The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #131 – 30 Day Raw Food Meal Plans, A “Healthier” Candy Company, and The Negative Side Effects of Kale

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30 DAY R.E.A.L. Food Meal Plans

I’ve used a service very similar to this called The Vegan Menu, which I love. I signed up for six months but didn’t end up using the meal plans every week, so I saved them up and cancelled my service until I get caught up. I’m still using those menus most of the time and it’s awesome because they give you five days worth of dinner recipes and an ingredient list that keeps all of those recipes in mind, that way you don’t have to buy a ton of stuff every week. This “30 DAY R.E.A.L. Food” service actually looks the same, but better because all meals are free of soy, gluten, corn and dairy, and they provide three meals per day as opposed to The Vegan Menu’s one meal per day. The Vegan Menu is $60 for a year and the 30 DAY R.E.A.L. Food plan is $30 one time. I already signed up to the R.E.A.L. program and there’s only one menu so far. I’m not totally sure if there’s a new menu every month, but I sure hope so. It looks awesome.



Drop And Give Me Ten

I know exactly how Tamara Reynolds feels. There are times when I stray from my workout routine and become lazy and I get really upset at myself for letting myself slip. Nick Horton’s advice to her is to do 10 pushups. It doesn’t matter if you’re skipping leg day, do 10 pushups anyway, because 10 pushups is better than nothing. Scientifically, I don’t know if that’s true, but psychologically, I can see how it would be beneficial. If I stopped and did 10 pushups, I can imagine myself getting motivated enough to just set aside some time to go ahead and do those squats I skipped.



Healthy Whole Grains? Part II

To quickly sum up this monster of an article, don’t believe the hype that whole grains are better for you, because they contain anti-nutrients that have terrible health effects on the body. The studies that are used by supporters of whole grains don’t prove anything, which is explained in this post as well. If you have 30 minutes to spare, sit down and read this. It pretty much dissects everything we think we know about whole grains.



Morbidly Obese Toddler Gets Weight-Loss Surgery

I don’t even understand how it’s possible for a toddler to get this big. It’s really sad.



Male Chef Is Food Porn’s Worst Nightmare

Don’t look here if you’re eating because you’re not going to want to finish your meal. I really like this quote from the interview. It makes sense – “I feel like “Male Chef” erodes the idea of food photography and helps to demolish the idea that food bloggers and food photographers can get peripheral success based off of the efforts and ideas of others.” Check out his Tumbler blog.



Unreal Candy

I learned about Unreal Candy from The Unconventionals podcast. The idea behind UNREAL Candy started a long time ago when Nicky Bronner’s dad took away his Halloween candy because of how unhealthy it was. Nicky was upset and set out to prove his Dad wrong but he quickly discovered how unhealthy it really was – partially hydrogenated oils, corn syrup, artificial colors, flavors, GMO’s and chemical preservatives – so when he got older, Nicky and his brother Michael founded UNREAL Candy with a mission to “unjunk the world.” I can’t eat any of their candy yet because none of it’s vegan, but they’re working on dark chocolate version of their candies which they have stated will be vegan.



The Dangers of Kale and How to Fix It

I was listening to the Joe Rogan podcast and his guest Dave Asprey started talking about the dangers of kale (I’ve linked to the video. Starts at 45:13). Basically, raw kale is full of oxalic acid (the plant’s defense mechanism), which can cause kidney stones and GI issues, is a potential contributor to autism, and is also linked to vulvodynia (extreme sensitivity of the vagina). To remove oxalic acid, start by eating only dinosaur kale, which cuts oxalic acid by half compared to other kales. Then steam the kale for 5-7 minutes and dump water. The water absorbs much of the oxalic acid. You lose some vitamins, but not a lot. Toss the kale in the blender, add protein (hemp, whey, etc.), MCT oil, calcium carbonate and magnesium oxide and you’re good to go.

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