Jillian Michaels, "Boost Your Metabolism" Review

I am sure you have all seen these endearing commercials (click here to view) that make you believe the moderate consumption of antinutrients, such as high fructose corn syrup and trans fats are perfectly acceptable in low quantities. These actually make them laugh. The fact that our government is promoting toxins over national television makes me wonder what is next for this desecrating society….handing out cigarettes in schools?

I am currently reading, Jillian Michaels, “Master Your Metabolism” and find this book extremely valuable. First of all, I love Jillian! Her hardcore approach, her amazing circuit workouts, and her overall philosophy is definitely admirable. After falling in love with the 30 Day Shred workouts, I wanted to do a little more research into Jillian’s beliefs and have read great reviews on all of her books. This woman knows her stuff! I was so impressed with the amount of knowledge and research she puts into her methods. In no way do you feel that she is making this stuff up- it comes from years of personal experience and practice. And, best of all, it makes sense! Everything she preaches is entirely justifiable and valid.

I won’t detail the entire book, but a few things I do think are worthy of sharing are the lists of antinutrients (things that we should try to avoid putting in our bodies at all costs) and power nutrients (things that we should be trying our hardest to always put into our bodies).

The first of the antinutrient is hydrogenated fats or more commonly known as trans fats. Here is the deal; hydrogenated fats are created when a regular fat is blasted with hydrogen to convert the liquid into a solid at room temperature. This means that they can basically make a cookie or a chip edible for 10 years. More than any other food, hydrogenated foods increase your “bad” LDL and decrease your good HDL. They also shrink the size of your LDL particles, which makes them more likely to clot and dramatically raises your risk of heart attack and metabolic syndrome. A recent study discovered that you’d only need to eat 20 to 60 calories from artificial trans fat a day to start damaging your health.

The more I read about this deadly culprit, the more I find myself checking labels intensely. I have adopted the strategy of scanning the list and if I see the world partially-hydrogenated, I DON’T BUY IT!!!

The other antinutrient that I want to touch on is High Fructose Corn Syrup. There are so many products out there that contain this that many of us wouldn’t even think of. Applesauce, ketchup, bread, cereals, protein bars, jams, pickles, peanut butter…etc. HFCS really only does one good thing; it helps food companies boost their profits, all it does for us is boost our fat storing hormones. There are two types of sugar molecules that our bodies recognize; glucose and fructose. Gluclose is metabolized in the cells and fructose in the liver. HFCS tricks the body into not releasing insulin into leptin; two hormones your body needs to release when your done eating. So the more you eat, the more your body will leave you unsatisfied and wanting more.

This one is a little hard to completely eliminate because it is more prevalent in everyday items. The best way to avoid it- buy organic. Many organic products have removed any kind of fructose from their products so its best to buy the things you may use frequently in the organic section.

It amazes me how dependant our society has become on processed foods. How could we not be? We live each day as a race, with hardly a moment to stop and relax, so who has time to actually consider these things when it comes to eating? I'm not saying that going completely and utterly wholesome is the answer, because lets face it, it's unrealistic and even though I believe in a natural diet, I am also a realist. Although I do read labels and make conscious efforts, I do not have the time or energy to invest studying every single food item that I consume. So basically, I live by this simple philosophy....if it didn't have a mom or doesn't come from the ground, it's probably not something you want to put into your body all that often.

Stay tuned...tomorrow, I will talk about some of the powerhouse nutrients that provide optimum benefits to maintaining a fully healthy, functioning system.

Has anyone else read this book? What did you think?