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1. Food should not be wasted

We have learnt not to leave food even though we don’t really want it. If we cooked it, bought it, served it up on a plate or ordered it in a restaurant it has to be eaten because “it’s a sin to throw away good food”. So we use our bodies as a kind of human waste disposal unit and pile unwanted pounds onto our hips.

We learnt to clean our plates when we were kids, mostly from well-meaning parents who wanted to make sure we got enough nourishment and tried to make us feel guilty about all the starving people in the world. We learnt to eat stuff we didn’t really want or need to please our parents and sometimes we got more food as a reward (”Eat your dinner or you won’t get dessert”).

Now you’re an adult you can take a different approach. Buy less, cook less, serve up less and order less but if it’s still more food than you need, throw it out rather than down your throat. It’s a greater waste to over feed your body than it is to throw out excess food.

2. Food equals love

We learn from birth to link love and comfort from our mother with being fed and that feeling is reinforced throughout childhood. We equate food with being cared for. So it’s often the first thing we turn to when we want to experience those feelings of love and comfort again.

But food is not love. A double-chocolate chip cookie or plateful of fries will never love you back. Only people can do that.

If you need love, you need contact with other living breathing humans. Call up a friend and talk, don’t eat.

3. Slim people can eat as much food as they like

This one is actually true but not in the way we often believe it. Slim people eat as much as they like but they don’t live for food. They like to eat as much as they need and they do. Sometimes they overeat. That’s when you see them eating chocolate cake and pizza and you think they have it made. But other times (more likely when you’re not seeing them on an evening out) they’re satisfied with soup and a salad. It’s a balance thing. If slim people ate too much all the time they would be overweight too!

Even so, you may find that your friend can eat more than you and not get fat. You may put it down to the luck of a fast metabolism but actually the slight variances you find in metabolism make very little difference. Naturally slim people simply move around more during the course of the day even if they don’t take regular exercise. They’re forever on the go. They’re up and down more. And they fidget more. Studies have shown that they use up more calories than others in that way.

If you eat and move like your slim friends you will have little to envy.

4. Healthy food doesn’t make you fat

You can get fat eating anything - although, granted, it would be difficult to overeat lettuce. But some natural foods are high in calories - in particular nuts and seeds - so you can easily take in too many calories with these. And fruit juices, smoothies and shakes can really pile on the pounds. Too many complex carbohydrates, whole grain though they are, will go straight to your hips too. Healthy foods are great but they still have to be eaten in moderation.

Having said that, true healthy natural real foods are not generally the real problem. The main culprit here are those foods which are branded as healthy by food manufacturers - the foods that are “full of goodness” or low in fat or carbs or whatever. They offer so-called healthy options for cookies, cakes and pies that you could do well without eating. They just tempt you to eat more because you think they are healthy or low in calories. Check the labels and give them a miss.

5. Only unhealthy food tastes good

You may have spent years assaulting your taste-buds with fat and sugar confectionary, salty snacks and fried foods and that is what they have learnt to know and love. But actually many foods that you eat have sugar and salt added to give them appeal they wouldn’t otherwise have. Once you start tasting quality natural foods and delicious healthy recipes you will never look back. Become a true gourmet and learn to love good natural food in moderation. Take the time to prepare and enjoy it properly and you will find your taste buds dancing with delight.

Copyright 2005, Janice Elizabeth Small

Janice Elizabeth is a weight loss coach, slimming club owner and author of “The Diet Exit Plan”, an 8 week coaching program for automatic permanent weight loss. Request her FREE 15 page report “How to lose weight without dieting - 7 secrets the diet industry doesn’t want you to know” at http://www.SimplySlimming.com TODAY!

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Many fungi naturally produce a substance known as a mycotoxin during their digestive process. These mycotoxins are toxic to humans, and some are extremely toxic if ingested even in small quantities.

There are some foods that naturally contain high levels of these mycotoxins, and most of us aren’t even aware that mycotoxins exist, much less that we eat them in our food supply. The foods that most often contain high concentrations of mycotoxins are grain crops, nuts, sugars and cheese. We’re going to take a look at the most contaminated of these foods in this article.

Let’s begin with the grain foods, since they normally exhibit the higher levels. Corn, wheat, barley, and rye contain what is known as “universal contamination”. What this really means, is that they contain so many different fungi, that it is a universal contamination. The levels of contamination are often extremely high, and are carried over into the foods made from these grains.

The next category of foods with high levels of contamination is sugars. Sugars include sugar cane, sugar beets, and sorghum. Not only do the sugars contain the contamination, they fuel the growth of many of these fungi, because sugar is the food of choice for fungi.

Nuts and the oils produced from these nuts are heavily laden with contamination. In fact, one study found as many as 24 different forms of fungi in peanuts alone. The one thing worth mentioning here, peanuts, and other nuts we consume, often are in the shell, and there is no good way to even begin to eliminate these fungi and mycotoxins from the shell nuts. So, when you eat nuts still in the shell, there is a direct intake of fungi and mycotoxins produced by these fungi.

The last food category on the list is cheese. Now, everyone knows that cheese will grow mold. If you can see the mold growing, you know the fungi is present throughout the cheese, thanks to the fact that fungi are able to penetrate their host, no matter the material: cheese, tile, grout, it doesn’t matter. The fungi can grow through the material. Here again, there is direct consumption of the fungi that lives in the cheese.

It’s truly amazing that we aren’t in a state of continual inbalance, given the variety of foods we eat that contain the mycotoxin producing fungi.

John Williams writes all about fungus at http://www.fungushelp.com

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Can you remember what you decided to drink the last time you were thirsty? If the answer is something other than nature’s most precious liquid nourishment, then you should reconsider your water drinking habits.

Every morning before setting off to go to work you probably drink at least a cup of coffee and perhaps, if you are conscious with your diet, you begin your day with a glass of water at room temperature and a drop of lemon. But, during the day, with a coffee spot on every corner and a vending machine in every office building and school, you seem to forget that your organism needs the most precious of all the liquids you may or may not consume; water.

Actually, with the deteriorating dietary and drinking habits, people seem to be dehydrated and not even know about it. In fact, the most important ingredient of a healthy lifestyle might be missing from the daily list of things we consume, just because a cup of coffee can wake us up, or an ice-cold soda can give us the sugary taste we want. But, if you feel fatigue, moodiness, or drained, and of course that you are always thirsty, then you probably are dehydrated and you have not even realized it. In fact, what has surprised me numerous times is when I am out with friends and I hear someone complain of being thirsty. While the ‘normal’ reaction would be to order a glass of water from the bar, I am amazed when a soda, a coffee or even an alcohol beverage arrives instead of a glass full of water.

Did you know that 45 to 75 percent of the human weight is actually from water and that your body’s muscles are 75 percent water based? If not and this is the first time you have read this fact, then you probably should do some homework before getting to sleep tonight. As little as 1 percent loss of water can translate to an increase in core temperature during exercise, while if you loose more than 7 percent of water, then you most probably will collapse.

Thus, keeping yourself hydrated and adding at least 6 to 8 glasses of water to your daily liquid intake, can save your body from fatigue, pains and dehydration. More specifically, your weight divided by 2 for the number of ounces you should drink each day -there are eight ounces in a cup, so divide by eight to get the number of cups.

Most importantly, remember that water intake, although it comes also from other fluids and food consumption has to remain constant. Drink water every day and drink it whether you feel thirsty or not. A good tactic is to bring a water bottle with you everywhere and fill it as often as necessary. Do not judge how much water you need to drink only by examining when you are thirsty and remember to drink more than the recommended daily dose, if you are overweight, exercise or the environment you live and work is hot. Finally, avoid caffeine as much as possible, since it dehydrates your organism and do not drink water with meals; drink red wine or milk instead.

Jonathon Hardcastle writes articles on many topics including Nutrition, Food, and Fitness

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