How To Get “Good Grades” On Your Food Choices
By Tom Venuto
Embracing “You Are What You Eat”
The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, said that you can’t step in the same river twice. What he
meant was that, even though it may look the same every day, it’s always a different river
because of the never-ending flow of new water running through it. The same is true of the
human body.
This very minute as you’re reading this, old cells in your body are dying and new ones are
replacing them. Some experts say this cellular turnover occurs at a rate as high as 50,000
cells per second. As you ponder that incredible thought, ask yourself, “Where does the raw
material for all these new cells come from?” Everyone has heard the old maxim, “you are
what you eat” – it’s the most clichéd nutrition saying of all. But what if it were really true?
If you accepted it as literal truth, you would start to get very, very careful about what you
put in your body every day. You would start to think before you eat. You would feel an
overwhelming desire to put a higher grade of fuel in your body and provide better raw
materials for cell construction. You would make your food choices much the way body
builders make their food choices – very carefully.
Most people take their food choices very lightly, not realizing that everything they eat has
an impact on their health, energy, performance and body composition, especially over time.
Even worse, some people give no thought at all to what they eat every day – they eat
purely for pleasure and convenience, without giving any consideration to the long term
consequences.
But even if you already agree with these ideas, the big question is, how do you know what
foods to choose? Something that should, by all rights, be very simple – eating - seems
impossibly complicated today. When you walk down a supermarket aisle or
look at a
restaurant menu, you’re faced with a dizzying array of choices. Label claims like “low
cholesterol,” “free-range”, “30% less fat,” “all natural,” and “100% organic” grab your
attention and seem to scream, “pick me!” Not to mention how food gurus are everywhere –
on TV, on the internet, in the best-selling books – all telling you something different, usually
claiming that one food or food group is the source of all our problems and another is the
miraculous cure.
How do you make a simple assessment of food quality (that doesn’t require a PhD in
nutrition?) How do you know a food is not only healthy, but will also help you get leaner?
Worry no more, because you now have in your hands a simple and logical rating system you
can use to “grade” your food choices.
Why Sort Your Foods Into “Grades?”
This rating system is set up in grades for two reasons. One is because grades are a concept
everyone can relate to. Everyone went to school, and year after year, was graded on their
performance, so everyone understands this. Two, because the overwhelming belief held by
most people is that a food is either good or bad – and this belief is reinforced by the “gurus”
with their rigid diet philosophies. The truth is, food choices don’t fall neatly into two
categories; “pass” or “fail.” Food quality runs across a spectrum, similar to temperature and
color. At what temperature does hot become cold? Where does black become white? Black
and white or hot and cold are simply two ends of a spectrum. It’s the same with food
choices. Food quality can range from highly processed with zero nutritional value and very
high calorie density on the low end (an “F”) to all-natural with high nutritional value on the
high end (an “A”).
Here's an example: An apple is an A grade food. An apple is a raw food found in its natural
state, un-tampered with by man. Now, what about applesauce? It too is nothing but apples,
but since the apples have been pureed and are not in their most natural state, it has
dropped to a "B" - still a good "grade," mind you, though if it’s sweetened with sugar, you’re
a B- or C+ at best. Turn it into apple juice and you're down to a "C" (still a passing grade,
but now you’ve lost fiber, increased caloric density and turned a whole food into a liquid).
Then if you add sugar (sweetened apple drink), you're down to a "D". Finally, if the apples
eventually become a fat and sugar-filled apple pie, your grade has plummeted to an "F"
(yes, you flunked!).
You could take nearly every food through this type of scale to grade it. After you assign a
grade, then your goals are simple: First, look for places in your current meal plan where
your grades have room for improvement, then improve them. If you have straight A’s
already, or even A’s and B’s, the chances are good that you’re in great health. The chances
are also good that you’re at or near your ideal weight, as long as you’re also diligently
tracking the quantity of food you eat, not just the quality.
A second goal is to avoid including any low grade foods as staples in your daily meal plan.
Any food can be worked into your plan occasionally in moderation (I wouldn’t dare take
away your apple pie completely). No foods are totally forbidden, unless you have some kind
of allergy or health reason that you must avoid them. What I’m suggesting is that you place
the greatest care in choosing the foods you eat every day – your “staple foods.” What you
eat in small amounts or on rare occasions is of little consequence. Your daily habits are
what make or break you. Your goal is to make the high grade foods the ones you eat every
day, over and over again, day after day. Obviously, this grading system is quite subjective, and there are no clearly drawn lines
between grades. This isn’t a scientific system, nor is it intended to be – it’s a simple decision
making tool and a mindset toward food. Therefore, take the food lists with a grain of salt –
they are merely illustrative, not definitive. Despite the difficulty there may be in assigning a
grade in some cases, and the fact that this list is not technically perfect, the reason I still
teach this concept to my clients and readers is because of how much it has always
resonated with them. It makes people stop and think before they eat it, it’s easy to
understand, it’s fun and it changes behavior in the direction of positive habits.
Although there’s room for personal interpretation, just as a one teacher might assign a
different grade than another teacher when grading a student’s paper, there are some surefire
signs of a low grade food. A low grade food has two distinct characteristics: One, it’s
man made, aka refined or processed. Two, it’s also calorie dense. That gives you a food
that is both unhealthy and fattening when eaten often. So always be asking yourself, “is this
food refined and is this food calorie dense?” The more refined food is, the lower the grade.
The more calorie dense a refined food is, the lower the grade. The worst foods of all - the
“D’s” and “F’s” - are the foods that are highly refined and very calorie dense.
The easiest way to improve your food grades
Okay, “so far, so good,” you’re thinking, “but how do I know if a food is refined or
processed?” Well, probably the easiest way is to focus on eating natural foods as much as
possible. Even this has been a fuzzy subject in the past because there’s no legal or technical
definition of natural, so it’s open to a lot of interpretation (or misinterpretation). We can fix
that problem by establishing our own, very clear definition.
How do you know if a food is “natural” or not? You simply ask: “Did this food come out of
the ground or off the tree / plant this way?" If the answer is yes, then it’s natural and
it’s a high grade food. To take it a step further and include protein foods, you could expand
on this definition and say, “If it grew from the ground, walked, flew or swam, it’s
natural.” (vegetarians, no hate mail please; you can stick with the first definition).
When you eat natural, unprocessed foods, you are usually giving yourself foods that are
higher in nutrient density. In most cases, they are also automatically lower in calorie
density because food refining has a way of packing more calories into a small amount of
food. There are exceptions, such as the healthy fats like fish oil, avocado, coconut, walnuts
and olive oil. These are high in calorie density, but also high in nutrient density. A lot of
people miss out on these nutritious foods because they judge a food’s grade based on
caloric density alone. With natural foods that are high in calories, you simply have to keep the quantity in check. Yes, you can get fat on healthy, natural foods if you eat too much of
them.
A-grade foods should make up the majority of your calories, but if you only ate A-grade
foods and nothing else, your diet would be somewhat restricted and limited (a straight A’s
diet is a strict diet). It might also make it difficult to gain (lean) body weight or fuel high
volume training, because many A-grade foods such as green vegetables and lean proteins
lack the caloric density required to achieve and stay in caloric surplus. That’s one of the
reasons it's ok for most people use “B" foods like whole wheat bread or whole grain pasta
sometimes - especially on a muscle-gaining programs or endurance training programs.
Another reason that B’s are ok is because it expands your nutritional variety tremendously,
and that can help improve your compliance rate. Your nutrition plan is still very high in
quality, but not so strict that you can’t stick with it. Many people allow their grades to be
more relaxed for year-round maintenance (more B foods), but when they’re pursuing a
serious body composition goal, they tighten up their diet and aim for the highest grade
possible.
A-Grade Foods
An A is the highest grade a food can receive. To earn an A-grade, a food must be 100%
natural (not refined or processed in any way). A-grade foods must also be extremely
nutrient dense. These top-of-the line “super-foods” are packed with vitamins, minerals,
antioxidants, carotenoids, phytochemicals, essential fatty acids, fiber and other bioactive
compounds that provide health benefits.
For example, red peppers are the only food with an entire days worth of vitamin C.
Tomatoes contain cancer-fighting lycopene. Spinach is rich in calcium and vitamin D.
Orange veggies like carrots, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash are packed with
carotenoids. Asparagus is loaded with vitamin K. Deep leafy greens like spinach are
nutritional powerhouses with ample quantities of Vitamin K, Carotenoids, Calcium, Iron,
Potassium and Vitamin C. Almost all fibrous carbs and green vegetables get an A grade.
Some would even quality for an A+ because they have extremely high nutrient density with
extremely low calorie density, making them ideal foods for reducing body fat.
Some dieters are afraid of starchy carbohydrates because they’ve been led to believe
they’re fattening. However, starchy carbs are not inherently unhealthy, nor are they
inherently fattening, an excess of calories is what’s fattening. The A-grade starchy
carbohydrates like yams, brown rice and old fashioned oatmeal are staples for athletes,
bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts. Other A-grade starches include black eye peas, lentils,
beans (navy, pinto, kidney, garbanzo), quinoa and barley. It’s true that some people are
carb intolerant and don’t do as well with large amounts of grains and starches, but don’t fall for the “all carbs are fattening” myth. There are plenty of A-grade starchy carbs that are
100% natural, eaten almost exactly the way they came out of the ground.
Fruits, although they are considered a “simple carb” (fructose), are also on the A-list
because they are natural and high in nutritional value. Fat-burning nutrition isn’t as black
and white as complex carbs and simple carbs. Simple versus complex is one consideration,
but the far more important selection criterion is whether a food is refined or natural. Many
people in the low carb community recommend avoiding fruit. Some gurus in the
bodybuilding field do as well. There’s a common belief that fructose is fattening. But think
about it: the fructose in whole fruit is not high fructose corn syrup like you’d find in soda -
this is fruit sugar – exactly the way it came out off the plant or tree. Fruit is an A-grade food
all the way. Dried fruit perhaps might be a B due to the extremely high calorie density
(when water is removed from food, the caloric density increases)
Rounding out the A-grade food category are A-grade proteins, which are the lean, complete
proteins (those containing all the essential amino acids) and the A-grade fats, which are
those high in omega-3’s and other healthy essential fatty acids. Foods such as Salmon,
which are high in protein, and other heart-healthy natural foods high in omega-3 fats could
arguably even be graded an A+ food because of the amazing health benefits of this type of
fat.
A-grade fibrous carbs:
Spinach
Kale
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Brussel sprouts
Green Beans
Asparagus
Collard greens
Green and red peppers
Mushrooms
Tomatoes
Onions
All other fibrous carbs, green vegetables or salad vegetables.
A-grade starchy carbs:
Yams
Sweet potatoes
Barley
Oatmeal (Old fashioned unsweetened)
Beans, all types
Black eye peas
Brown rice
Long grain slow cooked rice
Lentils
White potatoes
Red potatoes
Quinoa
Carrots.
A-grade simple carbs:
All fresh fruits (not including canned, sweetened, or juice).
A-grade fats:
Flaxseed oil
Essential oil blend supplements
Fish Oil
Fatty fish (salmon, trout, herring, sardines)
Nuts & seeds
Nut butters (natural/ unsweetened)
Coconut
Olives
Extra virgin olive oil
Avocado.
A-grade proteins:
Chicken breast
Turkey breast
Extra lean ground turkey
Ostrich
Buffalo/Bison/lean game meats
Fish, all types
Shellfish
Egg whites
Whole eggs
Top round steak (leanest cut of red meat).
B-Grade Foods
A “B” is a not the best grade, but it’s a good grade nonetheless – very good. Physique
athletes (bodybuilders, fitness models and figure competitors) often drop out B grade foods
prior to competitions or photo shoots, opting for 100% A-grade choices. This makes the diet
more restrictive. If you’re a perfectionist, you might strive for “straight A’s,” and that’s a noble sentiment.
But keep in mind that it’s not only okay for you to eat some B grade foods most of the year,
it might actually be a good thing because it makes your nutrition plan much easier to
maintain. Adherence to your nutrition program is much easier when you give yourself more
options. On the other hand, if you’re preparing for a physique competition or you’re on a fat
loss peaking phase, then it makes sense to “tighten up” your diet and choose as many Agrade
foods as possible.
There are many good B-grade foods to choose from. Allowing products that are 100% whole
grain, yet slightly processed (whole wheat bread, cereal or pasta, for example), opens up a
whole new category of options and adds great variety to your nutrition program. Why
doesn’t whole wheat bread get an “A?” Aren’t whole grains top shelf nutrition? The main
reason is whole wheat and whole grain bread products don’t a get an A is because they’re
processed. Although it may be whole grain, and not white, enriched, bleached flour, a loaf
of bread doesn’t grow on a tree does it? It’s unsweetened (except for a tiny amount of corn
syrup) but it is slightly processed. An all-natural food is one you eat in the same form that it
came from in nature. Also, there are a number of people who don’t respond as well to
grains or wheat products due to allergies, intolerances or other health or gastrointestinal
issues.
B-grade proteins include those which are still low in fat, but are not as lean as their A-grade
counterparts. For example, flank steak is a favorite of many fitness and physique athletes,
but it’s not quite as lean as top round steak, so the top round gets an A and the flank gets a
B. The food with the lower calorie density grades higher – and that’s especially true when
you’re talking about weight control (there are a handful of calorically dense fats and oils
that are extremely nutritious, so they make the A list, but when weight control is the issue,
you have to keep the calories in check, regardless of where they come from).
Dairy products first appear in the B grade list, because most of them are at least somewhat
processed foods. Also, as the fat content goes up, the caloric density goes up. Full fat
cheeses for example, while containing quality milk proteins, can add very large amounts of
calories to meals.
B-grade Carbohydrates:
100% whole grain, unsweetened boxed cereals
100% whole grain cooked cereals
100% whole grain pastas
100% whole grain breads
100% Whole wheat pitas
Quick brown rice
Quick oatmeal (unsweetened).
B-grade Proteins & dairy products:
Flank steak
Extra Lean top sirloin
Extra lean ground beef
Very lean cuts of pork
Low Fat ground turkey
Nonfat or 1% low fat sour cream
Nonfat or 1% low fat cheese
Nonfat or 1% low fat cream cheese
Nonfat or 1% low fat, sugar free yogurt
Nonfat or 1% lowfat cottage cheese.
C-Grade Foods
A “C” is an average grade; not poor, not failing, but not good either. If most of your diet
consists of “C” grade foods, the nutritional quality of diet will be lower and it’s more likely
that your calorie density will be automatically higher.
C-grade carbohydrates are those which are processed or sweetened slightly, but most of
them are still made from a whole grain. Starches that are processed (white rice) also get C’s
because even though they are complex carbohydrates, they are stripped of some of their
original nutritional value.
Most boxed cereals such as Cheerios only get a C because even though they’re made from
whole grain oats, they’re sweetened with white sugar. If you go to a health food store you
can often find generic brand sugar free “Cheerios” (usually called “oat o’s or “Oat circles,”
etc.) This might bump the grade up to a B. Any cereal sweetened with refined sugar
automatically gets bumped down to a C. If the cereal is mostly sugar (think Fruit Loops or
Sugar Smacks), it’s more like a D or even an F if the calorie density is high.
C-grade carbohydrates also include very calorie dense carbs, like fruit juice. Fruit juice
might be considered a fairly healthy food were it not for the high calorie density and the fact
that liquid calories are not handled in the body like solid food. The satiety mechanisms in
your gut and brain do not register liquids the way they do solid foods. That gives liquid
calories of all kinds a mediocre grade at best, and when calorie dense, a low grade.
C-grade proteins are those which are still relatively unprocessed, but higher in fat, which
brings up the caloric density. Very low fat lunch meats are C foods, but generally lunch
meats are not good choices because they’re processed foods (not real meat, but a meat
“product.”)
C-grade carbohydrates:
Grits
Cream of rice
Cream of wheat
White rice
Pasta made from enriched flour (durum semolina)
Whole grain, low fat snack foods (pretzels, crackers, etc)
Bagels
Sweetened and /or flavored oatmeal
Boxed cereals, sweetened (sugar sweetened raisin bran, etc)
Enriched wheat bread
Unsweetened fruit juice
C-grade proteins:
Turkey thighs or dark meat
Chicken thighs
Ground turkey
Sirloin steak
Other moderately high fat red meats
Very low fat sliced chicken breast (lunch meat)
Very low fat sliced turkey breast (lunch meat)
Very low fat sliced ham (lunch meat)
Low fat ham or pork
Low fat 2% cheeses
Low fat 2% cream cheese
Low fat 2% cottage cheese
Low fat 2% sour cream
Low fat 2% unsweetened yogurt
D-Grade Foods
A “D” is a poor grade, no doubt about it. If you’re eating a lot of D-grade foods, you’ve
seriously compromised the nutrient density of your meal plan. You’re getting calories
without much health value. You’re also very likely to be getting too many calories. D foods
are those that are high in refined sugars or made primarily from bleached white flour. Dgrade
foods also include proteins that are moderately high in total fat, saturated fat or trans
fats and proteins that are highly processed and refined. You might think you’re doing well
by eating “low fat hot dogs,” but refined meat products – even those low in fat – should not
be a regular feature in your daily meal plan. High saturated fat content also lowers your grades. The role of saturated fat in disease is
controversial, and to some degree saturated fats have been exonerated from the sole
responsibility for heart disease. It’s more complicated than that. Saturates should definitely
make up a portion of your dietary fat calories. However, a high saturated fat intake at the
expense of omega-3 fats or healthy monounsaturated fats, especially in the context of a
high sugar diet as well, is not a nutritionally optimal. Also remember that fat and carbs
together can be an extremely calorie dense combination. The lower your carbs, the more fat
you can eat, but in this grading system (in the context of a low or moderate fat diet), foods
high in fat get lower grades (C or D), because of high calorie density, with only a handful of
exceptions we’ve previously discussed.
D-grade carbohydrates:
Sweetened boxed breakfast cereals with no whole grains
Snack foods made from white flour (pretzels, crackers, etc.)
Bleached, enriched white bread (i.e., “wonder bread”) or white bread products
Muffins and baked goods made with white flour, sugar and or hydrogenated oils
D-grade proteins & dairy products:
Low fat sliced chicken breast (lunch meat)
Low fat sliced turkey breast (lunch meat)
Sausage
Low fat ground beef
Reduced fat beef jerky
Reduced fat hot dogs
Reduced fat bacon
Cream cheese, full fat
Cottage cheese, full fat
Sour cream, full fat
Cream, half and half
Butter (butter is arguably a neutral fat, but it’s very calorie dense)
F-Grade Foods
F foods (and arguably the D foods), are the foods you should not eat as part of your regular
daily meal plans. If you eat them at all, save them for free meals or special occasions
(holidays, birthdays, celebrations, etc). These are the foods that not only spell disaster for
your physique; they’re almost always bad for your health.
F-grade foods include the
following categories
1) Foods containing trans fats
2) Foods high in saturated and total fat
3) Highly processed or refined foods
4) Highly sweetened foods or foods that are mostly
pure sugar
5) Foods that are high in refined sugars and fats
6) Processed, high fat meats.
Foods very high in saturated fats and or trans fats:
Hydrogenated tropical oils (Palm oil, palm kernel oil)
Hydrogenated vegetable oils
Anything deep-fried
Margarine
Very high calorie and high fat cuts of pork
Very high calorie and high fat cuts of red meat
Ground beef (full fat)
Foods made mostly of white sugar or other refined carbohydrates (corn syrup, etc)
Candy
Sweets
Milk chocolate or chocolate candy
Cookies
Soda
Sugar-sweetened beverages
Pastries and
Baked goods high in both fats and sugars
Pies
Doughnuts
Croissants
Éclairs
Cinnamon buns
Cakes
Foods high in both refined carbohydrates and fat
Fettuccine alfredo
Potato chips
Fast food
Cheeseburgers on white buns (worse with bacon)
Sweetened peanut butter
Meats that are processed and high in fat
Sliced full fat ham (lunch meat)
Sliced full fat turkey breast (lunch meat)
Sliced full fat chicken breast (lunch meat)
All other full fat luncheon meats and cold cuts
Hot dogs
Salami
Beef jerky
Beef sticks.
Your Score?
So how did you do? Did you pass? Did you get straight A’s? Did you flunk? Don’t worry, if
your “grades” weren’t so good, it doesn’t matter. What’s in the past is done. What matters
now is that you look ahead and make an effort to improve your grades. In fact, you can
give yourself kudos every time you simply move up a grade, just as if your report card at
school was a C, but you moved up to a B. Don’t feel like you must get straight A’s. If you
get mostly A’s & B’s, you’ll get fantastic results. There’s no time like the present – you can
start with your very next meal.
-Tom Venuto
www.BurnTheFat.com
www.BurnTheFatBlog.com
PS. Join us online for more nutrition discussions at:
http://www.burnthefatinnercircle.com
