Heart & Stroke Fdn Label for sale?

I was researching nutrition on the web last week and came across an interesting story from the CBC Marketplace. The show looked at the new trend of organizations labeling foods as "healthy" or assigning a health ranking or category to them. Specifically, the story looked at the labels offered by the Canadian Heart & Stroke Foundation.

Click here to view CBC Marketplace - Heart & Stroke Foundation Food Labels.

The whole issue of labeling foods as "healthy" or "more healthy" or "less healthy" is fraught with problems and pitfalls. Three major issues that jumped out at me were:

1. If a program such as the Heart & Stroke's Health Check only tests certain products and not all products, it can lead to inaccurate conclusions thereby increasing confusion in the market. Products that carry the label had to pay a fee to do so and many producers simply do not want to pay this fee. The Heart & Stroke Foundation justifies this charge as a "cost recovery" method for the program. But if not all products are tested, how can consumers be sure the product with the "Health Check" label is the best? As the program demonstrated, many brands that weren't tested were in fact "better" for you than products with the "Health Check" label.

2. What criteria are used to determine what is "healthy"? Sodium content? Sugar content? Fat content? Vitamin/mineral content? Absorption rate? The list could go on and on.

3. The most "healthy" foods are ones that don't have any labels or packages - where do they fit into the labeling scheme? How would a banana rate? Or asparagus? Or grass-fed beef? Or wild salmon?

I'm not even going to delve into the issues of food police and giving away your power of choice to a third party or depending on "Big Brother" to take care of you.

So What's The Solution to Labeling?

If you truly want to avoid any issues with food labels, the solution is simple. The majority of your diet should come from wholesome, natural foods. Think of it this way - if it grew on a plant or in the soil or had parents eat it. If it comes in a box, bottle or container don't eat it or at least minimize your consumption of it.

All the most effective and healthy nutrition plans are based on this premise. They promote natural foods for most of your nutrition. So when you go shopping, go around the perimeter of the store - this is where the fruits, vegetables, meats and fish are located. Only go into the inner aisles for a few supplementary items.

If you're eating a lot of packaged or processed foods, start at your own pace but begin to ween yourself off the packaged crap and learn how to prepare real food.

A great resource that could help is one we use at home quite a bit - the Gourmet Nutrition cookbook by John Berardi. CLICK HERE or on the image to view the book. This book shows you how to prepare really tasty meals that emphasize wholesome, "real" food. It also gives you tips on setting up your kitchen and how to prepare foods to minimize cooking time. I've never been known for my culinary wizardry so trust me, if I can make these recipes anyone can.

C.

www.ultrafitness.net

Fitness Clinic

Beginning May 10 in Vancouver, Ultra Fitness be offering our annual "Get Ready For Summer" Outdoor Fitness Clinic held at Volunteer Park in Vancouver. If you're looking for a fun yet challenging way to get ready for all your favourite summertime activities try it out. We keep our clinic size small to provide a better service.

See all the details online HERE.

C.

www.ultrafitness.net

What is Fitness?

Well I've finally done it...I've started a blog. So many clients have asked similar questions that I realized that even with all the information available at their fingertips, people are confused by contradictory information or don't understand how to apply the information they read. So I thought I'd add my $0.02 and create more confusion ;-)

Seriously, I want to help explain information about fitness, fat loss and maybe wander into some other areas as well. Having trained over 500 clients during the past 8 years, obtaining a Master's degree in Exercise Science and continuing to spend 5-10 hours a week reading and researching I think I've learned a few things. I certainly won't claim to have all the answers but maybe I've got a few you need.

You may not agree with everything you read on this blog and that's okay...at the very least I hope to stimulate your critical thinking. I've also had many people ask me how I train and what I eat so I'll use this blog to share this information as well.

My whole approach to training, both myself and my clients, is based on my definition of fitness. Simply, fitness is your body's ability to allow you to live the life you want to live. Whether you want to run a marathon, squat 900 lbs., or have more energy to run after your grand kids and have the strength to pick them up doesn't matter. If your body is stopping you from doing what you want then you don't have the level of fitness you need.

In a similar vein, health can be viewed as a broader quality that involves emotional, intellectual and spiritual aspects in addition to the physical. Health is simply the ability of your mind, spirit and body to allow you to live the life you want to live. Do you have the mental capacity to do what you want? Are you emotionally able to create the life you desire? Do you have the spiritual awareness to bring consciousness to what you do?

With these definitions we can explain the paradox of being physically fit yet unhealthy. Athletes can often fall into this trap. When a sport (or any activity) becomes an obsession, health will become compromised (which in turn will affect your fitness).

So as a starting point, decide what it is you want your body to do and what you want it to look like. Maybe you want fat loss. Maybe you want to get rid of your chronic back pain. Maybe you want to run a 50 mile race - yes some people actually want to!

Whatever it is, make a decision and then go about building the level of fitness you need to bring about your goals.

C.