You are working out, getting fit, and want to stay that way. Some foods are not your workout friends and need to be avoided. Did you know that health drinks, energy bars, and sports drinks are not really necessary for you to maintain fitness?
You might be surprised that you don’t need to spend a lot of money on “recovery” drinks that may be upsetting your fitness goals.
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In fact, we’ll discuss the one food that you should never eat because it contains ALL the bad ingredients that you really need to avoid. Read on to see what food are bad for your fitness goals.
Sugar
Sugar is your enemy. Sure it tastes good and you get an instant boost from it, but your body processes it easily and turns it into glucose.
Excess glucose gets stored as fat in your body to fuel it against starvation. Eating too much sugar leads to insulin resistance and that packs on the pounds and destroys your fitness achievements.
Sugar includes the obvious – donuts and candy. But it also includes spaghetti sauce, ketchup, recovery drinks, cereal, canned food, and prepared food.
Artificial Sugar
Some researcher think that artificial sweeteners are even worse for you than sugar. They fool your body into thinking you are getting calories, but then don’t follow through. Your body decides it wants calories and you get cravings.
Artificial sweeteners are associated with cancer and may lead to poor insulin response and elevated glucose levels.
These oppose your fitness goals by contributing to fat storage, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. You get nothing healthy from artificial sweeteners.
White Flour
White flour has had all the good stuff, like bran and nutrients, removed. Your body treats it pretty much like sugar and easily converts it into glucose.
Anything made with refined carbohydrates doesn’t help your workout goals. Refined carbs include breads, pastries, donuts, bagels and anything breaded. You can eat healthy bread – whole grain flour retains the good stuff and will take your body longer to break down.
Carbs are important after workouts and your body needs the energy. Just chose the best ones.
Processed Meat
Processed meat like sausages, ham, and other deli meats at preserved with salt and nitrates. Most Americans get plenty of salt in a normal diet.
Too much salt makes you retain water and look and feel bloated. Nitrates preserve meat and give it a nice color. Even organic nitrates are linked to cancer.
Processed meats are very high in saturated fats and those are hard on the heart and other organs. You’ll get lots of unhealthy calories from your lunch meats!
Processed Cheese
Cheese can be a great snack. But processed cheese is very bad for you. Processed cheese, like American cheese, have less in common with cows than they do with the test tube. Processed cheese has less protein than regular cheese and contains a lot of preservatives and additives that are hard on your body.
If the label reads cheese food, it is less than 51% cheese. Stick to small amounts of the good stuff to help you stay fit.
Bad Fats
Oils are 100% fat, but not all oils are created equally. Trans fats like hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils are chemically processed.
These cause chronic inflammation, heart problems, lowered fertility, hormone upset and decreased brain functions. They are used in almost every processed food because they extend shelf life.
Good oils, used in moderation, as far healthier. Olive, avocado, sunflower, and coconut oils, for instance, offer needed fats without the health consequences. Keep your body fit by avoiding bad fats.
Salt
We’ve talked about salt a little. You do need salt for your cells to operated properly. Most Americans gets plenty of salt in a normal diet, even if you are working out regularly. You’ll find salt in almost every canned or processed food. It enhances flavor and is used generously.
Too much salt upsets cell functions and causes bloating. Salt makes your kidneys work harder, Increases blood pressure, damages heart and brain arteries, and may lead to dementia.
Fast Food
Guess what one type of food combines sugar, white flour, processed meats and cheeses, increased salt, and bad fats? Fast food. Fast food will offset all your hard-earned fitness gains.
Avoid fast food offering at all cost. Even their “healthy” options are filled with sugar and trans fats. A fast food salad offers high fat/high sugar dressing, high sugar toppings and, to add insult to injury, often fried and breaded chicken.
Avoid the drive through and keep that fit body fit!
Soda
Most processed drinks – soda, recovery drinks, sports drinks and sweet teas – come with high doses of sugar and preservatives. Unless you are working out at high intensity for more than 90 minutes straight, you really don’t need a sports drink. You do need water, so make wise choices when refilling your tank.
In addition to sugar and preservatives, some soft drinks offer you a rocket fuel additive in your can. Brominated vegetable oil (BVO) may cause memory loss, nerve problems, and internal inflammation.
Alcohol
And of course, we can’t leave out alcohol. It may taste really good after a baseball game, but there is a reason a big stomach is called a beer gut! All those empty calories are easily digested and stored by your body.
In addition, exercise increases your body’s demand for anti-oxidants. So does alcohol. If you drink, you are stealing anti-oxidants from your muscles to metabolize alcohol. If you chose mixed drinks, the mixer is generally high in added sugars.
Conclusion
If you’ve made the effort to work out and get fit, you need to support your efforts with good food choices. Cut down or eliminate on sugars, white flours, bad fats, high calorie drinks, and processed foods.
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The healthier you eat, the easier it will be to maintain your fitness level and even move on to the next level. Plus your heart and brain will thank you!
There are a lot of healthy and tasty foods that will keep you fit. It just takes a bit of effort. But you’ve put the effort into getting fit, so you can do the same with a clean diet.
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