Keto, Paleo, Vegetarian, Plant-based, Mediterranean, Lo-fat, Lo–carb…with all of these ideas floating around, all claiming to be the right idea, it’s no wonder there is mass confusion over what constitutes a healthy diet. Doctors tell us to lose weight or reduce cholesterol, but don’t say how to accomplish the task. It’s not their fault. Doctors study medicine, not food, and are given little to no nutrition education in school, yet are looked to as the authority on the matter. The wellness industry has taken a divide and conquer approach, hoping to win you over to a particular diet dogma, “educate” you on the wrongs of the “enemy” and take your money as you buy books, join websites, order supplements and prepackaged foods as a loyal disciple. When asked if said diet is working a year later, most people reply with an embarrassed, “I tried. Then I just sort of gave up.”
Most fad diets are just that, fads. At best, they help people lose weight temporarily. At worst, they help people lose weight, then gain it back plus additional weight, losing self-confidence and future motivation in the process. I’m not writing today to depress you. Quite the opposite. I want to provide hope and clarity! I want to empower you with the things you already know inside.
The best way to have a long healthy life is to make healthy lifestyle choices. There is no short-cut. However, there are solid principles and many things that are agreed upon by everyone in the nutrition industry (it’s just not lucrative to say so). Without getting too science-y, here they are:
#1 Cholesterol only comes from two places: your own liver and animal proteins
(meat, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy)
Your body makes all the cholesterol you need. Everything else is extra. Lowering
cholesterol comes from reducing or eliminating animal proteins (or a lifetime of
medications)
#2 We need to drink water
#3 Vegetables are good for us
#4 Whole grains are better for us than refined grains
(brown rice, brown pasta, quinoa, bulgur, couscous, oats, barley, popcorn)
#5 Refined sugar is bad for us
(high fructose corn syrup, white sugar)
One clue to finding hidden sugars on a label is to look for “ose” at the end of a word
#6 Prepackaged foods with chemical additives and fast food are not as good for us as whole foods
(frozen spinach pie vs. a spinach salad, container of applesauce vs. an apple, frozen
mac&cheese vs. sourdough bread and a slice of cheddar, drive-thru soup vs. homemade soup)
#7 We should eat when we are hungry, stop when we are full
Pay attention to these important guiding signals
Nobody is debating (well…there’s always that somebody) the legitimacy of the things I’ve just laid out. Furthermore, I hold the belief that you already have this knowledge inside. I think you could have come up with most of this list without me writing it.
Most of what I encounter as a nutritionist falls under the category of nutrition counseling. Food is social. Food is emotional. Food is cultural. The wrong food is addictive and there is a lot of it out there. Food can be a difficult arena to navigate, even when we know what to eat. The application of such knowledge takes some willpower, time and energy.
But.
Food is also what we are made of. It connects us, empowers us, fuels us. The sight of good food sparks positive chemical reactions in our brains and makes us happy. Food has the power to heal disease. Food is worth it. If eaten in its real form, it will give and give. I challenge you to look inside and find the thing that is holding you back from eating the way you know to be good and true. Diet books don’t want to say that because it’s not an answer, it’s a question. What do you need to move out of your way in order to make healthy choices?
Come back to my website. I’ll be talking about positive things. I’ll be talking about good food. I will be cheering you on.
Cheers to you!
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