Fitness expert Richelle Melde
(Photo courtesy of Hollye Schumacher Photography)
Lesbian.com
With all this information, it might feel hard to tell what you should eat. Here are some guidelines to help you chow down.
PROTEIN
Depending on how much exercise you participate in, you want to consume about 0.3 – 0.5 grams per pound of body weight. This means that you will eat about a third to a half of your body weight in grams of protein, so if you weigh 150 pounds, you will try to consume a range of 45-75 grams of protein.
FOOD TOXICITY
Refined sugar, alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, prescription drugs, non-prescription drugs and artificial sweeteners are things we put in our bodies often without considering their side effects. Typically, we think of toxics as something with a skull and cross bones label — things you wouldn’t put in your body, yet we consume toxic chemicals every day to relieve some symptom such as it be fatigue, pain or addiction.
FOOD QUALITY
Another source of metabolic compromise can come from how the food you consume is produced, packaged and stored. This is why we recommend organic, grass-fed, free-range foods.
GM-NO!
As a general rule, avoid genetically modified foods (GMOs).
Genetically modified foods (GM foods or biotech foods) are foods produced from genetically modified organisms, specifically, genetically modified crops. GMOs have had specific changes introduced into their DNA by genetic engineering techniques.
Let’s take for example sweet corn. GMO sweet corn has been genetically altered so that it is paired with the pesticide Roundup. Yep, the same stuff that has a poison warning label on it not to ingest that you might spray on your weeds. I’m pretty sure that you wouldn’t want to drink Roundup, so why eat it?
Make the right choice when purchasing produce. Because we cannot seem to pass federal legislation to label genetically altered food, we have to rely on the PLU code.
HOW TO IDENTIFY GMOs
GMO foods have an effect on our hormone function, causing dysfunction and imbalance. These toxins are also stored in fat and not just our fat. Think about the meat that you eat that is not free-range or grass-fed. They are fed corn and soy, both of which are not natural diets to any animal, which causes them to get sick and can affect their growth rate. So industrial ranchers pump these animals with hormones and antibiotics, among other things, to ensure they grow fast with little illness so they can make the most money. These toxins are stored in the animal’s fat. When we eat that fat, we too ingest those toxins. Just another reason to consume a clean source of animal protein.
OTHER TOXINS
Your skin is your largest organ and can absorb material that it touches. Something we probably don’t think about all of the chemicals that our skin drinks through our clothes, lotions and perfumes as well as when we bathe, swim and clean. To look up your cosmetic products to see if they are safe, click here.
Richelle Melde is the Fitness Expert for News Channel 12 EVB Live show (Phoenix, Ariz.) and has been seen on Fox, CBS, NBC and ABC, as well as in the AZ Republic and Business Journal. She has a B.S. in Psychology, Sociology and Women’s Studies and is a CHEK Practitioner and Holistic Life Coach.
