It’s dark in colour but ultra light in calories. It’s heavy in vitamins, minerals, fibre, chlorophyll and antioxidants. It can be eaten raw, cooked, as a side dish or the main attraction. Only slightly edged out by broccoli as the world’s healthiest food in our book, spinach is a super-functional superfood with healing and prevention power, and a lot to offer in the way of flavour too.

Here’s why you should eat your spinach everyday.

It’s low in calories

100 g of spinach has only 23 calories. 91% of its weight comes from water, meaning it can fill you up and make you feel full satisfied. It's an excellent source of hydration keeping your skin, hair and bones healthy.

Here’s the rest of spinach's impressive nutritional breakdown:

It’s a good source of fibre

Of its 3.6 g of carbohydrates, 2.2 come from fibre, an important nutrient we don’t get enough of in the Western diet. Getting the required amount of fibre leads to optimal gut health as the fibre passes through our digestive tract intact feeding the microflora in our gut with the nourishment they need to thrive. In turn, we enjoy optimal digestion, improved immunity and reduced inflammation to name just a few of the minor miracles that occur in our bodies when our guts are healthy.

It prevents cancer

Many of the antioxidants in spinach reduce oxidative stress and the damage caused by free radicals in the bloodstream, which are linked to numerous forms of cancer.

Spinach’s generosity doesn’t stop there, though. Vitamins K and A, C, B2, manganese, magnesium, folic acid, iron and potassium all contribute to the maintenance, health and regulation of human tissue and give our cells the nourishment they need to maintain their integrity and defend against irregularities.

The carotenoids and polyphenols in spinach help our bodies to suppress the growth of cancer cells and spinach’s chlorophyll content interferes with the absorption of potential carcinogens.

In short, spinach is the enemy of cancer on multiple fronts.

It’s great for our eyes

Spinach is a rich source of the compounds lutein and zeaxanthin, which protect our eyes from harmful rays of sunlight. Studies also show the same two carotenoids to play a role in the prevention of cataracts and blindness.

It’s prevents type 2 diabetes

Although a carbohydrate, spinach has a very low glycemic index of only 15. Its high magnesium content lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes and the aforementioned fibre in spinach makes it a very slow digesting, insulin friendly food source that will not trigger spikes in blood sugar. Moreover. the alpha-lipoid acid in spinach has shown to aid in the improvement of insulin sensitivity.

Health benefits and nutritional value of spinach

It’s heart healthy

The nitrates in spinach make it a very heart healthy food. Studies have shown spinach to lower blood pressure and decrease the risk of heart disease and stroke.

• Inorganic nitrite and nitrate: evidence to support consideration as dietary nutrients
• Flavonoid-rich apples and nitrate-rich spinach augment nitric oxide status and improve endothelial function in healthy men and women: a randomized controlled trial - PubMed

The downside

One of the things that makes spinach uniquely healthy can unfortunately for some of us also be the very thing that can make it dangerous when eaten in excess: calcium.

The oxalic acid or oxalate found in spinach can bind to the calcium inside the kidneys and other parts of the urinary tract forming stones that cause great pain and often lead to dangerous infection.

Those of us prone to developing kidney stones should limit our spinach intake more than others. That doesn’t mean you can’t eat spinach at all, but you may want to limit consumption to only once or twice a week.

Moreover, when that same oxalate binds to calcium or iron in the gut it can prevent the body from absorbing those minerals.

The good news is that boiling spinach has shown to reduce the level of oxalates by almost 90%, making it much safer to eat for people at risk of developing kidney stones.

The bad news is that the more you cook spinach, the more of its uniquely rich array of life-giving nutrients is lost.

The trick is finding that sweet spot where you “cook away” just enough of the bad and maintain the majority of the good, of which spinach has so much.

Whether you lightly fry it with olive oil and throw into a tossed leafy green salad, adorn your next pizza with those alluring dark green leaves that contrast so beautifully with the deep orange sauce and white mozzarella cheese, or dream up other new and exciting ways to enjoy one of those rare foods that boasts so much in the way of health and yet delights the palette at the same time, spinach is the swarthy green, highly versatile superfood we should all eat more of if we value our health.

More about me

I’m Scott Cohen — I run a coaching business called Kitchen Therapy where I help my clients learn to live with type 2 diabetes, obesity and metabolic disorders by learning how to live without them. https://www.kitchen-therapy-coaching.com/about-me

https://www.kitchen-therapy-coaching.com/

If you like this article and want to know whenever I publish a new one, please follow me on Medium. I will truly appreciate it!

19 Foods You Should Eat Everyday #5 — Spinach was originally published in Low Glycemic Living Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Breakfast is probably the most inflexible meal of the day. What do I mean by that? Most people have very strong customs and deeply held dos & don’ts when it comes to the day’s first meal. For many, abandoning them requires a pretty big leap from the norm.

Know what I say? Jump!

If you’re eating “breakfast” foods that jumpstart your metabolism and provide you with the fuel you need to tackle life with physical and mental energy, stick to convention.

But many of the foods we consider to be “approved for breakfast” are actually the last thing you want to be eating for your first meal of the day (or any meal of the day for that matter).

How many AMs of your life started with a croissant or a sweet pastry of some kind? How many bowls of boxed cereal with milk have you eaten before school or work? How many times has a plate stacked with buttery pancakes and maple or fruit syrup made up your morning meal?

In the short term, all the above satisfy our hunger and give us the calories we need to get started in the morning. And although most of us would consider them familiar breakfast classics, the truth is that none of them give us a much of a chance to be healthy in body and mind in the long run. Nor do they even provide the fuel we need to get us through the first part of the day.

Here’s a list of some familiar breakfast favourites you’d be better off giving up, followed by some unconventional alternatives you may not have considered suitable for breakfast, but actually promote weight loss, minimise spikes in blood sugar and provide you with long-lasting energy and all the fuel you need to perform at top gear.

Cereal

This is going to be bad news to a lot people, but there’s almost nothing about breakfast cereal that makes it worth eating. First of all, most of them contain loads of added sugar. On top of the blood sugar spikes certain to come from the simple, heavily processed, zero-fibre carbs that make up your corn flakes, puffed rice crisps or nutritionless bits of crunchy wheat, the truth is that breakfast cereal is a fast-track to crashing out before you even start the day.

Here’s my article on breakfast cereals and why you’re better off without them

Don’t Eat This Sh*t — #1

Unfortunately, if you are determined to turn your health around, reverse insulin resistance, increase insulin sensitivity and give yourself a fighting chance to grow old disease free, breakfast cereal has no place in your diet.

Replacing it with the occasional steel cut or quality rolled oats sweetened with fresh berries and a little honey will go a long way to minimising the damage caused by chronic cereal consumption. But even quality oats cause blood sugar spikes in most of us and should be reserved for a just few times a week.

Cake For Breakfast

A buttery croissant. A sweet Danish. A blueberry muffin. A stack of pancakes dripping with sugary syrup. A friend of mine from Thailand once said to me: “I don’t get it. Why do Europeans and Americans eat cake for breakfast?”

It’s true, if you grew up in the US or Europe, you’ve probably eaten your fair share of breakfasts that included one of the above. But much like your favorite breakfast cereals, pastries and baked items contain lots of sugar, loads of enriched white flour and little of anything else.

Think about it for minute and ask yourself, when I eat a donut for breakfast, how long does the feeling of satiety really last.

If you find yourself feeling hungry quickly after eating a high-carb breakfast, you’re not the only one. Although pastries and bakery items may seem substantial enough to tide you over til later, the reality is quite different. A croissant will get converted to glucose in your bloodstream extremely fast, well before your body has the chance to metabolise it and use it for energy, triggering an insulin response and faking your body into thinking you are hungry again.

Buttered Toast & Jam

White bread toast is no exception. There’s something wonderfully satisfying about a few slices of heavily processed white flour bread topped with creamy butter and sweet jelly or jam from the jar. It feels like breakfast for so many us. Yet how we actually end up feeling — and performing — afterwards is often short of what you need out of the first meal of the day.

Add orange juice to the mix, as we so often do and the results are inevitable: blood sugar spikes, pre-mature hunger, a lack of energy, brain fog and then repeat at lunch.

Rethinking Breakfast

If you haven’t noticed the pattern yet, our understanding of breakfast is pretty lopsided when it comes to the distribution of morning macronutrients, heavily in favour of the carbohydrate.

In and of itself, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

I’m not a carb hater. But I do recommend reducing empty, low-quality carbs to minimum if you can. And the truth is, many of us tend to opt for the not-so-beneficial versions of carbs when it comes to breakfast.

So we’ve established that loading up in the morning on simple carbs with added sugar and little nutritional value is hardly the best way to kick off the day.

If you just can’t imagine breakfast without the satisfying calories provided by carbs, at least make the carbs you consume more meaningful. Instead of a pastry, croissant or pancakes, opt for a homemade banana or pumpkin bread made with wholemeal flour and a minimum of sugar. Or discover the joys of healthy wholegrain and seed breads.

Here’s an article I wrote about all the wonderful alternatives to white bread out there readily available if you look a bit beyond the standard supermarket shelf.

7 Low Glycemic Alternatives To Your Favourite Carb — White Bread

But if you’re really looking to maximise your first meal and eat foods that are going to jet propel you through the day at top physical and mental performance, you may want to rethink the idea of breakfast completely and move beyond the dogma that keeps so many of us stuck inside the breakfast box.

Here are a few super effective breakfast-ready superfoods that will turbo charge you through the first part of the day and even keep you going all the way up to dinner.

Bone Broth

If I had to choose one food to top the list of Best Breakfast Choices it would have to be bone broth. It’s low in calories but fills you up. It’s high in protein, contains just the right amount of fat for your morning meal and it’s loaded with immediately accessible micronutrients that will make you feel great.

The amino acid glycine helps the body make use of bone broth’s collagen, keeping you limber and loose at a time of the day when your natural body reaction is to be stiff.

Glycine also helps regulate blood sugar and balance metabolic function. Alongside the calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, vitamin A, vitamin K2, iron, zinc, selenium and manganese in bone broth, your body will be primed to process energy after a single serving.

If you follow me on Medium you know I love bone broth and tout its many benefits often. Here’s an article I recently published praising its many heroic qualities:

The non-science based, gut-feeling #1 reason I haven’t been sick in years

Eggs

Probably the one item on this that won’t raise an eyebrow, eggs are a quintessential breakfast food in almost every culture. And for good reason. You’d be hard boiled to find a more appropriate food to start off your day.

While bone broth tops my list of best breakfast choices, the versatile egg would have to be my choice if I were only allowed to eat one food for the rest of my life. Eggs do it all, and they do it well.

Here are some good reasons why you should eat eggs everyday, especially for breakfast;

19 Foods You Should Eat Everyday Part 2 — Eggs

If you’re really hungry, combine them the other items on this list and reap the benefits of a true super-breakfast.

Fish

Opting for a piece of omega-3 rich salmon over a stack of pancakes or a waffle will do wonders for your mind and your body. Fish may not feel “breakfasty”, but the micronutrient punch it packs makes it one of the ideal items you can eat to start your day.

The EPA and DHA will give your brian a big boost. The vitamin D will keep your spirits high, your muscles and bones strong and your morning aches and pains at a minimum. And the high protein count will go a long way to keeping you full for hours.

Avocado

Starting your day with half an avocado will make you feel like a half a million bucks. Avocado is unusually endowed with a long list of micronutrients, healthy fats, fibre and antioxidants that will make you feel full and fuel your body with everything it needs to thrive during the day.

Combine it with the above-mentioned filet of fish, bone broth or an egg and you'll be truly maximising the likelihood of performing at peak levels all day long.

Here are all the reasons why you should eat avocado every day:

19 Foods You Should Eat Everyday Part 3 — Avocado

Nuts & Seeds

Another food I eat everyday are seeds. I like to mix sunflower, flax, chia, sesame and pumpkin seeds, throw in some almond flakes and lightly roast them with a little salt and olive oil. You can throw them on top of your avocado or fish for a true nutritional boost, or just eat them on their own.

When I’m in a hurry but don’t want to compromise on my morning fuel intake, a few spoonfuls from the bowl of mixed roasted seeds that’s always sitting on my kitchen countertop is a frequent breakfast go-to that leaves me feeling satisfied and full of fuel.

Seeds are packed with fibre, vitamins and protein, monounsaturated fats and antioxidants that all work together to keep you energetic, balance your hormones, feed your cells, regulate blood sugar, keep blood pressure low and LDL cholesterol at normal levels.

Salad & Vegetables

Whenever I eat a big bowl of salad for breakfast, which is often, I get strange looks from the folks around me. Salad just doesn’t feel like breakfast does it?

But let me challenge you. Try eating a beautiful multi-coloured mixed breakfast salad loaded with a variety of leafy greens, spinach, rocket and sorrel, seeds, avocado, broccoli and a yummy olive oil vinaigrette for a week and see how you feel. If you need to make it more breakfast suitable, throw a fried egg on top.

Then do the same thing the next week with a bowl of boxed cereal and compare notes. Your mind may be telling you the boxed cereal is better for breakfast, but I bet your body will say something different.

Well, breakfast will continue to be a hot topic amongst my clients, and none of the reasoning I've laid out above will convince some of them to try a tossed salad and a slice of fish first thing in the morning. I get it. We have our traditions and some just can't be broken.

But if you want to maximise the benefits from the foods you eat and start your day the right way, try a few of my suggestions and be sure to let me know how they made you feel.

More about me

I’m Scott Cohen — I run a coaching business called Kitchen Therapy where I help my clients learn to live with type 2 diabetes, obesity and metabolic disorders by learning how to live without them. https://www.kitchen-therapy-coaching.com/about-me

https://www.kitchen-therapy-coaching.com/

If you like this article and want to know whenever I publish a new one, please follow me on Medium. I will truly appreciate it!

I’m a certified nutritional consultant. I try my best to stick to a healthy lifestyle based on scientifically proven methods and practices. But there’s one thing I’ve been doing everyday for years now that I believe, but can’t prove, is the reason why I haven’t had the flu, a cold or felt under the weather for as long as I can remember.

It’s late December here in Central Europe where I live. The weather is cold, drab, dark and pretty wet. It feels like the sun hasn’t been out in weeks. I can’t help but notice the various sounds that fill the air around me. In my office, on public transport or on the streets around town, countless people are sniffling, sneezing and coughing, Everywhere I turn I hear throats full of phlegm, lungs full of fluid, noses full of nasal congestion and heavy breathing.

Year after year, I was one of those people. Until I started doing one simple thing that has led me through the winter months illness free.

Your Grandmother was on to something when she insisted you eat chicken soup when you were ill as a child. Conventional wisdom stems from centuries of collective knowledge and often trumps modern medicine in its ability to attack the root of a problem.

The number one reason I believe I haven’t been sick in years is bone broth.

I keep a steady supply of homemade chicken bone broth in my fridge from September to March. Since the day I started drinking a daily cup, I haven’t had the flu, a cold, cough or even a runny nose.

Here are a few facts about bone broth our Grandmothers may not have consciously known, but instinctively understood:

Bone broth is a nutritional powerhouse

You may have guessed that the bones in bone broth are a terrific source of calcium. They also supply us with plenty of magnesium, potassium and phosphorus, all nutritional essentials that are hard to get in our modern-day diets.

The collagen in bone broth supports joint health and keeps us moving free of pain, especially as we grow older. It also keeps our hair, skin, nails and connective tissues healthy, strong and elastic.

The marrow from bone broth gives us loads of vitamins and minerals few other foods can match.

And bone broth supplies our muscles with nourishing amino acids. One cup of chicken bone broth delivers 9 grams of protein, and without the high calorie price tag that comes with other high-protein foods.

Some research has even suggested that bone broth supports healthy digestion and helps the other foods you eat to move freely through digestive tract.

But perhaps most importantly, bone broth has shown to protect the mucosal lining in the intestines and reduce leaky gut, a condition commonly associated with with chronic diseases, inflammation and the many health conditions inflammation leads to.

I believe the root of my annual sniffles, sneezes and flu-like symptoms resulted from a leaky gut. And the fact that they've become all but absent from my life since I started drinking bone broth is all the proof I need.

Science has yet to deliver enough research on the topic of bone broth as a functional healing food and a remedy for inflammation and weakened immunity. But the empirical evidence from thousands of people, myself included, and hundreds of years of collected wisdom and knowledge is clear on this one.

A cup of bone broth a day may just keep the doctor away. The worst thing can happen by testing the theory is enjoying a warm cup of homemade soup on a cold winter's day.

Here are some great bone broth recipes you can try at home and see for yourself.

• Healthy Bone Broth Recipe
• Easy bone broth recipes for lazy evenings

And here is some more great advice on gut healing from an expert.

Gut Healing

More about me

I’m Scott Cohen — I run a coaching business called Kitchen Therapy where I help my clients learn to live with type 2 diabetes, obesity and metabolic disorders by learning how to live without them. https://www.kitchen-therapy-coaching.com/about-me

If you like this article and want to know whenever I publish a new one, please follow me on Medium. I will truly appreciate it!

19 Foods You Should Eat Everyday #4 — Bone Broth was originally published in Low Glycemic Living Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

For any one who has struggled with excess weight, you might feel like the world is rigged against your seemingly endless efforts to achieve normal body mass.

Well, guess what. You’re right.

If you’re like me, you've always marvelled at thin people’s ability to stay fit. How do they do it in a society that entices and rewards you with food at every turn. How did the skinny people slip through the cracks and not fall victim to the schtick?

There are powers out there who not only want to keep you in the no man’s land between hoping you’ll finally find the magic solution for losing weight and never really believing you actually will, first and foremost they want you to keep on spending your money trying.

Here are three ways our society is doing all it can to keep you in a perpetual state of striving to lose weight. At the end of each one is the hack you need to know that will help you stunt their efforts.

1. Food Packaging

Since the dawn of the industrial age, manufacturers and the government have dreamt up every trick in the book to separate us consumers from our money. And Big Food producers are amongst the most unscrupulous, paying big bucks to your government to look the other way at the misleading health claims they slap on their packages.

Just yesterday I was at my cottage in the country, a house my wife and I share with other members of the family. One of the cabinets was filled with boxes of processed foods one my relatives bought. Amongst the items was a box of muesli cereal.

The packaging was designed in a way that screamed “healthy, wholesome, high quality nutrition”. The enticing design was supported by the bold claims “Slim Line”, “Made From Whole Grains.” & “With Omega 3-Rich Flaxseed.”

What the package didn’t highlight on the front, but chose to hide in fine print on the back, were the rest of the ingredients, which included sugar, high fructose corn syrup, various candied fruits, puffed wheat, puffed rice, hydrogenated oils and a slew of artificial additives — a deadly combination guaranteed to spike blood sugar and bring on insulin resistance and the slew of illnesses it leads to.

And while several types of whole grains and flaxseed did appear on the list, they came in such marginal amounts at the bottom end compared to the sugary, chemical foodless ingredients dominating the top end.

This brand (and countless others) successfully (and intentionally) misled my relatives into believing that their product is a good nutritional choice for keeping slim and healthy.

The antidote:

Don’t believe everything you read on the front of packages. Get into the habit of reading the ingredients on the back. If the top of the list is loaded with ingredients like wheat flour, sugar or hydrogenated oils, the benefits of the healthier ingredients at the bottom of the list are going to be minimal in comparison.

But the best thing thing you can do to combat the malpractices of food makers is to stop buying their food. If you want to be truly healthy and eliminate the foods that are keeping you in a perpetual state of overweight, cutting out processed foods and opting for real, whole ingredients is one of the key first steps.

Try eliminating packaged, processed foods from your diet for 30 days and see how you feel.

2. Weight Loss Supplements

Green coffee bean extract

Green tea extract

Conjugated linoleum acid (CLA)

Garcinia cambogia extract

Raspberry ketones

Glucomannan

I could go on and on.

Unfortunately I’ve tried them all at one time or another. If only I had saved the money I spent on them throughout the years, I could have put a sizeable chunk of cash towards my daughter’s college tuition or bought a couple of tickets to a yoga retreat in the Maldives.

The marketers of these miracle belly flatteners drag you in with enticing ads online claiming that rare ingredients only found here or there have been the secret to why this and that indigenous culture has been thin and fit for centuries. Many of them make their way onto morning talk shows touted by quasi doctors who promise you this one is the real thing because it hinders a recently discovered fat producing enzyme we never knew about before which is now the key to weight regulation. Or it slows down the breakdown of carbohydrates in the gut. Or it increases levels of a hormone believed to be related to weight loss. Or it feeds the friendly bacteria in your gut, essentially encouraging them to eat up your food before it makes you fat.

Make no mistake, weight loss is big business. A recent report shows that the U.S. weight loss industry alone was worth $58 billion in 2021. And one report put the supplements segment at $33.4 billion. Yet, the U.S. and the world are getting fatter and fatter.

Here's a fascinating look at the big business of weight loss and how it paradoxically keeps us suspended in a state of weight gain:

U.S. Weight Loss & Diet Control Market Report 2021: Market Reached a Record $78 Billion in 2019, but Suffered a 21% Decline in 2020 Due to COVID-19 - Forecast to 2025 - ResearchAndMarkets.com

The antidote to these supplements is simple.

Before spending your hard-earned cash on the latest miracle pill do a little research. PubMed is a free resource supporting the search and retrieval of biomedical and life sciences literature with the aim of improving health and providing people with factual information untainted by the interests of business.

The PubMed database contains more than 34 million citations and abstracts of biomedical literature. If a supplement has shown real promise in legitimate studies or trials conducted by qualified professionals, the results will be posted here for all to see.

If not, think twice about believing the lofty claims and enticing marketing of the products, designed to lure you in and spend, spend, spend.

3. They target our children

Remember being transfixed as a child by those enticing TV commercials peddling sugary cereals, salty snacks in fun shapes and sizes, irresistible looking burgers and fries that made your mouth water just by watching the TV screen? The system is designed to reel us in and keep us on the hook from an early age.

We’ve known that food manufacturers target children for years. And yet, no one seems able to do anything about it. As far back as 2006 a report by the Institute of Medicine pointed to the targeted marketing of unhealthy foods to children as a major cause of a growing child obesity epidemic that has now spread across the entire planet.

The UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, a watchdog organisation that (among other things) strives to protect children from the harmful effects of food advertising, reports that food companies spend billions every year to advertise snack foods on television, in magazines, in coupons and on the internet, now increasing more through mobile devices — despite the fact that more than one-third of the products advertised to kids are not considered healthy dietary options.

Read the summarisation of the latest report here:

Report: Initiative still allows advertising unhealthy foods to kids

It’s no surprise that so many of us grow up struggling with out weight and have little knowledge about healthy eating and proper nutrition.

The antidote for this one is tough

Children have greater unrestricted access to media than ever before, and there are more channels and ways to reach and indoctrinate them than any other time in human history. And it doesn't look like governments are going to choose tighter regulation over big money any time soon. So as parents, we're on our own.

It all starts at home with education. The sooner we can beat the big food producers in the race towards the hearts and minds of out kids, the sooner we can make them more resistant to the huge influence of advertising and marketing that will reach them sooner or later whether you like it or not.

Set the example yourself by practicing what you preach. Don't buy sugary and processed snacks for your kids or for yourself. Keep them out of your home.

Teach your kids early on what sugar does to the body, how it leads to serious illness, food addiction and hyperactivity.

Show them all the wonderful alternatives out there that are just as satisfying: fruits and natural desserts you can make with them, homemade savory snacks made from real, whole foods and quality ingredients.

The more exposure they have to the good stuff, the more they'll prefer it over the junk in the long run.

There are no doubt more ways our hyper-distracting world keeps us suspended in a state of poor health. If you know of others, send them in the comments. Together we can eat to defeat obesity, type 2 diabetes and metabolic disorders and be the healthy, fit, illness resistant people we are supposed to be.

More about me

I’m Scott Cohen — I run a coaching business called Kitchen Therapy where I help my clients learn to live with type 2 diabetes, obesity and metabolic disorders by learning how to live without them. https://www.kitchen-therapy-coaching.com/about-me

If you like this article and want to know whenever I publish a new one, please follow me on Medium. I will truly appreciate it!

3 Ways The System Is Built To Keep You Overweight — And How To Beat It was originally published in Low Glycemic Living Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I hate to admit it — to myself and to you — but no matter how hard I try, no matter how “well” I eat, no matter how intensely I do my high intensity interval training workouts and no matter how much I want it — and I want it bad — I don’t actually believe I’m ever going to completely get rid of my spare tire.

I should qualify my complaining by stating right here that it has gotten smaller — a lot smaller.

The truth is, instead of cursing and vehemently disliking my subcutaneous spare tire, I should be celebrating it.

After all, it went from a dangerous, visceral, intra-abdominal, life-of-its-own, monster truck tire to a much skinnier, far kinder way more harmless subcutaneous bicycle tire. The kind of tire you might find on one of those hybrid mountain-slash-city bikes for kids. Fatter than an ultra thin Tour de France tire, but much thinner than an off-road, terrain tire.

You know what, I wouldn’t even be surprised if it looks way bigger to me than it would to you.

Truth is, I don’t even know what I see when I look in the mirror anymore. My lifelong obsession with getting thin is finally happening, and all I see when I look at my reflection is that last 7 kilos that just won’t go away.

Do I suffer from a self-image disorder? Have I let the lifelong fat demon living inside me completely take over and define my self worth? Of course, I have. That's what it means to be overweight.

At 51 I can say with certainty that throughout my life my self esteem has been attached at the hip to whatever my current weight situation is at any given time.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud that I reversed a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, shed 30 kilos in the process and embarked four years ago on a life journey to turn my health around. It’s a journey that takes me to new depths of knowledge and understanding about nutritional health every day. The fire inside me and the determination to enter my middle-age years with a fighting chance is burning stronger than ever.

It led me to change careers in mid-life and become a nutritional health consultant so that I might help other people struggling with real health issues like obesity, metabolic syndrome and severe insulin resistance-related illnesses like type 2 diabetes discover a new lease on life.

Sustainable Diet & Nutrition Coaching | Kitchen Therapy | Prague

I’m blessed that I’ve been able to achieve a reversal of my own poor health and also play a role in the improvement of other people’s. I’ve seen my efforts make a real impact on people’s lives. It brings me joy to see them grow happier as they grow healthier.

I’m grateful that a bad health diagnosis pushed me to learn about my body and take an interest in how the foods I eat impact my health.

And I’m endlessly excited about the doors of exploration my new-found passion for nutrition has led me to open — pushing me to achieve new culinary heights and discover the the never-ending and delicious possibilities of a plant-majority, low-glycemic lifestyle. The tangible and intangible benefits of cutting, chopping, slicing and slicing whole, fresh foods is a reward in itself.

And yet, I hate the subcutaneous spare tire lingering around my belly and stealing the spotlight away from my progress and achievement. More than reminding me I was never meant to be skinny, it exposes my fragile psyche.

It wasn’t until my wife jumped in on my inner conversation one day as I was mumbling under my breath in the mirror while squeezing said spare tire in disgust that it hit me like a ton of bricks:

“Maybe if you just accept it that it's part of you, it'll stop mattering so much.”

More about me

I’m Scott Cohen — I run a coaching business called Kitchen Therapy where I help my clients learn to live with type 2 diabetes, obesity and metabolic disorders by learning how to live without them. https://www.kitchen-therapy-coaching.com/about-me

If you like this article and want to know whenever I publish a new one, please follow me on Medium. I will truly appreciate it!

Some of us give. Some of us get. And some of us have discovered the correlation between the two. When you give, by golly, suddenly others start giving to you.

Call it karma, justice, fair play or whatever you want.

The More You Give:The More You Get is a good and just code to live life by.

Istarted writing on Medium a few months ago. I genuinely appreciate the contributions of all the fantastic writers on the platform — those who resonate with my own interests, but also those who write about completely different topics from mine, but do it so well they deserve to be followed, are worthy of a comment, praise or support.

I relish the opportunity every morning to gobble up all I can on Medium before the day begins. It’s something like a new tradition. Coffee, a baseball game and 7 Reasons Why I’m Not Losing Weight As Quickly As I’d Like.

As my profile slowly grows from nothing, I see how my content is beginning to make its way onto the reading lists of other Medium members. The algorithm is working. People like my articles and find what I have to say useful. What a feeling?

My last article has pulled in 171 claps so far. I know, it’s not that much for some veteran writers here, but it’s my personal record to date. I’m seeing progress.

I’ve also noticed that the more I engage with other writers — either by clapping, or better yet commenting thoughtfully on their work and demonstrating that I’ve read and pondered something they felt was important for me to know — Medium in turn notices and puts me in front of more people too. It’s a terrific and just Give:Get mechanism that sends each of us a clear message: your interest and engagement begets our interest and engagement.

But recently I started to notice some lopsided numbers on Medium. Today for example I read an article from a writer who has 1.5K followers, but only follows 5 people himself. A getter and a taker, but not much of a giver.

I mean, I sure would like to have 1.5K followers and a real audience who digs my writing. But I’d be embarrassed if juxtaposed next to that number in the Following column was a measly 5.

I mean, is it his personal policy that he doesn’t follow other writers? Is he too talented and superior to us lowly co-members that we just don’t deserve his support. And if so, how is it that he doesn’t mind taking ours?

I mean, what kind of son, father, brother, husband or friend is this guy? I mean can others really rely on a person who only follows 5 people to be there when the ice gets thin? Or is his life preserver reserved for only him, and “sorry it’s occupied if you need it this time”.

Or am I just blowing this out of portion and being bitchy and grumpy?

I mean, am I crazy for feeling like I’m part of a community of writers here who help each other out, prop each other up and give each other the chance to soak in some of that copious, abundant sun? Am I asking too much to expect a more balanced Followers:Following ratio from my fellow wordsmiths?

Maybe I’m just being whiny — glass-is-half-empty. But you know what? I have a new policy. If you have 1.5K followers and only follow 5 writers yourself, I won’t be supporting you,

Help your fellow writers. You will be rewarded. They’ll move up in the algorithm. And Medium will be better. It’s easy.

More about me

I’m Scott Cohen — I run a coaching business called Kitchen Therapy where I help my clients learn to live with type 2 diabetes, obesity and metabolic disorders by learning how to live without them. https://www.kitchen-therapy-coaching.com/about-me

If you like this article and want to know whenever I publish a new one, please follow me on Medium. I will truly appreciate it!

Potatoes are vegetables. How bad can they be for weight loss, right? It’s not that simple.

As a nutrition coach specializing in low-glycemic lifestyle interventions for the treatment of insulin resistance, obesity, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, one of the most common misconceptions I come across among clients has to do with potatoes.

Despite what folks from the keto and ultra-low-carb crowds claim, I want to put my two cents in right here and state that there’s nothing inherently bad about potatoes.

For so many of us, depending where we were born, potatoes have been a ubiquitous part of our diets since the early days of life. And not everyone who eats potatoes suffers from metabolic issues.

Let’s face it, there are a lot of good sides to the potato. They’re cheap, widely available and incredibly versatile. Off the top my head I can think of dozens of ways to prepare potatoes.

On the health side, potatoes are no slouch. They’re rich in fibre and loaded with vitamins C and B6, potassium, calcium, magnesium and folate among other nutrients. They also contain antioxidants that keep our hearts healthy and reduce the risk of many types of cancer. No one would argue that the benefits of potatoes are significant.

But that doesn’t mean I recommend them to people trying to reverse insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes or obesity.

Yes I encourage eating fresh, whole foods. Yes I recommend a plant-majority eating strategy. Yes I prioritize foods that are rich in nutrients. And yes potatoes fit that bill.

But there’s one negative about the venerable potato that for me outweighs much of the good it brings: starch, and lots of it.

Foods high in starch are linked to spikes in blood sugar. That means when you eat potatoes, the body turns them into glucose too fast — long before you have time to use them as energy. In turn, the spike in blood sugar triggers an exaggerated insulin response, too much of which leads to insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, the accumulation of visceral fat and a whole Pandora’s Box of other potential diseases and illnesses certain to follow.

To put it into clearer perspective for you, the glycemic index of a baked russet potato is 111. That’s higher than table sugar. Think about that.

Does that mean you’re better off skipping the baked potato on the side and opting for a slab of cake instead?

The hard truth is, If you want to get to the root of your metabolic issues and reduce insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes or obesity, for most people a diet that includes potatoes (or anything else that’s high on the glycemic index) is going to set you back.

Take a look at the glycemic index values of a few of your favorite potato-based foods and you’ll see what I mean:

But eating to defeat obesity and disease is all about adopting sustainable practices you can stick to and enjoy. If you’re trying to lose weight but simply can’t endure a life without potatoes, here a few tips to minimise their impact on insulin production.

Leave the skin

Potatoes are better when you leave on the skin, the most fibre and nutrient-dense part of the potato. Just make sure you wash them thoroughly before cooking. I soak all my vegetables in water for a good ten minutes and then rinse thoroughly before cooking.

Not all potatoes are created equal

Some types of potatoes are lower on the glycemic index than others.

Red skin potatoes, for example have a GI of only 56. Moreover, studies have found that, apart from boiling, the way you cook red potatoes has less of an impact on their GI than with others potatoes.

Purple potatoes, while high on the GI at 77, contain lots of polyphenols, plant compounds that reportedly slow down the absorption of starch and impact blood sugar much less than white and yellow potatoes.

Sweet potatoes are actually from a different family than potatoes but look and cook similarly. They are loaded with vitamins and minerals, particularly antioxidants, and come in on the GI at only 54. And taste-wise you won’t be making any compromise at all. Sweet potatoes are delectable.

Yams are another root vegetable that looks like a potato but is actually from a different family. They are similar but not exactly the same as sweet potatoes, coming in on the GI at only 51.

Roasted or boiled potatoes with the skin left on have a lower glycemic index than mashed potatoes because they retain their fibre content, which helps your body metabolize them much more slowly. However, like mashing, over-boiling can also result in the breaking down of fibre. When boiling, try not to cook them to mushy consistency.

If you really need your mashed taters, opt for mashing yams or sweet potatoes, which have a much lower glycemic index. And reduce the portion a bit too. Any damage control is good damage control.

The secret of resistant starch

Some studies have shown that when you let your potatoes cool down, the high glycemic starches are converted to resistant starch, a type of starch your body can’t digest. That means they pass through your digestive system without being converted to sugar while feeding the healthy bacteria in your gut. Resistant starches have little or no impact on blood sugar, which according to some nutritionists means you can eat as much cooked-then-cooled potato as you want.

As enticing as the resistant starch claims may sound, however, the jury is still out on this one. More research is needed to confirm or disprove its veracity.

I believe nutritionists and diet experts spend too much time these days demonizing foods and coming up with absolute rules about what you should and should never eat. Potatoes have been serving humankind for far too long to just eliminate them from our lives. Despite being high in fast-metabolizing starches, they have a lot to offer in the way of nutrition and in these times of inflation and economic uncertainty remain one of the most affordable foods on the planet. I hope the info and advice above will help you understand a bit better why overdoing your potato consumption can be problematic, and how you can minimize the not-so-savory side of one of humanity’s all-time favorite go-to savory foods.

More about me

I’m Scott Cohen — I run a coaching business called Kitchen Therapy where I help my clients learn to live with type 2 diabetes, obesity and metabolic disorders by learning how to live without them. https://www.kitchen-therapy-coaching.com/about-me

If you like this article and want to know whenever I publish a new one, please follow me on Medium. I will truly appreciate it!

Why Potatoes Might Not Love You As Much As You Love Them was originally published in Low Glycemic Living Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In a perfect world, the goal of food manufacturers is to support and perpetuate human health and longevity of life with quality food products. But we live in an imperfect world where food producers have one goal and one goal only: profit.

This dedication to the bottom line over our health and wellbeing often leads them to questionable behaviours such as lobbying governments and investing huge sums of money for the right to label their packaging in ways that mislead us into believing their products will help us lose weight, are heart healthy or contain high quality ingredients that in reality only appear in tiny, marginal amounts that provide little or no health benefit, or have been stripped of their nutritional value during the production process.

For decades, food manufacturers have been promising that certain food products will lead you to a slimmer waistline. Here are a few of the most notorious ones followed by a good reason or two why you’re better off leaving them on the supermarket shelves.

Without further ado, the 13 foods you thought were weight-loss friendly, but are really making you gain weight.

1. Rice Cakes

Light, airy, fat free and low in calories, rice cakes are portrayed by manufacturers as the perfect diet food. They don’t make you feel full and bloated and appear on the surface of things to be the ideal alternative to bread. However, the truth about rice cakes is a bit different. They’re mostly refined carbohydrates and offer very little in the way of nutrition. The brown rice versions are a bit better, but not by much. Rice cakes come in on the glycemic index at a whopping 85 for 100g. And because they’re so light and crunchy most people feel free to fill themselves up on even larger portions. Like all refined carbs, rice cakes are simply better avoided if your goal is regulating blood sugar and accessing your fat stores for energy.

2. Granola

A tricky one indeed, granola is all over the glycemic index depending on what it’s actually made from. The healthiest versions contain rolled oats, seeds, assorted nuts and negligible amounts of honey. In the best case scenario, granola can be a nutritional powerhouse, providing high percentages of numerous vitamins and minerals. The problem is, if you’re buying commercial granola, it probably has added sugar, puffed grains, unhealthy oils and fats, sugary dried fruits and other hidden, high-glycemic ingredients that make it unsuitable for weight loss. Even in it’s best, homemade form made from whole ingredients and minimum added sugars, granola simply isn’t the best choice for weight-loss and low-glycemic living.

3. Skim Milk

The fat-is-evil frenzy of the 80s and 90s saw a boom in traditionally high-fat foods being sold in low-fat, so-called heart healthy and waistline friendly forms. And skim milk has become one of the stars of that show. Skim milk is whole milk that has been stripped of its fat. It’s true that skim milk contains far fewer calories than whole milk, while it remains a good source of calcium. However, by stripping skim milk of its fat, the omega 3 fatty acids linked to good heart health, reduced inflammation and higher satiety are also removed and replaced with added sugar. The lack of fat and the bump in sugar content results in much faster absorption than when you drink whole fat milk. That means the natural milk sugar, lactose, is very quickly converted into glucose, causing blood sugar spikes that ultimately lead to the accumulation of visceral fat. Moreover, the fat content in whole milk, whilst higher in calories, will fill you up faster causing you to consume less.

The topic of milk and dairy is a loaded one that deserves its own article, but for the purposes of this one, I recommend staying away from skim milk if your goal is losing weight.

4. Reduced Fat, Fat Free and Sugar Free Foods

The same goes for foods labelled Fat-Free, Reduced Fat and Sugar Free. These are nothing more than erroneous, misleading labels food manufactures slap on their packaging to encourage unwitting dieters to buy them. The irony is that these foods are usually worse for weight-loss, blood sugar regulation and overall health than their full-fat cousins. Foods that claim to have reduced fat are loaded with sugars to make them taste good. And foods labelled Sugar Free contain either sugar with unrecognisable pseudonyms that fool you into thinking they have no sugar, or with chemical sweeteners that do far more harm to your health than the sugar they’ve replaced. Moreover, many of the artificial sweeteners in sugar-free foods trigger an insulin response and regular use of them can alter the balance of our gut bacteria and can lead to the very thing we were trying to avoid by not eating sugar: insulin resistance.

5. Pita Bread

Many people trying to lose weight view flat breads like pita as a lighter and friendlier substitute for bread. In some cases this can be partially true. Flour tortillas, particularly the whole grain ones, do indeed have a low glycemic index and can be consumed in moderation by people trying lose weight. Pita bread, unfortunately, is not on that list. Pita comes in on the glycemic index ranging from 68 to 75, depending on the manufacturer. If they’re made from refined white flour, the fact is that they turn into glucose long before your body is able to use them as energy. The good news is that wholegrain pita bread is much better because it has a higher fibre content and metabolises much more slowly. Still, if you’re really trying to lose weight and access your fat stores for energy by keeping blood sugars down, don’t be fooled by the light, low-cal appearance of pita bread.

6. Gluten Free Foods

Many of my weight-loss clients ask me about gluten free products thinking that gluten is the reason they are experiencing weight gain. The truth is that you should avoid gluten if you have a gluten intolerance, celiac disease or other gluten associated medical problems. But if you’re just trying to lose weight, manage blood glucose levels, reverse insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, gluten-free foods are not going to help. Most gluten free products replace wheat flour with corn or other starchy flours that tend to have lower fibre content and are very high on the glycemic index. Gluten free bread for example ranges from 69 to 75 on the glycemic index, making it unsuitable for a low-glycemic diet.

7. Yogurt Drinks

This one makes me flat-out angry. Big food companies touting probiotic yogurt drinks sporting active, ultra-fit women on their packaging promise that millions or even billions of healthy bacteria will magically make your gut happy, slim your waistline and provide you with the new-found energy you’ve been seeking all your life. The truth is that these products are highly processed, pasteurized junk food loaded with sugars, chemicals and artificial flavorings disguised as the miracle answer to all your weight problems. Another example of how Big Food exerts its influence and misleads us into spending far too much money on food that doesn’t contain much food in it at all.

8. Multi-Grain Foods

Over the last thirty or forty years food manufacturers have managed to confuse consumers into believing that ‘multigrain’ is the same thing as ‘wholegrain’ or ‘wholewheat’. The fact of the matter is that multigrain says nothing about the quality of the grains contained within. The term ‘wholegrain’ or ‘wholewheat’ means the products are made from whole grains of wheat that still contain all three components of the grain — the germ, the brand and the endosperm. As a result of the flour being milled completely intact, wholewheat is very high in fibre, extremely nutritious and low-glycemic. Unlike refined white flour which is made only with the endosperm of the grain, wholewheat metabolises slowly and does not trigger dramatic spikes and dips in blood glucose. If you read the packaging on multigrain products, the most common ingredient topping the list is refined white flour. And while it may contain some grains of wholewheat or other cereals, they are often in minuscule quantities or they have also been refined and heavily processed. Moreover, many food manufacturers will add brown coloring to their multigrain products to make them look wholesome, healthy and authentic. If it says wholegrain, read the label carefully and avoid products heavy in white flour. Better yet, avoid wholegrain products completely.

9. Enhanced Water

This relatively new trend of adding aromas and artificial flavors to water and then sweetening it just enough to taste good but not enough to seem as sugary and naughty as soft drinks is the latest attempt by food manufacturers to trick us into thinking a product is healthy. The attractive, modern, packaging with floral patterns and an all-natural vibe reflect not reality but a calculated brand positioning. The truth is that these products contain added sugar or harmful artificial sweeteners that are no more healthy for you than cola, sweetened fruit drinks or other sugary beverages. There’s just no way around the fact that nothing replaces water as the only liquid you really need to drink, especially if you want to lose weight. If you want to flavor your water, add fresh squeezed lemon or lime juice, and whatever garden herbs you fancy. Mint, Melissa or Lavender are among nature’s finest flavor enhancers.

10. Baked Crisps and Chips

Another newish trend in the food business is taking chemically processed snacks like potato chips, crackers, tortilla chips and other salted junk made from refined heavily processed flours, baking them in an oven instead of frying them in a deep fryer and peddling them as ‘healthier’. But if you look on the ingredients list, they almost always contain an unhealthy hydrogenated oil, sugar in one of its many hidden forms, loads of salt and pretty much nothing that would actually benefit a person trying to lose weight, minimize blood sugar spikes and burn fat. Moreover, most of them are made from high glycemic ingredients to begin with and don’t need any more help in the way of being bad for your waistline.

11. Energy Bars

The truth about energy bars is that the only energy many of them provide is in the form of sugar. Energy bars often contain more sugar than cookies, cakes and other sweet snacks. The healthy looking packages with claims like High In Protein or Low Fat are designed to mislead you into thinking they will help you lose weight and get healthy. It’s true that some reputable brands make energy bars that are high in fibre and nutrients while coming in low on the glycemic index. When deciding which energy bar to buy, read the label carefully and avoid ones with fortified nutrients, chocolate coating and sweeteners. Better yet, eat some mixed seeds and nuts, an olive or two and a couple of florets of broccoli the next time you want some added energy.

12. Smoothies

This one is controversial. People love their smoothies and don’t want to hear that they may not be the best breakfast or snack choice if you’re trying to lose weight. The fact of the matter is that while fruit smoothies often contain real fruit, pulverising that fruit into a liquid purée all but strips it of its fibre content and turns what was once a relatively slow metabolising food item into something your body sends straight to the liver to be converted to glucose long before it has a chance to be used as energy. To make matters worse, most people put loads of sugar or honey into their smoothies because the fruit doesn’t provide enough sweetness, or they pour in some kind of liquid base that may contain hidden sugars, GMO or high glycemic ingredients. If you insist on your smoothie and just just can’t live without it, opt for one heavier in veggies, higher-fat ingredients like avocado, nuts or coconut oil and sweetened with a modest amount of lower glycemic fruits like berries or apples.

13. Fruit

Fruit is one of the most misunderstand food sources amongst people who want to lose weight. It’s easy to think that unlimited fruit-eating is okay, because fruit, like vegetables, is a product of nature and therefor can’t be bad. But fruit isn’t called nature’s candy for nothing. Fruit contains the natural monosaccharide fructose which can be tricky for those of us who have developed metabolic issues over the years. Although fructose raises blood sugar less rapidly than glucose, its relationship with the liver can pose problems. Unlike glucose which can be transported to your cells by way of insulin, fructose travels straight to your liver where it’s converted into glucose before your body can use it for energy. Eating too much fructose can indirectly result in insulin resistance, the accumulation of visceral fat and higher blood triglyceride levels. It’s true that fruits are loaded with vitamins and are a great source of fibre. Still, the unchecked consumption of fruit can negate many of those benefits. If you’re trying to lose weight, regulate blood sugar or reverse insulin resistance, it’s best to stay away from high glycemic fruits. Tropical varieties like pineapple, mango or bananas are fairly high on the glycemic index and should be eaten sparsely. Opt for berries, apples, grapefruit or cherries. Always in moderation. And never over do it.

There you have it. The 13 foods you thought we’re helping you lose weight but are actually making you put on more. If you can think of any I missed, I’d love to hear from you. Together we can eat to defeat obesity, type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.

And if you like this article don’t hesitate to follow me on Medium. I’ll be posting more articles like this one sooner than later.

More about me

I’m Scott Cohen — I run a coaching business called Kitchen Therapy where I help my clients learn to live with type 2 diabetes, obesity and metabolic disorders by learning how to live without them. https://www.kitchen-therapy-coaching.com/about-me

If you like this article and want to know whenever I publish a new one, please follow me on Medium. I will truly appreciate it!

13 Foods You Thought Were Weight-Loss Friendly, But Are Actually Making You Gain Weight was originally published in Low Glycemic Living Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.