By Vaughn Gray

1. Reduced Fat Foods

In the 1980’s, food manufacturers rushed to cut the fat out of just about everything because some scientists came to the conclusion that eating fat made people fat. The low fat craze was born. But instead of reducing obesity, the low fat movement gave rise to an obesity epidemic. Quality fat is a critical part of any nutrition plan no matter what the goal. Reduced fat foods simply aren’t natural. Yogurts, cheeses, and meats are meant to contain fat. Proper digestion of these foods requires fat. Beans and grains needs to be eaten with fat to maintain energy levels. Some foods, like fruit, are naturally fat free, and eating them without fat is fine. But at the end of the day, between 20% and 40% of your calories, depending on your metabolism, should come from fat.

2. Only _______ Calories!

The number of calories in a given food doesn’t really matter if most of these calories come from sugar or white flour. These ingredients will shift your body chemistry into fat storage mode, so that you literally cannot burn fat no matter how few calories you eat. In addition, they will drive your appetite crazy, meaning you will probably eat a lot more. Almost no one ever loses weight by trying to limit calories. They key to weight loss and optimal health is to choose quality whole foods that fill you up naturally and help you to build the kind of healthy body that keeps weight off easily.

3. Low Carb Foods

Everyone needs a balance of nutrients – carbs, fat, and protein – for optimal health and fitness. Low carb diets result in rapid weight loss, much of this due to water weight since carbs hold water in the body. But cutting carbs wrecks your metabolism, actually making it harder to lose actual fat. In addition, low carb diets starve both brain and body of a critical source of fuel, undermining energy levels and performance. Your free ReEvolution Health and Fitness Action Plan includes individualized guidelines on balancing carbs, fat, and protein in your diet.

4. "Zero Net Carbs" or "Zero Impact Carbs"

Whoever thought up the “zero net carbs” and “zero impact carbs” ideas should be working for the cigarette companies (actually, they probablywere are since cigarette companies started many of the major processed food labels). Both are blatant attempts to obscure the facts and manipulate consumers. To calculate net carbs, food manufacturers subtract the amount of fiber in a food from the amount of carbohydrates. While it is true the fiber slows down the digestion of carbs, the idea of subtracting fiber content from carb content is ridiculous.

Zero Impact Carbs is generally a way of concealing sugar alcohol – a type of sugar that theoretically doesn’t affect insulin levels, and, therefore, supposedly doesn’t contribute to weight gain. Of course, sugar alcohol is still sugar meaning that it packs in loads of calories, stimulates appetite, and promotes overeating.

5. Energy Boosting Drinks and Supplements

Energy drinks and supplements are stop-gap solutions. They mask low energy levels for a short time while eroding our health and energy in the long term. Why have these products become so popular? Mostly because so many people feel so tired all of the time. For many people, low energy levels are a result of underperforming adrenal glands. Energy drinks work by lashing the adrenal glands up into a frenzy, producing a rapid burst of energy. But, of course, all this does is leave the adrenal glands even more exhausted. This is a classic example of whipping a dead horse. If your energy levels aren’t what you’d like them to be, you need to rebuild your adrenals and raise your metabolism with a smart nutrition and exercise program, and, possibly, some good supplements taken under the supervision of a health care professional.