Last week we addressed the dangers posed by sugar consumption, which is a topic that Mike Furci has addressed on this site for years. There’s no way to have a “low-fat diet” if you’re also loading up with sugar and carbs.

With that in mind, this is a good time to revisit Mike’s list of banned foods – basically foods you should be avoiding or at least eating less of in your diet. Review the list and print it out, and then over the next week eat as you normally do and write down everything you eat. Then compare it to this list and you’ll see that you probably need some adjustments to your diet.

This is the first step in altering your eating habits by identifying foods you need to replace. Remember, it’s not about counting calories. What you eat is far more important.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta discusses the dangers of sugar with Dr. Robert H. Lustig, who explains how many of our health problems like obesity and Type 2 diabetes. His YouTube video, “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,” has over 2.5 million views.

This isn’t just about the table sugar you put in your coffee. Most processed foods you buy at the store are loaded with sugars or high fructose corn syrup (which is basically the same thing as sugar). The biggest offender has to be soft drinks, which are probably the worst thing you can have in your regular diet.

As Mike has said for years, it’s not just about calories. You have to pay attention to what types of calories you are consuming.

Watch both of these videos and you’ll gain some perspective on your own diet and health. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a cola or a pastry from time to time, but if these are regular parts of your diet, then you need to start making changes. You’ll love how you feel and look with some of these simple changes, and in the long run you’ll be much healthier as well.

Welcome to a new column at the Bullz-Eye Blog, where we write mash notes to a singer or band that gets us excited about music, which we admit is increasingly hard to do in this age of Auto-bots (see what we did there?), famewhores, and teen-driven dreck. Our first love letter goes to three guys from Lansing who clearly love the pop as much as the rock, and remember when both used to live together in sweet, sweet harmony.

Yes, they look like the Geek Squad staff at the nearest Best Buy, don’t judge this book by its cover – these guys bring it, dude.

The band drops their third album Giant Orange February 21. They recruited Against Me! frontman Tom Gabel to produce, and if the first single “Ruby” is any indication, Cheap Girls are primed to become the next Sugar, deftly blending the crunching guitars with the unaffected, straightforward vocal. More bands like this, please.

Ruby by CheapGirls