Michael Snowden

The nutrition sphere has many “scarecrows” nowadays: fat, carbs, red meat… Usually, they are entirely innocent foods, that are presented as “bad” to the public because of old superstitions or misunderstood studies. However some of these “scarecrows” are known as being unhealthy for a reason, and one of them is sugar. Sugar is known to hurt your health for a number of reasons, so this begs the question: how to reduce your sugar intake?

But before we dive into that question, let’s first understand why exactly is sugar bad?

Sugar: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

First of all, what is sugar? Sugar is a type of carbohydrate, that is present in many foods. Some foods, for example fruits such as apples, have naturally occurring sugars in them, and this is why we should differentiate between two types of sugar: naturally occuring and added.

Naturally occuring sugars are sugars end up naturally in a fruit. Foods that often contain those are fruits, vegetables, and dairy products. These are found alongside other micro and macro elements, such as minerals, vitamins, and fiber.

Added sugars are usually included in processed foods, and are added to make our food taste better. These come usually in the form of glucose (white/brown sugar), high fructose corn syrup and other high calorie sweetners, and are found in almost all processed foods: snacks, beverages, sauces… But what is the problem with that?

While some levels of sugar are a healthy source of energy for our body, excessive added sugar is most definitely a threat. Some of the health complications it can cause is tooth decay, diabetes, heart problems, energy crashes, and weight gain.

Weight gain is especially dangerous, as almost 36.5% of Americans are obese nowadays, added sugar being one of the major reasons for that problem. Fortunately it is reversible, by a caloric deficit and fitness, particularly when enhanced by natural weight loss supplements such as Tea Burn, but added sugar is still remains a threat to public health. So how to actually reduce your sugar intake?

How to Reduce Your Sugar Intake?

1. Reduce/Remove the Consumption of Sugar Sweetened Beverages from Your Diet

Yes, we all already heard that soda is bad, however it remains the largest source of added sugar in an average American diet – almost 24% of added sugar comes from it on average.

On the bright side of things, this is also a source of added sugar that is the easiest to replace with a healthier alternative. Fortunately we live in the 21st century, and almost every drink has it’s sugar free substitute. Although the question “Are sugar free drinks are good for you or not?” still remains unanswered, it is quite definite that beverages with added sugar are worse.

2. Fruits not Snacks

Yes, even the best of us have a sweet tooth sometimes, but it is not about getting an urge, it is about how you decide to deal with it. Instead of hungrily rummaging through supermarket shelves to find the most unhealthy, added sugar filled dessert, try to satisfy your food with an alternative with less added sugar.

Personally, my go to low cal alternative is apples. They are sweet, crunchy, take time to eat and leave even a big eater such as myself with a feeling that I have eaten something substantial. But this is not the only way to satisfy your craving! Any other fruit, a couple squares of dark chocolate or a spoon of honey can do the trick.

3. Avoid “Health Halo” Foods by Looking at the Label

The same way some foods are unjustly labeled as unhealthy, other foods unjustly have a “Health Halo” – a popular perception of them as being “healthy”.

A prime example of this is granola – innocently looking grains that are absolutely flooded with added sugars. Juices are another common example. Although they present themselves as being natural, showing pictures of fruits on its packaging, they often have a ton of added sugars in them.

The Solution? Look at the label, and see how much added sugar the product actually contains. Although your intuition might be saying to you that something is healthy, there is really no way to know unless you check it out yourself.

Conclusion

Welcome to the 21st century – added sugar is everywhere. In order to avoid its excessive consumption, you should focus on healthy substitutions and pay more attention to labels.

Low-Carb diets have a lot of benefits. You have steady energy throughout the day, without any sugar rushes/crushes. You have a high protein intake, since most of the food you consume is protein and fat, and it also helps you lose weight quickly, because your body gets rid of all the water weight it carries. For some, however, a low-carb diet can be problematic because of the lack of fiber, which is contained in fruits and vegetables – foods that are avoided in a low-carb diets. So, how can you get enough fiber on a Low-Carb diet?

But before we answer the main question, let’s understand first what is fiber and it’s importance for our body.

What is Fiber?

Fiber is a type of carbohydrate found in plant foods, and it has two forms, soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber can be dissolved by our stomach, and it turns into a “gelatinous” substance in our stomach. Insoluble fiber, on the other hand, cannot be dissolved by our digestive tract and goes straight through our body.

Both types of fiber have health benefits for humans. Soluble fiber is known to lower blood sugar and to increase your feeling of fullness after a meal, preventing you from craving more food. Insoluble fiber, on the other hand, promotes bowel movements and is known to prevent constipation.

So if both of these are crtitical for proper digestion, how can you get enough fiber on a Low-Carb diet, which limits the consuption of most sources of fiber?

Non-Starchy Greens

As already discussed above, following a Low-Carb diet and trying to get an adequate fiber intake puts you into a dilemma. Fortunately for you, a low-carb diet isn’t a no-carb diet, and it still allows you to have a small, 20-50 gram, carb intake.

In order for you to get in enough fiber, you need to use this “carb window” to eat high-fiber, low-carb foods, such as non-starchy greens. So, what is are non-starchy greens?

The key for understanding what is a non-starchy green is by seeing whether the vegetable in question grows above ground or underground. For example, potatoes, carrots and sweet potatoes are not non-starchy veggies, since they grow underground.

Here is a list of some non-starchy greens you can eat on a low-carb diet:

For every food we are talking about total carbs, including fiber already, and then fiber content is also mentioned separately.

• Broccoli: 7 gram carbs (2.6 grams fiber) per 100 grams (3.5 oz)
• Cauliflower: 5 gram carbs (2 grams fiber)
• Green beans: 5.6 gram carbs (2.6 grams fiber)
• Red Bell Peppers: 6 gram carbs (2.1 grams fiber)
• Green Bell Peppers: 4.6 gram carbs (2.1 fiber)
• Asparagus: 3.9 gram carbs (2.1 grams fiber)
• Brussels Sprouts: 9 gram carbs (3.9 grams fiber)
• Avocado: 8.5 gram carbs (6.7 grams fiber)
  

Another benefit of eating non-starchy greens is because they are high volume and low calorie foods, helping you feel full on a weight loss diet for longer because of their volume. If your goal is losing weight, I recommend you use natural weight loss supplements such as Tea Burn to increase the effectiveness of your diet.

High Fiber Fruits and Berries

The same way you can eat high fiber greens, you can also eat high fiber fruits and berries. Here is a list of some of them:

• Strawberries: 7.7 gram carbs (2 gram fiber) per 100 grams (3.5 oz)
• Raspberries: 12 gram carbs (7 gram fiber)
• Blackberries: 10 gram carbs (5 gram fiber)

High Fiber Nuts

Nuts are often seen as great natural alternative to other quick snacks, but alongside that they are also insanely high in fiber relative to their carb content. However if you are trying to lose weight, you should be careful eating nuts as they are a very calorie-dense food.

• Almonds: 22 gram carbs (13 gram fiber) per 100 grams (3.5 oz)
• Chia Seeds: 42 gram carbs (34 gram fiber)
• Coconut: 15 gram carbs (9 gram fiber)
• Pistachio: 28 gram carbs (10 gram fiber)

Conclusion

Getting enough fiber on a low-carb diet is definitely doable, however there are adjustments and sacrifices you should take if that is your goal. First and foremost, you should use all of your “carb window” for high fiber carbs – otherwise you will most likely have to break your diet. If food discipline is not a problem for you – congratulations! You will achieve your goal.

If you liked this article, check out my recent article on Potassium Rich Foods!

Having a balanced diet is hard. Even harder than that is eating all the necessary micronutrients – vitamins and minerals. One of the most elusive micronutrients to “hit” is Potassium – an mineral that is reponsible for a lot of vital functions in your body. Of course, supplements can help you eat enough potassium, but as we all know it is always better to get your micro and macronutrients through food than through supplements. So what are some Potassium rich foods?

But before talking about the foods themselves, let’s go over the importance of Potassium for your body.

What is Potassium? And what does it do for you?

Potassium is a mineral that plays a crucial role in all of our body’s tissues. One of it’s main goals is to counterbalance sodium in our cells to maintain physiological balance. For people living in the modern western world, that mostly eat a high sodium diet it is especially important to consume enough potassium to balance it out.

If you goal is effective weight loss, potassium should be a matter of interest to you as it a key element of metabolism. You can speed up your metabolism even more by using natural weight loss supplements such as Teaburn which include an array of other elements that benefit your weight loss.

According to a 2011 study, people who ate low potassium diets where at a 20% higher chance of dying from various health causes than people who had enough of it. Heart disease alone – eating a low potassium diet makes you 50% more likely to get heart disease compared to people who eat high potassium.

How much Potassium should you have per day? For adult men, the daily recommended value is 3,400 mg, for adult women it is around 2,600 mg.

5 Potassium Rich Foods:

1. Avocado

Not only is avocado delicious and one of the staple foods of Mexican cuisine, it is also an underrated source of potassium. 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of this green fruit (yes, avocado is a fruit) contain a whopping 500 mg of Potassium (14% of the Male Daily Value)!

2. Sweet Potato

Not only is sweet potato the more successful relative of the regular potato, but it is also a great sources of potassium. If you eat 100 grams (3.5 oz) of sweet potato it will provide you with 337 mg of Potassium, (~10% of the Male DV)

3. Spinach

Popeye knew what he was doing – spinach is one of the best sources of potassium you can get in real food. A single 100 gram serving of spinach will give you 557 mg of Potassium, 16% of the DV!

4. Coconut Water

Do you like Pina Coladas? Well, you should, because not only is coconut water the drink of choice for “health nut” athletes (like me) but is also an incredibly rich and convenient source of Potassium. One cup of coconut water (245 grams) will provide you with 404 mg of Potassium, 11% of the Daily Value

5. Lentils

By themselves, lentils are not the most enjoyable food. However they compensate that by being incredibly nutritionally dense, along with being a super source of potassium – 955 (!) mg of Potassium per 100 gram dry lentils, which is a full 28% of the DV! And if the taste concerns you – just prepare any recipe with beans, like bean casserole, and you will get all the benefits of lentils without taste being an issue!

Final Thoughts on Potassium Rich Foods

A recent study has shown that only 0.015% of Americans have an adequate daily intake of potassium. This just goes to show how likely you are to not be eating a suffiecient enough amount of Potassium. In order to improve this situations, try to include some of the foods listed above in your diet, and wait for future articles on Potassium rich foods!

If you liked this article, check out my previous article on plant-based vegan diets!

For one reason or another, nowadays many people start to eat plant-based diets. If you are vegan, vegetarian or adhere to any other type of plant-based diet, you can gain or lose weight on it the same way you could do that in any other type of diet. However, there are some things specific to a plant-based weight loss diet that you wouldn’t want to miss if you want to make it right

But first, we should go over the mechanics of weight loss to understand how it works

The Basics of Plant-Based Diet Weight Loss

Weight gain is actually a very simple process to understand. The fat your body stores is its energy reserve, which you’ve accumulated when you have eaten more than you have burned throughout the day. So in order to deplete your fat stores, you should do exactly the opposite – burn more than you consume. 

There are many ways to burn more calories than you consume, such as using vegan natural weight loss supplements like Tea Burn and exercising, but in terms of food you can lower your caloric consumption by eating foods that contain less calories.

So, what are the things to get right in plant-based weight loss diet?

1 – Eat Low Calorie Foods

This prescription is not specific to the plant-based diet, as any diet typically relies on eating less calories than you burn. However most plant-based diets tend to be richer in high calorie foods than other diets, like peanut butter, lentils and beans.

Try to change the typical composition of your meal – eat more fresh vegetables instead of usual high calorie foods. Another possible choice is to eat green beans (only 33 calories per 4 ounces), green peas (60 calories per 4 ounces, but a great source of protein) or cauliflower (25 calories per 4 ounces!)

If you don’t weight your food, it would be a good idea to minimize or eliminate the consumption of nut butters, since they are very calorie dense. Two spoons of the same peanut butter might look similar, but could have a drastically different amount of calories because of the way you picked up the butter with your spoon.

2- Eat more protein

Although the last point wasn’t specific to plant-based diets, this one definitely is. Many people who eat a plant-based diet tend to eat less protein, as there are less plant-based choice of protein than there are not plant-based ones.

This is definitely a mistake, especially in a plant-based weight loss diet, as eating enough protein is one of the key ways to prevent your body from breaking down your muscles for energy instead of fat. This is why you should make sure to eat enough protein on your diet.

Try including proteins like Tempeh, Seitan, Broccoli (yes it is rich in protein relative to it’s calories) and Tofu, by mixing them into your food, like Stir Fries and Salads.

3- Vitamins

Having more vitamins is another very critical point for any plant-based diet, more so any plant-based weight loss diet, where you are not only constrained by the foods you can eat but also by the amount of the food you can eat and stay in a calorie deficit.

In order to make sure you are consuming enough vitamins and minerals, just plug your daily diet into your MyfitnessPal and it will show you if you get all the micronutrients you need. Here is a list of some micronutrients often lacking in plant-based diets, and where to get them naturally without supplements

• B12: Nutritional Yeast
• Omega 3: Flax Seeds, Chia Seeds, Walnuts
• Iron: Cruciferous vegetables and beans
• Calcium: Bok Choy, Kale
• Zinc: Wheat germ, tofu
• Vitamin D: Sun or Vegan Vitamin D Supplements.

Conclusion

If you want to lose weight on a plant-based diet, this is not hard. Eat enough protein, avoid high calorie foods, and eat all the vitamins you need. But most importantly, be patient, and enjoy the process as much as you can.

If you want to read other articles about weight loss, check out my last article on sushi for weight loss!

Sushi, alongside pizza and burgers, is one of the 3 undisputed kings of the culinary “Hall of Fame”. Whenever you are going out with friends and are picking what to eat, sushi is almost always one of the options. Unfortunately for us in the fitness world, not all popular foods will help you to lose weight. This begs the question: is sushi good for weight loss?

But before answering this questions, let’s remind ourselves how weight loss works

The Basics of Weight Loss

Weight gain is actually a very simple process to understand. The fat your body stores is its energy reserve, which you’ve accumulated when you have eaten more than you have burned throughout the day. So in order to deplete your fat stores, you should do exactly the opposite – burn more than you consume. 

There are many ways to burn more calories than you consume, such as using natural weight loss supplements like Tea Burn and exercising, but in terms of food you can lower your caloric consumption by eating foods that contain less calories.

So is sushi one of those foods?

Is Sushi Good for Weight Loss?

As all sushi lovers know, the name sushi doesn’t indicate one specific food. Sushi is an “umbrella” term, which typically represents a roll of rice, fish, and seaweed (neither of those is mandatory for the food to be called sushi).

However if we take into account that most sushi rolls contain white rice, which is one of the most calorie dense carbs with a lower volume than most other carbs, it is pretty safe to say that most most sushi rolls aren’t an ideal everyday food for slimming down.

Now let’s see how many calories are in 100 grams (4 ounces) of the most popular rolls:

California: 93
Spicy Salmon: 190
Philadelphia: 170
Dragon: 175
Spider: 215

So as you can see, sushi can be quite varied in their calories. So, how can you pick the right sushi to eat on a diet?

What Sushi is Better for Weight Loss?

So as we have by now established, some sushi are calorie bombs. However, there is a way to eat sushi and avoid consuming excessive calories.

First and foremost, avoid fried “tempura” rolls. These rolls are deep fried and suck up a lot of oil in the process. Oil is a fat, which in its turn is the most calorie dense macronutrient (9 cal per gram), meaning in will add a lot of unecessary calories to your sushi.

As a general rule of thumb, the lowest calorie sushi are maki and nigiri rolls, as they usually only contain rice and fish. Sashimi – the pinnacle of Japanese cuisine, is even better than sushi. It is lean cuts of fresh fish that you dip in soy sauce and consume as it is.

If you goal is to save on calories, opt for sushi with low calorie fillings, for example cucumber instead of avocado or cream cheese. Spicy mayo is another secret calorie bomb that can add a bunch of calories to your food in exchange for almost no additional volume.

Another way to save calories is by trying to opt for tuna instead of salmon, since tuna is much lower in fat and therefore, calories.

Conclusion

Sushi is not the friendliest food for weightloss, however with enough patience and will power, you can make the right choices that will allow you to enjoy it even on a diet. Just pay attention to the ingredients, the calories and you can make anything work.

If you enjoyed this article, check out my latest article on fruits you should avoid on weight loss!

In the world of fitness, fruit is often as a “low calorie safe haven” for people who are trying to lose weight. However the world of fruit is a diverse one, and claiming that all fruits fall into the “good for weight loss category” is a pretty bold statement, because as we know there are always exceptions. So are there any fruits you should avoid for weight loss?

But before we talk about fruits that are bad for weight loss, we should understand how weight loss works

The Basics of Weight Loss

Weight gain is actually a very simple process to understand. The fat your body stores is its energy reserve, which you’ve accumulated when you have eaten more than you have burned throughout the day. So in order to deplete your fat stores, you should do exactly the opposite – burn more than you consume. 

There are many ways to burn more calories than you consume, such as using natural weight loss supplements like Tea Burn and exercising, but in terms of food you can lower your caloric consumption by eating foods that contain less calories, in this case – fruit.

Fruits to Avoid for Weight Loss:

Avocado

Avocado is a fruit beloved by many. Guacamole, crema, avocado toast… The number of ways avocado can present itself in food is almost infinite. However despite avocado being delicious, it is one of the fruits to avoid for weight loss.

100 grams (4 ounces) of avocado contains 15 grams of fat, and although healthy fats are good for you, they are the most calorite dense macronutrient, containing 9 calories per gram. , and this results in avocado containing 160 calories per 100 gram.

As many as there exist avocado uses, as many are there weight loss alternatives. For example, if you use avocado as a spread on toast, find a more low-cal alternative, or uses low-fat cream chease to add protein to your toast!

Dates

For some health nuts, dates are the preferred way of adding sweetness into their shakes and smoothies, instead of sugar. However, although dates are known for not raising your blood sugar levels and not giving you a sugar crush, they are still very high in calories.

A single madjool date (24 grams/1 ounce pitted) contains a staggering 66 calories. Now imagine if you add 2-3 dates to your smoothie – you just added 150-200 calories just for some sweetness!

If you want to add sweetness to your smoothie/shake, just try adding erythriol, stevia, or any another 0 calorie sweetener. If artificial sweetners are not your piece of cake, just try adding other low cal fruits like apples or carrots (yes I know carrots are vegetables but they are sweet)

Raisins

Not once or twice have I met people who think that raisins are a low calorie food. I see why someone could think that, since raisins come from grapes, but it can’t be any further from the truth.

Raisins are dried grapes, and grapes aren’t a low cal fruit as their are, in the undried form. After undergoing the drying process that turns them into raisins, they lose all their water content and become smaller in size. In terms of weight loss, it makes them less voluminous (and therefore less filling) and more calorie dense. 100 grams (4 ounces) of grapes contain a staggering 300 calories!

If you want to snack on some sweet fruit while losing weight, raisins are not the right move. Instead opt for berries, like cherries, strawberries or raspberries.

Fruits to Avoid for Weight Loss – Conclusion

Although we tend to considered fruits as nature’s gift for weight loss, some of them definitely are high calorie and aren’t the easiest options to slide into your weight loss diet. If you are seeing any fruit you don’t know the calories of, you should google it’s nutritional value to see how much calories does it gave, even if they are not among ones listed above. If you liked this article, comment for a part 2!

If you enjoyed this article, check out my previous article on the effects of not eating after a workout!

For us people living in the 21st century, combing workouts, a proper diet, work, and social life can be a difficult thing. For this exact reason, some people have unorthodox ways for structuring their meals and daily schedule – like not eating after working out. But how does not eating after a workout affect our body?

Muscle Synthesis

Before addressing the main question, it is important to understand what is the ideal timing for meals in terms of building muscle is. A 2018 meta analysis has shown that in order to maximize muscle synthesis (muscle growth) after a workout you need to have at least 4 protein meals throughout the day.

That being said, most of us aren’t training to become the next Mr/Mrs Olympia, so maximizing our muscle synthesis shouldn’t be our main concern we should choose what fits your lifestyle best and not what builds muscle the quickest.

Not Eating After a Workout – Effects

So how will not eating after a workout affect your muscle growth? Well, it really depends on what do you mean. If you train in the evening and just go to sleep without having eaten, chances are the effect won’t be as significant because you had eaten (hopefully) throughout the day until that point. This way, you are still having 2-3 meals and your body still has enough “material” to build muscle.

However another possible scenario is that you train in the morning/day, and only have one single meal per day. Although this is a diet many people practice (called OMAD – one meal per day), it is almost a universally accepted belief that it is not ideal to build muscle when you eat only once per day. In order to build muscle, your body needs a steady supply of protein throughout the day to rebuild your muscle fibers, and eating once per day will not be ideal for that.

Another aspect of the same issue is the fact that in order to stay healthy eating a single meal per day, you need to make sure that you get all your nutrients, micro and macro, in this meal, which can be quite a hassle to plan and organize.

Final Thoughts

Most likely not eating after a workout will not have any serious impact on your workouts if you are only skipping 1-2 meals, in the same way as most of the people that workout aren’t optimizing every single thing in their life just to make their muscle grow a bit faster.

However, that being said if you only eating one meal before working out, and then you just skip all of your meals the rest of the day this might actually have a serious negative impact on your muscle growth.

This practice (eating once per day) is not bad overall, as it has multiple other benefits like being beneficial for weight loss, especially if coupled with natural weight loss supplements like Tea Burn, however it will not bring you the best results if your goal is building muscle.

If you want to read more about weight loss, read my recent article on 5 High Volume Low Calorie Foods you don’t know about!

A couple months ago I wrote an article on “High Volume Low Calorie foods”, which will help you feel full and satiated while on a diet. As a person that has dieted himself and also helped others lose weight, I have compiled over the years a long list of these foods you probably didn’t hear about, so this is my time to shine again.

Losing weight is a hard process. However it can be made easier with things like high volume low-calorie foods, natural weight loss supplements, and low intensity cardio. In this article I will only help you with the first part, and give you 5 high volume low calorie foods.

1. Heart of Palm

Palm Hearts were a real discovery for me. 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of Palm Hearts have 36 calories, and contain a whopping (relatively to the calories) 4 grams of protein. If that doesn’t sound good enough yet, they are also incredibly rich in minerals and vitamins most people’s diets lack, like Potassium (38% of the Daily Recommend Intake), Copper (70% of the DRI), and Zinc (36% of the RDI).

Palm harts almost always come canned or jarred, and you can either eat them like pickles (they have a slightly similar taste) or you can add them into your salads or carbs sources (rice for example) to make them more volumous.

2. Soups

Soups are not an obscure/unknown type of food, however I include them in this list because so many people are ignorant that soups are the OG High Volume Low Calorie food. Water (0 calories) is the main ingredient in a soup, so it brings down the calories for the dish significantly (relatively to it’s volume)

However, when eating food for weight loss there are still things you should be wary about, as some soups can be very high in calories. For weight loss purposes, I would pay close attention to including unnecessary oil and carbs.

3. Rice Puffs

The weight loss community has been recently discovering low calorie popcorn, and rice puffs are popcorn’s cousin. This is not a food that is low cal per se, because 100 grams of rice (even in its “rice puff” form is still 360 calories) but in terms of volume it definitely is one.

You can use rice puffs as cereal, mix them with your greek yoghurt to give it more volume, or even mix them with a protein slurry and freeze in molds them to make a homemade protein bar.

4. Cabbage

I actually got inspo for cabbage dishes from a french dish called choucroute. It is basically cooked cabbage mixed with sausage or other meats. Looking at it from a fitness perspective, cabbage is really a perfect “carrier” food for other flavors.

How low-cal of a food is cabbage, you ask? 25 calories per 100 grams (3.5 ounces). Yes, you read it right. Basically calorie-less. If that is not enough, 100 g. of cabbage also contain 86% of the Vitamin K RDI.

You can make stir fries with it, replacing noodles with cabbage, add it into soups, or just simply cook it with your prefered protein of choice and let its flavors permeate it. The possibilities are quite literally endless.

5. Apples

I am not going to lie, apples can be a contraversial food on this list, as in terms of fruits, apples are quite middle-of-the-road calorie wise (50 cal per 100 gram). However apples don’t get enough credit in my opinion for being an amazing weight loss food.

Why you may ask? For two reasons. First and foremost, it takes time to eat an apple. Some fruits, like bananas for example, can be just swallowed in a whim. However apples is a food that takes time to consume because of all the chewing.

Guacamole is universally renowned for being on of the best dips. Aside from being a terrific dip, it is also a topping that benefits any Mexican food it goes on top of: nachos, burritos, quesadillas… However, although being toothsome is the major deciding factor for food, it is equally important for a food to be healthy in order for you to be able to consume it regularly. So, does guacamole have health benefits?

A basic recipe of guacamole includes: avocados, tomatoes, onion, cilantro garlic and lemon. Now, although guac recipes tend to differ from each other in terms of ingredients and their quantities, one thing can be said about the vast majority of them: they only contain natural plant ingredients. This is a great start, but let’s check out the individual qualities of some of its ingredients

Guacamole Benefits: Micronutrients

Avocado: 100 grams of avocado contain a whopping 28% of your Daily Recommended Intake (DRI) of B5 Vitamin, responsible for the absorption of proteins and fats, 20% of Folate (also responsible for protein synthesis), and 17% of Vitamin K (responsible for building bones)

Tomato: Not only does does it contain 19% of Vitamin C’s daily intake, it is also a source for rare chemical compounds such as Lycopene.

Onion: Aside from recent studies showing that eating raw onion can increase testosterone, 100 grams if raw onion contain 12% of your DRI of Vitamin C.

But What About the Calories?

Although it is healthy, Guacamole is a food you should be cautious around if you wish to lose or not gain weight. Because Avocado is a fruit very rich in fat, for a single serving of guac, you will consume around 250 calories – which is a lot for a simple dip. Of course, it is a healthy fat, but if overconsumed, even the healthiest of fats can put you in a significant caloric surplus.

This is not a problem, because diet and natural weight loss supplements such as Tea Burn can help you get rid of any extra fat you have, but it’s better to know how to consume guacamole

So how should Guacamole be consumed? Mindfully. This is an annoying answer because it doesn’t give you a clear response, I know. However because every single human is different there is no answer that can be given to everyone. Eat it knowing that it is a calorie dense food.

If you liked this article, read my previous article on Tom Cruise’s Diet!

After we analyzed Christian Bale’s diet in my last article, it is only logical to continue down the line of modern day male icons, so our next victim will be Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise is known for playing macho, superman-like characters in movie, like Ethan Hunt in “Mission Impossible”. In order to prepare for these roles, he has followed a very strict diet to help him lose weight and gain muscle. So, with that being said, let’s analyze the Tom Cruise diet.

What is Tom Cruise’s Diet?

According to reports, Tom Cruise’s Diet in 2020 for movie prep is made of 3 meals he ate throughout the day: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. His meal plan is extremely low calorie, eating only around 1200 calories per day.

Breakfast

Eggs
Oatmeal
Vitamins

Lunch

Chicken
Rice
Vegetables

Dinner

Salmon
Green Salad

Diet Evaluation: The Good

First and foremost – although we don’t have the exact measurements of the foods he eats, it is nice to see him eating high quality protein with every meal. Eggs are a great way to start your morning, filled with healthy fats that will keep you full throughout the day.

Salmon for dinner is also an amazing choice, since many people are ignorant about the importance of having a correct Omega 3/Omega 6 ratio. Both of these are important, but because the usual western diet is so much more rich in Omega 6, people don’t have an adequate amount of Omega 3. Salmon, which is a great source of Omega 3, fixes that problem.

His diet is very low calorie which is great for people who are trying to lose weight quickly, and are ready to start a rough diet. However I would also include natural weight loss supplements such as Teaburn to increase the effectiveness of the weight

Diet Evaluation: The Bad

Many people might thing that going on such a low calorie diet is a problem – it is not. However including low volume high calories carbs such as oatmeal and rice on such a very low calorie diet it is.

See, because you are having so little food, it is a way better option to exclude rice and oatmeal, and instead get more volume per calorie by eating vegetables such as green beans, cauliflower, and broccoli.

This will also allow you to eat more protein, as on such a low calorie diet it is important to eat as much protein as you can to keep your muscle mass and feel satiated.

Also, by eliminating the high calorie carbs I would also change the type of protein I am consuming, swapping chicken for a much more nutritious ground beef or other red meat.