Sooner or later, if you join Code Red, it’s gonna happen.

Suddenly several people you know are “nutrition experts.” It’s pretty crazy.

People who didn’t have a problem with you drinking half a case of soda a day and eating Lucky Charms for breakfast will flip their lid when you tell them you’re abstaining from sugar, grains, and carbs while eating fat, protein, and veggies.

I’ve got plenty of posts on my website that explain how to handle it when people whip out the “advice” and/or criticism.

In this post, I’m going to reveal the five most common health lies your family, friends, co-workers, and others in your life may whip out when they hear what Code Red’s all about.

Then I’m going to post an alternate view and some facts underneath each lie, so you can be prepared with a REAL nutrition expert’s answers.

Before I get started, I wanna make one thing clear: Your friends and family probably mean well. They’re just parroting the same bullcrap nutrition lies we were all brainwashed to believe. Don’t hold it agains them. Instead, keep reading to learn what these lies are, and then get the truth from me.

1 – “You’ll kill yourself drinking all that water.”

No, you won’t. If drinking a gallon of water a day killed people, I’d have been out of business long ago.

Yes, there is such a thing as too much water, because you can have too much of anything.

There’s also such a thing as drinking your water too quickly. If you tried to drink a gallon of water in 10 minutes, for example, no, that isn’t safe. (You’d probably throw it up even trying.)

But a gallon of water consumed over a few hours is perfectly safe for most adults.

Besides, take a look at how many liquids you drank before switching to water. If you add up all the soda, coffee, Gatorade, milk, alcohol, energy drinks, and whatever else you drank on a daily basis, it’d probably be close to gallon. Maybe more. Yet suddenly, because it’s water, it’s “unsafe?”

Yeah, no.

2 – You need carbs because ____________.

You’ll hear all kinds of reasons you “need” carbs – for energy, because without them you’ll have brain fog…all kinds of crazy stuff.

Code Red Rebels eat carbs in the form of non-starchy vegetables. Yet veggies don’t come to mind when most people think of carbs, because when they think carbs, they think grains and sugar.

Nobody “needs” grains and sugar. They’re hazardous to your health in the amounts most people consume them.

As for brain fog, Code Red Rebels consistently report that brain fog LIFTS when they start living the Code Red Lifestyle™. The one exception is the first few days, when your body’s detoxifying from sugar, processed food chemicals, and other crap. You may have brain fog for part of that (but you may not).

As for energy, Rebels get ours from burning fat instead of glucose (which is present in high-carb foods, and turns to sugar in the body). Fat is a much more efficient, level, consistent, and lasting form of energy compared with the short-term spikes and dips you get with glucose-heavy foods.

3 – Work out and you can have sugar in moderation.

Define “in moderation.” Are we talking the amount of sugar in half a cup of full-fat cottage cheese, or the amount in a three-scoop banana split with sprinkles and chocolate syrup?

People who tell you this are COMPLETELY missing the point when it comes to nutrition. They’re following the calories in, calories out bullcrap that ignores the quality of a calorie.

A calorie burned is a calorie burned, yes. But a calorie eaten is not a calorie eaten. One hundred calories of steak and one hundred calories of sugary soda affect your body very differently. The steak nourishes you. The soda feeds inflammation and spikes blood sugar. Just because you’ve burned off those 100 calories of soda doesn’t mean you’ve cancelled the inflammation and sugar spike.

If you really could compensate for crap food by hitting the gym, we would not have an epidemic of fat athletes. Nor would we see fat people slaving away for months in the gym, looking as heavy – or heavier – than when they first started.

One more thing about sugar: It’s highly addictive. From that aspect, saying you can have sugar in moderation because you exercise is like saying you can smoke crack in moderation because you exercise. No can do, buckaroo.

4. You shouldn’t eliminate entire food groups.

Who decides what a food group is?

Are we talking about the corrupt and scientifically debunked food pyramid, created by our government…the same food pyramid we’ve been following since getting fatter and sicker than we’ve ever been?

What about parts of the world where people don’t eat the same way we do, yet are healthier?

Odds are that when someone says that about a “food group,” they mean grains…breads, pastas, cereals, and desserts made with grain-based flours.

The thing is, there’s no nutrient you get in grains that you cannot get from meats, vegetables, nuts, eggs, seeds, seafood, and dietary fat – in other words, the foods we eat on Code Red.

And when you get those nutrients from Code Red-approved foods, you’re doing it without the blood sugar spikes and inflammation you get from grains.

5. Code Red’s just a fad.

This one’s my all-time favorite, because the way you disprove it is so easy: “So real food, water, and sleep are ‘fads?'”

When you join Code Red, plan for at least one person in your life to suddenly rise up as a “nutrition expert” when they hear what you’re doing on Code Red.

Don’t invite it, but be aware it’s pretty likely to happen at some point.

And when whoever it is starts spouting off, remember this post. Remember who the REAL nutrition expert is, here. And remember that I’ve helped a quarter of a million people (and counting) lose weight safely, sustainably, and effectively. Unless the “nutrition expert” in your life can say the same, I’d think twice about giving any energy to their “concerns.”