Issue #2070
- WEALTHY: Why aggressive investors should think like a conservative (Rick Pendergraft)]
- HEALTHY: How a "healthy" snack can trigger an eating binge (Shane Ellison)
- WISE: Phil Gramm on shopping for food
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- The writing mistake that could be killing your sales (Suzanne Richardson)
- Why Chardonnay is considered to be the "king" of white wines (Michael Masterson)
- It’s Fun to Know… about his and hers bedrooms
- Add "condign" to your vocabulary
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- Patrick Coffey
It Pays to Know What "the Enemy" Is Doing
By Rick Pendergraft
When I was asked to be a speaker at Michael Masterson’s Business-Building Retreat here in Florida, I decided – despite my usually aggressive investing stance – to speak on "conservative" investing.
Why talk about the opposite of what I normally do? Because it’s always good to know what "the enemy" is up to.
In The Art of War Sun Tzu wrote:
"If you know yourself and your enemy, you will not fear battle.
"If you know yourself but not your enemy, you will lose a battle for every one that you win.
"If you do not know yourself and do not know your enemy, you will never see victory."
What this says to me is that even though I am a short-term, aggressive speculator, that doesn’t mean I should ignore long-term, conservative investing principles. I don’t necessarily view conservative investors as my enemy, but it is in my best interest to anticipate what other market participants are going to do and try to position myself to benefit from their actions.
You can benefit from doing this as well.
If you are a short-term trader, look at long-term charts in addition to those within your own timeframes. You may find, for example, that you are bullish on a stock that is getting ready to reach a long-term moving average – and that could keep you from making a losing trade.
If you are a long-term investor, take a look at short-term charts. If you find that a stock you’re interested in is overbought (and running out of buyers), you may get in at a better price if you wait a few days before purchasing it.
[Ed. Note: Find out how Rick Pendergraft can help you make money - no matter what the market's doing - as the editor of ETR's new investment service, the ETF Options Trader.]
"If I bought groceries the way I buy health insurance, I’d eat a lot better – and so would my dog."
Phil Gramm
Exposing (and Evading) Grocery Store Fat Traps
By Shane Ellison, M.Sc.
My wife recently pigged out on beef jerky. What was supposed to be light, healthy snacking turned into an all-out eating binge. Her ravenous consumption of the stuff made me think it must be an especially good brand. I was in a hurry when I bought it at my local health food store – and that’s where I messed up big time. Ignoring the label, I was caught by the number one grocery store fat trap – which was the cause of my wife’s abnormal appetite.
A grocery store fat trap is nothing more than a scheme designed by food manufacturers to make you eat more of something that you think is healthy. These foods and food additives are fat fertilizer. They are great for a company’s bottom line, but really bad for your "bottom."
Right before she threw her head back to dump the last crumbs of the beef jerky into her mouth, my wife turned the bag over to read the fine-print ingredients. She gasped, "Why the hell did you buy this! It’s loaded with high-fructose corn syrup!"
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is fat fertilizer on steroids. And she knows it. A very fit mom, she keeps her lean and muscular build by avoiding grocery store fat traps.
HFCS transforms people into eating machines. Once consumed, it sets into motion a chemical cascade that begins with spiked insulin and ends with feel-good molecules known as "endorphins." Intoxicated by artificial feel-good, the brain is unable to sense overeating and demands more, more, more – and the excess calories get stored in your body.
I’ve even heard of kids accidentally taking bites out of their fingers when under the influence of HFCS. Worse yet, many children who overindulge in Frankenfoods that contain HFCS and other sugars eventually become diabetic.
From beef jerky to bread and even spaghetti sauce, HFCS has infiltrated most processed foods and turned them into fat traps. Avoid this ingredient at all cost!
But that’s not the only trap lurking in grocery stores.
- "Fat-free" labels
These hoodwink millions of unsuspecting victims, and have been a goldmine for the food industry since 1993. The obese seek out this label in hopes of waking up skinny. It never happens – but that doesn’t stop them from getting ensnared over and over again. I can hear the rationale: "It just seems so plausible. I’m fat, so I should eat fat-free foods." Wrong.
After the fat is removed, sugar is added. Sugar is great if you’re at a birthday party, but that’s it. Like HFCS, it is nothing more than fat fertilizer and a heart attack waiting to happen. Look for it listed as sucrose, dextrose, or cane sugar on the labels of your favorite foods. Then buy something else – like an all-natural food high in healthy fat.
Healthy fat – which you can find in grass-fed beef, seeds, nuts, avocados, and eggs – is essential for proper growth, development, and the maintenance of good health. It provides your body with vital energy, without causing you to gain weight. In sharp contrast to carbohydrates, sugar, and trans-fats, healthy fats tell your body to burn fat and make you feel fuller quicker. Add them to your grocery list.
- Artificial sweeteners
This trap gets most weekend warriors. "Energy" bars, protein powders, and sugar-free goodies – each and every one of them is loaded with drugs disguised as sweeteners. The widespread belief that these nicely packaged foods and drinks are good for you is a perfect example of how marketing strategies supersede medical science and common sense.
Artificial sweeteners make your body lose its natural ability to count calories. If athletes cannot distinguish between proper eating and overeating caused by artificial flavors, they will never reach their fat-loss or muscle-building goals, period. Exercise becomes a waste of time. Artificial flavors include sucralose (Splenda), aspartame, acesulfame K, saccharin, and neotame.
- MSG
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) has several aliases you should be on the lookout for, including hydrolyzed vegetable protein, hydrolyzed protein, hydrolyzed plant protein, plant protein extract, sodium caseinate, calcium caseinate, yeast extract, textured protein, autolyzed yeast, and hydrolyzed oat flour.
This white, crystalline amino acid is made in a lab and then added to meat products and most canned or packaged foods to "enhance flavor." One small problem: It doesn’t have any flavor. It just enhances overeating – and the food manufacturer’s bottom line.
Once consumed, this fat fertilizer not only spikes insulin, it also lowers the hormones that ward off obesity, premature aging, and diabetes: IGF-1 and human growth hormone. And if that’s not enough to scare you off, it can be damaging to brain cells too.
Consider the shocking findings by German scientists who recently warned that their country should abandon the use of MSG at once. Why? They found that pregnant mothers consuming this fat trap were giving birth to children who were insulin-resistant.
Apparently, fetuses can be doomed to overeating for life, thanks to neuronal damage caused by Mom’s MSG-eating habit. The damage was most prevalent in a specialized group of nerve cells in the medulla oblongata, thalamus, or hypothalamus – the areas of the brain that control proper eating and metabolism. This might be one explanation for the drastic increases in childhood obesity worldwide.
Some things are worth dying for. Fat traps are not. If you want to live thin and slim, be alert to these common grocery store fat traps. You might have to dedicate some extra time to carefully reading food labels… but you’ll never fall victim to them again.
[Ed. Note: Shane "The People's Chemist" Ellison has an MS in organic chemistry and firsthand experience in drug design and synthesis. He is an internationally recognized authority on therapeutic nutrition. His AM-PM Fat Loss Discovery e-book shows how he personally beat obesity and insulin resistance in 90 days. To pick up your copy, click here.]
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Industry Jargon May Be Hazardous to Your (Business) Health
By Suzanne Richardson
"Next, you’ll want to put a lift on the promo and blast it to your file."
Huh?
You know your field inside and out. You can walk the walk, and you can definitely talk the talk. But if you’re writing to people who aren’t members of your industry, it’s unlikely that you’ll get through to them by using this kind of technical jargon.
Charlie Byrne, ETR’s Editorial Director, reminded me of this common writer’s mistake just last week. After reading an article I’d written about marketing, he said, "Readers who aren’t familiar with copywriting won’t know what a blast, a lift, a file, and maybe even a promo are. And if you confuse people or use words they don’t know, you’ll lose their attention."
And losing your reader’s attention – whether your reader is a prospective customer or a potential joint-venture partner – can end up costing you serious money.
Author and master copywriter Bob Bly remembers one client who changed the sales copy for a wire splint that "helps keep loose teeth in place." Instead of using this easy-to-understand definition of the product’s purpose, the client decided that the product was actually designed to "stabilize mobile dentition."
"Dentition is what you brush with Crest," says Bob. "And if someone should punch you in the dentition, my client believes that the dentition may become mobile, but certainly not loose. (If it falls out, the dentition fairy may deposit some ‘monetary compensation’ under your pillow.)"
Dentists may talk to each other about "stabilizing mobile dentition," but no one else is going to know what that means.
To keep your writing – from sales letters to friendly e-mails – clear and easy to read, always assume your readers know less about your subject than you might guess. That doesn’t mean writing "down" to them. It means using short words and simple language, and being wary of using "internal language." Outsiders won’t understand it.
[Ed. Note: If you want to learn more about how to make your writing stronger and more appealing to potential customers, check out Bob Bly's best-selling book, The Copywriter's Handbook and Michael Masterson's Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting.]
Living Rich: What You Should Know About Chardonnay
By Michael Masterson
Even novice wine drinkers have heard of Chardonnay. It is the most popular wine in terms of varietals, followed by Merlot, White Zinfandel, and Cabernet Sauvignon.
So let’s wrap up this series of articles with a few words about wine made from "the king of the white grapes."
The Chardonnay grape can produce a variety of wine styles from medium-to heavy-bodied, with complex flavors that often include apply, melon, and butter. It is the one white grape that takes well to aging.
In France, this grape is grown in Chablis and Montrachet. It is the primary grape in white Burgundy and Champagne. It is also grown in California, Chile, and Australia.
[Ed. Note: Want to learn more about building your own wine collection? Read Michael's article " A Start-Up Collection for New Collectors.”]
It’s Fun to Know: His and Hers Bedrooms
If you’ve ever slept on the couch to escape your spouse’s snoring, you are not alone. 23 percent of couples, according to a 2005 National Sleep Foundation survey, often sleep in different rooms to avoid one partner’s snoring, kicking, or some other habit that interferes with the other’s ability to get a good night’s sleep.
This has led to a boom in "dual master bedrooms" – homes with a separate sleep area for each spouse. A National Association of Home Builders survey predicts that more than 60 percent of custom-built homes will have two master bedrooms by 2015.
(Source: Washington Post, New York Times)
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Word to the Wise: Condign
"Condign" (kun-DINE) – from the Latin for "very worthy" – is another way of saying "deserved" or "adequate" – suitable to the fault or crime.
Example (as used by David Frum in How We Got Here): "In a story as old as the Greeks, overweening pride brought condign disaster."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007
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