The marketing industry is one of the fitness industry’s biggest and most competitive rivals – marketing ploys are created on a daily basis to try and hide the hidden demons in foods.

Low fat foods, which are adorned with logos and slogans promoting ‘99% fat free’, ‘the healthy choice’,  etc, may be low fat but they’re usually packed with carbohydrates that we’re never openly told about – carbs which are so well hidden under scientific terminology, that most consumers don’t know how many grams they in actually consuming.

Take for example, a popular health cereal by a well-known cereal brand – it promotes low fat, in fact virtually no fat almost at only 0.6g per 45g serve. Many would think, ‘great!’ and start snaking on bowls of cereal all day long, however, per 45g serve, there is also 33.7g of carbohydrates – an incredible amount, which if not burnt off will turn straight into sugar and then fat.

It’s extremely important for parents of young children to look out for this. Parents especially try and do the right thing by their children by buying low fat foods, but simply end up piling them with masses of carbohydrates which cause their sugar levels to rise and fall very dramatically.

Other serious offenders are all the vitamin-enhanced drinks, which claim to be incredibly good for you due to their added vitamin levels, but are packed with sugar. On one hand, yes, it’s great that they are packed with so many vitamins and nutrients – often things that you wouldn’t take in sufficiently through diet alone, but on the other hand, they are full of so much sugar that the negatives outweigh the positives. If you’re really concerned about your vitamin intake then the best thing to do is buy vitamin tablets and take these with water – by far the healthiest of options.

When tempted by the low fats and the healthy choices, make sure you read all of the stats – the marketers will obviously want to push the goodness and ignore everything else.

Well we are in the thick of the Christmas and New Year period – a month of partying and liquid lunching. It’s almost impossible to completely behave yourself during this period. Drinks with your boss, your colleagues, your partner’s boss and colleagues, your friends, your family… there’s almost not enough time for it all. And it’s extremely difficult to turn people down – especially when so many people are talking you into making an exception ‘just this once’… The pitfall is, that during Christmas and New Year, we don’t just make ‘one’ exception, we make the whole month an exception… and before we know it our bodies feel completely destroyed. It’s important to remember how easy it is to over-drink compared to over-eating… the intake of kilojoules in alcohol is reached extremely quickly. Just one long lunch time spent drinking and you could have taken in the recommended amount for a whole week. Even replacing alcohol with soft drinks can be dangerous. According to the National Soft Drink Association (NSDA) in America, since the late 70s the soft drink consumption in the United States has doubled for females and tripled for males. In fact, 21% of the sugar in the average American’s diet comes from soft drinks! An alarming statistic that is reflected in Australia through our astonishing obesity rates. For these people, cutting out this sugar alone could completely transform their entire bodies and health. As with every aspect of your life, your diet is about moderation and balance. Enjoy the Christmas period and allow yourself a few things that make you happy. Just remember how easy it is to over drink – and not just from the ‘being far too drunk’ perspective but from the kilojoules point of view. It takes an incredible amount of hard work to burn off excess kilojoule intake, so give yourself a present over Christmas – moderate and save yourself the extra work!

We’ve all heard about the benefits of eating small amounts of food, regularly – it keeps your metabolism rate high and doesn’t leave you with that bloated feeling. Controlled and well-balanced micro-meals are the key to a healthy lifestyle. By eating regularly, your insulin levels stay steady and you’re far less likely to feel those ‘crashes’.

However, for many, especially when stressed and out of the usual eating pattern, these controlled micro-meals turn into perpetual grazing – especially when under-sleeping.

It’s a common misconception that not getting enough sleep leads to weight loss. For some, yes, possibly this is true (in times of extremely high-stress). However, for most, less sleep simply means more time spent grazing and snacking.

The calories burnt by still being awake rather that asleep do not outweigh those gained by over-eating. It’s a simple matter of science. If your calorie intake is higher than what you are able to burn then you will put on weight. And for those that eat instead of sleep, this is far more likely!

The first step into tackling this is to look at your behavioural patterns. If you’re not sleeping or if you’re feeling painfully hungry in the middle of the night then your body has fallen into an unbalanced eating cycle. This could be due to stressful working days spent doing different tasks and not knowing when you have time for your next meal. For a lot of people, hectic working schedules are the biggest problem when it comes to trying to control their diet. Irregular eating patterns lead to irregular periods of hunger – and before you know it, you’re not sleeping and grazing instead.

Put time aside when you can to prepare your meals. If your days are extremely irregular prepare your meals and carry them with you. That way you’re not hunting for food and eating the wrong things due to your location and lack of choice. With these prepared meals you can then force yourself to set aside time in you schedule to stop and eat.

Do this each day at the same times and your body will start metabolising more regularly and your sleeping patterns will improve – then no more midnight snacking!

Well, this is on we’ve heard over and over again… and unfortunately one that runs even deeper than just ‘junk food’. Most of us are well aware of the high fat content in certain greasy take-out foods, the high sugar levels in snacks and the danger of bad carbs…

However, what a lot of us don’t often think about are the carcinogenic impact of the WAY we cook foods like red meat.

Red meat contains amino acids, sugars, and a protein called creatinine which, when cooked under high temperatures, is converted into a compound that is known to be carcinogenic for humans. With BBQ season quickly approaching, it’s wise to bear this in mind. Overcooking  meat (often and easily done when barbecuing) over time, can be extremely harmful to your body.

This isn’t to say you should add red meat to your list of things not to eat – far from it! Although it’s definitely wise to watch your intake (keeping it to2-3 servings per week), it’s also extremely good for other aspects of your health. If you’re still worried, then look into eating more Kangaroo meat. Kangaroo meat is possibly one of the healthiest meats on the market – it has been proven to help lower cholesterol and is only 2% fat. It is without a doubt one of the best meats around. Look into adding Kangaroo meat to your shopping and start by replacing one meal a week with it. As soon as you become accustomed to the introduction of a new meat into your diet you’ll do well to add more and more. Just remember, that whatever meat you’re eating, do not over cook and burn it. Not only will you lose a lot of the proteins and healthy aspects of the meat, you’ll turn these into very dangerous carcinogenics.