Growing up in Ireland, in my case the late 80s and 90s, the standard eating practice was two bowls of Frosties to kick things off first thing, followed two slices of white bread toast, four white bread sandwiches for ‘big lunch’ washed down with 500ml of Country Spring lemon and lime or orange.
And as a treat on Fridays it’d be the deep-pan pizza. I suspect I wasn’t the only one with this carb-loaded diet. But how times of changed and most of those foods have been put on the naughty step. All, in fact.
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If you want to reach your potential in whatever sport it is you play, or just stay in reasonably good shape, you need to train regularly and watch your diet. It’s notrocket science.
Here are five food items you should most definitely give a ‘time out’ to now (because we’re gonna go nuts on them around Christmas).
White bread
We’re not going to give a seminar here but here’s what you need to know. Most breads contain sugar, which is extremely bad for you. White bread also contains “anti-nutrients” which block the absorption of minerals like calcium, iron and zinc. Also, there’s gluten in most white breads, and by damaging the intestinal lining, gluten decreases the absorption of all nutrients.
Pizza
Do we really have to lecture you here? No we don’t. Bottom line. 12-inch pizza, 1,100 calories. That’s a third of a grown man’s Recommended Daily Allowance. And we haven’t even started on the wedges, or the mayonnaise, or the garlic dip, or ice cream.
Frozen meals
We’re all busy people and never have enough hours in the day. Which is a great reason to pack on 1,000 calories in three minutes, isn’t it? These ready-to-go meals might be small in size and be dressed up all neat and dandy with appealing words like ‘low in fat’ but what they don’t tell you is that they are LOADED with sodium and are heavily processed.
Fizzy drinks
You know this anyway but we’re here to remind. Fizzy drinks are one of the easiest ways to pack on the pounds (the average can contains at least 10 teaspoons of sugar). But drinking as few as two a week can nearly double a person’s risk of getting pancreatic cancer, diabetes, or increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Sugary cereals
Contrary to popular belief, you do not get fat from eating fat. You get fat from eating too much sugar and grains.
A recent Time Magazine article highlighted a report by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), which showed many breakfast cereals contain more than 50 percent sugar by weight and cereals marketed specifically to children (such as my beloved Frosties) are among the worst offenders.
Eat these sugary cereals and you run a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Five foods that aren't helping your fitness regime
THIS IS GOING to make for grim reading, kids.
Growing up in Ireland, in my case the late 80s and 90s, the standard eating practice was two bowls of Frosties to kick things off first thing, followed two slices of white bread toast, four white bread sandwiches for ‘big lunch’ washed down with 500ml of Country Spring lemon and lime or orange.
And as a treat on Fridays it’d be the deep-pan pizza. I suspect I wasn’t the only one with this carb-loaded diet. But how times of changed and most of those foods have been put on the naughty step. All, in fact.
If you want to reach your potential in whatever sport it is you play, or just stay in reasonably good shape, you need to train regularly and watch your diet. It’s notrocket science.
Here are five food items you should most definitely give a ‘time out’ to now (because we’re gonna go nuts on them around Christmas).
White bread
We’re not going to give a seminar here but here’s what you need to know. Most breads contain sugar, which is extremely bad for you. White bread also contains “anti-nutrients” which block the absorption of minerals like calcium, iron and zinc. Also, there’s gluten in most white breads, and by damaging the intestinal lining, gluten decreases the absorption of all nutrients.
Pizza
Do we really have to lecture you here? No we don’t. Bottom line. 12-inch pizza, 1,100 calories. That’s a third of a grown man’s Recommended Daily Allowance. And we haven’t even started on the wedges, or the mayonnaise, or the garlic dip, or ice cream.
Frozen meals
We’re all busy people and never have enough hours in the day. Which is a great reason to pack on 1,000 calories in three minutes, isn’t it? These ready-to-go meals might be small in size and be dressed up all neat and dandy with appealing words like ‘low in fat’ but what they don’t tell you is that they are LOADED with sodium and are heavily processed.
Fizzy drinks
You know this anyway but we’re here to remind. Fizzy drinks are one of the easiest ways to pack on the pounds (the average can contains at least 10 teaspoons of sugar). But drinking as few as two a week can nearly double a person’s risk of getting pancreatic cancer, diabetes, or increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Sugary cereals
Contrary to popular belief, you do not get fat from eating fat. You get fat from eating too much sugar and grains.
A recent Time Magazine article highlighted a report by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), which showed many breakfast cereals contain more than 50 percent sugar by weight and cereals marketed specifically to children (such as my beloved Frosties) are among the worst offenders.
Eat these sugary cereals and you run a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
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