Last week I was talking about nutrition with one of my workout
buddies and when I mentioned grass fed beef and "organic food” he
asked, "Do you mean like what you get at Whole Foods Market?"

I said, "Yes, exactly... that's a natural food and organic
supermarket." He said, "Yeah well, that place costs so much, I call it
Whole Paycheck!"

I was rolling on the floor laughing, but the truth is, organic food
really is expensive and so is grass fed beef and free range chicken, so
it's a valid question to ask, “Is it worth it?”

After researching the subject and doing some personal experiments
with my own diet, let me offer you my take on it from a bodybuilder’s
viewpoint. This is a perspective on organics you may not have heard
before.

First, look at it this way - if you put the cheapest fuel in your
luxury car, how well is it going to run and how many miles are you
going to get out of it?

While I'm on car analogies, health and fitness author and educator
Paul Chek once wrote about how ridiculous it is to watch how many
$75,000 + cars pull up to the Mcdonald's or Burger King drive through
window to buy $1.99 hamburgers.

I would say that's a serious case of screwed up priorities, wouldn't
you? The driver has no problem shelling out the $1,100 monthly car
payment, but it's too much to ask him to put premium fuel into his own
"bodily vehicle."

How can you put ANY price tag on your body and your health? You can buy another car, but you've only got one body.

Now, as for the grass fed beef and organic foods question….

For best results in body composition improvement, which I define as
burning fat and or building muscle, (and I'll even go as far as to say
for optimal health as well), I am a believer in including animal
proteins, including lean meats.

I have no wish to take up the vegetarian debate in this article. I
respect vegetarians and acknowledge that a healthy and lean body can be
developed with a vegetarian diet if it is done properly, although it
may be more challenging for strict vegans to gain muscle for various
reasons.

However, in recommending animal protein as part of a healthy fat
loss and muscle building nutrition program, I do agree that we all need
to give some serious thought to what is in our meat (and in the rest of
our food).

Some people say that meat is part of our “evolutionary” diet and
it’s the way we were intended to eat and I wouldn’t argue with that.
But is the meat we’re eating in today’s modern society the same as what
was hunted and eaten many thousands of years ago by our cave-man
ancestors, or has some “toxic stuff” found its way into our beef,
poultry and fish that wasn’t there before?

I also think we should consider what is *missing* from our
commercially grown food, that is supposed to be in there, that probably
used to be there in the past, but may not be today.

A lot of people are not paying any attention to this... even people
who should know better. I admit it - I was oblivious to this for a long
time myself. Here’s why:

I am not your typical "health and wellness" or "weight loss" expert.
I am also competitive bodybuilder. We bodybuilders are well known for
eating very clean diets with lots of lean protein and natural carbs, as
well as for looking like "the picture of health" with our ripped abs
and impressive muscularity.

We eat our oatmeal and egg whites for breakfast, and proudly walk
around with our chicken breast, rice and broccoli or our flank steak,
yams and asparagus, and boast about how perfect and clean our meals are
and how our diets are already “clean” and could not be improved.

But how many bodybuilders or fitness enthusiasts are there - even
serious, dedicated and educated ones - who don't give a single thought
to the poisonous chemicals that might be lurking in our supposedly
"clean" food?

The Food and Drug Administration lists more than 3,000 chemicals
that can be added to our food supply. One billion pounds of pesticides
and farming chemicals are used on our crops every year.

Depending on what source you quote, the average American consumes as
much as 150 pounds of chemicals and food additives per year.

Does ANYBODY out there think that this is good for you?

Didn't think so.

If you had a way to avoid all these chemicals and toxins, would you at least explore it, even if it cost a little more?

Although this topic is controversial and hotly debated, organic food is gaining in popularity and seems to fit this bill.

Food grown on certified organic farms does not contain:

Pesticides
Herbicides
Fungicides
Hormones
Antibiotics
Chemical fertilizers

It is also not:

Irradiated
Genetically modified

Beyond the "certified organic" label, grass fed beef and free range chicken (and eggs), have other advantages.

Not only can there be tons of antibiotics, hormones, and other
chemicals in our meat, but also commercially raised beef is fed grain
or corn and yet that is not what the animals were meant to eat.

The result - aside from sick, drugged animals - is a higher overall
fat, higher saturated fat and a screwed up ratio of omega three to
omega six fats, which is a very big problem today - even when you think
you're eating "clean." Most people accept the idea that “you are what
you eat,” but they forget that the animals we eat are what they ate!

Last but not least, proponents of organic food suggest that the
vitamin, mineral and phytonutrient content of commercially grown foods
can be anywhere from a little bit low to virtually absent.

So... if organic and or grass fed beef and free range chicken can
help us avoid some of these problems and dangers, then I'm all for it
and the extra investment.

I started eating grass fed beef almost exclusively (except for my
occasional restaurant steak), quite a few years ago, and I even
mentioned it in my book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle (www.burnthefat.com).

I can't say I eat entirely organic. I eat a lot of it, but not 100%.
If I'm eating an apple or some blueberries, and it doesn't happen to be
organic, I don’t freak out over it. When you really study deeply into
the subject of food processing, industrial pollution and commercial
farming, it can almost scare you half to death, but I don't recommend
getting "alarmist" about it.

Sometimes it's the people who live in fear of a disease who are most
likely to get it. I for one, am not going to live in a plastic bubble
to isolate myself from a “toxic world”… oh, wait... make that a ceramic
bubble, plastics are really bad for you.

All joking aside, the fear of toxins can be taken to the point where
the fear itself is unhealthy, but the more I study this subject - from
a variety of sources and perspectives - the more the organic argument
does make sense to me.

I’ve built my career in fitness based on being a natural
bodybuilder, which means no steroids or performance enhancing drugs, so
why would I expose myself to other chemicals if I can avoid them?

Honestly, I can't say I noticed any dramatic change in my physique
or in the way I feel – at least not yet. I have always eaten clean and
I was a successful bodybuilder for many years before I started eating
more organic food and grass fed beef.

However, I feel confident about my decision to spend the extra money
on grass fed beef, free range chicken (and eggs), and an increasing
amount of organic food, knowing that I am avoiding toxins and getting
more of the nutritional value I need to support my training and my
health long term.

I'm certain this is the type of nutritional lifestyle change
that can accrue benefits over time, even if you don't see an immediate
"transformation."

One thing I would suggest before you run out for organic fruits and
vegetables or grass fed beef and so on, is to consider what kind of
shape your diet and your lifestyle are in right now. If your diet is
currently such a total mess that you’re drinking a lot of alcohol,
smoking, abusing coffee and stimulants, not even eating ANY fruits and
vegetables to begin with...

And if your idea of lean protein is the processed lunch meat you get
in your foot long sub at the local deli, then I think it might be a
little moot to worry about whether your fruits and veggies are 100%
certified organic or whether your beef is grass fed. Just start
cleaning up your diet and establishing new healthy habits, one step at
a time. Focus on nutrition and lifestyle improvement, not perfection.

There are some very strong opinions on this subject. I am aware of
that, and I'm not going to stand up on a pulpit and preach either way.
What I have done here is simply share what I have found from my own
research and what I decided to do in my own personal health and
bodybuilding regimen.

My advice to everyone else is to become educated about what is
really in your food, including how it is raised or grown, and to
continuously seek ways to improve your nutrition above the level it’s
at now.

For more information about the "natural bodybuilder's method" for losing fat, building muscle and achieving peak health, visit: www.BurnTheFat.com

Your friend and coach,

Tom Venuto

www.BurnTheFat.com

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified
personal trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning
specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle"
Tom has written more than 200 articles and has been featured in print
magazines such as IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding,
Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as
on hundreds of websites worldwide.

For information on Tom's Fat Loss
program, visit: www.BurnTheFat.com