An excerpt from Rick Schaff’s book, “MISLED

Many people concerned about the ill effects of meat and dairy products have resulted to eating soy products as a “healthy” alternative. Moreover, Soy advocates are quick to claim that it is high in protein, free of cholesterol, and very low in fat. However, they may omit that many of these products are made from unfermented, over-processed soy and that eating large quantities of these products may actually cause negative health ramifications.

First let’s understand the difference between soy products. Soy can be broken down into two different classifications, UNFERMENTED and FERMENTED. Unfermented soy products include fresh soybeans, soy nuts, soymilk, tofu, and is also contained in about three hundred other products on our grocery store shelves. Fermented soy products are found in products like tempeh, miso, natta, and shoya tamari products. Fermentation is a process in which a food’s own living enzymes are used to pre-digest the food before you eat it.

I keep hearing about diets in the news. How can I tell if they’re OK or not?
Before starting on a diet, be sure to talk to your health care provider. Also, avoid fad diets or plans that eliminate entire categories of foods. By avoiding groups of foods you may be cheating yourself of important disease fighting nutrients such as antioxidants. “Everything in moderation” are words to eat by! Need an appointment? Request one online 24 hours/day, 7 days/week or call 800-789-PENN (7366) to speak to a referral counselor.You should seek a nutritionist, dietitian or a person experienced in the field of nutrition, to determine your needs in calorie and portion control in achieving a specific nutritional and fitness status.

The Birmingham cardiac three-day diet was created in the cardiac wing of the Birmingham, Alabama Hospital. Its primary use is to assist cardiac surgery patients to lose weight prior to surgery.

The diet been criticized as a fad diet for quick, short-term weight loss. This fad diet promises weight loss of up to 10 pounds in just three days. The diet is also known as:

(1) American Heart Association 3 Day Diet, (2) Baptist Hospital 3 Day Diet, (3) Bubba’s 3 Day Diet, (4) Florida 3 Day Diet, (5) 3 Day Army Diet, (6) 3 Day Cardiac Diet, (7) Hospital 3 Day Diet, and (8) the 3 Day Heart Diet.

It could be likely that you will lose 10 pounds. However, be aware that the weight that you are losing is water weight and not body fat.

This diet makes all sorts of claims including: cleansing, rapid weight loss, decreased cholesterol, increased energy and cleansing

The Nutrisystem is marketed in magazines, newspapers, on television and on the internet, it is everywhere. In fact, many celebrities use the plan and act as spokespersons. Followers on average lose about 35 pounds and some people lose substantially more even more than 120 pounds.

NutriSystem started off with most of its clients being women. Now, they offer a men’s plan and a senior adult plan for both men and women. Their website also states that they have plans for vegetarian dieters and those suffering from Type II diabetes.

The Nutrisystem Diet is based on the glycemic index and uses this system to help people lose weight. High glycemic index foods cause a spike in insulin production, which causes you to be more hungry after consuming these types of food. Low glycemic foods do not cause an insulin spike are digested, in general, more slowly and are more satisfying.

Raw Foods diet sounds like a throwback to the early days of our society when everyone had a garden. The plan is similar to vegetarian diet plans in that most of the foods come from plant sources. Raw foods are thought to contain nutrients that are good for the body but tend to be lost in the canning and preserving process.

The Raw Foods diet emphasizes eating foods in their purest form. Fruits, most vegetables, nuts, and other grains can be eaten without any cooking done to them. Most meals in this diet consist of salads - even at breakfast. Salad dressing can be simple like oil and vinegar or lemon juice.

The carbohydrate count on this diet is low. Any processed food like breads, pastas, and rice are eliminated. Vegetables provide carbohydrates but in low quantities. Large quantities of vegetables have to be eaten to get a high level of carbohydrates.

Now that you’ve read some of these articles and done some research, you are prepared to start your diet and fitness regimen. You will always be wondering, where is a good place to start? With all of the knowledge and guidelines in our life we’re not always sure how to make sense of it. If you want to lose weight healthy, you found the right place.

Before we get into this let me make one thing clear. It is virtually impossible to know everything there is to know about diet and exercise. If everyone waited until they knew everything in order to get started no one would get started. What we first need to do is to construct a plan. Our plan will be simplified but will be enough to get you on the right track.