In a previous post we discussed how to read the nutrition facts portion of a nutrition label. That information is important for making sure that you are staying within your correct macronutrient balance as detailed in your DNA diet. It’s also important for measuring how many calories you are consuming throughout the day. While the nutrition facts give a nice overview of what is in a single serving of packaged food, the ingredients give you the gritty details. The list of ingredients goes in order from most abundant to least abundant. Specific amounts are not listed.

The ingredient list provides valuable information, but it’s important to realize its limitations. For example, a common ingredient listed for meat products is beef. Cows have lots of parts used for meat and are raised in a variety of different ways. So while the ingredient list may just say beef, we don’t know what part of the cow that beef came from or whether or not the cow was injected with hormones and antibiotics while it was growing. GenoVive uses only antibiotic and hormone free beef in its home delivered meals, but it would be almost impossible to find this information on your average nutrition label in the grocery store.

Ingredient lists are also infamous for including a lot of strange chemicals that most people aren’t really familiar with. Chemical compounds are found in almost all packaged foods. Just because you can’t recognize the name of a certain compound doesn’t mean it is bad for you. For example, some people may not be familiar with folic acid (an ingredient found in GenoVive’s Vegetable Minestrone), which is also known as Vitamin B9. This compound is essential for bodily functions, especially the synthesizing and repairing of DNA. If you are not familiar with a certain compound in the food you are eating, look it up. You may be pleasantly surprised or learn something new.

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All packaged food products sold in the United States are required to have a nutrition label by law, but many people do not know how to interpret the information on this label accurately. There are two main components of a nutrition label: nutrition facts and ingredients. Today’s blog will detail some of the information you will be able to discover in the nutrition facts section.

Serving Size – Pay attention to this closely. This is the weight or volume of a single serving inside a package that may contain multiple servings. Some people mistake the calories and macronutrients listed as a measurement for the whole package. This is rarely the case when it comes to most products from the grocery store. Meals and snacks from GenoVive contain only one serving, making them easy to understand. The following information on a label pertains to amounts that are in only one serving.

Calories – This is a measure of energy per serving. Keeping track of these throughout the day is helpful while you’re watching your weight.

Total Fat – This section lists total fat but also has subsections for saturated fat, monounsaturated fats and trans fat, depending on what the package contains. The percentage of the daily recommended value will also be listed on the right, as it will for all these sections. While you’re on GenoVive’s all-natural meal program which is customized for your DNA, the amount of fat in your program may differ from these recommendations which are general and not based on individual needs. Each gram of fat has 9 calories.

Sodium – Many people can have serious problems with excess sodium intake and there are different schools of thought from leading health organizations about the correct sodium levels. It’s best to consult with your doctor to determine how much salt in your diet is healthy.

Total Carbohydrates  and Fiber– As with fat, carbohydrates will have subsections with dietary fiber and sugar. Your GenoVive meal program contains 20-24 grams of fiber each day. Your intake of sugar should be limited as much as possible, but is fine in moderation. Carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram.

Protein – Great for maintaining and building muscle, protein is an essential macronutrient while dieting. As with the other macronutrients, the percentage of protein you need on your DNA diet will depend on your metabolic needs according to your genetic profile detailed in your GenoVive Weight Management Genetic Profile Report.

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Sugar used to be relegated to only special treats and special occasions. It was there for celebrations, for times when a certain food needed a certain kick or character beyond the ordinary. Things have changed with modern agriculture as sugar has invaded almost every aspect of food production. Look at any food label in the grocery store today and examine the ingredients. More likely than not, you will see sugar or its corn derived brother High Fructose Corn Syrup in nearly every packaged food available. The reason why this has happened is complicated and multi-faceted, but the results have been devastating to the health of a nation.

Excess sugar takes on many shapes and disguises in foods throughout the grocery store. Items like candy bars, donuts and ice cream are an obvious source of sugar that most people on diets avoid consciously because they often contain a lot of fat. Items like regular soda, fruit juice and fruit snacks also contain a lot of sugar. Their health effects may not be readily apparent to the uneducated because they are just “liquids” or because they have fruit in the name. Other sugar loaded items are even more devious. Many seemingly unsweetened items like frozen dinners, breaded chicken breasts and bread contain HFCS in order to enhance the flavor of poor quality products. It’s important to pay close attention to labels on foods in order to avoid excess sugar in a diet.

Actually finding items at the store that are low in sugar and HFCS is a challenge all in its own, which is why trying to buy food at the supermarket may not be the best option for finding healthy foods on a diet. A superior option may be to eat through a home delivered meal program like the one offered through GenoVive’s DNA diet. All-natural home meals delivered from GenoVive give you just the right amount of calories, fat, carbohydrates, protein and other nutrients that your body needs for staying healthy and losing weight at the same time. There’s no need to worry about your food being laced with tons of excess sugar and HFCS.

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Dessert is one of the most enjoyable parts of life when it comes to eating. During the age of mercantilism in Europe, sweet imports like chocolate and sugar from South America and the Caribbean were some of the most expensive items you could find. Explorers and merchants would traverse huge oceans and combat natives to gain access to value crops and spices to bring back to their royalty and the wealthy elite. Nowadays, any person on the street can buy an ice cream cone or hot chocolate, letting all of us partake in the pleasures of delicious desserts.

With this wide availability of high calorie treats comes a cost. Many of the most popular desserts of our day are loaded with tons of fat and calories: ice cream, milk shakes, pies and cake with frosting. These types of items are ubiquitous in parties, weddings and tons of other celebrations, making them hard to avoid for people who find themselves at these types of functions often. It may sometimes feel like these high calorie treats are the only type of dessert available.  This is simply not the truth.

Cultures that do not have ready access to refined sugar or dairy products don’t have the option of making things like ice cream or milk shakes.  In many parts of the world, fruit is considered a dessert. Fruit has the benefit of being both very sweet but also relatively low calorie. Many Americans have become desensitized to the presence of sugar in their food and therefore don’t find fruit to be very delectable, but for those of us on a DNA diet that has reduced sugar levels, fruit can be quite the treat. GenoVive’s DNA diet also offers lots of snacks and dessert like items that are both healthy and low in calories like frappes, chocolate chip cookie bars, double chocolate brownie bars and cherry cashew bars.

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The word natural is thrown all over the place when it comes to food products, but not all foods labeled as being natural are created equally.  You may have seen some of these items in the super market. The label says natural but when you look at the ingredient list you see a bunch of chemicals and additives that you know are anything but natural. So why do food companies mislead customers into thinking their foods are all-natural when they aren’t? One reason is because they can. Two is because most customers know that all-natural foods are better for them so they will more likely buy their product.

Before going ahead and showing how GenoVive’s home delivered meals are truly all natural, we’d like to describe what natural actually means.  When it comes to food, natural should mean that the ingredients should come directly from nature with as little processing as possible. Food should contain whole grains, fruits and vegetables that are grown with few if any chemicals. The meat in your food should also be all natural, meaning that the animals grown for meat should not be treated with hormones and antibiotics.

The meals in GenoVive’s DNA diet are focused on being all-natural and healthy. Carbohydrate sources come from fruits, vegetables and whole grains that are rich in prebiotics that help stimulate a healthy and active digestive system. Our meals made with meat come from animals that are not treated with hormones and antibiotics. The impact these kinds of natural foods have on a diet are enormous, as the body reacts to natural foods much better than it does to foods laced with hormones and chemicals. A DNA diet is not just about losing weight, but keeping your body in a healthy condition with foods it was evolved to eat straight from nature.

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We live in a rather difficult time for eating healthy. Food advertising is one of the biggest industries on the planet. Ads for unhealthy food are all over television, radio, magazines and the internet. Nearly every food company out there is trying to sell you their greasy burgers or high calories starches. The presence of this advertising can feel overwhelming at times. Every time you walk in a store, turn on the television or even drive to work, you are likely to be barraged by a constant presence of unhealthy food advertising.

Food advertising works by appealing to the very ideals and conditions that their foods will ultimately sabotage. This includes having thin models eating cheeseburgers, surfers and athletes shoveling down French fries and happy groups of friends and lovers eating high sugar candy. The advertising tries to build psychological connections between emotional pleasure and eating high calorie products. It’s no surprise why so many of us have become emotional eaters. Half the battle of combating this advertising is to know that they are doing it in the first place.

Ignoring the messaging of major food companies is a psychological battle that starts with knowledge. Knowing the kind of foods you should be eating and in what proportions will help you realize the dangers of mass marketed foods and provide you with the motivation to avoid them. Joining a home delivered meal program like the one offered through GenoVive’s DNA diet will help you stick to meals that will help you lose weight rather than navigate the minefield of commercial food products.

It’s 1 am, you can’t get back to sleep, and it’s been six hours since your last meal. Your stomach is starting to rumble. Visions of ice cream, leftover pasta and sleeves of cookies twirl through your head. It’s time for late night snacking, the seemingly unavoidable urge to get up late and mindlessly grab whatever looks good. As you shovel the food down standing next to the refrigerator, you barely realize what you’re doing in your late night mental fogginess. By morning you are hungry again, and the extra calories have been absorbed into your system forever.

Late night snacking is a frustrating experience. We sometimes wake up late in the night and find ourselves being hungry, but eating late at night doesn’t fit in with our calorie limits for the day. It would be ideal to just ignore the cravings and go back to sleep, but if that is not possible, it is best to try to limit the damage of late night snacking as much as possible.

There are a few good ways to do this.  Be sure to eat enough calories during the day.  Your GenoVive meal program may  contain between 1300 and 1900 calories per day broken into 5 smaller sized meals and snacks.  With GenoVive, you’re getting 20-24 grams of fiber each day to help keep you feeling satisfied, so you should also drink plenty of water which will help with snack cravings. The second is to have healthy low calorie snack foods available only. Good choices for this are snack able vegetables like carrots and celery along with yogurt, cottage cheese and a variety of snacks that come with your home delivered meal program through Genovive.

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Breakfast is a great opportunity to get lots of healthy and natural foods in a diet. This is because breakfast is usually eaten at home, so there are very few limitations on choices that places like convenience stores and fast food establishments have. Ingredients like eggs, yogurt and cottage cheese are high in protein and can be prepared in a variety of different ways. Fruits and whole grains are a great source for healthy carbohydrates and essential vitamins and minerals.

Many people say that they don't have time to prepare breakfast for themselves in the morning, and use this as an excuse to either not eat or eat something unhealthy. The reality is that most breakfasts take very little time to make. Yogurt can be prepared almost instantaneously, as can cottage cheese with fruit. Most preparations of eggs take less than five minutes and toasted a healthy piece of whole wheat bread. The breakfasts provided with the Genovive home delivered meal program are nutritious, healthy and ready to go.

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There are some foods that you can eat straight from the grocery store that provide some of the same health effects that supplements do; these foods are often known as super foods. Super foods contain high amounts of nutrients, vitamins and minerals that allow for a healthy body and may assist you in losing weight. These items are not expensive luxury foods, but things you can find nearly every day in most supermarkets. These super foods include beans, broccoli, oranges, spinach and yogurt.

Blueberries in particular are known as an Antioxidant super food. Packed with antioxidants and phytoflavinoids, blueberries are high in potassium and vitamin C, making them a wonderful choice for people looking to add beneficial vitamins to their diet. When selecting berries, note that the darker they are, the more anti-oxidants they have.  A half a cup a day is a good amount to see positive effects, and frozen berries can be just as good as the fresh ones. Be sure to include lots of other fruits and vegetables in your diet as well and follow the daily guidelines of your GenoVive Customized Meal Program. Remember too that, in general, the more color they have, the more antioxidants.

There are several other groups of super foods to look out for as well. Items that are high in fiber can have wonderful effects on dieting. Fiber makes you feel full for longer and can lower blood sugar levels. You can find fiber in a variety of foods like whole grains, beans, fruit and vegetables.

Omega 3’s are also something to look out for. These fatty acids can be found in cold water fish, preferably wild, like salmon, herring, sardines and mackerel. They can also be found fortified eggs, flax seed and walnuts. Omega 3’s are said to be good for the heart because they help lower cholesterol.  Accessibility and taste can be factors that prevent many people from getting enough fish in their diet.  That’s why GenoVive includes a high quality food sourced (from calamari) Omega3 supplement along with each monthly supply of the Customized Meal Program.

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Humans and animals have been eating fruit long before the invention of modern agriculture brought about the food culture we have today. In fact, plants evolved over millions of years to bear edible fruit so that animals would distribute their seeds when they ate it. This symbiotic relationship has great value for both animals and plants. Animals get to sustain themselves and plants get the benefit of having their seeds spread over a much wider area than they would ever be able to on their own.

Thankfully, fruits are not only delicious but healthy too. If you have a sweet tooth and you haven’t been able to think of a good solution to satisfy it, then consider adding more fruit to your diet.  Fruits are full of natural sugars, vitamins and fiber. When choosing what type of fruit to eat, it’s best to keep your individual metabolic needs in mind.  For example, if your Weight Management Genetic Profile report indicates a Carbohydrate Optimized program for you, then select fruits with a low to moderate amount of carbohydrates such as: strawberries, blueberries, apples, nectarines, papaya, peaches, cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelon.

Selecting new fruits to try can be fun.  Visit a farmers market and discover the various treats that local farmers are selling. You may be surprised to find out what kind of fruit is being grown right next door to you.  Incorporating local fruit into your weight loss plan is not only a great way to help you successfully lose weight, but it also helps the local community. Buying fruit you are not really familiar with will also give you lots of ideas for new dishes you can cook at home.

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