This week I look at the top 5 things that the health industry doesn't want you to know about. There are some companies out there making lots of money at your expense, either misleading you or potentially putting your health at risk.

5. Everything is made in China.

Ok, well maybe not everything, but close to it. It's just the reality of business nowadays. At some level, parts of that beverage you're sipping or that daily multi-vitamin you're taking can be traced to China somehow. Sure, it may say it's "manufactured" in America or something like that, but chances are really really good that the ingredients and raw components used can be traced to China. It would be just too expensive to create sources of raw ingredients in North America, given market prices, mark-up and profits. In order to survive, companies must source ingredients from Asia. Is this a bad thing? Absolutely not. But there's a perception that Chinese ingredients are bad...

4. Organic is good, but...

...it's not highly regulated. There are no real repercussions for farmers should they bend the organic rules a bit for a better bottom line. In addition, the regulations that define what is considered organic isn't so detailed, leaving a lot of room for interpretation and rule-bending by farmers, manufacturers, etc. and it doesn't help that there really isn't any punishment should this occur. What's more, just because things are grown naturally, doesn't mean that they're organic. The soils, for example, could be contaiminated with heavy metals, but since they don't test the product, and since they use "natural/organic" farming methods, they just assume that the end product is healthy. How can one be sure if they don't confirm it with testing?

3. Healthy Ingredients In Bad Foods Doesn't Make It Ok.

You've seen this with sugary cereals, fruit beverages, butter/margarine. Lately, they've all claimed to be good for your heart, cardiovascular health, eyes, or as a potent antioxidant, etc. Sure it's true. Companies have managed to put in omega-3 fatty acids into your beverages or increased the fibre content in your cereal, but those drinks and cereals are still loaded with sugars, and possibly food colourings that you should keep to a minimum. The last thing we want is for our kids (or better yet, the parents) to think that since it can do you some good, it's ok to eat lots of it.

2. All yogurts have probiotics in them.

Yep. Danon isn't the only one. Sure, they have a particular strain of probiotic, but still, the yogurt process itself, requires the use of probiotics. The concept of "bacteria" in foods was always given a bad rap until recently with the whole Activia challenge craze a few years back. The only difference between yogurt that is labelled "probiotic" versus one that doesn't is simply the mark up in price.

1. The Health Industry Doesn't Want You To Look at Clinical Evidence

A lot a product's health claims are based on animal based studies, or even test tube studies. Take the case for acai juice. Companies look at what's in the juice (for example, an antioxidant molecule called polyphenols), they know that polyphenols are antioxidants. Antioxidation is good against the inflammatory response. Therefore they draw the conclusion, acai juice can be used to fight inflammation in everything like asthma and allergies.

Great for marketing, but bad science.

Consumers should be looking for clinical trial evidence. If acai juice is good for asthma, then there should be a study where acai juice was given to those suffering from asthma, and to see if the number of cases of asthma attacks were decreased or severity decreased compared to some kind of placebo.

Bottom Line: There you have it. The top 5 things the health industry doesn't want you to know.

Keep this list on hand. It'll also help you weed out the good manufacturers/companies from the not-so-good. Reputable companies will make an effort to provide clinical trial evidence or have a lot of studies to draw from. In addition, they take quality very seriously (investing heavily into their quality program). This ensures that even though some products are sourced from China, that they meet the stringent North American testing requirements and the same goes for their organic products.

As promised, I'm keeping you updated on the next phase of my training. Over the past few months, I've been taking part in an abs exercise program that focused on exposing the ab muscles by limiting calories, high intensity interval training, and intense resistance training.

If you haven't seen it already, you can find the results here.

During my journey through the abs program, there's always the risk of losing muscle. There's the initial muscle growth as your muscles are stimulated by the different exercise scheme, but after that, the calorie deficit and the high intensity training results in muscle loss. That's just the nature of such programs.

And now it's time for me to switch it up a bit. I will now focus on regaining the muscle I've lost over the months but of course, I'm going to do it in a Mighty Grasshopper fashion. Of course I have no intention of getting "huge" or "bulking up" - I just want to fill out my clothes a bit more but stay within the same t-shirt size.

The goal: I have 2 months to build muscle within workout duration of only 7 minutes.

Yep, 7 minutes of weight/resistance training, 5 days a week.

That's it.

Sceptical? I know I am. But I'm going to give it a try.

I will be tracking my progress based on the weight/resistance I'm using, as well as reps I can complete within each workout. I have to admit, I really look forward to cutting down my workouts to only 7 minutes.

How can a workout be squeezed into 7 minutes? Is this even possible? Yes. As long as you keep 3 things in mind:

1. Fatigue the muscles

Not only are you stressing your muscles, but you're continuously improving either in terms of increasing resistance or repetitions.

2. Visualize

Apparently, it's not how much you lift but how much your mind believes to be lifting. A lot of the stimulation on muscles in neuronal - meaning that it relies on your nervous system, not just the stress you put on your muscles. By keeping the mind in the game, you're really creating that nervous connection awareness to stimulate muscle growth.

3. Get in the zone

This is about being in a state of physical and mental awareness where you're just unstoppable. Either it was at work, where you were so focussed on the projects or problems at hand and you just powered through the work with ease. Or perhaps you were playing basketball and you couldn't miss a basket. Perhaps in your martial arts training, the attackers just seemed to move slower than normal. This is about being in the zone. In order to get the most out of 7 minutes, you'll need to be in the zone.

Quite interesting stuff isn't it? I'm going to be my own proof that it works, or it doesn't. Stay tuned!

For those of you interested, you can find the program I'm using here and I strongly encourage you to join me on this new journey.

Mighty Fit Grasshopper tosses away the concept of eating healthy, unprocessed foods and eats his heart out while on vacation. Read on to see how you can eat all you want on your summer trip and not ruin that beach body you've worked so hard for!

I've been exercising and eating healthy since February of this year. I started when I started the16 week journey to sexy six pack abs. During those 16 weeks, I followed a routine that consisted of resistance training, high intensity cardiovascular training and watched what I ate by sticking to whole, unprocessed low GI foods. After the 16 weeks was up, I've been keeping to a similar schedule but not as intense.

Well, last weekend, I thought it was time to just give that up (albeit, temporarily) and enjoy food the way it was meant to be enjoyed - flavourful, greasy, deep fried and smothered in gravy!!

I love food. No doubt about that. So I want to show you exactly what I ate and how that affected my weight/fitness.

The trip wasn't too long - it was a mini road trip from Vancouver, Canada to Seattle/Bellevue and there was only one goal in mind: eat whatever you want, enjoy the American-sized portions and enjoy the drive down there.

NO PROBLEM!

Eatery #1 - Jack In The Box

We don't have these up in Vancouver, so I knew I had to hit a JIB. It was amazing - I grabbed a sourdough steak melt. It was cheese and onions covered in cheese - made fresh. It was a great lunch! By the way, the "regular" sized cups that we got would be considered a large in Canada - awesome. To that I say, "bring it on!"

Eatery #2 - Mandarin Grill and Buffet

This was dinner. What an amazing restaurant. The selection was huge! 3 stations of Chinese food, that included seafood items, a sushi bar (freshly made right before your eyes), seafood section, dessert bar (including soft serve ice cream), salad bar and a Mongolie grill! On top of that, there was other odd items like pizza that was thrown into the mix

I ate everything you see here.

Eatery #3 - Five Point Cafe

For breakfast, we wanted diner-style breakfast. We drove into Seattle that morning and headed for the Five Point Cafe. We got the "breakfast-size" chicken fried steak. As you can see in the picture, this thing was ridiculous in size. 11oz chicken, breaded and deep fried, smothered in country gravy, topped with 2 eggs and toast, all on top of a mound of hash browns.

For the same price in Canada, you would get 2 eggs, 2 sausage links, bacon strips, toast, a side of hashbrowns and maybe some pancakes...WEAK.

This breakfast was a tastebud adventure! It was just really good. But by the end of it, there was just TOO MUCH!! at least it was for me. My poor girlfriend only got halfway through. I tried my best to eat it all, but I just couldn't do it.

Eatery #4 - Topatio's Mexican Restaurant

By now, all this food was catching up to me. Feeling sluggish and my normal "hungry clock" was so out of whack. But, we had to venture on. Vancouver has nothing much for Mexican food, so we checked out this place.

We had the steak fajitas for two. All I can say is wow. The amount of steak and beans/rice was phenomenal. It was all very tasty! And you could really stuff those tortilla's without worrying about running out of the steak or beans or guacamole. Freedom - at last!

Eatery #5 - Claim Jumpers

By this time, I couldn't really eat any more. But I was hungry. My head and heart says no, but my stomach said yes. By this time, my body was aching for some healthier options..

So here's my French dip, with a side salad. On the surface, it may seem healthy, with the protein and salad but throw in dressing, sauces, bread, this dish was over a thousand calories. Tasty as heck though!

Metabolism Control

I knew that if I am going to eat like this, I had better make sure that I try my best to keep up my metabolism. That meant, where I could, I had to incorporate some type of resistance training and/or cardio training.

Unfortunately, the hotel wasn't as helpful as I thought it was going to be. I picked a hotel that listed a gym as one of its amenities. But take a look at these pictures - the size of this "gym" was a joke...

Luckily I did bring my MightyBands and decided to move the workout from the gym and into the hotel room. It was great, I hooked up the door anchor to the washroom door and I was good to go.

My workout was a mix up of what I normally do during the 16 week abs program with a little bit more of the cardio exercises from Mica's workout. I made sure my workout was intense and fast - by the end of them, I was dripping in sweat. Made me feel less guilty after eating all this food...

Final meal - NO MORE FOOD!!

I was hungry during dinner on the day we got back, but I was in no mood for food. The idea of meat, pasta, rice, bread just made me sick. So instead, we opted for fruits and veggies.

Nothing like a big bowl of fruit, topped with yogurt as dinner!

So did I gain weight? get fat?

I'm happy to report that I didn't gain any significant weight! I managed to eat fatty foods but didn't have to suffer any long term consequences. It certainly helped to exercise during the trip, but at only 20 minute sessions, it was a nice break in the day that didn't interrupt the vacation feel.

Bottom Line: If you're on vacation, you can eat to your heart's content but be sure to keep your metabolism up by performing a HIIT session or high intensity superset resistance training. That intensity will put your body into overdrive mode and keep burning calories even hours after your workout. Perfect! That way you can go and indulge on all the good eats your vacation presents you!

Genuine Health’s got a new product on the block to help ease joint pain and stiffness..in only 10 days! Let’s take a look at this all natural, fast-acting joint pain solution – Genuine Health Fast Joint Care+

Genuine Health’s Fast Joint Care+ promises pain relief and management associated with osteoarthritis with a novel ingredient known as Natural Eggshell Membrane “NEM”. As the name indicates, NEM is derived from the membrane found in poultry eggs and undergoes a proprietary process that is capable of producing 100% pure natural eggshell membrane powder.

What’s so good about NEM? Well analysis of the NEM reveals a relatively high protein content and moderate quantities of glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, hyaluronic acid and type I collagen – all being key ingredients found in joints and considered of interest in terms of supplementation for helping to reduce joint and connective tissue pain.

Interestingly, two clinical trials have been published investigating the safety and efficacy of NEM on joint pain associated with osteoarthritis. Both studies look promising, and given my history of knee pain, I was very excited to give Fast Joint Care+ a try.

Product Label and Design:

I’ve reviewed another Genuine Health product before and one thing I can really appreciate of Genuine Health’s product line is the design that goes into each and every one of their products. I love looking at their packaging – it’s top notch.

The Fast Joint Care+ bottle is packaged in an attractive box – here the green, white and purple colour scheme, consistent with Genuine Health’s product line, is apparent. An image of a tennis player hits home and tells the consumer exactly what this is for. There is a lot information on the box, but the layout of that information is designed in a way where it doesn’t overwhelm the consumer.

Another cool thing – it shows you exactly what a capsule will look like and it even says that it works within 7-10 days! Got to hand it to their marketing department – it works fast, it informs the consumer and it lets the customer know without really having to examine the packaging too carefully.

The bottle of Fast Joint Care+ is pretty much standard with its white, green and purple colour scheme. The design is fresh, the bottle is cute and overall, it satisfies the bar that Genuine Health has set for product label and design.

Health Claim:

Unlike many other products out there that just try to squish out as many health claims as possible, this one has one clear message – the product is to “help relieve joint pain and stiffness.” I love its simplicity.

To add, it only requires one capsule daily. That’s it! Taking this stuff can’t be any easier.

Regulatory Compliance:

Genuine Health has been in the Canadian market for quite a while, and so it’s very familiar with Health Canada’s labeling requirements. I’ve also read the two clinical studies investigating NEM and this product reflects the studies very well – the label’s health claim, daily dosage and quantity per capsule all reflect that of the criteria used in the clinical trials.

All the standard information is there – tamper evidence warning, medicinal and non-medicinal ingredient listings, health claim, dosage and adverse reactions.

There is currently no NPN for this product at the time of writing, but this doesn’t surprise me given the assessment backlog. (Health Canada will soon be issuing interim numbers for products without an NPN, but which has not been refused or granted an NPN, called “exemption numbers”. I will discuss more about this in a future post, but in the mean time, I look forward to seeing an E number on this product in the coming months.) All of Genuine Health’s products are made in a GMP compliant facility which is essential in this day and age.

Appearance/Smell

Each capsule of Fast Joint Care+ contains 500 mg of Natural Eggshell Membrane. NEM is an off-white powder and is contained in medium-sized capsule. No odours stand out. Each capsule, overall, looks very clean and well manufactured.

Does It Work?

There are two published studies where NEM is used at 500 mg/day to treat subjects with osteoarthritis. In both studies, the investigators found that the group given NEM experienced statistically significant improvement in pain and flexibility compared to the placebo group. Interesting! I decided to try this product out in two ways – one being to test the product within its 10 day window and another test to see the results after 10 days.

1. Did it work within 10 days?

Now to recap on my own knee problems: during the time of taking this product, I was nearing the end of my 16 weeks sexy abs program. This program would consist of exercises such as squats, one-legged squats, lunges, as well as cardiovascular training such as running/sprinting on a treadmill.

As I would perform these exercises, I would always my knees would click, or (especially my left knee) they would get incredibly sore. I am constantly aware of this as to ensure proper form and pace of my exercise and to not push myself too hard where I would really injure my knee.

Before I started Fast Joint Care+, I was on a week of exercises that involved one legged squats (using my own body weight). I noticed that my left knee was clicking a lot more than my right one was. They were not particularly sore. During my cardiovascular workout days, I noticed that my left knee did get a bit tender near the end of the sessions as well.

As instructed, I took 1 capsule per day everyday for at least about a week. During that week of exercises, I had to perform one legged squats again (I intentionally took the product during these two weeks as the exercises were the same). Again, my knees were just as “clicky” as the weeks prior and, during my cardiovascular routine, they were just as sore.

In fact, I remember that during the days leading up to the test week, I didn’t notice any improvement to my knees.

Not going to give up now, so I decided to extend this test further…

2. Did it work after 10 days?

At my own risk, I decided to double the dosage and finish the bottle of Fast Joint Care+. At this point, I just wanted to see if there was any improvement at all. I would keep track of it during the days I worked out and also compared notes when I finished the entire bottle compared to the 10 day test period.

Again, I didn’t notice any improvement to my knees.

I was also due to run the Vancouver Sun Run. I lasted to about the 9 km mark, and after that, my left knee pretty much gave up. I managed to slow jog the rest of the way…but it was a slow and painful jog.

Verdict: NEM may work for others, as published in the clinical trials, but it didn’t work for me.

Adverse Reactions:

After finishing up the entire bottle of NEM, I did not experience any adverse reactions from taking this product.

Bottom Line: After reading the clinical trials performed on Natural Eggshell Membrane, I was really hopeful that Genuine Health’s Fast Joint Care+ would ease my knee pain. Unfortunately, it didn’t help with my knee pain within the 10 days nor after the 10 days, even after having finished the entire bottle. But perhaps, it might work for you?

To check out Genuine Health’s Fast Joint Care + click here.

For the clinical trial #1 using NEM, click here.

For the clinical trial #2 using NEM, click here.