Cultural Oasis  

Food is half the secret of the hugely successful e-book The Truth About Abs, and customers will be pleased to hear that starvation is certainly not on the menu.  Author Mike Geary, a nutritionist and personal trainer who designed the regime on “common sense” principles, claims users could even end up eating more food than they normally do.  In addition, some of the foods he advocates or bans will surprise the buyer.

Geary, like most nutritionists, recognizes that dietary fiber – the non-digestible bulk found in all vegetable foods – is a major ally in the war against weight gain.  Think of a stick of celery: it tastes nice, has a pleasant crunch and is good to eat on a hot day.  But you may have been surprised afterwards that this watery and insubstantial snack has left you feeling reasonably full.  Celery is exceptionally rich in fiber, as the mouthful of “strings” you often get from an older, thicker stick may tell you.  However, not everyone likes it.

Therefore, Geary has come up with some foods that are rich in fiber and have little or no sugar but are delicious and satisfying.  These, he says, are the key to eating that will drop your waist size and discourage fat gain.  And some of these are surprising.  Dieters have traditionally avoided nuts like the plague, because they are full of oils and loaded with calories.  But Geary’s system doesn’t involve counting calories, and the oils help keep you feeling full, stop cravings and are vital to the body’s health.  You can even have unsweetened peanut butter, which will keep you feeling full and satisfied.

Of course, Geary is not advocating the eating of roasted, salted or sugared nuts. In fact, his whole dietary system is based around natural, unprocessed foods, and junk foods are definitely out.

This kind of eating provokes a hormonal response that will keep your body burning fat after you have eaten.  But because the foods are low in or completely free of sugar, there will be no blood sugar spike, and thus no insulin spike, which is what causes your body to store fat in unsightly places.  Geary also advises the customer to eat organic foods where possible, though these are generally more expensive, and the diet will work without them.

Another surprise on the menu is red meat, such as beef or venison, though he advises that this should be organic and grass fed as this is high in Omega 3 and is far healthier than the grain-fed battery-produced variety.  The meat is high in easily digested protein to help build muscles, and muscles themselves burn more calories as they develop.  Finally, Geary advises that eggs are a health food, as long as they are free range and organic.  They contain good cholesterol, which improves your health.