The Medifast diet plan....is the quick weight loss REALLY worth it? Take a look at what you are putting into your body.

I know.  

It's that time of year again.  

It's almost January 1. 

 Most people have one thing on their mind.  

How can I get this extra weight off.....and fast?

I am no different.  I still struggle with getting my weight off.

I would LOVE a quick fix.

I would LOVE to be 30 pounds lighter in 4 weeks.

I have decided to write about the Medifast diet plan

because, well...it is everywhere I turn.

It is the "buzz" word of diets.

I fell for it once.

How can you not?  I mean really?

It has so much to offer.

Fast results, very little prep, convenient...just grab a bar and go!

But have you REALLY read the labels?

Have you researched what each ingredient is and does?

I have.

I am disgusted.

I am appalled that this diet is touted as healthy.

I am equally disturbed that this diet has provided millions of dollars of income for health coaches.  
The more people you get under you...the more money you make.

It might start out about "health".  I think it almost always does.
 People want to lose weight.
You have a little success and then become a health coach with Take Shape For Life.
Tthen the money starts coming in.  


The blinders go on.  


You never really looked at what your were eating in the first place.  


You just took for granted that since someone told you it is "healthy and so good for you", it must be ok to eat.


You completely ignore that FACT that all Medifast products contain processed ingredients, artifical sweeteners, toxic chemicals .....a lot of things that are harmful to your body and you just never eat. 


You ignore the fact that it's really not "healthy".  Because, after all, you have lost weight and that was your goal.

It's a pyramid scheme- no bones about that.


It IS a FAD diet.  


It is NOT whole food.  


It is processed garbage.


It is a money sucker.

Oh, don't get me wrong.  You will lose weight.  Your medication needs will decrease. Your blood labs will look greatly improved.

But at what risk?

So I have taken the ingredients from several of the bars, shakes, snacks, and other "food" items from the main website and looked each one up.  

You know you can do this yourself, right?

It's all right there all the website.

Everything is spelled out before your very eyes.

Cut, paste, Google.

It's what I did.

Easy.

Just do it yourself and see what is in this crap.

I will start with 2 products that I looked up.  I am mainly looking at the "what is that for" ingredients.  Not all of them are bad.  But the bad ones are really bad.
Just so you know- I left out the vitamin and mineral ingredients.  They are all basically the same for every "product".  Vitamins are vitamins.

Swiss Mocha Shake

Soy protein isolate, fructose, milk protein isolate, oat fiber, natural and artificial flavor, sweet dairy whey, chicory root extract (inulin), guar gum, salt, cocoa (processed with alkali), instant coffee, dl-methionine, acesulfame potassium, artificial color (Red 40, Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Blue 1).

Let me decode this for you:

Soy protein isolate:       More about soy here                                                                 All soy products, and therefore all soy byproducts, contain phytoestrogens. Phytoestrogens are plant derived compounds that have the ability to mimic the effects of estrogen in the body. They can have a negative effect on the hormonal balances of men, women and children, including the enlargement or depression of the thyroid gland, which could lead to rapid weight gain or loss.  The method by which soy protein isolate is processed and manufactured involves acid washing it in aluminum tanks. As a result, large amounts of aluminum are placed into the finished product. Aluminum is know to be  toxic to the body, especially the kidneys, the nervous system, and the brain. In addition, nitrites and chemical flavorings are used to add flavor. These chemicals have been linked to the development of certain cancers, allergies and even Alzheimer's disease. Soy increases estrogen activity in the body. Men that consume large amounts of soy protein isolate on a daily basis may experience a reduction in sperm count or a lower libido.  

Additionally 99%  of soy is genetically modified and it also has one of the highest percentages of contamination by pesticides of any of our foods.

The native protein present in soy is fragile and is easily denatured, or broken down, by the use of high temperatures required for the production of soy protein isolate and textured soy vegetable protein. The by-products of this high temperature processing results in the formation of carcinogenic nitrosamines and toxic lysinoalanine.

 Because of this problem, soy protein isolate products should not be the protein of choice for the human body. 

Whew!  

And that is just the first ingredient!

Fructose:  

• After eating fructose, 100 percent of the metabolic burden rests on your liver. With glucose, your liver has to break down only 20 percent.
• Every cell in your body, including your brain, utilizes glucose. Therefore, much of it is "burned up" immediately after you consume it. By contrast, fructose is turned into free fatty acids (FFAs), VLDL (the damaging form of cholesterol), and triglycerides, which get stored as fat.
• The fatty acids created during fructose metabolism accumulate as fat droplets in your liver and skeletal muscle tissues, causing insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Insulin resistance progresses to metabolic syndrome and type II diabetes.
• Fructose is the most lipophilic carbohydrate. In other words, fructose converts to activated glycerol (g-3-p), which is directly used to turn FFAs into triglycerides. The more g-3-p you have, the more fat you store. Glucose does not do this.
• When you eat 120 calories of glucose, less than one calorie is stored as fat. 120 calories of fructose results in 40 calories being stored as fat. Consuming fructose is essentially consuming fat!
• The metabolism of fructose by your liver creates a long list of waste products and toxins, including a large amount of uric acid, which drives up blood pressure and causes gout.
• Glucose suppresses the hunger hormone ghrelin and stimulates leptin, which suppresses your appetite. Fructose has no effect on ghrelin and interferes with your brain's communication with leptin, resulting in overeating.
• Click here for more info about fructose:
• Dangers of fructose on the body

Natural and Artificial flavors: And that would be.....???  They leave ya hanging on this one.

Guar gum: A natural thinkener.  Used in many puddings, ice cream, dressings. It used to in prescription diet pills.  The guar gum would bind with liquids in the stomach and swell, causing a feeling of satisfying fullness. However, this mass of swollen guar gum would also cause dangerous intestinal and duodenal blockages. Guar gum was declared unsafe and ineffective for use as a non-prescription diet aid, although it is still used in small amounts as a food thickener and binder.   Ewwwww.....

Acesulfame potassium:    

Acesulfame K contains the carcinogen methylene 


chloride. 


Long-term exposure to methylene chloride can cause 


headaches, depression, nausea, mental confusion, 


liver effects, kidney effects, visual disturbances, and 


cancer in humans. (Just for fun I googled methylene 


chloride and this is what I found out about it: Methylene chloride, also called dichloromethane, is a volatile, colorless liquid with a chloroform-like odor. Methylene chloride is used in various industrial processes in many different industries: paint stripping, pharmaceutical manufacturing, paint remover manufacturing, metal cleaning and degreasing, adhesives manufacturing and use, polyurethane foam production, film base manufacturing, polycarbonate resin production, and solvent distribution and formulation.) 

Paint stripping?!!!

Metal cleaning?!!! 

Acesulfame potassium also

You really want to ingest this? 

And now for my favorite:

Artificial color (Red 40, Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Blue 1)

 Nice. 

Very nice Medifast people.  

Very healthy. 

Known to cause behavior problems in children just to 


name one....

Yup.

So, to sum up this delicious nutritious shake...you 


have just ingested into your body:

genetically modified soy

methylene chloride

great paint stripper

a metal cleaner

artificial food dyes

food thickener that was taken out of diet pills because 


intestines were blocked

sugar

more artificial flavors of unknown origin

some milk protein

some coffee ( cause we all need more stimulants in 


our lives)

some fiber(oh, that was the inulin and oat fiber)

Vitamins thrown in to make it look "healthy".

Yummy!  I don't know about you but I can't wait for 


the next one of these to ingest!  This is only one out of 


the 5 full of crap healthy nutritious meals you get in a 


whole day!

So- on to the second "product" I looked into.  One of 


the bars.

Caramel Crunch Bar

Soy Protein Isolate, Polydextrose, Maltitol Syrup, 


Oligofructose, Glycerine,  Brown Rice Syrup, Peanut 


Butter (Peanuts, Mono and Diglycerides, Salt, Mixed 


Tocopherols), Non Fat Dry Milk, Butter, Natural and 


Artificial Flavor, Rice Starch, Peanut Flour, Sunflower 


Oil with tocopherol, Milk Protein Isolate, Evaporated 


Cane Juice, Soy Lecithin, Fractionated Palm Kernel Oil, 


Maltodextrin, Salt, Cocoa Powder, Sucralose, 


Dextrose, Carrageenan, Distilled Monoglycerides.

Soy Protein Isolate: see above description...

Polydextrose:  Polydextrose, a synthetic food additive, is commonly made from the glucose in corn starch. "Dextrose" is sugar, plain and simple. Polydextrose is a sweet manufactured product from dextrose which supposedly acts like fiber. Polydextrose can cause a variety of side effects, including abdominal cramping, bloating and excessive gas. 

 Very nice!  

So it's sugar that makes you fart!

Maltitol Syrup:  Maltitol is a sugar alcohol, an ingredient commonly used in low-carb or “sugar-free” products such as candy and nutrition bars. It is used so much because of its similarity to sugar in terms of taste, mouth feel, and interaction with other ingredients. Products which use maltitol and other sugar alcohols as sweeteners can be called “sugar free.” It also causes intestinal gas and cramping, but some people may find themselves with diarrhea. If you decide to eat products with maltitol, you’d be wise to start with a small amount and judge the reaction -- as well whether you’ll be in a crowded room a few hours later.

Polydextrose, Maltitol Syrup, Oligofructose,Evaporated 


Cane Juice,Dextrose- Wow!  That is a whole lot of 


SUGAR!!!!!  When it comes to sugar, virtually all forms 


will be toxic to your health in the long run. Switching 


from refined white sugar to cane sugar, date sugar, 


coconut sugar, brown rice syrup, fruit juice, molasses, 


maple syrup, sucanat, sorghum, turbinado or agave 


syrup will NOT ameliorate any of the risks as they all 


contain HIGH amounts of fructose. 

Peanut Butter:  Some facts about peanuts you should 


know...A 1993 study demonstrated 24 different t


types of fungi that colonized the inside of the 


peanuts used in the report (Costantini, A. Etiology 


and Prevention of Atherosclerosis. Fungalbionics 


Series.1998/99). And this was after the exterior of the 


peanut was sterilized! So, when you choose to eat 


peanuts, not only are you potentially eating these 


molds, but also their mycotoxins. (Incidentally, in the 


same study the examiners found 23 different fungi on 


the inside of corn kernels.)



Peanut flour: read above statement...


Soy lechitin: Already stated why soy  is bad.....any 


soy....

Fractionated Palm Kernel Oil: Palm Kernel Oil is the vegetable equivalent of wax. It defies the most robust of digestive enzymes and scoots right through your bowels at illegal speeds. You will burp a lot meanwhile. "Fractionated" means "cooked at high temperatures in the presence of a catalyst to break it down" - into a slightly more digestible form. It will still scoot through your bowels, but just below illegal speeds.  Oh, goody!

Maltodextrin: a thickening agent almost always made 


from cornstarch.   Remember the statement from the 


peanuts? Same with corn.  Corn is universally 


contaminated with mycotoxins.  Eat ANY corn product 


and you are ingesting fungus and mycotoxins.  Keep 


this in mind since many of the Medifast products 


contain corn!

Sucrolose:  More about the danger of Splenda here

Sucralose is in fact a synthetic chemical that was 

originally cooked up in a laboratory. It does start off 

as a sugar molecule. Then, in a five-step patented 

process of making sucralose, three chlorine molecules 

are added to a sucrose (sugar) molecule. The 

chemical process to make sucralose alters the 

chemical composition of the sugar so much that it is 

somehow converted to a fructo-galactose molecule.

 This type of sugar molecule does not occur in 

nature, and therefore your body does not possess the 

ability to properly metabolize it. Splenda bears more 

chemical similarity to DDT than it does to sugar.

Carrageenan:  a thickening agent. It's the vegetarian
equivalent of casein, the same protein that is isolated
from milk and used to thicken foods. Casein is also
used to produce paints, and is the glue used to hold
a label to a bottle of beer. Carrageenan is the magic
ingredient used to de-ice frozen airplanes sitting on
tarmacs during winter storms.  

 So- to sum up the Caramel  Crunch Bar...you have just ingested:

soy protein (bad for you)

milk protein

Sugar that gives you gas

Sugar alcohol that gives you more intestinal discomfort

Sugar with about 6 different names

sugar from brown rice

mycotoxins from peanuts

fungi from peanuts

aflatoxins from peanuts

peanut flour mycotoxins

fractionated pooping oil

 something similar to DDT

airplane de-icer!

glue for labels

mycotoxins from maltodextrin

those artificial flavors from unknown origin again

some vitamins and minerals ( because after all this stuff is supposed to be healthy)

Alright! I am feeling healthier by the  minute!  In 2 meals I am amazed at all the complete garbage healthy ingredients just ingested.

And I paid for it with good hard earned money!

And I still have 3 more of these left to go for the day!  

Stay tuned.....it only gets worse better from here.

The blinders need to come off people.

See this for what it is.

Money making processed, contaminated, artificial, cancer causing junk.

Don't ruin your body just to lose a few pounds.


It's not worth it.


Be smart. Read labels.
If you don't know what the ingredient is......
google it for pete's sake.


Seriously people.


You might as well just eat some pop tarts, wash it down with some V-8 juice and take a multivitaim.


It's really about the same thing.


And you will save a lot of money.

What do USDA beef labels mean?

  

As you walk through your grocery store's meat department, you will come across some very enticing, yet misleading labeling.  You might look at a beef label that says "All Natural" and think it sounds pretty good.  However, even though the meat is labeled "All Natural", producers can still give their animals Growth Hormones, Antibiotics and raise the animals in crowded feedlots on an unnatural grain-based diet. 

The "All Natural" label may be used on any meat that has been minimally processed and containing no artificial ingredients.  This simply means that no chemicals can be added to the meat during or after processing. So, sadly, under these guidelines, most commercial beef and chicken sold raw in the grocery store qualifies for this label.

1.  All Natural— As defined by the USDA, “natural” or “all-natural” means the meat has been minimally processed and contains no preservatives or artificial ingredients. This simply means that no chemicals can be added to the meat during or after processing (although using a chemical disinfectant bath during process to try to reduce E. coli on the carcass is allowed) .  Since virtually all fresh beef conforms to these standards, the term has no real significance. The "natural" label does not exclude meats raised using feed-grade antibiotics or hormone implants, nor does it exclude animals raised in a feedlot.  The USDA does not even regulate this term on labels, meaning that meat labeled as such is not given any additional inspection.Beef bearing the USDA's "Natural" label can be grown, fed and handled in the same way as other common cattle. 

2.  Organic — Beef that carries the USDA organic logo has met the department’s standards, which prohibit the use of growth hormones, antibiotics, genetically modified feed, and animal byproducts. However, the standards do not require a grass-only diet; the animal can still be fed an unnatural and unhealthy grain based diet.

3.  Pasture Finished—means a producer can feed his animals a “grain-based diet” as long as animals have access to pasture.  The problem is that merely opening a gate from the feedlot into an adjacent “small” pasture qualifies as Pasture Finished.  Unfortunately, cattle are similar to humans and prefer sweet foods like grain and corn to grass.  They will, therefore, spend the majority of their time at the feed trough and a minority of time eating grass…if there is grass to eat.

4.  Grass-fed—according to the USDA, "grass-fed" means an animal must have “access” to grass and pasture during its life, and the animal must get the majority of its nutrients from grass.  However, there is no restriction on the use of antibiotics, hormones, or pesticides, and the program is voluntary, which means a producer may use “grass-fed” on its labels without verification.  True grass-fed beef should be pasture raised from beginning to end.  It is not enough to feed the animals 100% grass and hay, but not raise them in pasture. Unfortunately, the USDA's current voluntary labeling guidelines do not strictly enforce this concept.  So just because it says "grass-fed" on the label does not mean the animal was grass-fed and pasture raised from beginning to end.
It has been well documented that the magic of grass fed beef occurs only when the animal is pasture raised AND grass fed from beginning to end.  

For more information about grass fed beef go to:http://onlygrassfed.com/