Disadvantages of junk food in schools

Junk food has many disadvantages in schools.

We have discussed why junk food is so prevalent in today's school system. It is time to look at the disadvantages that come with junk food - particularly within a school environment.

Disadvantages of junk food in schools

1. Junk food reduces your ability to concentrate
2. Junk food decreases your energy levels
3. Junk food lowers your confidence by damaging your physical appearance
4. Junk food hampers your taste for healthy food
5. Junk food is highly addictive - the more you eat, the more you want
6. Junk food increases your appetite
7. Junk food can cause depression
8. Junk food can cause hormonal imbalances

Junk food destroys your health.

1. Junk food reduces your ability to concentrate

Junk food is high in Omega 6, but low on omega 3

Junk food, or highly processed food, contains a lot of hyper-heated plant oils. These oils have omega 6 fatty acids. We don't eat enough food that has omega 3 (like the oil naturally found in fish).

Omega 6 and omega 3 balance each other out. If you have too much omega 6 from junk food, you will need even more omega 3. This leads to fatty acid imbalances that damage brain, heart and cardiovascular system.

Your brain needs omega 3 to function properly. Every time that you eat something high in fried plant oils that contain a lot of omega 6 (like junk food), the problem gets worse. This leads to reduced concentration, depression, low quality of sleep and the inability to retain new information.

Little actions cause big consequences.

Other ingredients in junk food also destroy concentration in schools

This is not the only way that junk food limits mental function. Preservatives, artificial flavors, artificial colorants, flavor enhancers, sodium and sweeteners flood the brain with damaging toxins. Your brain first has to eliminate these toxins before it can function normally.

The sugar from junk food stops your brain from working properly

Junk food is high in simple carbohydrates and sugar. It is low in fiber, vitamins, minerals and protein. Sugars and carbohydrates flood your body with sugar. This puts you on a sugar high that reduces your ability to sit down and focus.

The problem only gets worse from there. Sugar pulls water out of the cells in your body - including your brain. This leads to mental fatigue and lethargy right from the start.

Your body will release insulin to stop this from happening. Insulin takes the sugar from your blood and shuttles it to various parts of the body so that sugar will stop damaging your cells. When insulin does this, your blood sugar drops. This leads to a sugar crash.

The resulting sugar crash will drain your energy levels to a lower point than they started. This creates the cycle of even more mental fatigue and lethargy. You can't concentrate because there is no sugar to give you energy and you crave more sugar to keep going. This is why sugar is so damaging to mental health - and why it becomes so addictive.

Too much sugar is killing us.

If too much sugar is so bad for you, why do companies put so much sugar in their products? 

The addictive nature of sugar is what boosts sales. We instinctively gravitate towards the food that has the most sugar. The more sugar companies can put in their products, the more sales they will make. Companies that don't use a lot of sugar or artificial junk in their products lose out on precious sales.

2. Junk food decreases energy levels

We have already looked at how the sugar in junk food drops your energy levels every time that you eat it.

Artificial sweeteners destroy energy levels

Artificial sweeteners do the same. Sweeteners are more addictive than cocaine (and make you fatter than normal sugar). The addictive nature of artificial sweeteners encourage processed food manufacturers to add as much of it in junk food as possible.

When your tongue tastes something sweet, your brain expects a sugar rush from the fake sugar. It will lower your overall energy so that it doesn't have too much energy when the sugar rush kicks in. The sugar rush never happens. 

This leaves your body in an energy-deficient state. It tries to make up for the loss of energy by craving more sugar to get back to a state of normal. This is why artificial sweeteners lower your energy and become so addictive.

Sweet now, bitter later

Toxins drain your body of energy

Junk food and processed food is loaded with unnatural ingredients. Your body does not know what to do with these chemicals. It spends a lot of energy trying to eliminate them from your body.

The kidneys are overloaded with chemicals that it needs to take out of your blood stream. Beneficial gut bacteria (that turn nutrients into energy) are killed off by these toxins. It takes days to eliminate the toxins from one item of junk food. 

Energy is depleted through the elimination of unnatural chemicals - and this energy could have been put to better use. If you eat more unhealthy food than what your body can eliminate, your energy levels get lower and lower.

We see this in the liver. Your liver has the important role of regulating blood sugar and turning fat into energy. It also has the important role of keeping your blood clean. When you load your body with toxins from unhealthy food, your liver is too preoccupied to produce the right amounts of energy. 

That is how too much sugar leads to a fatty liver and, eventually, liver disease (like liver cirrhosis) and liver failure.

Toxins from junk food also damage the cells throughout your body. They are stored in muscle tissue, fat cells and the skin to prevent them from causing more damage. Your body has to eliminate all of these toxins before it can function normally again - but it can't do this when it is bombarded with more and more toxins.

You are what you eat.

3. Junk food lowers confidence by damaging physical appearance

Confidence is everything. It is easier to learn new things when you are confident in your ability to do so. True confidence is rooted in who you are - and your physical appearance has a large impact on how you see yourself.

Toxins will destroy your skin, the sweeteners will increase your craving for sugar and sugar will be stored as fat whenever you eat too much of it. This is why junk food leads to dramatic weight gain.

Metabolism refers to your body's ability to turn fat into energy. When you are unhealthy, your body does not have the energy to burn fat (which requires complicated biological processes to burn - it is easier for the body to simply crave more sugar for direct energy).

As junk food slowly chips away at your health, your energy levels will drop and you will gain weight at a faster pace. Your skin will display the way that your body feels on the inside. 

Your hormones will be even more imbalanced than usual (because your body has too many unnatural chemicals to regulate your hormones properly). 

Hair, skin and nails become pale and brittle from too much sugar without enough protein. Weak muscles and joints diminish good posture. You get sick more often and you look worse after every episode of illness.

All of this, coupled with the depressing effects of junk food, will obliterate your sense of confidence and self-worth. It is hard to concentrate on other things when the black hole of self-pity begins to consume you.

Junk food is a major contributor to this process.

The danger is real.

4. Junk food hampers your taste for healthy food

Sugar is not bad when it is found in nature. One of the many positive roles that it has is that it tells us what is edible and what is not. 

We gravitate towards food that has the most sugar (ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, burger patties, pasta and rice are also loaded with added sugar to get you to eat more of it).

When you eat a lot of food with high amounts of added sugar, your taste buds adapt to that taste. You regard super sweet food as normal tasting food.

When your brain adapts to the sugar content of junk food, it won't recognize natural food (that has normal amounts of sugar) as edible. That is why it is so hard for people to eat fruit and vegetables when they first start out on a new diet - their brains don't think that it is real food!

The good news is that your taste buds renew themselves every 2 weeks. If you can tolerate a new eating plan for 14 days, your brain will recognize that as the new normal. If you stick to natural foods exclusively, junk food will taste so sweet that it actually puts you off.

I can't stomach the idea of more than a small piece of cake at social gatherings, for example. It's too sweet for me. I also actually enjoy the taste of fruit and vegetables now. At first, I hated it - but forced myself to get used to it because of the health benefits of fruit and vegetables.

Choose goodness.

5. Junk food is highly addictive

We've already covered how the more artificial sweeteners you eat, the more you will crave.

You have also read about the fact that the more you flood your system with the sugar in junk food, the more your body will crave sugar for energy instead of making its own energy from fat.

The fat in junk food is also highly addictive. There are different types of fat. Some are good for you, some are not. Saturated fat is found in meats like fish, beef, port and fish. Monounsaturated fat is good for you. It comes from avocados and olives. Polyunsaturated fats are also healthy. Flax seeds and chia seeds are great sources of this kind of fat.

Trans fat is the worst kind of fat. It is the one that we should avoid at all costs. This kind of fat is chemically produced by adding hydrogen to plant oils. Despite its horrible health effects, it is highly addictive. You will find this fat in junk food.

Flavor enhancers and sodium (salt) are other ingredients in junk food that are extremely addictive while destroying your health.

Choose what builds you.

Why is the unhealthy stuff addictive in junk food?

Healthy ingredients are typically not addictive because they strengthen the body. When your body is strengthened, it is better able to perform vital functions on its own. It's like the age-old saying: The mark of great leaders is how well their followers cope when they are not around.

Unhealthy food does the opposite. It takes your body into a worsened state of health. Your body will try to revert back to its previous state by adding back what the unhealthy food has taken away. 

Added sugar lowers energy. Your body tries to get more energy with more sugar. Flavor enhancers take away the natural taste of food. Your body will crave more flavor enhancers to experience a sense of taste again. This is why poisons like alcohol and nicotine are so addictive.

6. Junk food increases your appetite

Junk food and processed food will make your body crave more food in a shorter period of time. Here's how:

Processed food is made to give you a fast sense of satisfaction. This helps it to sell more because people will learn to associate that food with a sense of fulfillment. Junk food fills you up quickly. It makes you feel like you've eaten a lot of good nutrients in a short amount of time. Think about how long it will take you to feel fulfilled from eating apples and pears.

You feel more satisfied because the nutrients move from your digestive system into your blood stream more quickly. That means that it does not last in your digestive system very long. Simple carbohydrates like processed grains, sugar, bread and pastries are absorbed very quickly. 

The sooner food enters into your bloodstream, the shorter the amount of time that you digestive system feels empty again. Healthy foods contain fiber, resistant starch (carbohydrates that take longer to digest) and protein. These ingredients take longer to break down. This means that they sit in your digestive system for a longer period of time.

Your blood stream is not flooded with sugar (which prevents a sugar rush and the following sugar crash), but nutrients are consistently delivered into the blood over a long period of time. 

This is why fruit and vegetables may not feel too fulfilling at first, but reduce hunger cravings for hours to come.

You will end up eating more when you eat junk food. Healthy food will keep you satisfied and give you the energy to go about your day for longer before you need to eat you next meal.

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7. Junk food can cause depression

The addictive roller coaster ride of junk food will take its toll on your mental health. 

It is mentally draining to feel full of energy at one moment, but have nothing left within the space of a few hours. 

The toxins from junk food stop the brain from dealing with its own emotions or memories because it spends too much of its time dealing with chemicals that shouldn't be there in the first place.

Most of your serotonin (a happiness hormone) is made by good gut bacteria. The preservatives in junk food kill good gut bacteria.

8. Junk food cases hormonal imbalances

The brain relies on hormones like cortisol (stress and energy), dopamine (pleasure and reward), melanin (rest and sleep), serotonin (happiness and comfort), endorphins (elation and pain relief), testosterone (energy and determination) and estrogen (energy storage) to balance its own mental state.

Omega 6 (and a lack of omega 3) stops the brain from regulating the body's hormone levels.

Too much or too little of any of these hormones can lead to disastrous mental health problems. Junk food messes with this balance in a variety of ways.

Hormones are used to farm animals so that they grow faster, sooner. They typically use the hormone estrogen to fatten them up, among other hormones.

When we consume a lot of estrogen, our brain stops producing its own estrogen to try to counteract it, or it lands up with too much estrogen.

Estrogen from food decreases the amount of testosterone that we produce (and women also need testosterone to function properly).

Mental health matters.

Conclusion

If we want to give students the best future possible, we need to replace junk food with healthier alternatives. Stay Strong!

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Advantages of junk food in schools

Address the need to solve the problem.

If we're going to tackle the issue of junk food within schools, we need to understand the advantages that junk food and processed food has over healthy food.

By now, we know that processed food elimination is one of the most important preventative health measures and that any healthy diet should avoid it. Healthy food is extremely important for the mental health of students.

If all of this is common knowledge, why is junk food still so prevalent? The reason is that junk food has many advantages that healthy food does not meet in its current form.

Let's look at the ways the junk food benefits students in schools so that we can devise smarter to ways to meet these needs with better food options.

What needs does junk food meet?

Advantages of junk food in schools

1. Junk food fills you up quickly
2. Junk food is cheap and easy to produce
3. There are millions of dollars invested into the marketing of junk food
4. Junk food tastes good (addictive substances like sugar, sodium and sweeteners)
5. Junk food is tightly ingrained into modern culture
6. Junk food is convenient (does not spoil, is not easily damaged, easily carried in bags)
7. The packaging is designed to make you crave junk food

1. Junk food fills you up quickly

Time is a precious resource. Students are quickly introduced to a rushed lifestyle as they shuttle from one class to another. They have a limited time to satisfy their hunger during a lunch break before their next class begins.

You could finish an entire burger and fries in the time that it takes to peel an orange. The fact that you need to chew on an apple or carrot for longer than you need to eat a bag of chips is one of the reasons why we don't like eating fruit. 

Fruit is mostly made up of water and fiber. This provides fewer calories per bite and causes you to chew more for fewer nutrients. The weight loss and nutritional benefits of healthy food are negated by the fact that you feel fuller for less consumption time with processed, junk food.

The fiber in fruit, ironically, will keep you fuller for longer - It just takes more time to get to that point when you consume it. Chewing food for longer also gives you a sexy jawline.

How to overcome the fact that junk food feels more filling

The easiest way to overcome the time-saving advantage of junk food is to recognize the fact that you will feel less hungry in the hours to come when you eat whole food instead of junk food. Why save a few moments of chew time when you can save an entire hour or two of hunger later down the line?

Another key element is to focus on what you are filling up on. Fill up on the stuff that improves brain function. Don't fill up on the stuff that lowers your energy levels in the long run.

Enjoy health.

2. Junk food is cheap and easy to produce

Processed food is often made from the unwanted by-products of agriculture. Cheap ingredients like sugar and sodium are used to enhance taste. Chemicals can be made on a massive scale to reduce their cost. An enhanced shelf life means that products don't need to be transported, shelved or sold at a certain time.

The cost of delivery is reduced when it can be prioritized over time of delivery. Foods that don't require refrigeration, for example, are cheaper to move from one location to another.

Unfortunately, the opposite is true when it comes to whole, natural foods. Fresh produce incurs loss at every step of the process. A certain portion of fresh produce is lost during the growing phase. More is lost when it is picked and sorted. There are greater losses between transportation and shelving.

This dramatically increases the cost of unprocessed food.

Hormones, antibiotics, fertilizers and pesticides reduce the rate of food loss. This is why organic and free-range food is so much more expensive (even though it can have double the beneficial value).

Processed food also lasts longer after it has been purchased. You can buy a month's supply of instant noodles in bulk. You don't have to worry about the fact that it will spoil. You can't do the same of most fruit and vegetables. You'd have to buy them a week in advance or else they will spoil.

How do you overcome the cheap price of processed food?

You can freeze fresh produce to prolong its shelf live. This will enable you to buy healthy food in bulk.

It is also a good idea to buy locally produced food. You get to support local farmers (who probably use fewer chemicals than large companies who produce food to scale). This greatly reduces transportation costs - along with the costs of food loss along every step of the delivery process.

You can also save money by purchasing selected fruit and vegetables within their season.

Another great idea is to look into growing your own food at home. Start with a single herb and take it from there.

Smart health can save you money.

3. Billions Of dollars are poured into the marketing of junk food

Junk food is extremely desirable. A large part of its desirability is owed to the extensive marketing campaigns that junk food companies promote. McDonald's, for example, spent over 470 million dollars on advertising in 2018. Coca-Cola spent around 5.8 billion dollars on advertising in the same year.

These adverts program the viewer (or listener) to view junk food as pleasurable. The products are seen as one of the ways that you can achieve happiness or a sense of rest from your daily grind.

To test the results of extensive product advertising, try to name 5 fast food brands. Now try to name 5 producers of fruit, vegetables or whole meat. The only 'health' products we can name are also processed foods like supplement companies.

A large part of this is the fact that whole food companies do not rely on advertising to sell their products. They rely on price to provide their products to retailers and, therefore, consumers. Since they rely so heavily on price, advertising budgets are greatly limited.

It is hard to differentiate one apple from another through advertising, but is it easy to do so for beverages with different taste profiles.

If the same level of marketing for junk food was used for healthy food, our internal perspective about healthy food would be a lot different. We would consume more healthy food automatically because we'd be programmed to do so.

How to overcome the mass marketing of junk food

Health bloggers, YouTube influences and other online personalities have changed health culture in the past few years. We used to get our health advice from our doctors once a year - if they made any health recommendations at all.

The rise of online health communities has changed the way that people perceive a healthy lifestyle. This may give rise to extremism (taking a certain health principle too far or promoting a health benefit that does not exist), but health sources that point to reputable studies can usually be trusted.

People who expose themselves to these health sources on a regular basis are more likely to choose healthier alternatives.

Choose your influence.

4. Junk food tastes good

Plants and animals weren't designed to taste good. They were designed with to survive and flourish as much as possible.

Junk food, on the other hand, is specifically designed to taste as good as possible. Researchers take advantage of our natural inclination towards certain flavors and use them to sell more products. They are designed to be addictive.

Sugar is rare in nature. Our brains release dopamine when we eat it to ensure that we can remember where to find that source of food when food is scarce. Sugar has the role of telling us what is edible and what is not.

Processed food takes advantage of our natural inclination towards sugar. Food with more sugar than its alternative will have greater sales. Companies now add as much sugar as possible to processed food to help it outsell its competitors.

The maximum amount of sugar that a food can take before its taste is negatively affected is called the bliss point. This is also done in foods we don't even think about - like bread, pasta, ketchup and peanut butter.

Sugar is not the only addictive substance that makes food taste better than it should. Manufacturers use salt, MSG, fat and oil for the same reason.

Anecdotal evidence has linked MSG to a variety of health complications, but companies still use the chemical because it gives them an edge over the products that don't.

Artificial sweeteners are proven to be more addictive than cocaine. This is another ingredient that improves the taste and desirability of junk food over natural food.

How do we overcome the good tasting effects of junk food?

It takes 10-14 days to renew your taste buds. You don't need to wait too long to change your flavor profile. 

The power of association can also trump the addictive qualities of junk food. It is good to associate junk food with bad things like health complications and associate healthy food with good things like an improved appearance, better energy or enhanced concentration. 

There more you know about something, the more likely you are to make the smarter choice. Knowledge is power.

Know more. Be better.

5. Junk food is tightly ingrained into modern culture

This is one of the biggest obstacles to living a healthy lifestyle. Burgers, chocolate brownies and apple pie would be the national food of America. Let's not forget about hot dogs (although processed meat is known to cause cancer and heart disease).

We have learned to associate hot dogs or potato chips with sporting events, alcohol with social occasions and beer with manliness (although beer increases estrogen, reduces testosterone and gives you man boobs).

It is culturally acceptable to flood little children with sugar and artificial flavors before they can make up their own minds about whether they want to live a healthy lifestyle or not. This pre-disposes them to cancer, diabetes, obesity and sugar addiction.

One of the biggest disadvantages of a healthy lifestyle is that you will look weird as soon as you make healthy life choices that don't follow the social norm.

An unhealthy diet causes one in every five deaths, globally.

Who is to blame?

Who do we blame for this? It is the large companies that profit from this culture and have poured billions of dollars into shaping the way we see their products? Do we blame medical practitioners for their silence on how our lifestyle is causing disease? Should we blame our parents for the way that they brought us up? Do we blame ourselves for following the crowd?

How to overcome the cultural connection to junk food

Health culture has become a popular movement of its own. Vegans aren't weird anymore. Keto is more popular than ever. Here are the most popular diets at the moment. Health culture is redefining what we call normal.

The easiest way to escape the unhealthy trends of the day is to find some good, healthy influences that you respect. Join an online community or follow the healthy habits of your favorite celebrity.

Surround yourself with goodness.

6. Junk food is convenient

Junk food does not spoil. People can grab a bag of chips or a candy bar and keep it in their bags for an extremely long period of time.

It doesn't damage as fast as healthy food, either. You have to be careful not to bruise an apple or bend a banana.

This adds to the inconvenience of healthy food and makes us opt for unhealthy food instead.

Another advantage about the convenience of junk food is the fact that it is available almost everywhere. The nearest store will almost always have a large selection of junk food. Healthy foods are limited to supermarkets, wholefood stores and specialty outlets.

You don't have a large selection of healthy food at smaller convenience stores. There aren't many people selling fresh fruit and vegetables at sports games.

Almost everybody works close to a food stand that provides junk food without healthy alternatives.

How to overcome the convenience of junk food

It is important to plan ahead. You won't have to choose junk food when you bring your own lunch. You can place fruit in larger boxes to stop them from bruising.

Meal prep is a great way to turn healthy food into the most convenient option out there. You only need to cook a meal once, freeze it, and warm it up in the same way that you would with junk food.

This doesn't necessarily diminish your options throughout the week, either. You can prep a week's supply of chicken breasts (which are very healthy) and mix it up by eating it with different toppings on different days. Who feels like a delicious Chicken avocado salad?

No plan, no success

7. The packaging is designed to make you crave junk food

If companies collectively spend billions of dollars on marketing, you can bet that they've optimized their packaging to be as enticing as possible. Warmer colors are used to induce a sense of hunger and craving.

When you see an empty Coke bottle on the ground, your subconscious mind imagines that somebody else enjoyed it. This could make you want a Coke. It works like a form of subliminal messaging.

Have you ever seen someone eat junk food and wish that you were eating it as well? Every time you buy a food product, you advertise it to the people around you through its packaging.

How to overcome the persuasive packaging of junk food

You can train your brain to want different things. Junk food companies sell a sense of enjoyment or fulfillment. What if you wanted health or long-term success (through mental improvement from good nutrition) more than momentary gain?

The pleasure of junk food will be less desirable when you aim for something greater.

Your focus determines your direction.

These are the advantages of junk food and the best ways to overcome them. Did you enjoy this article? Let me know what you think in the comments below. Stay Strong!

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Intermittent fasting on keto

Boost your weight loss efforts with ease.

You have all heard about the keto diet by now. Whether through reading one of my many articles or books on the subject (or through seeing an ad on social medial or TV), the keto diet has taken off like wildfire.

What started off in the early 1900’s as a new and effective way to treat epileptic seizures has been re-branded and reinvented as our generation's newest and biggest 'fad diet'. The level of popularity that this movement has achieved is no small thing - and it's definitely not undeserving.

The keto diet, by itself, is an incredible way to get your body to burn body fat instead of storing it. You essentially turn your body into a walking, talking, fat-burning furnace. People routinely report losing up to 30 and 40 lbs. in as little as 30 days.

This rate of weight loss is completely mind blowing on its own, but what if I told you that there was a way to take this already super-effective diet to a whole new level? Let's talk about intermittent fasting.

What is intermittent fasting?

Intermittent fasting is not a diet (which tells you what food to eat). Intermittent fasting governs when you eat. It is the practice of limiting your food consumption to a limited period of time. Intermittent fasting is most commonly done for 16 hours a day, or on alternate days.

Intermittent fasting is not as bad as you think.

Upon first hearing the name, it's easy to begin picturing the traditional thoughts that the word “fasting” has a tendency to bring up.

Hunger Pains… Fatigue… Headaches… Depriving your body of food for days or more… It all sounds awful.

Let me assure you this is not what we are talking about. The first thing you should understand is that intermittent fasting is not a diet. Intermittent fasting is a very specific type of fasting that is commonly used by lots of people as a safe and effective way to control weight.

Essentially, it is just a practice of limiting your food consumption from the traditional 3 meals (spaced morning, noon, and evening) to a much more limited window of time. This is typically done in 8 hours.

Intermittent fasting became popular after studies were done that showed that fasting has some substantial health benefits.

The only problem is that people don’t want to go without food. So what they found is that if you follow a regular scheduled window of limited caloric intake, you can actually mimic the benefits of extended fasting without having to go without food for long periods of time.

Types of Intermittent Fasting

1. 16:8 Split - Eat for 8 hours, fast for 16 (including sleep)
2. 2 Day on / 1 Day off - Fast every 3rd day
3. 1 Day per Week - Fast for one day every week
4. Multi Day Fasting - Fast for more than one day

The types of intermittent fasting

1. 16:8 Split intermittent fasting

The 16:8 split is, easily, the most commonly practiced form on intermittent fasting around today.

The idea behind the 16:8 Split is simple. It’s as easy as skipping breakfast. What you would do here is set an 8-hour time block where you consume all of your meals for the day.

Most people will begin eating for the day at 12:00 pm and allow themselves to eat until 8:00 pm. This allows them to sleep through most of their 16-hour fasting period.

Depending on your schedule and lifestyle, these times can change to anything that suits you. The important thing is that you get one 8 hour window to eat and one 16-hour window of fasting window per day.

2. 2 Day off / 1 Day on intermittent fasting

This is the 2nd most common intermittent fasting method around. It’s as simple as the name makes it sound. 

You would spend 2 days eating as per your normal schedule. You would then fast for 1 entire day. 

Depending on your lifestyle and schedule, you may find this to be the easiest option. They great thing is that it’s completely up to you.

3. 1 Day per week intermittent fasting

A less common option is the 1 day per week method. It is also as simple as it sounds.

You would fast for one entire day per week. It does not matter which day you choose.

Consistency is important, so it is generally a good idea to stick with the same day each week to stay on a consistent schedule.

4. Multi day fasting

This is traditional fasting. It is extremely important to plan these out in advance and know what you are going to do before you attempt any sort of extended fasting.

Fasting has amazing benefits, but it is also important to know your body's limits. Take your time to expand on those limits. Too much, too soon, may do more harm than good.

Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

1. Ketosis - Intermittent fasting makes you burn fat for energy
2. Autophagy - Intermittent fasting gives the body time to recycle damaged cells
3. Anti-aging - Intermittent fasting may prolong your life
4. Brain health - Intermittent fasting improves your brain's ability to function optimally

Fasting improves health because it is a natural process.

Now that we’ve discussed the different methods of fasting, let’s talk about all the great benefits that you can achieve from intermittent fasting.

Great research has been done on the subject of fasting. The practice of fasting has been around for thousands of years and is still practiced religiously by monks and priests of different faiths all over the world.

Thankfully, this great deal of research has given us an amazing understanding of the benefits that come along with intermittent fasting.

1. Intermittent fasting puts your body into ketosis

One of the biggest reasons why intermittent fasting and the keto diet seem to go together so well is the fact that intermittent fasting actually stimulates ketosis.

If you are unaware of what ketosis is, it's basically a metabolic state that your body naturally goes into when it runs out of glucose (or sugar) stores. Glucose is your body's traditional source of fuel. After roughly 8-10 hours, your body will have used up all its stored energy in the form of glucose.

It then begins to run off body fat, instead of glucose, as its primary energy source. The act of switching its fuel source from glucose to fat is called ketosis.

Check out my blog J.P. Wells Fitness if you’d like to learn more about Ketosis and the Ketogenic Diet

2. Intermittent fasting stimulates autophagy

A huge benefit of intermittent fasting is the stimulation of a process called autophagy. Autophagy, simply put, is your body's natural way of cleaning out damaged cells.

Our bodies promote the natural degradation and recycling of cellular components to be used for the creation of new, healthy cells. This is essentially your body's way of building a newer, healthier you.

A lot of autophagy processes will only start when you haven't eaten in a while. The body spends less time absorbing nutrients and starts to turn damaged cells into fresh nutrients instead.

3. Intermittent fasting has anti-aging benefits

Who doesn’t want to look younger and healthier for longer?

Another benefit to intermittent fasting is its stimulation of natural HGH (Human Growth Hormone) production.

Many famous actors and actresses use techniques to promote HGH production as a way to keep them looking younger and more physically fit. Terry Crews, for example, has talked about the fact that he has used intermittent fasting for years to help him keep his body on point for his career.

4. Intermittent fasting supports brain health

Brain health plays a significant role in our everyday lives - whether we realize it or not. Our brains have a powerful effect over how we feel, how we think and how we act.

Studies have shown that intermittent fasting helps to stimulate a protein in our brains called BDNF (brain-derived neurotropic factor). BDNF has amazing effects on our brains.

It increases neuro-plasticity, which is our brain's ability to change itself. It stimulates the creation of new brain cells, increases synaptic connections and allows us to learn and think faster. Intermittent fasting has been shown to increase our BDNF levels by up to 400%.

Intermittent fasting will overhaul your health.

Conclusion

As you can see from everything that we’ve discussed in this article, intermittent fasting can be an extremely powerful tool in your health and fitness tool belt. The great thing is that it works with almost any diet. You are not restricted to one specific diet to enjoy all the benefits that intermittent fasting will bring to your life.

Obviously, because intermittent fasting naturally promotes ketosis, this is a favorite among those who practice a ketogenic lifestyle - but it is by no means exclusive to keto. No matter where you are at physically, or what diet you decide you want to try, intermittent fasting will improve your health.

It could be a health-boosting habit that can not only speed and improve your weight loss results, but promote good mental health through the production of new brain cells. This will allow you to deal with stress and other emotions more easily. It will help you think and learn faster through the production of BTNF.

It also promotes Autophagy which aids your body in its efforts of cleaning house by identifying and getting rid of old, unhealthy cells and making room for new, healthy cell growth.

It may not be for everyone, and if you have any concerns about how this practice might affect your health, talk to your doctor before giving it a try.

If you do decide to try it out, you may find that intermittent fasting is the key to pushing you through to the next level regarding your fitness and weight loss goals.

If you enjoyed this article, please let me know by leaving me a comment below! I love hearing from you and connecting with you. You guys are the reason that I’m here.

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About J.P. Wells

J.P. Wells has spent the last 13 years of his life learning about - and pursuing - a healthy and active lifestyle. After sustaining a life changing injury during his time serving in the United States Military, he dedicated his time to learning and researching ways to heal (and re-build) his body and get back to the active lifestyle that he grew up loving.

JP Wells

On his blog J.P. Wells Fitness, J.P. Wells shares the knowledge and passions that he has come to learn from the fitness industry - and fitness culture. He understands that health and fitness is not just a one-time choice. It is a lifestyle. Success with your goals is not made up of large, single decisions. It is rather a series of small choices made well throughout every day.

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Fruit diet for weight loss in 7 days

Do it right to protect your health.

Fruit diet for weight loss in 7 days

The fruit diet entails eating 5 different fruit and vegetables, along with a handful of nuts (or another source of protein), at every meal for a week. It leads to rapid weight loss which is clearly seen from the third day.

Fruit contains antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and fiber. All of these nutrients will help you to lose weight and improve long-term health. There are some major nutrients that fruit generally lack. These include protein, iron and essential fatty acids. It is important that you include a good source of protein (like nuts, seeds or one of the other protein sources listed below) to make sure that you don't become deficient in one of these nutrients.

We need protein.

Why do we need protein on the fruit diet?

The body uses protein to make and repair tissue. It also uses protein for a variety of other functions. Protein deficiency is usually caused by malnutrition (lack of food in extremely poor communities). You can also experience a lack of protein if your daily diet does not contain enough of it.

Signs or symptoms of protein deficiency

1. Hair loss
2. Brittle nails
3. Dry, itchy, wrinkly or rough skin
4. Swollen or puffy skin
5. Bloated belly
6. Kwashiorkor
7. Very low immune system
8. Increased frequency and severity of viral and bacterial infections
9. Low muscle mass and muscle weakness
10. Brittle bones and high chance of bone fractures
11. Constant hunger cravings (sometime for sugar, sometimes for salty food)
12. Increased or decreased appetite
13. Fatty liver (leading to inflammation, liver disease and liver failure)
14. Stunted growth
15. Wounds take longer to heal
16. Pale skin
17. Yellow skin and yellow eyes

Eat enough protein.

It is important to make sure that you get enough protein - no matter what diet you are on. You can cause many health complications if you don't get enough of this precious nutrient every day.

Can you get protein from fruit?

Fruit are not a good source of protein. The fruit with the highest amount of protein is the guava. A single guava contains 1.4 grams of protein. Males who don't exercise generally need 56 grams of protein per day. Females need 46 grams of protein per day. You'd need to eat 40 guavas per day if you were male and 33 guavas per day if you were a female.

Since guavas have the highest protein content, you'd need to eat a lot more than that if you depended on other fruit for your protein content. You would need even more protein if you exercise, which you should be doing every day.

If you are going to use the fruit diet for weight loss, you need to include other sources of protein to ensure that you don't become protein deficient.

Sources of protein

Include at least one of these proteins at every meal to make sure that you get enough protein:

1. Eggs
2. Nuts
3. Seeds
4. Beans
5. Lentils
6. Fish
7. Chicken
8. Beef
9. Pork
10. Seafood
11. Turkey
12. Cheese, yogurt or milk
13. Beef jerky
14. Protein shake

Eat enough of these foods every day.

These protein sources will also have the iron and essential fatty acids that you need to stay healthy.

What fruit can I eat on the fruit diet?

You can eat any of the following fruit. Eat at least 5 different fruit at every meal in order to get a variety of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients like antioxidants, fiber and trace elements.

1. Oranges

2. Apples

3. Grapes

4. Bananas

5. Avocado

6. Tomato

7. Mixed berries (or any berries of your choosing)

8. Pears

9. Peaches

10. Plums

11. Pineapple

12. Mango

13. Guava

14. Melons

15. Grapefruit

16. Cucumber

17. Strawberries

18. Watermelon

19. Kiwifruit

20. Nectarine

21. Litchis

Healthy fruit

Can I lose weight by eating nothing but fruit? 

You can lose a lot of weight by eating nothing but fruit. Most fruits are over 80% water. They also contain lots of fiber that can't be digested and turned into fat. The sugar in fruit is locked away in this fiber and takes a long time to be released into the bloodstream. This prevents the blood sugar spike that we get when we eat processed food that has added sugar.

Eat fruit to lose weight.

How much weight can I lose when I eat nothing but fruit?

You can lose just under a pound for every two days that you eat nothing but fruit. You will still lose weight if you add the listed protein sources. Protein makes the diet sustainable and prevents a nutrient deficiency.

Should I use the fruit diet for weight loss?

I am a big fan of the health benefits of fruit and vegetables for weight loss, but I don't believe that this kind of diet is sustainable. It doesn't have enough of the nutrients that you need like protein, iron and essential fatty acids. It won't give you sustainable weight loss and you can't follow it every day.

It is better to follow a diet that has all of the nutrients that your body needs - and none of the nutrients that will turn into fat. Weight loss will be sustainable (you won't gain it back as soon as you stop the diet) and you can follow the diet for much longer than a week.

Get everything you need.

What is the best diet for weight loss?

The best diet for weight loss will give your body all of the nutrients that it needs and cut out all of the foods that lead to weight gain. A good weight loss diet will include whole sources of protein, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber, energy and avoid added sugar, processed food, sweeteners and other artificial junk.

These are the best diets:

For beginners that have never followed a diet before

The basic diet is easy to follow. It gives you all of the nutrients that you need and empowers your body to use fat for energy instead of turning every meal into further weight gain. I would recommend this diet for absolute beginners.

Best diet for overall weight loss

The healthy weight loss diet improves your health and uses your body's own natural mechanisms for fat metabolism. It improves your metabolism and doesn't have the typical weight gain that follows shortly after most diets. I would recommend this diet for most people who want to lose weight. You can follow this diet indefinitely without any negative health consequences.

The keto diet

The keto diet will teach your body to use fat for energy and greatly reduce the amount of sugar that can be stored as fat. It involves reducing sugar and carbohydrate intake. Your body will eventually adapt to use fat as its primary source of energy.

For young adults

Young adults get their own diet because their bodies have specific needs. They need the most amounts of energy possible as they complete their education or start their own career. There is a female diet and a male diet. Both of them will lead to weight loss and improved energy.

For people who live in the eastern world

The Indian diet plan is the best diet for people who aren't familiar with typical western foods. It contains the types of food that are common in the eastern parts of the world. People who would like a completely new kind of diet can also try it out.

Choose long term health benefits.

Final word on the fruit diet

Fruit is good for you. You might lose a lot of weight on the fruit diet, but you won't get enough protein. This can lead to disastrous health consequences. Include a good source of protein at every meal to avoid this. There are other diets out there that will also lead to weight loss without any of the negative health consequences of a fruit-only diet.

Remember to do everything in moderation and consult your medical practitioner before you make any major lifestyle changes. Stay Strong!

Healthy weight loss lasts longer.

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