3 Major Reasons Not To Dine Out!, By: Dave DePew
What could be wrong with occasionally dining out?
I can give you three major reasons why it’s best that you don’t dine out.
#1 The Fat!
The US Department of Agriculture's recommended daily intake for a normal adult male to be 2800 kilocalories (11,723 kilojoules) and a maximum of 93 grams of fat. Meals when dinning out, the most common dinning out meal being the fast-food super sized burger, fries, 32 oz drink, can deliver most of the USDA recommended daily intake in one meal.
Even just one meal rich in saturated fat could mess with the ability of our “good” cholesterol (HDL) to protect us against damage to our arteries. When dinning out, we have little control of our food preparation. Even meals made with healthy foods are not always going to be good for us when we dine out because of how they are prepared.
For example, when we are at home we can cook our foods in more healthy oils like safflower oil that is mostly polyunsaturated fat, “good” fats. A meal high in saturated fat essentially turns our “good” cholesterol (HDL) into “bad” cholesterol particles. This effectively creates damaging molecules that circulate in our blood, allowing them to develop into carcinogens. Even if both meals had the same number of calories, the quality and quantity of fat is probably vastly different.
The larger the quantity of fat in a meal, the worse it can be for you. These high fat meals also create remnant chylomicron particles that can be more damaging to the walls of the arteries than LDL or “bad” cholesterol. These high fat meals also elevate levels of clotting factor resulting in an increase risk of plaque rupture causing large debris to now circulate in the blood increasing the risk of stroke or a heart attack.
What about the drug like “high” that comes from these high fat meals? Sound crazy? As crazy as it sounds, the reality is that there is a growing body of evidence suggesting that meals high in fats and simple sugars can act on the brain like a drug, much in the same way as nicotine or heroin.
Could we get addicted to these foods?
Perhaps these binges of high fat meals could result in some sort of addiction that results in the same addictive loss of self-control that a drug addict experiences.
#2 The Carbohydrates!
Often called carbs, carbohydrates are the world’s most abundant food and the body's most important nutrient for its readily available source of energy.
The major forms of carbs are:
- Simple sugars (simple carbohydrates), found in sugars such as fructose, glucose, and lactose, as well as in nutritious whole fruits
- Starches (complex carbohydrates), found in foods such as starchy vegetables, roots and grains like rice, oats and processed cereals and breads.
- Cellulose (fiber), found in foods such as fibrous vegetables, fruits and grains.
All carbs are broken down and absorbed into the blood stream. Only cellulose can not be broken down into sugar, but all other forms of carbs are broken down into sugars simplest form. As the body’s level of sugar elevates in the blood, a hormone called insulin is released by the pancreas. The hormone insulin is needed to transport blood sugar into cells, where the sugar can be used or stored as a source of energy.
The carbs in most fast foods contain high amounts of simple sugars and highly refined grains. Foods like pastries, cookies, cake, candy, frozen desserts, and many fruit juices tend to also be high in sugar and calories, and low in nutritional value. It is these highly processed bleached white flour and corn syrup foods that cause our blood sugar levels to raise more quickly than others foods.
What does this do?
The constant rise and fall of blood sugar results in food carving, the development of binging disorders, the onset of Type II Diabetes, the risk of heart disease, and of course the addition of unwanted fat storage!
#3 The Additives, Preservatives and Toxins!
Processed foods are natural foods that are put through a procedure designed to kill harmful bacteria. It makes you think, why do we need so many preservatives added to the foods that we eat when dinning out? Just how much bacteria is in our foods? For years, we have been more focused on calories loaded in our foods, but we have unknowingly been dosed with foods laced with toxins, bacteria and disease. More studies are continually showing the negative biological effects of many restaurant foods and specifically fast food.
The food industry, as a whole, put all sorts of elements in and on our food, to give it a more attractive color, better flavor, and last longer. Some preservatives help to prevent binding, clumping or early spoilage.
Early on the most common additives and preservatives, still the most publicly known, are salt, sugar and vinegar. However, just like technology has created the microwave and the iPod, innovation has also created more advanced ways to add preservatives to our foods. Over the last 20 and 30 years, there has been a huge boom in the increase of additives and preservatives, since processed foods are all over the place.
Many of these laboratory engineered food preservatives have no resemblance to natural food. The FDA states that most additives and preservatives are considered 'safe' but many sports medicine researchers and holistic practitioners agree that these food additives are known to be carcinogenic. Many of these food additives and preservatives are causing migraine headaches, feelings of lethargy, allergies, asthma and more.
What do you do now that you have eaten the foods you know were bad for you?
So you decided the pleasure was worth the pain and in doing so you have poisoned your body. Does this sound harsh? Perhaps a bit, but the reality is that while your body is very resilient this is in fact what you have done.
Food poisoning comes from eating foods laced with the damaging preservatives, additives and the toxins I mentioned. These foods contain “bad” bacteria that are poisonous substances. Now, bacteria is all around us, some “good” and some “bad” and these foods are filled with bad bacteria and toxins. It is not uncommon these days for us to experience mild cases of food poisoning. Your last meal might have introduced you to some mild food poisons. Perhaps as a result you will experience some headaches, joint inflammation, stomach upset and irregular bowl movements. The whole bowel movement subject is never a pleasant one to talk about, but the reality is that how our body eliminates waste is a serious mater!
You might just think of your experience as a little stomach bug, but chances are something you have been exposed to has been contaminated.
Have you had poorly prepared meats or unwashed vegetables?
Thankfully with mild cases of food poisoning, you will not feel sick for very long and will soon be feeling fine again, as long as you stop eating the same foods!
In some cases feeling sick from food poisoning shows up within hours of eating the bad food, but it isn’t rare to feel sick until several days later and for many days, weeks or months depending on your exposure.
Toxins can build up in your body over time and the best thing to do is to perform 3 to 4 cleanses a year. In addition to the toxins I have mentioned our body can also become congested in the bowel from many foods like; red meat, poultry, eggs, and milk.
If you mostly eat well and just experience an occasional bad meal or just slip and have something you wish you didn’t, I would recommend a mini cleanse.
For the next two to three days do only the following:
Rule #1: Eat only organic foods.
Rule #2: Drink only purified or filtered water.
Rule #3: Remove the following foods - these foods are common allergens - milk products, eggs, wheat, corn products, and yeast foods. I’m not suggesting you take these foods out of your diet long term.
Rule #4: Practice food combining such as having carbs, proteins and fats with every meal.
Rule #5: Select fresh foods that are in season.
Rule #6: Avoid dinning out.
Rule #7: Avoid or minimize red meats, cured meats, organ meats, refined foods, canned foods, sugar, salt, saturated fats, coffee, alcohol, and nicotine.
Rule #8: Take daily vitamins and minerals
Rule #9: Supplement your diet with amino acids or protein powder (Whey Protein Isolate)
Rule # 10: Increase the supplemental fiber in your diet. Crushed flax seeds would be a great addition.
Changing your diet is not without its risks, but clearly eating a diet largely designed on dinning out can be very damaging. These 10 rules are merely a guideline. To prevent any illness, reactions to different foods or interactions with any medications you might be on, please first consult your doctor before beginning any new exercise or nutritional program.
The nutritional tips provided are in no way intended as a substitute for medical advice.
Take everyday and make it your best! Eat out less, prepare more foods at home, eat fresh and remember what your Mom said, “YOU are what you eat”.
Let’s All Get Fit!
