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When you decide to gain control over your diet habits to shed pounds and body fat, it is crucial to avoid two ingredients : high-fructose corn syrup and trans-fats. These two health-robbing chemicals are present in a wide-variety of prepared foods, including baked products, soft-drinks and salad dressings.

High-fructose corn syrup ( HFCS ) is a standard replacement for more costly cane sugar in a multitude of products. The fact that high-fructose corn syrup is a diet-killer is that it causes havoc on blood-sugar levels. High blood-sugar levels are linked to many of the conditions that plague modern life : pre-diabetes ( impaired fasting blood-sugar levels ) type II diabetes,and coronary heart-disease. One of the primary sources of HFCS in our diets is soft drinks. Do you know that one 48-oz.”super-size” soda can contain as much as 550 calories, not to mention equivalent to over 13 big spoons of sugar? If you drink one of these every day for a week without reducing your caloric intake or burning off an equivalent amount of calories through exercise, you can gain a pound a week–a whopping 52 pounds a year! Replace any drinks containing HFCS with cold, refreshing water or unsweetened ice tea as a first step to lose healthy weight. If you’re a regular customer of soda, you may lose weight by following this straightforward step alone.

Trans-fats are usually found in baked goods like pies, cookies, crackers and also as oil for frying goods like french-fries or potato chips. Trans-fats were created to ensure a long shelf-life for these types of products, but their damaging health effects were not known at the time of their development. Trans-fats are made by taking a mono-unsaturated ( liquid ) fat and reacting it with hydrogen gas. The resulting fat from the reaction is solid at 70 degrees. When we consume trans-fats, they build up in our arteries just as grease clogs a drain. Eventually, this build up of fat in our arteries can cause coronary heart problems and stroke, and is also believed to contribute to dementia in the old.

So how can we avoid all of these fatal ingredients in our foods? Our first and best line of defense is just by reading the labels on food products. Both high-fructose corn-syrup and trans-fats are required to be listed on labels. Also, be cautious of fast-foods such as fried chicken, fish sandwiches and fried pies. Ask if these foods have been prepared with trans-fat free oils or not. If the restaurant staff can’t tell you if the food is fried in oil containing trans-fat or not, it’s best to avoid it altogether. So educate yourself as a customer and reap the health benefits of your due diligence.

To learn more about what is nutrition, visit Fit4LifeClub.com

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