|
Special
7 Book
CD-ROM Sale!
Looking
for the perfect way to kick-start your new body? For a limited time
only, you can get all 7 of our groundbreaking training eBooks at 31%
off the regular price!
Click
here for more
information
now! |
|
What
A "Muscle Head" Says About Organic Food
By Tom Venuto, Natural Bodybuilder
Last
week I was talking about nutrition with one of my workout buddies and
when I mentioned grass fed beef and "organic food” he asked,
"Do you mean like what you get at Whole Foods Market?"
I said,
"Yes, exactly... that's a natural food and organic supermarket."
He said, "Yeah well, that place costs so much, I call it Whole
Paycheck!"
I was
rolling on the floor laughing, but the truth is, organic food really
is expensive and so is grass fed beef and free range chicken, so it's
a valid question to ask, “Is it worth it?”
After
researching the subject and doing some personal experiments with my
own diet, let me offer you my take on it from a bodybuilder’s viewpoint.
This is a perspective on organics you may not have heard before.
First,
look at it this way - if you put the cheapest fuel in your luxury car,
how well is it going to run and how many miles are you going to get
out of it?
While
I'm on car analogies, health and fitness author and educator Paul Chek
once wrote about how ridiculous it is to watch how many $75,000 + cars
pull up to the Mcdonald's or Burger King drive through window to buy
$1.99 hamburgers.
I would
say that's a serious case of screwed up priorities, wouldn't you? The
driver has no problem shelling out the $1,100 monthly car payment, but
it's too much to ask him to put premium fuel into his own "bodily
vehicle."
How
can you put ANY price tag on your body and your health? You can buy
another car, but you've only got one body.
Now,
as for the grass fed beef and organic foods question….
For
best results in body composition improvement, which I define as burning
fat and or building muscle, (and I'll even go as far as to say for optimal
health as well), I am a believer in including animal proteins, including
lean meats.
I have
no wish to take up the vegetarian debate in this article. I respect
vegetarians and acknowledge that a healthy and lean body can be developed
with a vegetarian diet if it is done properly, although it may be more
challenging for strict vegans to gain muscle for various reasons.
However,
in recommending animal protein as part of a healthy fat loss and muscle
building nutrition program, I do agree that we all need to give some
serious thought to what is in our meat (and in the rest of our food).
Some
people say that meat is part of our “evolutionary” diet and
it’s the way we were intended to eat and I wouldn’t argue
with that. But is the meat we’re eating in today’s modern
society the same as what was hunted and eaten many thousands of years
ago by our cave-man ancestors, or has some “toxic stuff” found
its way into our beef, poultry and fish that wasn’t there before?
I also
think we should consider what is *missing* from our commercially grown
food, that is supposed to be in there, that probably used to be there
in the past, but may not be today.
A lot
of people are not paying any attention to this... even people who should
know better. I admit it - I was oblivious to this for a long time myself.
Here’s why:
I
am not your typical "health and wellness" or "weight
loss" expert. I am also competitive bodybuilder. We bodybuilders
are well known for eating very clean diets with lots of lean protein
and natural carbs, as well as for looking like "the picture of
health" with our ripped abs and impressive muscularity.
We
eat our oatmeal and egg whites for breakfast, and proudly walk around
with our chicken breast, rice and broccoli or our flank steak, yams
and asparagus, and boast about how perfect and clean our meals are and
how our diets are already “clean” and could not be improved.
But
how many bodybuilders or fitness enthusiasts are there - even serious,
dedicated and educated ones - who don't give a single thought to the
poisonous chemicals that might be lurking in our supposedly "clean"
food?
The
Food and Drug Administration lists more than 3,000 chemicals that can
be added to our food supply. One billion pounds of pesticides and farming
chemicals are used on our crops every year.
Depending
on what source you quote, the average American consumes as much as 150
pounds of chemicals and food additives per year.
Does
ANYBODY out there think that this is good for you?
Didn't
think so.
If
you had a way to avoid all these chemicals and toxins, would you at
least explore it, even if it cost a little more?
Although
this topic is controversial and hotly debated, organic food is gaining
in popularity and seems to fit this bill.
Food
grown on certified organic farms does not contain:
Pesticides
Herbicides
Fungicides
Hormones
Antibiotics
Chemical fertilizers
It
is also not:
Irradiated
Genetically modified
Beyond the "certified organic" label, grass fed beef and free
range chicken (and eggs), have other advantages.
Not only can there be tons of antibiotics, hormones, and other chemicals
in our meat, but also commercially raised beef is fed grain or corn
and yet that is not what the animals were meant to eat.
The
result - aside from sick, drugged animals - is a higher overall fat,
higher saturated fat and a screwed up ratio of omega three to omega
six fats, which is a very big problem today - even when you think you're
eating "clean." Most people accept the idea that “you
are what you eat,” but they forget that the animals we eat are
what they ate!
Last
but not least, proponents of organic food suggest that the vitamin,
mineral and phytonutrient content of commercially grown foods can be
anywhere from a little bit low to virtually absent.
So...
if organic and or grass fed beef and free range chicken can help us
avoid some of these problems and dangers, then I'm all for it and the
extra investment.
I started
eating grass fed beef almost exclusively (except for my occasional restaurant
steak), quite a few years ago, and I even mentioned it in my book, Burn
the Fat, Feed The Muscle.
I can't
say I eat entirely organic. I eat a lot of it, but not 100%. If I'm
eating an apple or some blueberries, and it doesn't happen to be organic,
I don’t freak out over it. When you really study deeply into the
subject of food processing, industrial pollution and commercial farming,
it can almost scare you half to death, but I don't recommend getting
"alarmist" about it.
Sometimes
it's the people who live in fear of a disease who are most likely to
get it. I for one, am not going to live in a plastic bubble to isolate
myself from a “toxic world”… oh, wait... make that a
ceramic bubble, plastics are really bad for you.
All
joking aside, the fear of toxins can be taken to the point where the
fear itself is unhealthy, but the more I study this subject - from a
variety of sources and perspectives - the more the organic argument
does make sense to me.
I’ve
built my career in fitness based on being a natural bodybuilder, which
means no steroids or performance enhancing drugs, so why would I expose
myself to other chemicals if I can avoid them?
Honestly,
I can't say I noticed any dramatic change in my physique or in the way
I feel – at least not yet. I have always eaten clean and I was
a successful bodybuilder for many years before I started eating more
organic food and grass fed beef.
However,
I feel confident about my decision to spend the extra money on grass
fed beef, free range chicken (and eggs), and an increasing amount of
organic food, knowing that I am avoiding toxins and getting more of
the nutritional value I need to support my training and my health long
term.
I'm
certain this is the type of nutritional lifestyle change that can accrue
benefits over time, even if you don't see an immediate "transformation."
One
thing I would suggest before you run out for organic fruits and vegetables
or grass fed beef and so on, is to consider what kind of shape your
diet and your lifestyle are in right now. If your diet is currently
such a total mess that you’re drinking a lot of alcohol, smoking,
abusing coffee and stimulants, not even eating ANY fruits and vegetables
to begin with...
And
if your idea of lean protein is the processed lunch meat you get in
your foot long sub at the local deli, then I think it might be a little
moot to worry about whether your fruits and veggies are 100% certified
organic or whether your beef is grass fed. Just start cleaning up your
diet and establishing new healthy habits, one step at a time. Focus
on nutrition and lifestyle improvement, not perfection.
There
are some very strong opinions on this subject. I am aware of that, and
I'm not going to stand up on a pulpit and preach either way. What I
have done here is simply share what I have found from my own research
and what I decided to do in my own personal health and bodybuilding
regimen.
My
advice to everyone else is to become educated about what is really in
your food, including how it is raised or grown, and to continuously
seek ways to improve your nutrition above the level it’s at now.
For
more information about the "natural bodybuilder's method"
for losing fat, building muscle and achieving peak health, visit: Burn
the Fat, Feed The Muscle
About
the Author:
|
Tom Venuto
is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal
trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist
(CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn
the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” Tom has written hundreds of
articles and has been featured in print magazines such as IRONMAN,
Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development,
Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on hundreds
of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program,
click
here.
Click
Here To Return To
Articles By Tom Venuto
|
|
