This picture (or one similar) of the food pyramid is found in the canteens of all schools and many other “health conscious” organizations in Singapore.

If you have taken note of the current state of health of our population and the kind of decline we are in, we can see that it’s NOT WORKING.

IT'S BROKEN AND HAS GOT TO GO

Why?

First we need to take a look at the origins of the food pyramid. It is designed and “researched” by the US Department of Agriculture. Hmm… that means corn producing farmers, hmmm of course they want us to eat 6-11 servings of starch per day.

From my experience with about 200 clients per year at the Genesis Performance Center, I believe that only about 20-30% of us can handle that amount of starch safely, and only 5% of us can handle that amount of starch beneficially. For the rest of us, 6-11!! servings of starch would make us FAT. Unless we were national athletes who train 6 hours per day.

The food pyramid is also Fat Phobic. Don’t be afraid to eat fat. As long as its not evil trans fat, its fine for you.

The only good thing is that the Food Pyramid suggests we eat quite a few veggies and fruits.

Ok, I’m not one to make complaints without giving suggestions. So…

If I were the Singapore Minister Of Health, my dietary guidelines would be…

• Eat protein at every meal as much as you like
• Eat veggies at every meal as much as you like
• Fat from natural sources (meat, nuts, fish oils)
• Eat fruits 2-3 servings per day
• Eat starch (rice, noodles, bread – anything that’s not green or meat) only if you have just had a bout of vigorous physical activity.

That’s it. No calorie counting, no counting carbs/protein or fat, simple and doable. Watch Singapore’s health care costs DROP as we get leaner, stronger and healthier.

Trans fat is everywhere and you know its bad for you. Not even a gram is acceptable because your body can’t process it.

Scary thought is that the FDA doesn’t require food manufacturers to declare trans fat less than 0.5g per serving. So if you eat 10 servings of 0.4g of trans fat foods, you will get 4g of trans fat while “thinking” you get 0.

Another scary thing is that trans fat is VERY close (several molecules away) from PLASTIC. That makes the story above not a surprise at all.

If you eat trans fat foods – you might as well the plastic packaging as well!

cakes, cookies, crackers, pies, bread, potato chips, corn chips, popcorn, margarine, french fries… you get the idea!

Trans fat is everywhere and you know its bad for you. Not even a gram is acceptable because your body can’t process it.

Scary thought is that the FDA doesn’t require food manufacturers to declare trans fat less than 0.5g per serving. So if you eat 10 servings of 0.4g of trans fat foods, you will get 4g of trans fat while “thinking” you get 0.

Another scary thing is that trans fat is VERY close (several molecules away) from PLASTIC. That makes the story above not a surprise at all.

If you eat trans fat foods – you might as well the plastic packaging as well!
cakes, cookies, crackers, pies, bread, potato chips, corn chips, popcorn, margarine, french fries… you get the idea!

Trans Fat REALLY messes up your brain, your cell membranes, makes you fatter due to insulin resistance, and makes it harder to get lean!

The history of trans fat is also scary. The formula for hydrogenating liquid, non-animal fats into solids was developed in Germany. Heat, metal catalyst, pressure and hydrogen turns a liquid plant fat into a solid. And the main use of this was to make…

CANDLES!!…@#%!@#%!@#%

Candles...Yummy!

Proctor and Gamble took over this patent but sadly, electricity was invented! So the candle market became smaller so they decided… oops, if people are not going to burn this fat, they might as well EAT IT!

Think about that before you choose another piece of food with hydrogenated fat!

BTW this kind of unnatural fat STINKS without the extra processing it is put through. That should give us some clue that it is bad fo us to eat eh…

Yeah as a personal trainer and fitness coach here in Singapore, its my job to tell people exactly how bad obesity is. It leads to more sick days and costs employers money. So its bad for the country and the economy.

If you don’t care about your boss and how much he earns… you should at least care about your brain because nobody’s responsible for that except you.

New research shows obesity linked to increased chance of dementia in old age! Ugh. that’s SCARY!

This should come as no suprise because if you are fat, your have likely eaten a bunch of trans-fats from stuff like fried and baked goods. Trans fats have the “wonderful” property of making  your brain cells less efficient.

And when the body has a choice, it will choose to lose short term memory first, because as a “Caveman” which we are genetically designed to be, long term memory like “where the buffaloes were last year” is much more important than short term.

Like just about every major illness in developed countries, it goes away with diet and exercise… no surprises there!

As usual our exercise programs, supplementation plans and individualized nutrition plans at the Genesis Performance Center make sure that your body kicks out any cells “infected” with trans fat, so that you are healthy from head to toe.