You are what you eat!

It always amazes me when I read an article about the Food and Drug Administrations recommended daily food allowances.  What amazes me is how ANYONE can stick to their recommended allowances.  Lets take sodium for example; they recommend 1500mg or less of sodium intake per day.  How the hell is that possible?  I don't eat anything with salt on it and I can't get close to 1500mg per day.  I'm double that.  If I buy nuts it's unsalted.  If I buy pretzels, I rub all the salt off.  I don't put any table salt on anything and I don't eat soup which is loaded with sodium.  Even when I eat peanut butter it's low sodium peanut butter.  Sugar is another one.  The FDA recommends 38g of sugar intake per day or less.  Another WTF on that one.  How is that possible?  I don't eat any sweets at all.  No desserts, no ice cream, no cake, no cookies.  I only drink water or an occasional beer.  I don't even drink Gatorade anymore because of the High Fructose Corn Syrup.  If I get any sugar in my diet it's sucrose or fructose from fresh fruit.  Ok, I lied, I get a little from breakfast cereal in the a.m. but I make sure the Kashi breakfast cereal I eat is low in sugar.  And, I get a little from a protein/energy bar while I'm working out.  And, maybe once in a while I'll put a touch of ketchup on a burger.  When I say a touch I mean less than the size of a quarter in diameter and in height.

So, where am I getting all the salt and sugar?  It's in everything.  It's even in bread, milk, lunch meat, peanut butter, fruits and some vegetables, etc.  This morning I ate a Burger King Ultimate Breakfast Platter. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know but I was on the road in the poconos and had to get home fast and didn't have time (or money) to stop at a diner.  If you're not familiar with this breakfast it consists of: 3 pancakes, 2 scrambled eggs, 2 sausages, 1 hash browns,  & 1 biscuit (w/ syrup & butter).  That's a whopping 1200 calorie breakfast w/ 2800mg of sodium and 36g of sugar.  So, what I do is take one bite of the biscuit and throw it away.  I do the same with the hash browns.  Not because they don't taste good but because it's absolutely garbage for you.  Next, I throw all the condiments away: ketchup, syrup, salt, butter, etc.  Then what I do is take the egg and sausage and I slap it between 2 pancakes and I eat it like a breakfast sandwich.  No butter, no syrup, no extra salt or sugar.  It's actually pretty good.  I figure I cut the sodium, sugar, carbs, etc. in half by doing that.  There's sugar and salt in the pancakes.  The sausage is probably loaded with salt.  But, if you ate the entire meal you pretty much pegged yourself of sodium, carbs, fat and sugar for the day.  The entire day!  That's over 1/2 your recommended daily calories too.  So, it really is a sh$t meal.

Anyway, the point is..start becoming a label reader of find yourself a good online food database that gives you the nutrient breakdown of what you're eating.   Then, keep a diary/journal of what you eat for at least a month.  That's right, every day for a month and see what you're average daily nutrient intake.  I've done it for the past 7 weeks. i.e. kept a diary/journal of everything I put in my mouth for 7 weeks..every day.  (BTW, I use MyFitnessPal as I believe they have the most comprehensive online food database.)  You can see my two main concerns are sugar and salt.  Just can't seem to get that down near the recommended FDA daily allowance.  Check it out:

Yes, it's a lot of work doing this (keeping a food diary).  But, it's the only way you'll truly know what your daily intake is.  And, you ARE what you eat..so eat wisely.  Power ON!  Coach Rob