It’s the day after that delicious gorge-fest otherwise known as Thanksgiving!  How are you feeling today?  If you read my previous article on staying lean through the holidays, you’re probably on your way to the gym, feeling great!  But if you’re part of the majority that feasted on turkey and stuffing, candied sweet potatoes and pecan pie… well, this article is for you!

The damage has been done, but the good news is it isn’t as bad as you think.  Sure, you may feel like you’ve gained 10 pounds of fat, but in reality it’s probably a lot of fluid retention.  You see, it takes an extra 3,500 calories above your maintenance level to gain 1 pound of fat.  Now, I can’t be sure, but I highly doubt anyone consumed the 35,000 calories necessary to gain 10 pounds in one meal!  What’s more likely to have happened is pretty common; the high amounts of salt and sugar present in the average Thanksgiving dinner is causing your body to hold on to a large amount of excess water.

Through the process of osmosis, water flows from a lower salinity environment to a higher one in an attempt to balance the levels of salinity. After we consume large amounts of salt, it is the water moving from our bloodstream into our skin that gives us that “puffy” look and makes it hard to get our rings off. Then,
when we consume lesser amounts of salt, the same process works in reverse to remove the excess water from our bodies. Insulin helps your body turn sugar into energy or into fat (if you have eaten so much sugar that you cannot use it all).


Consuming too many sugary foods or drinks leads to very high levels of insulin in your blood. Insulin makes you retain sodium, a mineral that’s found in salt. Whenever you retain sodium, you also retain water.  Here you can see the vicious cycle that a meal filled with salt and sugar causes. 

Now, the important thing is getting rid of all this extra water weight! 
Obviously, going back to your normal diet that’s low in sugar and salt will
help, but unfortunately it will take a few days.  In the meantime, I’ve listed
some of my favorite naturally diuretic foods that will speed up the process. 
Don’t forget to keep up with your work outs, breaking a sweat will help flush
out that extra fluid even faster.

Foods That Act As Natural Diuretics

1. Watermelon.  In fact, you can do an entire 3 day Watermelon Cleanse– read
more here.

2. Green Tea. The high caffeine level in green tea is what gives it diuretic
properties. Other caffeinated drinks, such as coffee, have similar properties as
well.

3. Tomatoes. Their high potassium content causes the kidneys to release more
fluids, which flushes the harmful things from the body much faster.

4. Asparagus. This is one of the best diuretic vegetables because it contains
an alkaloid compound which improves the performance of the kidneys. This means
that the toxins will get washed away from your body faster and you will lose
more water weight.

5. Apple Cider Vinegar. This is one the best available diuretic foods. Moreover,
this vinegar helps stabilize your levels of potassium, which can go out of
balance with many other diuretics.

6. Artichokes. These are another great example of diuretic vegetables. They are
known to help the kidneys release excess fluids. They also have many nutrients
and vitamins that your body requires.

7. Cranberries. An effective diuretic, cranberries also help fight edema, and
should be a requirement in the diets of all women. (not cranberry sauce,
however– that’s just more added sugar!)

8. Parsley. This is one of the best herbal diuretics. It’s readily available
year-round in grocery stores.  That dried up, dead stuff in your spice rack? 
Useless, unfortunately!

9. Cucumbers. They’re rich in sulfur and silicon that stimulate the kidneys into
better removal of sodium and uric acid.

10. Horseradish. This root is known to contain more Vitamin C than a lot of
fruits, and it has also shown to be a great diuretic.

11. Oats. These are great against fluid retention, because they have silica,
which is a natural compound that works as a diuretic for the human body.

In honor of the upcoming ‘Annual Promise To Exercise More And Eat Healthier’– better known as New Year’s Resolutions, I’d like to present a 4 part compilation
of popular “Health Foods” that in reality, are anything but good for you!

Everyone realizes that money and profits drive businesses and corporations, so it won’t be surprising to you to learn that huge profits are behind the push to market these 4 “foods” as healthy!  I urge you, as intelligent and informed readers, to continue researching and collecting information on your own.  Just because a company tells us something is good for us– doesn’t make it true!

PART ONE- CANOLA OIL

By now most people understand that consuming healthy fats plays a vital part in achieving optimal health.  Healthy fats support proper hormone function, keep
you satiated, and improve the condition of your skin and hair.  You can find
them in avocados, coconuts, sunflower seeds, olives, fish (salmon,
tuna, mackerel) pumpkin seeds, nuts and… canolas???

What the heck is a canola?  Even more confusing, in Europe it’s known as ‘Rapeseed Oil’, or sometimes even ‘Rape Oil’.

Well, canola oil sure does appear in a lot of “healthy” salad dressings, hummus
and bean dips, and prepared foods–in fact, Whole Foods uses it in the majority of their
prepared foods, and they’re a health conscious place, right?

Let’s see what the Canola Oil people can tell us:

www.canolainfo.com
Canola is not Rapeseed, Canola Oil comes from Canola Plants!
It may look the same on the outside but it’s very different on the
inside where it matters. Plant scientists used traditional plant
breeding methods to get rid of rapeseed’s less nutritional qualities.         

A very small amount of rapeseed is still grown under contract specifically   
for industrial uses including environmentally friendly lubricants.
In the early 1970s, canola was developed from rapeseed using
traditional plant breeding techniques. Erucic acid and glucosinolates         
found in rapeseed were significantly reduced to produce the nutritionally   
superior canola oil. The canola plant also produced seeds with a very         
low level of saturated fat, high in monounsaturated fat and a good balance   
of omega 3 and 6 fats.

This new oilseed was named “Canola” and there is a strict
internationally regulated definition of canola that differentiates it
from rapeseed, based upon it having less than two percent erucic acid
and less than 30u moles glucosinolates. Therefore, oilseed products
that do not meet this standard cannot use the trademarked term,
canola. High erucic acid rapeseed acreage, although still grown, is
now confined to production under contract for specific industrial         
uses.

Hmmm.  Interesting.  Kind of reminds me of the “Corn Sugar” marketing spin
that was given to High Fructose Corn Syrup after more and more people started
questioning it’s role in obesity and diabetes…  This oil appears to be highly processed, which is usually a red flag.
Let’s see what else is going on:

-excerpt by Paul Fassa, www.naturalnews.com
Canola is a hybrid name that stands for Canadian oil, since it is grown,
processed, and exported mainly from Canada. And the Canadian government, it is
reported, put up the cash to have the FDA classify Canola oil as GRAS (Generally
Recognized As Safe). This classification allowed the Canola industry to avoid
long term safety testing.

The Canadian government subsidizes most of rapeseed planting and harvesting.
Those plants are cheap, easy to grow and a natural insect resistant, and Canola
oil is cheaper and easier to use for processed foods than more expensive,
healthier cold pressed oils such as olive oil.

Originally it was called lear oil (low erucic acid rapeseed) a natural modified
hybrid of rape seed to remove most of its erucic acid, which is totally toxic.
Rapeseed oil is so toxic that bugs and animals won’t eat it. It was used in the
first half of the 20th century as an industrial oil. So that name had to go
completely. Hence, the final Canadian product became Canola oil in 1988.

The rapeseed plant was genetically modified further to withstand heavy doses of
the Monsanto’s weed killing herbicide Roundup. Roundup itself is not exactly
safe for humans and animals, so the use of a toxin to support a genetically
modified plant makes for a dangerous combination.

In addition to the plant having an unpredictable GMO element, the oil is heated
to over 300 degrees as part of a process to remove its extremely unpleasant
odor. Processing vegetable oils may include degumming, batch acidulation,
bleaching, deodorization, chemical extraction methods using solvents, and high
temperature expeller pressing.

Canola oil is monounsaturated, which makes it easy to promote it as similar to
olive oil but cheaper. But real olive oil is not processed and doesn’t contain
toxic trans-fatty acids or GMOs. Canola is among the lowest of all oils with
essential fatty acids, which happens to be the main health aspect of oils.

Processing of canola oil produces trans fats
Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, Ph.D. are North America’s leading experts on the subject of fats and oils. They have written extensively on the subject and many of their works can be found at the Weston A. Price Foundation website.


“Although the rapeseed has been a source for oil since ancient times due to its
ease of extraction from the seed, modern processing adds a whole different
dimension. Fallon and Enig have vividly described the procedure during which oil
is removed by a combination of high temperature mechanical pressing and solvent
extract, usually using hexane. Following considerable refining, traces of the
solvent remain. And like all vegetable oils, canola oil goes through the process
of caustic refining, bleaching and degumming, all of which involve high
temperatures or the use of hazardous chemicals.

During this processing, the omega-3 content in the oil becomes rancid and
smelly, and the oil must be deodorized. The foul omega-3 fatty acids are cleaned
up by being largely turned into trans fatty acids. Although the Canadian
government lists the trans fat content of canola oil at a minimal 0.2 percent,
research at the University of Florida at Gainesville found trans fat levels as
high as 4.6 in commercial liquid oil. In a time when almost everyone is aware of
the tremendous health hazards posed by trans fats, people eating canola oil have
no idea of the presence of trans fat in the oil they are consuming.

When canola oil is hardened through hydrogenation as it often is when used in
food processing, the trans fat level can go as high as 40 percent. Because
canola oil hydrogenates better than corn or soybean oils it is the first choice
of processors. Higher levels of trans fat translates to longer self life for
processed food, and greater profits for the food industry.”


The moral of the story here is not that the Canadians are trying to kill us!  Rather, it teaches us that we as individuals are responsible for our own health and well-being.  When choosing oils for cooking or consumption, remember that minimally processed oils are best. Look for words such as “cold-pressed” or “expellar-pressed” as opposed to chemically extracted oil.  Store your oils in glass bottles, not plastic.  Keep them in a cool, dark place and be mindful of the expiration date.  

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