Health Secrets

It hasn’t been too long since the American Medical Association officially announced that Americans needed to start taking vitamin supplements to maintain their health. While there are probably many reasons for this, one of the most glaring is the fact that our general food supply sucks.

This announcement harkens a very sad fact, in my opinion: Americans can no longer get the essential nutrients we need from the food we eat. I suppose it’s easier to get millions of Americans to start taking supplements than it is to make a billion dollar industry change its practices.

Although I have much to say about most facets of the American food supply, for the purposes of this article I want to discuss the most vital food component on the planet: raw vegetables. It’s the most vital food component because, with rare exceptions, every organism on Earth either eats raw vegetables or eats animals that eat raw vegetables. Basically speaking, without raw vegetable consumption, the planet would die.

Giving the American population the benefit of the doubt, very few people are apparently aware of how desperately our bodies are craving the nutrients found in raw vegetables.
If the general population really is aware of this and still doesn’t eat more raw vegetables, that fact is sadder than the announcement from the AMA.

Raw vegetables are extremely rich in minerals, vitamins, trace elements, enzymes and natural sugars. All of these are things that your body needs to function properly and the raw veggies will help stabilize and normalize your natural bodily functions. They actually help pretty much ALL of your natural bodily functions operate.

Enzymes are especially essential for our overall health because they aid in digestion. This is why people frequently refer to green vegetables as a natural laxative; they get the stomach working properly. Thanks to the overall condition of the food supply in this country, our system needs as much help as it can get with regards to digestion.

So, with the explanation of the general benefits regarding vegetables in front of you, you may be wondering why it is I’ve been advocating eating them raw. The explanation for that is contains three points which are incredibly disturbing to me:

1. Scientific studies have shown that the commercially produced vegetables today aren’t nearly as nutritious as they were 50 years ago. One of the likely causes for this is the fact that farming has been “advanced” to the point that it doesn’t take nearly as long for a vegetable to be full grown…though that doesn’t mean that they are nutritiously mature. They don’t lay underground as long as they used to, so they don’t have the same opportunity to fully develop.

2. Most Americans purchase their vegetables in the produce section of the local grocery story. However, the local grocery store has its vegetables shipped in from all over the country. Since vegetables naturally begin to lose their nutritional value the moment they are harvested, the travel time between the production farm and the produce department allows for significant nutrient loss.

3. All forms of cooking vegetables reduce their nutritional content. Even steaming, which is by far the healthiest form of cooking, still makes the vegetables less nutritious than they would be if eaten raw.

So, you put it all together and the picture is pretty scary. Our commercially available vegetables aren’t as nutritious as they used to be when they are harvested; they start losing the nutritious value that they do have at harvest; they continue losing it all along the route to your local grocery store; and then you cook them which reduces the nutritional value even further.

We may be better off coloring cardboard green and eating it.

Seriously, this is a sincere problem for the general health of America. I’m advocating eating raw vegetables in an attempt to salvage their incredibly reduced nutritional value. To really combat this problem you need to start growing your own vegetables organically or, barring that, purchase them at the local farmer’s market.

Or, as the AMA suggests, you can just start popping supplements and continue eating cardboard. Mmmmmm, cardboard.

One thing I get asked about seeing as how I run a health site and all is what programs and products I recommend for weight loss and overall fitness.

That’s an excellent question.

I read a lot of books, ebooks, and even articles on the Internet on the topic.

One thing I’ve learned is that there’s a lot of hype, and not a lot of substance.

You ever see those previews for movies, and the movie looks really good from the previews, and then when you get to the theater, the previews were the only good parts of the movie, or maybe the previews were even better than the movie.

Well, that’s how I feel about a lot of the products I see and try out - good previews, bad product.

Which brings me to my review of Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle - one of the more popular weight loss / fitness products on the net right now.

I remember reading the salesletter thinking it sounded really good, which made me think that all the good stuff was in the salesletter of the product.

So I sat down and gave it a read. It was somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 pages before reading the bonuses, so even if it sucked, he couldn’t be accused of not delivering any bulk in his product.

When I first started reading the program, chapter one was a bit of a surprise to me.

It covered, *gasp*, goal setting. Imagine that, setting goals actually helps you lose weight, and not some magic little pills you pay $150 for…

Most other books simply talk about why all other diets don’t work and why theirs is different.

Well, Burn the Fat turned out to be different too. It’s not a diet book.

Instead, I think it’d be more accurate to call it a nutrition and fitness book. Since the book doesn’t promote crash diets, and focuses more on fat loss than just weight loss (there’s a big difference).

One section that I really learned a lot from was the chapter on how to increase your metabolism. I’ll admit that in the past I’ve tried some of those gimmicky diets and in the process lost some weight, but slowed down my metabolism in the process - making it much easier to gain weight and much harder to lose anymore weight.

So when I learned how I could increase my metabolism, eat more, and still lose weight, I was really excited. And guess what, it actually works - and there’s no crazy supplements or voodoo magic involved - the technique is very simple.

Another section that I found really interesting, and you probably will too, was the section on different body types. Basically, that all men are created equal thing doesn’t apply to genetics. Some people are more gifted than others. Some people will find gaining weight almost impossible while others will find it easy to gain. Other people can eat at McDonalds everyday while other people can live off salad and still not be able to see there abs.

That’s the problem with so many diet programs out there. They’re one size fits all. This program isn’t, which means that it will work for just about anyone who really gives it a try rather than most other programs where it works for a few people - and those are the people you see on TV - but for the general population it won’t work.

So I have to say that overall I was actually pretty pleased with Burn The Fat and would be happy to recommend it to my readers.

However, just so you know if it’s right for you, I’ve made a quick little checklist.

Burn The Fat Is Right For You If:
-You Want To Lose Weight
-You Want To Get In Better Shape
-You Want To See Some Muscle Definition In Your Body
-You Want To Achieve Permanent And Lasting Results
-Even If You’ve Tried Other Diet Programs And They Didn’t Work - Like I said, this program is more about nutrition and fitness than weight loss - it’s just that the fat loss is an excellent side effect of being in shape.

Burn The Fat Isn’t Right For You If:
-You Want To Lose 30 Pounds In 30 Days
-You Want A Magic Pill
-You’re Idea Of Exercise Is Walking Out To The Mailbox To Get The Mail

Now, I’ll be honest, this product isn’t perfect. You’ll find that it recommends you use artificial sweeteners in some places, and if you know me, you know how totally against artificial sweeteners I am. Also, I’ve found that while the sections on nutrition are great, and that it helps you learn how to make good food choices, the actual recipe section is a little light - there’s a few to get you started, but after that, you’ll have to apply what you know. If I were doing a revision, I’d add more recipes.

However, overall, it’s a product that I’d recommend to anyone looking to lose fat.

Here’s another review of Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle.

Overall: Thumbs Up - Recommended

This product is available from - Burn The Fat - click here.