For 24-year-old Mike Crooks, health is his job.

As a nurse working in Florida, he’s always telling people to be more healthy. But up until recently, he wasn’t taking his own advice. Weighing in at more than 300 pounds, Mike said he felt like a walking hypocrite, and that being overweight made him feel awful.

At his heaviest, Mike weighed 337 pounds. But at his current weight of 204, he’s undergone an incredible transformation and lost more than 130 pounds – the majority of which took place in a brief six-month time period later on in his weight loss journey.

Mike had been overweight most of his life, and knew that genetically he hadn’t hit the jackpot as diabetes ran on both sides of his family. His earliest memories of being overweight started around age 10. “I always struggled with my weight,” he said. “I felt like the self-loathing kid, and I remember being very uncomfortable socially. I was extremely introverted and wasn’t into the social scene at all.”
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For the average American on a busy schedule, eating several, small meals throughout the day can seem impossible. In fact, it’s a downright miracle if three, square meals on any given day actually happen.

As a result of this work-focused lifestyle that often strays from any diet concern, there seems to be a trend in skipping breakfast, eating out for lunch, and overdoing at night to compensate extreme hunger in the evening.

But we all know this isn’t the best approach to health; or at least we should know. The benefits of eating several small meals throughout the day have been touted by many health professionals, and include optimized metabolism function, weight loss, and getting to eat more often.

Stephanie Mansour – CEO of Step It Up with Steph – is a trainer and coach for a weight loss reality TV show called “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.” During the last season, Mansour helped one of her clients lose 83 pounds in just 12 weeks using the small-meal diet approach, focusing on five small meals throughout the day.

Mansour trains all of her clients this way, saying it regulates and speeds up the metabolism, spurs fat burn, and improves digestion.
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We have another case of false advertising on our hands, but this time it’s in the juice.

A recent article from CBS reported that POM Wonderful – maker of the popular 100% pomegranate juice – has been found guilty of deceptively advertising its pomegranate products when they claimed they were capable of treating, preventing, or reducing the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer and even erectile dysfunction.

The Federal Trade Commission’s main complaint with the company was that their claims were not well-founded or scientifically proven, yet they were presented to the public as such. The FTC feared consumers would be misled by their advertisements, which appeared in national publications both in print and online.

POM Wonderful’s parent company, POM, also found itself in a similar situation in 2010 after the FTC caught wind that the company was making lofty claims about their products saying they were “The Antioxidant Superpower,” and that they helped prevent heart disease.
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You know a recipe is going to be good when it starts off with a 21st birthday story. Please, bear with me.

On my 21st birthday back in the summer of 2007, I gathered up two of my best friends and my dad and we went to On the Border Mexican Cantina (classy, I know). In a surprisingly un-awkward act of kindness, my father offered to buy me my first official alcoholic beverage of my young adult life. And what did I choose? A sangria swirl.
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When you are in a rush and hungry, we’re all guilty of turning to fast food. It is quick and convenient. However, it’s anything but healthy.

People hear the horror stories about fast food chain employees who tamper with food. Just last week, one diner found a finger at Arby’s. Yet, we rarely get to hear about what is actually in our food. Most employees are preparing food in a harmless fashion for consumers. They get to see all the content that goes into a one-dollar hamburger. This isn’t another article about the terrible things employees do to food, instead it is about how people are blinded by marketing tactics and advertisements.

A recent thread on Reddit asked restaurant employees to share what they know about the preparation, ingredients, and processing of the foods they served.
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