A Shocking Breakdown of a Fast Food Meal:
By Mike Geary

I wanted to show you a surprising breakdown of a typical fast food meal that MOST people don’t realize…

Here goes… Did you realize that when you eat a typical meal at a Fast Food joint, that you are basically eating almost entirely CORN (genetically modified corn too) … and no, there is really NOTHING healthy about eating almost all of your calories from corn!

Let me explain…

Let’s think about the typical fast food meal that somebody gets at a corner fast food joint… that common meal would be:

a cheeseburger
a side of fries
a soft drink (usually soda)

Surprisingly most people don’t realize they are taking in about 90-95% of their calories essentially from CORN when they eat this kind of fast food meal (can we really call it a “meal”). The other calories come from wheat and soy derivatives mostly… certainly nothing healthy there either!  Let’s break it down…

The soda or other soft drink obtains 100% of it’s calories from a corn derivative — high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

The cheeseburger contains beef from a factory farm feedlot where the cattle ate almost entirely corn… also the cheese comes from milk from unhealthy corn-fed cows from factory farm feedlots… between the beef and the cheese, almost all of your calories are originally derived from corn, but just transformed in a way.

The bun on the burger contains corn derivatives including HFCS. The rest of the calories in the bun come from refined wheat flour and possibly a small amount of soybean oil.  Basically, almost 100% of the calories from the burger come from corn, soy, and wheat.

Now comes the fries…

Most of the calories in the fries come from the oil that’s soaked into them from deep frying in either corn oil or soybean oil (hydrogenated usually).  NOT good!

So basically, the ONLY calories in this typical fast food meal that don’t come from corn, soy, or wheat is the potato portion of the fries… and of course when potatoes are deep fried in oil, they create cancer-causing acrylamides.

You wonder how anybody can eat even one bite of fast food knowing these facts… or maybe they DON’T know these facts…and that’s the problem.

Now you can see how 90-95% of the calories in a typical fast food meal actually come mostly from corn, soy, and wheat derivatives… and certainly NOT healthy versions either!

A few weeks ago, I saw a really entertaining documentary about how CORN has pretty much become the majority of our food supply due to the economics of it.

The documentary was called King Corn, and I’d highly recommend picking the DVD up from Amazon and watching it… highly entertaining, but also pretty scary how we let economics ruin something as important as our food supply.

Another documentary that I think EVERYONE needs to watch is Food Inc.  This is a must see, and after seeing both of these documentaries, your views on what you eat and our horrendous food supply will change.

This is why I make an effort to try to get almost 100% of my food from local farmers markets, health food stores, and a local farmer where I purchase all of my grass-fed meats, farm fresh eggs from free roaming hens, raw grass-fed milk, and tons of produce.

Comments: This is an eye opener to say the least. All I can really say is if you care about your health you need to really find quality food especially if you eat milk, eggs or meat. Unfortunately the worst place to go is your local supermarket with the exception of a few like whole foods. You need to find a farm program where you can get high quality food like free range eggs, chicken and grass fed beef. I’m fortunate to have a few quality sources here in Brooklyn NY like The Traditional Nutrition Guild as well as the Saturday farmers market here in Williamsburg Brooklyn.

Virgil Aponte

Note: This article was written by fitness and nutrition author Mike Geary. I have his permission to share it with you.

I’m writing this newsletter while on a business trip in beautiful Vancouver, BC… what a great city!  This is my first time in Vancouver and I’ve really loved this city and the friendly people so far.

I just returned from an amazing lunch with friends a few hours ago at a Raw Foods restaurant here called Organic Lives — on Quebec Street. If you ever visit here, or live near here currently, definitely check this place out!

We sampled all kinds of different amazing dishes that were all completely raw. Some of them used hemp protein, brazil nut protein, or almonds as the source of protein.

For example, we had a raw lasagna that was made completely with vegetables instead of wheat pasta, and used some sort of brazil nut protein as the meat substitute.  Although I love traditional lasagna as a good cheat meal, I have to admit that this raw food lasagna was pretty tasty.

We also had almond cakes, smoothies with fruits, coconut milk, and hemp protein, as well as about 10 other tasty items that we all shared and tasted.

We finished the meal with some fresh papaya (good source of digestive enzymes) as well as a shooter of some sort of blue-green algae shake, which was shockingly tasty.

Nothing at the restaurant used any refined sweeteners or any artificial ingredients.  Everything was organic too.  Also, I don’t think anything contained any wheat either, at least for what we ordered (but I didn’t confirm that with the owner).

But what’s the real deal with the raw food hype that you hear about in certain circles

Well, here’s my take on it…

First, I’ve noticed that there seems to be a group of people out there that tend to be a little overly “extreme” raw foodists, where they preach that we shouldn’t eat any cooked foods at all.

Now don’t get me wrong…I think there are HUGE benefits to trying to make a large portion of your diet raw food.  However, I think we have to acknowledge that eating cooked foods as a portion of your food intake can still be healthy, and even beneficial.

For example, certain nutrients in certain vegetables are actually more easily assimilated when those vegetables are cooked.

While some vitamins may be diminished or destroyed while cooking, some vitamins are actually made more available to the body. One example is the antioxidant lycopene, which is made much more highly available to the body in cooked tomatoes vs raw tomatoes.

That’s why eating a portion of your vegetables raw has benefits, but also eating a portion of your vegetables cooked can also have benefits.

Plus, we also have to realize that the human digestive system has evolved over tens of thousands of years eating a portion of food as cooked…let’s face it, our ancestors DID cook a portion of their food using fire or hot water.

So my big picture take on this subject is that while there are definitely great benefits to raw food and I believe should be included as a good portion of a healthy diet, I think they can be balanced with also eating cooked foods too.

I don’t see any reason to be an “extremist” in terms of only eating raw foods and never even touching cooked foods.

Another aspect we haven’t covered in the raw food topic is that in some cases, there can also be certain benefits to raw animal products, such as raw milk.  I know that’s controversial and I won’t go into all of that today (more detailed article coming soon)…

One good example is the Samburu tribe in Africa that subsist almost solely on raw cows blood and raw milk and yogurt, while eating very little plant matter…yet they disply extreme health, strength, and lack of disease

The big picture is that the human body can adapt and thrive to almost any type of diet as long as the diet is made up of natural unprocessed foods… processed foods are the one type of food that we cannot thrive on.

If you’ve missed any of these articles, check out this page to see some incredible superfoods that can give you a better body: I’m writing this newsletter while on a business trip in beautiful Vancouver, BC… what a great city!  This is my first time in Vancouver and I’ve really loved this city and the friendly people so far.

I just returned from an amazing lunch with friends a few hours ago at a Raw Foods restaurant here called Organic Lives — on Quebec Street. If you ever visit here, or live near here currently, definitely check this place out!

We sampled all kinds of different amazing dishes that were all completely raw. Some of them used hemp protein, brazil nut protein, or almonds as the source of protein.

For example, we had a raw lasagna that was made completely with vegetables instead of wheat pasta, and used some sort of brazil nut protein as the meat substitute.  Although I love traditional lasagna as a good cheat meal, I have to admit that this raw food lasagna was pretty tasty.

We also had almond cakes, smoothies with fruits, coconut milk, and hemp protein, as well as about 10 other tasty items that we all shared and tasted.

We finished the meal with some fresh papaya (good source of digestive enzymes) as well as a shooter of some sort of blue-green algae shake, which was shockingly tasty.

Nothing at the restaurant used any refined sweeteners or any artificial ingredients.  Everything was organic too.  Also, I don’t think anything contained any wheat either, at least for what we ordered (but I didn’t confirm that with the owner).

But what’s the real deal with the raw food hype that you hear about in certain circles?

Well, here’s my take on it..

First, I’ve noticed that there seems to be a group of people out there that tend to be a little overly “extreme” raw foodists, where they preach that we shouldn’t eat any cooked foods at all.

Now don’t get me wrong…I think there are HUGE benefits to trying to make a large portion of your diet raw food.  However, I think we have to acknowledge that eating cooked foods as a portion of your food intake can still be healthy, and even beneficial.

For example, certain nutrients in certain vegetables are actually more easily assimilated when those vegetables are cooked.

While some vitamins may be diminished or destroyed while cooking, some vitamins are actually made more available to the body. One example is the antioxidant lycopene, which is made much more highly available to the body in cooked tomatoes vs raw tomatoes.

That’s why eating a portion of your vegetables raw has benefits, but also eating a portion of your vegetables cooked can also have benefits.

Plus, we also have to realize that the human digestive system has evolved over tens of thousands of years eating a portion of food as cooked…let’s face it, our ancestors DID cook a portion of their food using fire or hot water.

So my big picture take on this subject is that while there are definitely great benefits to raw food and I believe should be included as a good portion of a healthy diet, I think they can be balanced with also eating cooked foods too.

I don’t see any reason to be an “extremist” in terms of only eating raw foods and never even touching cooked foods.

Another aspect we haven’t covered in the raw food topic is that in some cases, there can also be certain benefits to raw animal products, such as raw milk.  I know that’s controversial and I won’t go into all of that today (more detailed article coming soon)…

One good example is the Samburu tribe in Africa that subsist almost solely on raw cows blood and raw milk and yogurt, while eating very little plant matter…yet they disply extreme health, strength, and lack of disease.

The big picture is that the human body can adapt and thrive to almost any type of diet as long as the diet is made up of natural unprocessed foods… processed foods are the one type of food that we cannot thrive on.

Mike Geary

The Truth About Abs

I had a conversation about this topic with a good friend of mine today and it reminded me of how many other people always have this same question…

The problem is that we’ve established (as you know from the thorough details in my Fat Burning Kitchen ebook) that regular pasteurized/homogenized milk is horrible for you…

We’re talking about the regular milk (no matter whether it’s skim, 2%, or whole) that you get at the grocery store — which is almost ALL from factory farms where the cows are kept in horrendous conditions, poor health, and fed the wrong foods.

Even if you find milk that is “organic” at your grocery store, it still has the problem that the homogenization process renders the fat molecules unhealthy within your body, and the pastuerization destroys beneficial enzymes that help the proper digestion of milk proteins and lactose. But we’ve also established that raw whole milk from grass-fed cows raised in a healthy manner, fed the correct foods, and treated right, is the ONLY source of healthy milk.

And no, despite the propaganda you’ve been fed, raw milk is NOT dangerous… not when it comes from a clean grass-fed farm operation certified to produce raw milk and with healthy cows. I’m living proof of that fact… I’ve been drinking 100′s and 100′s of gallons of raw whole milk for about 7 years now, and never once have gotten sick from it. Nor have any of the families and friends I know that have also been drinking it for years.

Certainly, if raw milk was “dangerous”, we’d all be dead by now or at least have been sick multiple times by now. Nope, not once! But the fact that raw milk is the only healthy milk is a problem for many people because they simply can’t find a farm in their area that supplies raw milk. btw, you can search your area on realmilk.com to see if any farms deliver in your area.

So I’ve come up with a possible healthy alternative if you can’t find raw milk and want a good cows milk alternative…

First of all, stay FAR, FAR away from soymilk! It’s a straight-up junk food.

There’s an entire article on my website dedicated to this topic of why soy is pure junk… http://www.truthaboutabs.com/soy-foods-make-you-fat.html

What about Rice Milk?

No! Way too much sugar and total carbs and almost ZERO protein. If you want to shoot your blood sugar through the roof, rice milk will do the job, and will pack on the blubber just as fast. Here’s the best option I’ve found…

It’s a new “Coconut Milk Beverage” that I’ve seen recently in the grocery stores here in the US. It seems to differ from the “coconut milk” that you see in cans simply that it’s diluted down more than canned coconut milk so that it’s not such a thick coconut cream.

Now as you know from reading my books and newsletters, coconut fat is one of the healthiest fats you can consume… Yes, it’s saturated fat, but research has proven that it is a very healthy form of saturated fat, and is mostly medium chain triglycerides (MCTs) including lauric acid, which supports a strong immune system. The flavored “coconut milk beverages” do have some added sugar, but still only have 9 grams of carbs per 8 oz, which is less than a glass of cow milk. But they also have an unsweetened version, which only has 1 gram of carbs. The only problem is that this “coconut milk beverage” only has 1 gram of protein too.

So here’s my solution…

get a good quality vanilla whey protein (sweetened with stevia instead of typical artificial sweeteners) and mix 3-4 scoops of whey protein into the entire half gallon carton of “coconut milk beverage”… possibly in a blender and then transfer to a new pitcher. Now you have a milk alternative that’s high in healthy fats (MCTs in this case) and also quality protein, with only 1 gram of sugar per 8 oz serving!

I still won’t give up my raw whole cows milk for this (since I do have access to a good raw milk farm)… but this coconut milk mixture would be the only option that I would actually drink if I couldn’t get my good raw milk.

What about almond milk? Actually, I don’t have a problem with this as long as it’s not heavily sweetened with added sugars or artificial sweeteners. I’ve occasionally seen almond milk that is unsweetened and only has 1 gram of sugar per 8oz, just like the coconut milk. I think adding the protein to almond milk would make a great mixture too and make it more balanced as a good healthy milk alternative.

Btw, one of the best whey proteins out there is a cold processed whey protein with ZERO artificial sweeteners from my friends at
http://ProGradeSupplements.net

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist Certified Personal Trainer
Founder TruthAboutAbs.com

My Comments: I share the same experience with Mike when it comes to raw milk. I’ve been drinking it now for over 5 years and get stares from family members & friends when I drink it. My sisters, mother and In -Laws just don’t catch on that I have not dropped dead from drinking Real Unprocessed Raw Milk. They all still drink store bought pasteurized milk because they have been conditioned to believe that it is safe for you. Tis life.  And as Mike wrote it is very easy to find quality raw milk these days if you go through a farm program like I do. I use TNG here in NYC and highly recommend it.

As far as soy, rice and almond milk I’ve never been a fan simply based on the taste.  The same goes for Coconut milk as I’m just not a fan of the taste. I will say that I do love drinking fresh coconut water right from the coconut which is readily available here in NYC year round here in NYC.

Now onto protein powders: I’ll say this first before anything. Food first always wins! Even the best protein powders or supplements are highly processed. They would not come in a pretty packages if this were not true.

However after real food comes convenience and what you can actually implement in real life. This is where supplements shine because they can make for quick snacks and serve as in between bridges to real food.

ProGrade Protein shines here because it tastes great, is not as processed (cold processed) and does not contain artificial sweetners like aspartame ( a big plus) .

I’d love to hear your comments on this topic as it will serve everyone well to know what people do for milk (cow’s, goat’s, soy, rice, almond, coconut etc…)

As I’ve always maintained: What ever works for you is all that matters

As Always

Best In Strength & Health

Virgil Aponte

Before Mike’s Article here’s a quick video from my partners at Pro Grade:
Why are Most Protein Supplements Made with Whey ?

Mike Geary on Whole vs Egg Whites

I was on a weekend trip with some friends recently
and one of my friends was cooking breakfast for the
whole group. I went over to see what he was cooking
and saw he was getting ready to make a big batch of
eggs.

Well, to my shock and horror, I noticed that he was
cracking the eggs open and screening the egg whites
into a bowl and throwing out the egg yolks.

I asked him why the heck he was throwing out the egg
yolks, and he replied…

“because I thought the egg yolks were terrible for you…
that’s where all the nasty fat and cholesterol is”.

And I replied, “you mean that’s where all the nutrition
is!”

This is a perfect example of how confused most people
are about nutrition. In a world full of misinformation,
somehow most people now mistakenly think that the egg
yolk is the worst part of the egg, when in fact, the
YOLK IS THE HEALTHIEST PART OF THE EGG!

By throwing out the yolk and only eating egg whites,
you’re essentially throwing out the most nutrient dense,
antioxidant-rich, vitamin and mineral loaded portion of
the egg. The yolks contain so many B-vitamins, trace
minerals, vitamin A, folate, choline, lutein, and other
powerful nutrients…

It’s not even worth trying to list them all.

In fact, the egg whites are almost devoid of nutrition
compared to the yolk.

Even the protein in egg whites isn’t as powerful without
the yolks to balance out the amino acid profile and make
the protein more bio-available.

Not to even mention that the egg yolks from free range
chickens are loaded with omega-3 fatty acids.

Yolks contain more than 90% of the calcium, iron, phosphorus,
zinc, thiamin, B6, folate, and B12, and panthothenic
acid of the egg. In addition, the yolks contain all of the
fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K in the egg, as well
as all of the essential fatty acids.

And now the common objection I get all the time when I
say that the yolks are the most nutritious part of the egg…

“But I heard that whole eggs will skyrocket my cholesterol
through the roof”

No, this is FALSE!

First of all, when you eat a food that contains a high
amount of dietary cholesterol such as eggs, your body
down-regulates it’s internal production of cholesterol
to balance things out.

On the other hand, if you don’t eat enough cholesterol,
your body simply produces more since cholesterol has tons
of important functions in the body.

And here’s where it gets even more interesting…

There are indications that eating whole eggs actually
raises your good HDL cholesterol to a higher degree
than LDL cholesterol, thereby improving your overall
cholesterol ratio and blood chemistry.

And 3rd… high cholesterol is NOT a disease!  Heart
disease is a disease…but high cholesterol is NOT.

You can read my article article about why trying to
attack cholesterol is a mistake, and what the REAL
deadly risk factors actually are…

http://virgilaponte.com/Truth-About-Abs.html

So I hope we’ve established that whole eggs are not
some evil food that will wreck your body…

Instead whole eggs are FAR superior to egg whites.

Also, your normal supermarket eggs coming from mass
factory farming just don’t compare nutritionally
with organic free range eggs from healthy chickens
that are allowed to roam freely and eat a more natural
diet.

I recently compared eggs I bought at the grocery store
with a batch of eggs I got at a farm stand where the
chickens were free roaming and healthy.

Most people don’t realize that there’s a major difference
because they’ve never bought real eggs from healthy chickens…
The eggs from the grocery store had pale yellow yolks.
On the other hand, the healthier free range eggs had
deep orange colored yolks indicating much higher
nutrition levels and carotenoids.

So next time a health or fitness professional tells
you that egg whites are superior, you can quietly
ignore their advice knowing that you understand the
REAL deal about egg yolks.

One more thing about eggs…

I read a study recently that compared groups of people
that ate egg breakfasts vs groups of people that ate
cereal or bagel based breakfasts.  The results of the
study showed that the egg eaters lost or maintained a
healthier bodyweight, while the cereal/bagel eaters
gained weight.

It was hypothesized that the egg eaters actually ate
less calories during the remainder of the day because
their appetite was more satisfied compared to the
cereal/bagel eaters who would have been more prone
to wild blood sugar swings and food cravings.

My Comments:

I’m in total agreement with Mike here for a few reasons.

First of all whole eggs are the way to go and one the best sources of protein.

Secondly I’m of the opinion that the problems of cholesterol are way over blown.

There’s a ton of info to read about this at Mercola.com.

For some reason most people only listen to the mainstream info that says cholesteral is bad and that you should stay away from it at all cost.

I’d look at both sides and make a decision for yourself.

My own personal research has led me to believe that cholesterol and even saturated fats have their place and not the villains they are made out to be.

Best In Strength & Health

Virgil

Programs I’m Partnered with & Highly Recommend

Complimentary Fitness Tracking Software

Truth About Six Pack Abs

Pro Grade Protein

Order any of these products and

you get the entire NGN Program Free!

http://nogymnecessary.com/

A $97.00 Dollar Value!

Simply email your receipt to: support@virgilaponte.com

4 Foods to NEVER eat by Mike Geary
Two of these foods (or drink) below, I would NEVER eat all, and the other 2, I would only eat in very small quantities.

If you want to stop struggling with bodyfat, and also have superior health, these foods should be minimized or eliminated.

I’ll explain more…

1. Soy

Despite being heavily marketed and promoted as a “health food” by the multi billion dollar soy industry, this food has more drawbacks than it does benefits. In fact, I would label soymilk, isolated soy protein, and tofu as junk foods.

And don’t even get me started on the excess estrogenic compounds in processed soy…

if you want to increase your belly fat, keep pounding down that soymilk and tofu! A small amount unprocessed soy, such as edamame, is not a big deal… especially if it’s organic.

And small amounts of fermented soy such as tempe and miso are ok too (because the fermentation reduces anti-nutrients in soy)…

but try to minimize/eliminate most other forms of soy…

and that includes soybean oil, which is in almost ALL processed foods, commercial salad dressings, etc.

My comments: I personally use soy milk, almond milk & hemp milk from time to time.

I do this sometimes at smoothie bars because no one offers Raw Milk which is my milk of choice.

If it’s at home Raw Milk is the best base for my Protein Shakes.

Best of all is that it’s  not processed at all and only has 1 simple ingredient: Milk!

While Soy, Hemp, Almond Milk etc… is touted as healthy it does have questionable ingredients unless you make it yourself (which some people do by the way).

2. Wheat

Most people don’t realize this, but a large % of the total population has at least some degree of intolerance to digesting wheat… particularly the high gluten content of wheat.

Most people are not full blown Celiacs (who need to avoid wheat entirely), but the majority of people would find improvements to their health and bodyfat by testing eliminating wheat for several weeks, and taking note of how they feel, look, and their measurements.

I know it’s a hard thing to do since a HUGE portion of the modern western diet is made from wheat products, but I’ve found it’s quite easy to do at home once you get used to it.

Dining out is a different story.

Personally, I choose to almost entirely avoid wheat in all of my meals at home.

I only dine out occasionally, or on vacations, so that’s the only time when I eat wheat.

My comments: I fall smack right into this this club and need to avoid wheat as much as I can. Too bad for me that I love bread and I also love penne pasta with pesto sauce! I also love a good steak so I guess things balance out

Most tests I’ve taken show that I am gluten intolerant which is why I have to avoid wheat as much as possible.

I found this out using the ALCAT TEST

You can also simply avoid wheat for a few weeks and see how you feel.

3. Soda or sweetened drinks (including commercial juices)

This is one that I personally choose to NEVER consume!

Even on cheat days, vacations, or dining out, I think this stuff is pure evil enough to never even touch.

If you care about your body at all, there’s just no reason to consume soda in any amount.

It’s pure sugar (or worse, high fructose corn syrup), has ZERO nutrition, and has many other issues related to the additives, acids, etc.

In addition, the consumption of this calorically-dense but nutritionally-absent liquid actually makes your body crave more food, because you consumed calories without consuming any nutrients.

It also spikes your blood sugar out of whack causing wild blood sugar swings and additional cravings.

I’m always amazed how many people tell me that they are desperately trying to lose wt, but yet I see them drinking a soda.

I don’t get it.

4. Anything deep fried (or anything with trans fats)

You would think the entire population should know by now how dangerous consuming trans fats really is… yet people ignore these dangers and scarf down deep fried foods like french fries, corn chips, and donuts every day.

If you study some of the biochemical reactions that take place in the body of humans after consuming trans fats, you would realize this is essentially a poison.

It’s not a poison that’s going to kill you immediately, but it’s a poison that causes inflammation throughout the body, and even detrimentally affects all of your cell membranes (remember from bio101 that your cell membranes need fats for their composition, and trans fats disrupt healthy cell membranes).

I’ve found that if I can get people to view trans fats as the true POISON that they really are, they finally realize the importance of avoiding them ENTIRELY… and to stop poisoning their kids too by allowing them to eat deep fried foods (especially important for kids to avoid trans fats since it can impair development)

Programs I’m Partnered with & Highly Recommend

Complimentary Fitness Tracking Software

Truth About Six Pack Abs

The Fat Burning Kitchen

Pro Grade Supplements

Order any of these products and you get the entire NGN Program Free!

A $97.00 Dollar Value!

Simply email your receipt to support@virgilaponte.com

If there is one free web site you must sign up for it’s Mercola.com

Below is a great article to start out your new year.

Read why you should consider grass fed meats and why I love raw milk and not that pasteurized or chemical laced junk you see in stores.

7 Foods Experts Won’t Eat

Virgil

Let me what you think about this article by posting your comments below

BTW: Mike Geary’s Fat Burning Kitchen is excellent for following the guidelines in Dr. Mercola’s new article.

Programs I’m Partnered with & Highly Recommend

Fat Burning Furnace

The Fat Burning Kitchen

Order any of these products and you get the entire NGN Program Free!

A $97.00 Dollar Value!

Simply email your receipt to support@virgilaponte.com

Truth About Six Pack Abs

Hello again

Here’s another great blog post from fitness expert Mike Geary

One thing I love about Mike are his tips on real food and how to use it for optimal health and fitness.

Now I personally don’t eat fish regularly because I simply don’t like the taste.

For that reason it’s vital that I try to get EFA’s from other sources like grass fed meats and supplements like Pro Grade EFA Icon:

Pro Grade Supplement Holiday Sale: 15% OFF

A tasty fish with MORE omega-3′s than salmon?

About 6 months ago, while I was on a trip in beautiful San Diego (the home of legendary Ron Burgundy), I was at a nice dinner with some friends and tried a type of fish that I had never tried before — sablefish (aka black cod).

I was so blown away at how delicious this fish was, and when I did a little research on the nutritional content of it, I found out that it had very comparable levels of omega-3′s, including EPA and DHA, as wild salmon…. and sablefish is also very rich in dozens of vitamins and minerals.

Sablefish is yet another one of those cold water fatty fish (healthy fats) from the far northern Pacific. Although it’s called “black cod”, supposedly it is technically not part of the cod family. Another bonus is that this particular fish is not being overfished, and populations in the northern pacific are very healthy.

The sablefish is basically a goldmine of nutrition and one of the tastiest types of fish I’ve ever tried… it literally melts in your mouth and has a sweet buttery flavor.

About 2 weeks ago, I found out that one of my friends who runs an online store selling grass-fed meats and wild fish (and other organic snacks too) has sablefish on their item list… you can find it here:

http://tinyurl.com/sablefish-blackcod

So I ordered a bunch of it, and just cooked up my first batch today. All I did was thaw the sablefish and then sautee it in a mixture of grass-fed butter, coconut oil, and a little bit of real maple syrup (and a pinch of salt and pepper)…

It only took about 4-5 minutes to cook and it turned out unbelievable!

Buttery, slightly sweet, and full of nutrition.

This is officially my newest healthy treat of a meal.

When I was ordering the sablefish from the online store, there was a 7.5-lb minimum of total weight to complete the order (since they ship you a sealed cooler, so it needs sufficient quantity to make shipping possible), so I ended up loading up on some grassfed beef and some other things…

But what shocked me was that I found that they also have this incredible healthy ice cream that’s made out of coconut cream, cashew cream, and a bunch of other organic ingredients…

http://tinyurl.com/health-ice-cream

To be honest, about 2 years ago, I was looking into producing my own version of healthy ice cream, but when I talked to a couple companies that would have done the manufacturing, I decided that I just didn’t want the hassle of trying to run a company that produced a product like ice cream.

So I was sort of shocked to find that this healthy ice cream I found had a very similar list of ingredients that I was planning on using. I ended up trying the cappuccino ice cream and the chocolate ice cream, and they are absolutely delicious!

They don’t use any refined sugar in the ingredients, but keep in mind that they still have sugar calories from the agave nectar that’s used to sweeten it, so this is not necessarily a low-cal dessert… it’s just non-dairy and uses all organic ingredients, including the cashew cream and coconut cream.

Next time I may just try their Goji berry ice cream too.

All of the varieties are here:

http://tinyurl.com/health-ice-cream

again, if you’re ordering from this store, you’ll want to shop around for some grassfed meats and wild fish too since you can only order with a total weight order of 7.5 lbs (to make the shipping worthwhile for them).

I hope you enjoy these delicious healthy treats I found!

I’m definitely putting that tasty buttery sablefish on my menu a couple times a month from here on out for sure.

Programs I’m Proudly Partnered with & Highly Recommend

Body Weight Fat Loss Blue Print

Truth About Six Pack Abs

The Fat Burning Kitchen

Pro Grade Supplements: 15% OFF

Order any of these products and you get the entire NGN Program Free!

A $59.95 Dollar Value!

NGN Workout Guide

NGN Get Fit Anywhere Body Weight Series Videos

The NGN Stairs Secret Videos

The NGN Walking Secret Video

The NGN Running Secret Video Plus 6 Bonuses

Simply email your receipt to support@virgilaponte.com

As Always

My Best To You

In Strength, Happiness & Health

Virgil Aponte

Truth About Six Pack Abs:

[ Note: This article was written by fitness and nutrition author Mike Geary.I have his permission to share it with you. ]

This is pretty simple but it’s a super-healthy late night snack I’ve been using lately…

If it’s something you like, give it a try as it can definitely help to reduce cravings and control your appetite, while giving your body the nutrition it needs.

Basically, what I do is make my own mixture of raw almond butter mixed with raw pecan butter (I get both of these at a local health food store, or at Whole Foods).

I mix the 2 nut butters together in a tupperware container, and also mix in a hefty dose of cinnamon (a super-antioxidant), a touch of real maple syrup just to give it a hint of sweetness (or a little stevia), and a couple scoops of an extra fiber source (I’ve used rice bran, which adds a little nutty crunchy texture that I like).

Make sure the almond butter and pecan butter is at room temperature so that it’s easy to mix and stir.

I just mix these ingredients together well in the container, throw it in the fridge, and then each night when I feel the need for a little snack, I just take a couple spoonfuls of this tasty mix and it instantly satisfies my appetite.

You get tons of nutrition without boatloads of calories… and a good source of protein and healthy fats with a decent shot of fiber too.

Plus, it’s pretty delicious, and blows away plain old boring peanut butter any day!

Give it a shot as long as almonds and pecans are not an allergy for you.

Enjoy!

** New article: Your Consumption Of Omega 6 Fatty Acids May Increase Your Risk of Inflammatory Diseases

This is a new article and short video by Registered Dietician Jayson Hunter about the excess of Omega-6 fats that most people consume and health dangers…

http://progradesupplements.net/Omega-6-fatty-acids-and-chronic-inflammation.html

Virgil Aponte

Monthly Phone Coaching Now Available !

[ Note: This article was written by fitness and nutrition author Mike Geary.I have his permission to share it with you. ]

Although I always try to do my best with nutrition (probably 95% compliance), I’ve admitted before that I’m not perfect. Heck, nobody’s perfect. And last week was an example… I went on vacation with about 10 of my buddies last week… one of those tropical party vacations if you know what I mean. So obviously, there was a good deal of drinking and eating just about anything and everything going on during the entire vacation. I gained 8 lbs in 1 week! I honestly don’t think I’ve eaten a single hot dog in about 5 or 6 years… but one night after a long night out with the guys, we came back and I threw down 3 hot dogs in one sitting. In retrospect, that was nasty… but at 3am, with nothing else in our vacation house for food, I gave in, and found myself stuffing my face with something I usually view as disgusting food. But I knew this all would happen… as a matter of fact, I don’t stress about going on vacations like that and knowing that I’m going to gain weight, because I know that I have 100% control over my body and can lose it again in a snap. And true to form, in just 7 days since returning from vacation, I’ve already lost the 8 lbs that I gained on vacation. But I’ve done this for years now, and have learned how to fully be in control of my weight at any time. I know that once I return home and return to my extremely healthy nutrition and hardcore training program, I’ll be back in top shape within a week or two.

That’s a great example of how if you eat 95% of the time like we teach in our Fat Burning Kitchen program —- that you end up getting total control over your cravings, appetite, and ability to stay as lean as you want at any given time.

So now that I’m back to my normal healthy nutrition ways, I’m going to show you some of my typical meals below. Being in the position I’m in as a nutrition author and fitness professional, almost everywhere I go I get questions about nutrition, and most of the time, people want to hear ACTUAL examples of what I eat on a daily basis to stay super lean. So instead of talking about more theory, here’s an example of exactly what I ate yesterday (keep in mind this is not a prescription, because everyone has different food intolerances and allergies, but it’s just my personal example of how I keep it healthy). As you look at my typical daily meals, take notice that I do eat some carbs, but I don’t eat any breads or pasta at all (except maybe on cheat days).

Essentially, I get almost all of my carbs from fruits, lots of veggies, and the little bit of raw honey that I use in my daily teas.

Breakfast today - 9am: 3 whole eggs scrambled with TONS of veggies (onions, mushrooms, peppers, diced squash, and chopped spinach) 1 large chicken sausage (organic free range chicken with NO nitrates, nitrites, or preservatives… only chicken and spices) Half of a red grapefruit 1 large cup of yerba mate/green/mint tea (this is my new favorite tea I found at Whole Foods… it’s a mix of yerba mate, green tea, and mint tea, and it’s freakin amazing!)

Lunch – noon: 1 cup yogurt mixed with 1/2 cup cottage cheese (both from grass-fed cows) combined with pecans, almonds, frozen goji berries, and frozen blueberries. A little bit of stevia and cinnamon for sweetness and extra flavor.

Mid afternoon snack - 3pm: 1 large organic apple sliced up with almond butter on each slice. Super high intensity weight training workout from 5-6pm Post workout shake/meal – 6:15pm: my typical blender mix of raw grass-fed milk, a chopped up frozen banana, a couple tablespoons of real maple syrup, and 2 heaping tablespoons of organic cocoa powder. Plus I throw a scoop of whey protein into the blender too (I’ll explain below a good source of “cold processed” whey protein since so many types on the market have been destroyed through heat processing).

Dinner - 9pm: My “Italian blend” recipe — This is basically a spaghetti and meatsauce meal but without the spaghetti, and tons of veggies instead. I use grass-fed bison sausages (again, no nitrates, nitrites, or preservatives of any kind…just grass-fed bison and spices) — fyi – you can find good quality grass-fed meats and sausages at this site: http://healthygrassfed.2ya.com …and then I use a huge cooking dish on the stove to mix in any and every type of vegetable I can find in my fridge (zucchini, onions, garlic, shrooms, snow peas, peppers, asparagus…and whatever else I have laying around). I mix the grass-fed bison sausage and sauteed veggies with a tomato sauce and some extra virgin olive oil. Top the whole thing with some fresh grated parmesan cheese and you’ve got a super-nutritious dinner with high nutrient density and no pasta (which would just pack on the lbs). I also had a delicious side-salad of arugula, diced yellow peppers, and half of a small avocado.

Late night snack – midnight: A handful of pistachio nuts and a cup of chamomile tea So that is just 1 example of how a typical day might look for me. I mix it up and eat a variety of other things as well, but these are some pretty frequent meals that I use to stay super lean, but maintain muscle.

**The problem with Whey protein that I mentioned… As you can see, in my post-workout shake, I mention how there’s a problem with most whey proteins on the market and that is due to destruction of much of the fragile proteins and amino acids from the heat in processing cheap whey powders… the type of normal crappy whey proteins you would find at your local store. Well, after about 9 months of hounding my buddies that own Prograde nutrition, they FINALLY listened to me and created a whey protein that contains NO ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS, and also is made with COLD-PROCESSED whey. I told them 9 months ago that I REFUSED to recommend their proteins that they had previously to my readers because they used artificial sweeteners… not only did they finally get rid of the artificial sweeteners and use stevia instead, but they also used a cold-processed whey in this new protein below.

FYI – they just launched this new protein: http://progradesupplements.net/protein-powder.html

Check it out!

Virgil Aponte

Monthly Phone Coaching Now Available !

I threw a couple things together really to just get a quick snack to satisfy my appetite, but I turned out LOVING this little fat-blasting recipe!

What I did was throw about 1 tbsp of virgin coconut oil in a skillet and started heating it. Then I sliced up an apple and diced the apple into cubes and threw it into the coconut oil to soften up in the skillet.

Then I just added some cinnamon to the mix and threw in a handful of chopped pecans and some organic raisins and tossed the mixture around in the pan for about a minute to let everything soften up.

After that, I cracked open 1 whole egg and dropped the egg into the mix and quickly scrambled it around to mix into the apple, nuts, and raisins. I really only added the egg because I wanted to get a little extra protein and healthy fats, but it turned out to be a great addition to this recipe!

After about 30 more seconds of scrambling the mix around, the egg had cooked a bit, and the apples and raisins were soft, and it was ready.

I gotta tell ya… this was an incredible (and healthy) snack! It really satisfied my appetite and only took about 2-3 minutes to make.

I loved it so much that I ended up making this as my mid-day “mid-meal” almost every day last week between lunch and dinner.

Hope you enjoy it if you give it a try!

Just to recap, this was all that was involved in this healthy snack:

1 egg
1 apple
1 handful of chopped pecans
a small handful of organic raisins
a hefty sprinkle of cinnamon
1 tbsp of virgin coconut oil (healthy fat source)

Since the release of our new program (The Fat Burning Kitchen) that I coauthored with Catherine Ebeling a few weeks ago, we’ve been getting a lot of feedback from people saying that since implementing our nutrition techniques in that program, they are actually having to remind themselves to eat, since they’ve totally LOST all of their cravings.

I’m not surprised by this feedback because I’ve been saying that for years now… that if you actually implement the style of eating that we recommend, all cravings go away for good, and your appetite is fully satisfied without ever counting another calorie!

If for some reason you haven’t gotten a copy of our Fat Burning Kitchen program (which includes the awesome 6 video tutorials), go here now to get the details:

The Fat Burning Kitchen

Enjoy!

Til next newsletter,
Don’t be lazy… be lean.

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer
Founder – The Truth About Six Pack Abs

=========
Reminder!!!
=========

Order any of these products and you get the entire NGN Program Free!

1.NGN Workout Guide

2. NGN Training Secrets

3. 12 Online Videos

Plus 6 Bonuses!!!

Simply email your receipt to support (at) virgilaponte.com