To most people, eating an occasional fast food meal or drinking a soda once in a while is acceptable. Even eating out regularly would be considered healthy to most.

But how many meals does it take to lead you to good as well as bad health?

More on How Many Meals To Good (or Bad) Health?

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GM: the Most Expensive Cheap Food You’ll Ever Eat

GM (genetically modified) food is cheap. It is grown under conditions that turn lush complex ecosystems once known as “farms” into monoculture (single crop) deserts. The very concept of integrated farming, where one plant or animal uses the waste of another and sustains the first one (or yet another) is meaningless in monoculture. Vast industrial techniques and huge government subsidies make GM food inexpensive and chemical additives keep the prepared and fast foods so easily available cheap, cheap, cheap. More on The Real Cost of GM Foods (You’re Already Eating Them)

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The FDA today announced a risk of salmonella poisoning in cantaloupe imported from Honduras. The risk is highest in small children and older adults with weak or compromised immune symptoms. Even if you’ve eaten contaminated fruit, most with uncompromised immune systems will not feel the effects.

The recommendation is More on How To Reduce Your Risk of Cantaloupe Salmonella Poisoning

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Today I heard about a service called Bistro MD that delivers a ‘gourmet style diet’ to your door and is doctor designed. BistroMD is designed by Dr. Caroline Cederquist M.D. , a Bariatric Physician and contributing Medical Editor to the NBC Today Show.

More on Do Services Like Bistro MD Help Lose Weight?

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In recent years, health care officials have been associating the effects of mercury poisoning to not only neurological disorders, but to other diseases as well.

More on Mercury Poisoning on the Rise, More Disease

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One of the few purely ‘whole food’ companies in the market today, WholeFoodFarmacy, has been granted Organic Certification on three of their popular foods, Phi Plus, Cranberry Phi and Coco Cherry Phi.

Organic certification means that all ingredients are sourced from foods that are grown naturally and free of pesticides and chemicals.

WholeFoodFarmacy is a great example of how food companies can encourage healthy living habits and provide products that support their vision. The company believes strongly in the benefits of whole foods and only supplies products that are minimally handled and contain only whole food vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, herbs, spices and natural grains. Here’s a little more directly from their mission statement:

“The ingredients to health, happiness, vitality, and longevity are no secret. Every major non-profit health organization in the world has been offering the same advice for many years. Eat more fruits and veggies, drink more water, exercise on a daily basis, lose weight if you need to, don’t smoke, avoid toxins, & reduce stress.

To that end, we have combined delicious, healthy foods, with convenience and affordability. Our salon quality personal care items offer superior results without the toxic chemicals.

Nothing short of a consumer based, grass roots return to healthy choices and lifestyles can steer our children, and future generations, in a healthier direction.”

They plan to continue the Organic Certification of the balance of their products and provide only the best foods available.

Personally, my family enjoys the foods and many of the natural personal care products. In fact, one of their 13 day programs, the Tri-Decathlon, helped many family members, friends and readers lose excess weight, regain their health and their tastes for a more natural, whole food diet. I often recommend these programs to those looking to make an improvement in their health, be it losing weight, overcoming a health issue or just wanting to improve their diet.

The reason these foods work is because you eat only whole foods for the 7 or 13 days and your body regains its natural taste for fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and natural grains. They are conveniently packaged and the program is easy to follow (eat as much as you want!). Once you lose the ‘addiction’ to the Standard American Diet (SAD) of fats, clogging dairy products, heart un-healthy meats and processed and junk foods that a majority of Americans (and now becoming the world) eat, you regain your body’s natural taste for what nature intended. You start eating more fresh fruits and vegetables in combination with the WholeFoodFarmacy foods and snacks. In this way, changing your habits is much easier since you are not fighting with the taste addictions (cravings) that cripple many diet efforts and makes it much easier to regain your health, your optimal weight and just feel better all around. The foods are convenient, mostly uncooked, tasty and made from all natural whole foods, nothing else.

And regardless of the fact the New Year is upon us when many of us look to make healthier choices, any time is a great time to take back your health, your body and continue a path to your best health for life. You only have one, why wait?

Visit the WholeFoodFarmacy for more information.

To your best health!

Mark Idzik

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If we keep doing what we’re doing, 75% of Americans will be overweight and 41% obese by 2015, being fat will be the norm. That’s up from 66% of Americans overweight or obese from the latest statistics.

This report comes from More on Will You Be One of the 75% Overweight in 2015?

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I was curious about how many calories I ate the other day after I noticed an article that mentioned the average American often consumes between 5000-6000 calories during a holiday meal. 5000-6000 calories!? For the average person that’s more than double their recommended intake for an entire day. And normally most folks don’t exercise on those holiday days, so the impact is even more drastic.

Do you know the nutritional value of what you eat every day?

From my research and conversations I have regularly, most of us don’t.

So I used my trusty Fitday calorie counter and nutrition software that calculates the nutritional information and in the foods you eat and gives you the breakdown of calories, proteins, fats and carbs you’ve eaten that day. It told me I had eaten 1879 calories that day, with 17% from fat, 10% from protein and 73% from carbohydrates, a little less than normal. Here’s a snapshot of the summary:

So what did I eat to reach almost 2000 calories this day? Here’s a snapshot:

If the image isn’t clear, here’s what I had this day:

• 2 mango and banana smoothies with dates and oranges
• Large herb salad with parsley, cilantro, kale, spinach, green onions, avocado, raw honey & tomatoes
• Large bowl of applesauce with dates, sea salt and a touch of raw coconut oil
• all home made, fresh and organic

And that’s it! Doesn’t seem like about 2000 calories, does it?

The software also keeps track of your weight, activity, goals, metabolism, calendar and gives you nice reports that can help you stay on track, especially when you’re on a weight loss plan. There is also a web-based version, and I use both, but find the FitDay software version faster, easier to use and has many more features and reports that I like.

Do I use this every day?

No, and I you don’t have to either. (unless you’d like to of course)

Here’s what I do, and recommend. Use it daily for a few weeks or more to find out the calorie and fat breakdowns in the foods you regularly eat. Play around with several variations of your daily diet to see how you can change it to reach your goals.

Calorie requirements vary from person to person, although on average they should run between 2000 and 2500 a day. You’ll want to keep your fat percentage intake between 10-20% of your daily caloric intake and your proteins around 10%. The balance of between 70-80% would be your carbohydrates. Not processed, complex carbs like pasta, breads, pastries or muffins, but simple carbs like fresh fruits and vegetables. This has been found to be the optimal all around ratio for your best health and optimal weight. Of course, you’ll find variations, but in my research and personal experience, it works very well.

After you get used to seeing the nutrition values of what you eat and what changes you’d like to make, you can go back regularly and run the statistics to see if you’re on track. You may want to use it every day to keep a journal of your progress as well, it’s a great way to keep yourself motivated and realistic.

It’s amazing what happens when you see the values of what you eat, make changes and how you feel afterwards because you literally are what you eat. It’s almost magical… you gain more energy, get clearer, happier and just feel better overall.

You can find the Fitday software here

To your best health!

Mark Idzik

> Calorie Counter

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New research is now showing that eliminating processed foods from your diet, especially your children’s diet, will help avoid liver disease. The disease, normally found in adults, has started to be found in children as young as 5-7 years old.

A research study at Children’s Hospital Boston showed that eating processed, high glycemic foods created livers with