“The A Food, B Food Lecture"

How To Get “Good Grades” On Your Food Choices

By Tom Venuto

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 

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