proteins. Even though most of these can reduce weight, disrupting your body's metabolism and nutrition can only lead to stress, hunger and fatigue. If you have found yourself starving when losing weight only to fall off and gain it back then The Diet Solution Program is the diet for you.

The author, Isabel De Los Rios, has found a refreshing answer to this problem - namely, a diet solution program that focuses on an easier lifestyle change with the added benefit of nutritional value. A certified nutrition, exercise and lifestyle coach, Isabel De Los Rios is owner of New Body – Center for Fitness and Nutrition in New Jersey. In her book, she has brought together the best of her background in sports nutrition and physiology with a focus on metabolic typing to create an actionable natural weight loss guide that really makes sense.
So, how does her program work? Her basic dieting concept is that with the right foods, you can eat sizable quantities and lose weight at the same time. Most dieters decrease their overall food intake so much when they want to lose weight that they do lose some pounds, then quickly level off. At that point, they have no choice but to eat even less food, which triggers starvation mode and makes losing weight and feeling good very difficult, if not impossible.

The Diet Solution Program is a full 180 pages of background, inspiration, food & nutrition information - as well as menus, charts and journal templates. It is a complete guide that changes your thinking about food, metabolism and the simple preparation steps you need to lose weight naturally.

The basic breakdown of the book is this:
Section 1 - Focuses on meal planning in order to get the best results for your own metabolic diet type as well as a personal program for success describing the three steps to weight loss.

Section 2 - Specifically dives into very detailed information on what to eat and what to avoid - basically, good vs. bad foods. Plus, she has immediate action steps to remove or change your daily habits. Packed with over 50 recipes in 61 pages, she defines all of the requirements and recommendations for good food in your diet.

Section 3 - Encompasses all the tools to measure your own metabolic type such as Dietary charts (such as glycemic index, food portions) and data, meal journal templates, as well as full calendar example of menus for breakfast, snacks, lunch, and dinner.

Frankly, this book is a welcome relief to the current set of dieting guides on the market today. The only criticism of this guide is something that is, in my opinion, just a lifestyle choice - that is, as much as I know the author wants to promote good nutrition, there really isn't any section devoted to modern lifestyle choices you can make while at work or on the road.

It would be great to have some additional options such as less expensive non-organic market choices, fast food alternatives, and work-arounds when you can't get the recommended choices. Our busy lives make it difficult to get organic foods or plan out our lunches at work. It would have been nice to see a section of some options for those on the run. However, that kind of planning is really something you can easily develop on your own using this guide.

All in all this is a highly recommended dieting guide - it focuses on balanced foods, nutrition, and proper health to lose weight naturally. Order The Diet Solution Program today!

Calorie F.A.Q. - Not All Calories Are The Same

Q. Is calorie a bad word?

A. No, it’s not bad—just misunderstood! Most people who use the word calorie simply don’t know what it means. Also, in my experience, most people to go pale at the mere mention of the word. Based on those facts alone, I would eliminate calorie from the English vocabulary if I could.

Q. Why is calorie such a misunderstood word?

A. The American public has been told, time and time again, that people who consume more calories than their bodies burn will gain weight. As I explain in The Diet Solution: Start Eating and Start Living, this statement is only partially true. All calories are not created equal; calories consumed from healthy foods and unhealthy foods are quite different.

Q. What exactly is a calorie, then?

A. According to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition), a calorie is “a unit equivalent to the large calorie expressing heat-producing or energy-producing value in food when oxidized in the body.” In plain English, a calorie is a unit of energy released from the food you eat to power the body.

Q. How are calories “burned”?

A. The body needs energy from food—calories—to perform many functions, the most obvious of which are physical activity and exercise. However, the body also requires energy to function at the most basic level: to breathe, digest food, and maintain organs and systems.

Q. How many calories should I eat each day?

A. The short answer is “enough.” The calories you consume must provide enough energy for your body to perform all necessary functions and activities—and bring about optimum health. The long answer is that the number of calories needed varies from person to person and depends on weight, foods consumed, sleep, stress and activity levels, age, and a long list of other factors that affect metabolism. In The Diet Solution: Start Eating and Start Living, I provide a calorie equation to help you estimate, according to these factors, how many calories you should consume to lose weight or maintain weight. It also includes charts to help you choose the right sources of those calories to support your efforts.
Q. Is it possible to eat too few calories?

A. Believe it or not, yes! The most serious problem with low-calorie diets is that although they may bring about weight loss, they also can cause serious health problems. One common side effect of low-calorie diets is muscle breakdown, which can occur when the body doesn’t consume enough calories from protein. Especially vulnerable is the heart, a muscular organ. If a person does not consume an adequate amount of calories each day, the heart muscle begins to break down, possibly leading to serious cardiac conditions (e.g., cardiac atrophy).

Q. What are the consequences of following low-calorie diets off and on over time?

A. Low-calorie diets typically do not supply enough energy to keep organs and systems healthy. In effect, they can lead to malnourishment. For clients who have repeatedly followed such diets, I recommend high-calorie meal plans that will provide their organs with adequate fuel to repair themselves and regain healthy function. Most of my clients are surprised, at first, to see how much food they can consume on a healthy weight-loss diet—not to mention the high level of health that they can achieve.

Stay tuned for Part 2...

You can learn much more about losing weight, living healthy, and great food in The Diet Solution Program.

Natural Weight Loss and Physiology

Any natural weight loss program focuses on balancing nutrition with your own physiology. Here, Isabel De Los Rios, talks about how your own metabolic typing affects your weight using the The Diet Solution Program.

Q: Do you think people can lose weight on a fat free diet?

A: Definitely not. The no-fat craze clearly made most Americans (and many other countries) gain more weight than ever before. Why? Because the right kind of fat is essential to the body and without it, your body can not metabolize the fat you don’t want. So unless you feed your body the fats that it needs, it literally holds on to all the fat you don’t need (and don’t want!). Eating a low fat or no fat meal plan is a huge mistake. Not only will you not lose weight but you may suffer from many conditions such as asthma, diabetes, and heart disease. This is usually one of the most eye-opening chapters for most of my readers. They can’t believe they need to eat fat to lose fat and are amazed when they see the results first hand. Now, of course, eating unhealthy fats (like the ones found in French fries and burgers) is not the right approach. You must focus on the healthy fats (again, as Mother Nature intended).

Q: After reading The Diet Solution I discovered that I am a serious 'Protein Type' - what the main thing I should do to increase my energy?

A: The main thing is not to be afraid of eating healthy fat and healthy proteins. Everyone thinks chicken breasts and egg whites is the only way to lose weight but, especially for a protein type, that is not the case. Actually a protein type may gain weight by only eating low fat proteins and a low fat meal plan. Someone like you needs whole eggs, dark meat poultry, beef, and healthy fats.

Q: What exactly is Metabolic Typing and why is it so important for each of us to know our metabolic type?

A: Metabolic typing is actually a very old science-based way to determine which foods respond best to your body. The best way to describe this method is: the foods that an Eskimo would eat are clearly different than the foods a native Hawaiian would eat. Why? Because their natural ancestors and their environment dictate how their bodies will process and digest food. So an Eskimo will need a meal plan higher in healthy fats to keep warm and a Hawaiian will need a meal plan higher in veggies and fruits to stay cool. Now, it is often not this simple. Each and every person’s metabolism responds very differently to all food and can vary greatly from person to person. For example, I feel my best and stay at my ideal weight when I eat higher fat proteins along with lots of vegetables where as many of my clients do better with higher amounts of natural carbohydrates and lower fat proteins. My book provides a detailed, easy to answer test to determine your own personal metabolic type and then tells you exactly which foods are the best fit for you.

Q: Can people lose weight by just starving themselves?

A: Back in the caveman days, there were periods of feast and famine. Our bodies have a natural ability to make sure we do not die of starvation. This mechanism in our bodies holds on to every bit of fat and every calorie possible to keep us from dying. This is obviously no longer a risk in most countries, but this mechanism is still present in our bodies. So when people starve themselves all day, the body sees this as a potential risk, and holds on to every calorie and fat gram it possibly can. This is why people become extremely frustrated when they “don’t eat all day” and still don’t lose weight. I know it seems counterproductive, but the only way to truly lose weight and keep it off is to start eating. But not processed unnatural foods. Your body will respond best to natural, wholesome foods and LOTS of them.

Q: How do companies get away with selling products with harmful chemicals in them?

A: I hate to say this but most food and pharmaceutical companies are really only concerned with one thing: money. So if they were to actually teach people the real truth behind how to lose weight and take control of their health, most of the food products, supplements and medications on the market today would be completely unnecessary. Let’s be honest. No one is going to get rich selling apples, you know? I think many of these companies are also feeding off people’s emotions. The more addicted they get people to their products and diet foods, the more money they will continue to make. But if you were to get someone to their ideal weight with natural foods like veggies, fruits and natural meats, there would be no food addictions to diet foods and chemicals, just good healthy eating.