Last weekend we had the pleasure of hosting Dr Susan Kleiner for a day of nutritional lectures. Dr. Kleiner is the author of seven books including Power Eating & The Good Mood Diet. Below is a quick recap of some of the takeaways from these lectures. #1 - Never StudiesThere are a number of myths circulated in gyms and training circles that just aren't supported in the research. For example, there are people who believe they should throw away the egg yolk as this raises blood cholesterol. There has never been a study linking the consumption of egg yolks with increased blood cholesterol. Hopefully anyone ditching the yolk will stop and reap the rewards of the nutrition contained within the whole egg. #2 - How to See Your InflammationDo you live with inflammation? I don't mean the acute type Megan and Kayla are known to display after they play basketball and sprain an ankle. I mean the day in day out type of inflammation that you live with otherwise known as chronic inflammation. Sometimes this is hard to tell the state of our cells without having some medical tests done. Another quick way to tell if you are in a state of inflammation is to look at your gums in your mouth. Are they red, swollen and potentially receding? If so, this is an indication of inflammation of the gums and is most likely not limited solely to your oral health. While you could take an NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) like ibuprofen another option would be to supplement with extra virgin olive oil. This has equivalent anti-inflammatory properties without the side effects associated with NSAIDs. #3 - Put Sugar on the TableWhoa! Hold on now. Are you kidding me? Isn't added sugar one of the biggest nutritional problems people are facing?...

I might be contradicting myself here but it's got to be done.'How so?' you might be saying to yourself.Well for a while I was encouraging you to do something nutritionally that I believed was in your best interests. That would give you better results related to weight loss and performance.But maybe I was wrong. (said in a whisper so no one can hear me)What it is that I had you doing was reading food labels. So how can this be a bad thing? Why would I suggest you stop doing so? Well for three reasons.Reason #1 to Stop Reading Food Labels - You are being misledI wouldn't go so far as to saw you are being lied to but consider the following titles on food packages:'made with real sugar''all natural''organic''95% fat free'So how are these titles on packaging misleading? Well there really is no benefit to eating real sugar. It still causes an insulin spike and puts the break on your fat burning.What about 'all-natural' and 'organic'? Well just because something occurs naturally doesn't mean it's healthy and a good idea to put it in your mouth. Heck, in the case of arsenic, it can kill you.And organic, well often times this is marketing-hype imo. If you eat organic for environmental reasons, do organic bananas leave a smaller organic footprint to ship to Canada than regular bananas?Reason #2 To Stop Reading Food Labels - It's less about the caloriesAsk most people what they check when they read a food label and what is the most common answer? Calories. We still believe, incorrectly, that a calorie is a calorie and we simply need to create a deficit or surplus in order to have the best results.The truth is that it's probably more important to consider the quality and timing of your food selections rather than the calorie count....