Is Liquid IV Good for You?

Is Liquid IV a good option for those looking to supplement with electrolytes? Liquid IV is marketed as a sports supplement to increase hydration. However, this is quite ironic. Here is why.

First, it is packed with sugar. There is an added 11g in just ONE serving. Americans already consume an average of 77g of added sugar each day (“How Much Sugar is Too Much?”). Your little packet of electrolytes would be contributing to 1/7 of that. The first ingredient is pure cane sugar! The second ingredient is dextrose, another type of sugar! So, there is not only one type of sugar, but two. Not to mention that excess sugar can contribute to feelings of dehydration rather than take it away.

Second, there are a lot of vitamins and minerals on the label that are hard to pronounce. If you can barely say the ingredient, you probably shouldn’t be consuming it. Dipotassium Phosphate, one of the ingredients, is commonly used as fertilizer and a buffering agent. Cyanocobalamin, or “vitamin B12”, is a man-made form of B12.

LMNT citrus salt ingredients

Electrolytes can help your body recover from hard workouts and stay hydrated on hot days but they need to be made well. I highly recommend the brand LMNT. They have 0g of added sugar and use minerals in their natural form. They only have 6 ingredients, 4 of which are minerals. The other two ingredients include stevia leaf extract and natural flavors derived from real ingredients. Not to mention they also taste delicious! My favorite is the citrus salt.

Wait, What!? My Cosmetics Are Full of Chemicals?

This morning you probably woke up, brushed your teeth, and hopped in the shower. You probably washed your hair and body then used some vanilla scented body lotion. If you’re a woman you may have applied makeup before heading to the kitchen for a cup of coffee.

Just in this 30 minute morning routine you were probably exposed to hundreds of different chemicals that could be detrimental to you health. And you probably had no idea.

I first started diving deep into the world of chemicals when I realized just how sensitive my skin was. Everything would cause me to break out in a rash or itchy hives. A trip to the dermatologist educated me on the impact of fragrance in product and how it could affect my skin.

I quickly switched out all of my products such as body lotions, laundry detergents, and body soaps to their fragrance-free counterparts. I thought I was doing everything right only to find that my rashes still weren’t going away. As I investigated further, I came to realize just how many chemicals and artificial fragrances are in every product we use.

Here’s what to watch out for:

When it comes to chemicals, it is important to think of the products you use every single day. Read every label, do your research on the ingredients. Everything should be guilty until proven innocent.

Cosmetics

I used to break out from different makeup products all of the time. I thought my skin was just overly sensitive. It turns out I was just reacting to the number of harmful chemicals in the products. A typical product has 15–50 ingredients, meaning the average woman places 515 different chemicals on her skin every day (“The chemistry of cosmetics”).

And to think we put these products on our eyes, lips, and ALL OVER our faces. Our skin is the largest organ of the human body and we absorb whatever touches it. When studied, the American Journal of Public Health found that skin absorbed an average of 64% of total contaminants just from drinking water. Other studies found a 100% absorption rate for smaller areas of the body such as our face and underarms. Turns out we can’t just pay attention to what we are putting into our bodies, but also to what we are putting on it.

Cosmetics have been found to contain a group of manufactured chemicals called PFAS. This chemicals have been nicknamed “forever chemicals” because they never break down and accumulate in our bodies over time. They have been linked to cancer, weakened immune systems, birth defects, and hormone disruptions. A recent study found that 82% of waterproof mascaras, 63% of foundations, and 62% of lipsticks tested positive for these chemicals.

After learning about all these harmful chemicals I was putting on my face everyday, I sought out clean solutions that I could feel safe using everyday. I buy all of my makeup from a clean beauty store called Credo Beauty. They have an established clean beauty standard which bans 2,700 ingredients used in most beauty products from being sold in their stores. I feel safe shopping there, knowing I don’t have to read and research every single ingredient on the product labels. In addition, they list the type of fragrance in each product whether it’s artificial, essential oils, or none at all. Being extremely sensitive to fragrance, this is super important to me.

More common cosmetic retailers like Sephora and Target are also making steps towards highlighting clean beauty and making it more accessible to the masses. Sephora labels products without parabens, sulfates, mineral oil, formaldehyde, and more as “clean at Sephora”. Just look for a green label with a leaf and a check mark!

Similar to Sephora, Target labels products without these harmful ingredients as “Target Clean” using their own green label. The products at Target also tend to be more affordable with prices comparable to your typical drug store cosmetics. A few of my favorite clean beauty brands found at Target are Honest Beauty, Versed, and BYBI.

Fragrance

Fragrance sounds so simple when we see it in the ingredient list on a product but it is actually comprised of hundreds of sneaky chemicals. The FDA states that fragrance ingredients can simply be listed as fragrance rather than their individual names. However, this does not mean it’s made of only one ingredient. There are actually an estimated number of 4,000 different chemicals used to created fragrance. Because these chemicals aren’t required to be listed, you really have no idea what you’re putting on your body.

The most popular chemicals found in fragrance include phthalates, styrene, benzaldehyde, limonene, linalool, and methylene chloride. Many of these are known hormone carcinogens and hormone disruptors. Benzaldehyde is a known narcotic that has been found to cause kidney damage and irritate the lungs. Linalool has been found in studies to cause depression and central nervous system disorders.

To demonstrate how chemicals in fragrance are often given a pass by the FDA, methylene chloride is actually a toxin banned by the FDA but is allowed to be included under the blanket term of fragrance. Wondering what this chemical even is? It is commonly used in paint strippers and was even recently banned from being used in them by the EPA. Yet it is still lurking in the fragrances we put on our bodies every day…

When I first gave up fragrance, I was shocked at all of the products I found it in. I still discover fragrance in “natural”, “clean” products like my natural deodorant! I often turn to Credo Beauty, as mentioned earlier, to check for fragrance in my cosmetics and body products, since it is explicitly called out for every product on their site.

I also like to search unsuspecting products like hand soaps, laundry detergents, and shampoos on EWG’s Skin Deep. Here you can search almost any product and you will be provided with a toxicity rating. I aim to only buy products with As and Bs, and always check for the presence of fragrance.

The website actually breaks down each ingredient in the product you are searching and tells you whether it is safe or not. If it’s not safe, it lists the reasons for this. This is super helpful since chemicals often have long and confusing names.

I’ve come to depend on this tool when buying new cosmetics or other products that may have fragrance. It makes my life a whole lot easier and I can feel confident in the decisions I am making in what goes on my body.

Many people go form doctor to doctor, trying to figure out why they are feeling so awful. I was this person once too, unaware of how the products I used every day were affecting my body. The first step to making a change in your health is knowledge and awareness. Now that you know the products you use all the time could be harming you, you can make the necessary changes.

Start by slowly replacing the products that you have. You don’t have to throw everything you own away. Just replace them with better options as you run out of what you’re currently using. It is a long journey to improve your health but it is well worth it! I’ve come a long way in my journey and am happy to say I’ve never felt better. My aim with sharing this information is always to help as many people as possible. Nobody should feel as clueless and alone as I once did.

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Why Sakara Life is a Scam

I keep seeing tons of influencers post about a healthy, plant-based meal subscription called Sakara Life. And when I say tons of influencers I’m talking about every influencer that is flawlessly beautiful, skinny, and seems to have it all perfectly together. There’s nothing wrong with this, but I think it’s easy to look at these picture-perfect women and think, wow, they are beautiful and skinny and eating this, this must be the answer to my struggles with weight loss and wellness. I’m here to tell you that just isn’t the case.

Let me start off by applauding the branding and overall aesthetic of Sakara. The food looks absolutely beautiful and delicious. I’m not denying that. The meals probably taste divine and are packed with a lot of great nutrients. I’m always tempted to place an order just for the butterfly pea flower rice. I mean rice that is a periwinkle blue, how can you resist!?

I appreciate that they only use the finest, organic ingredients. That is extremely important in a meal program. You don’t want to be consuming low-quality products sprayed with glyphosate for every single meal.

However, my issue comes with HOW MUCH food they include. They follow a whole “calories don’t matter so we don’t include them” philosophy. I’m not a huge believer in calorie counting myself. BUT I think the reason they don’t include calories in their meals is because the calories are so LITTLE. Probably the opposite problem than you would expect.

I see influencers post these super small meals that they are eating and that is all they are encouraged to eat by the Sakara Life program. I’m sorry but there is not enough calories in one of those small meals to sustain an adult woman. I am also baffled by how little protein seems to be included in these meals. Studies have shown that an active 120 pound woman would need 1,920-2,160 calories each day, depending on just how much activity she is getting, to sustain her energy levels (“Daily Recommended Caloric Intake for Women”). As for protein, it is recommended women get at least 0.36 grams per pound of body weight (“How Much Protein Should You Have in Your Diet”). There is no way these small three meals equate to that many calories or grams of protein.

Of course, this lack of protein often comes with the territory of a plant-based diet. Many plant-based protein sources contain more carbs than protein and lack all of the essential amino acids.

Let’s look closely at some of the meals.

Here you can see the ingredients of one of their breakfast options. First, this breakfast cookie is probably pretty high in sugar and carbs. In fact, it’s basically all sugar and carbs. Flaxmeal and hemp seeds are the only ingredients that really have any protein. My guess is there’s about a tablespoon of hemp seeds, if that, which is around 5 grams of protein and a tablespoon of flaxmeal which is around 3 grams of protein. And this is me being generous. I honestly hope there’s not that much because then that means there is over a tablespoon of added coconut sugar AND honey in this cookie (ingredients are listed from most to least plentiful on the label).

Here’s an example of one of their dinners. There are a lot of ingredients that are really good for you, I won’t deny that. However, I still don’t think it is enough calories or protein to properly sustain an active adult woman. This dinner also has added sugar from coconut sugar and maple syrup- no wonder it tastes good!

A good way to tell if something is a good choice in protein is by looking at the ratio to other macros like fats and carbs. There are no ingredients in this meal that have more protein than any other macro, meaning none of these ingredients are a good source of protein.

I would have expected chickpeas to be the first ingredient with this falafel meal but it looks like the leafy greens in the salad are actually most prominent. As for the falafel, you would expect them to have more protein than they actually do for how much vegans say they are a good protein source. Chickpeas actually have almost 3 times as many carbs than protein. You have to eat A LOT of chickpeas to get a good amount of protein from them. Trust me, I know. As a recovered vegan I used to eat a whole can of them in one meal. This did my digestion REAL dirty…

If you lose weight on this meal plan it’s because you’re not eating enough calories. But, you’re losing weight in a way that is going to wreck your metabolism. In my experience, eating a lot of carbs and little protein can also lead to intense cravings and binge eating habits down the line. The reason I recommend people eat more protein than anything is because of how satiating it is. Protein will keep you full for hours for the same calories as a carb-loaded meal that may cause an energy crash an hour later (“A high-protein total diet replacement increases energy expenditure and leads to negative fat balance in healthy, normal-weight adults”).

And, while this may help you lose weight in the short term, a diet like this is not going to be sustainable. You will see dramatic fluctuations in your weight just from eating a normal amount of calories like when you go out to eat at a restaurant or on vacation. You want to eat in a way that is sustainable and will help build your metabolism back up. And the solution is not their metabolism powder… But this is a whole other post.

Of course, listen to your own body and what feels good to you. If you feel full and satisfied eating these meals, good for you! But, if you’ve been sucked into an aesthetically-pleasing marketing gimmick, I want you to be educated on the choice you are making. You’re not the problem, it’s the amount of food and the types of food that you are eating.

Also, feel free to just add your own protein sources such as 100% grass-fed beef or wild-caught salmon to some of these meals. If you enjoy the taste, figure out a way to make them a bit heartier.

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Just eat the damn nuggets. Why NUGGS are worse than fast-food.

You may have seen these popular vegan chicken nuggets trending around the internet. Bella Hadid shared that she was a customer and now everyone is trying to get their hands on them. But why? Just because they are vegan does not mean they are a healthier, cleaner option. Whenever companies are claiming this for an item that is notoriously unhealthy, it’s usually too good to be true.

Trust me, I used to enjoy these fake meat substitutes when I was once vegan. I thought that I was getting a cleaner option that would help my health. Boy was I wrong. When I realized what these substitutes were actually made of, I stopped eating them all together and turned to whole-food protein sources instead. I wrote this article because I don’t want us to be fooled by good marketing. Just because you can engineer something, doesn’t mean you should.

This is taken straight off the NUGGS website:

“NUGGS utilize an advanced soy protein technology that enables a hyper-realistic simulation of the texture and flavor of an animal-based nugget.”

A hyper-realistic simulation? Do you honesty want to be eating that? It sounds unnatural and that is exactly what it is.

Let’s break down the ingredients.

Textured Wheat Protein

This is a highly-processed ingredient that is made by separating the protein from the rest of the soybean.

Corn Flour

This is exactly what it sounds like- a flour made from dried and ground up corn.

Soybean Oil

This oil is made by heating soybeans at high temperatures or using chemicals like hexane to extract the oil.

Soy Protein Concentrate

This concentrate is made after the soybean is dehulled and defatted. The remaining protein is turned into this concentrate.

Wheat Flour

Wheat flour is flour made from wheat, known to be highly inflammatory due to it’s high lectin and gluten content.

Wheat Protein Isolate

Similar to the other proteins, this is extracted from wheat at high temperatures, separating the protein from the rest of the crop.

Why are these bad?

Notice that all of these ingredients are made using wheat, corn, or soy, also known as “the big three”. It is no coincidence that these are the three most common ingredients in highly processed and unhealthy foods. They are the cheapest crops on the market and almost always genetically modified (GMO). In addition to being GMO crops, they are some of the top allergens.

The government actually subsidizes corn and soy, which is why there is so much of it. Farmers are motivated to grow it because of this, making it plentiful and cheap for manufacturers to then use in their food products. Not to mention farmers also feed it to their livestock, which is why you want to avoid cows that aren’t 100% grass-fed or chickens that aren’t pasture-raised.

Here’s a great article on how these government subsidies started in the first place if you’re interested in reading more.

But they claim they kill you slower?

First of all, yikes. They are basically admitting these chicken nuggets are still going to kill you, just not as fast. NUGGS contain 13g of protein, 10g of fat, and are cholesterol free. While they may have more protein than a traditional chicken nugget, that does not mean the quality of the protein is better. Soy is a great source of protein if it is organic, but most soy is not. If it’s not organic, steer clear- it’s probably GMO and can have many detrimental health effects. Personally, I avoid soy whenever possible because of its high isoflavone content, a compound that is known to mimic estrogen. Anything that mimics estrogen can throw your hormones out of whack.

In terms of the fat and cholesterol content, these two things actually aren’t bad for you. We’ve been conditioned to think that this is what destroys our health when in reality it is the overly-processed fake foods that do this. Of course, there is good and bad cholesterol, but I’m assuming the brand is referring to the cholesterol found in saturated fat, which is highly prominent in chicken. This saturated fat that everyone once thought was so bad, is actually good. Bulletproof has an excellent article on the history of saturated fat, how it was unfairly villanized, and why you should eat more of it. I highly recommend reading it.

Recommendations

Overall, if you want chicken nuggets, just eat chicken nuggets. Obviously, there are good and bad options for eating chicken nuggets. You probably want to steer clear of any fast food chain that uses poor quality meat and these highly-processed vegan substitutes. Instead, go for the ones produced by Applegate, who uses humanely-raised chicken. Is this a perfect option? No. But they are a lot better than soy protein or nuggets made from traditionally-raised chicken. If you are willing to make your own, you can even pick up chicken tender meat from Grass Roots and cook up this healthy recipe.

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Resources:

Textured Soy Protein: What It Is and How It’s Used

The Big Three: Soy, Wheat, and Corn

Corn is Subsidized By the Government, Here’s What That Means for You

Is Saturated Fat Bad for You? Here’s What You Need to Know