Common Ingredient That Adds Fat To Your Abs

Earlier today I pulled out a bottle of barbecue sauce from the cabinet to marinate some chicken.

I got this particular bottle from the grocery store and it’s made by a very large and well known brand.

Before I drop the sauce into the bag with the chicken, I decided to take a quick scan of the label and I’m really glad I did. I could not believe the #1 ingredient on the label.

So guess what the #1 ingredient was?

Here are a few clues.

1) You can find it in most Breads, Soft Drinks and Salad Dressings….and many other foods.

2) It has been shown to Increase Risk of Diabetes and Hypertension

3) It has been linked to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen

Awesome right?!

Now this ingredient is in A LOT of foods but I’ve never seen it listed as the number 1 ingredient in anything!

Tip: The ingredients on the label are listed from largest amount to smallest amount so this barbecue sauce had more of this chemical than any other ingredient on the label.

This ingredient is used so often in foods these days that now some companies are actually stating on their packaging that they have no (ingredient) on the packaging of their products to proclaim that they did us a favor and didn’t add this nasty crap to the food.

If you are curious how common (ingredient) is in the food we eat, go down the bread isle and scan the labels on the various types and brands of bread. I challenge you to find one without it in there. I finally found one brand that doesn’t add it but it took me about 20 minutes of searching to find it.

Anyway, I read the rest of the label and the rest of the ingredients were OK but having (ingredient) as the #1 ingredient was enough to make me toss that baby in the trash, actually the recycle bin after I emptied the jar out into the trash first (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle That’s The Way, That’s The Way!). Sorry, my wife is a teacher and that song stuck in my head.

OK so fortunately, I had just recently purchased a jar of Barbecue sauce at Trader Joe’s and had that one sitting in the cabinet as well. I took a quick scan of the ingredients and guess what? No ( ingredient)!

Better yet, the other ingredients were all good natural stuff. That’s one of the things I love about shopping at Trader Joe’s. For the most part, if you buy something like Barbecue sauce there and then compare to any random Barbecue sauce at the Grocery store, chances are good the one from Trader Joe’s has better (more natural, healthier) ingredients.

So do you want to know what the hidden ingredient is? If you guessed High Fructose Corn Syrup then you’d be right!

In addition to “eating healthy and exercising” there is also a lot of psychology to living a healthier lifestyle. We all know if you eat healthy and exercise on a regular basis, you will be healthy. So why doesn’t everyone do it?

Sometimes there are psychological barriers and sometimes it’s just a lack of knowledge.

The key is knowing what is healthy and WHY. That way you can make your own informed decisions about what you put into your body because unfortunately, food manufacturers do a great job at making foods sound healthy when in actuality they are not.

And often times, there are “unnatural ingredients” on those so called “healthy” products that will junk up your body and prevent you from getting into better health.

So, my goal is to help you gain the knowledge to navigate the sea of misleading marketing and hidden ingredients so you can find the truly healthy stuff that will help you reclaim your health for good.

Because if we don’t have health, we don’t have anything.

And as a Dad, I owe it to my family to be as healthy as possible so I can stick around as long as possible. I want to help other Dad’s do the same.

So as Jerry Maguire said, “Help Me, Help You”! Tell me in the comments what you think is holding you back from getting in better health? What do you think would make it easier for you to eat healthy and exercise on a regular basis?