First off, I dislike the word “diet”, however, it likely got your attention.
I believe the way you eat is best defined as a lifestyle choice. Therefore, your lifestyle will influence your eating choices for a lifetime, not just for a set period of time in order to attain a certain result.
However, whether you are choosing a diet or a lifestyle, there are so many conflicting points of view in the nutrition sphere. Unfortunately, there are also a lot of financial influences on nutritional perspectives, especially from large food industry companies.
Sadly, Big Food doesn’t have a lot of vested interest in optimized wellness, especially if it cuts into their profits. But that topic is not going to be discussed today. Perhaps another day!
So on to the question: What’s the best diet, or better said, what are the best food and lifestyle choices?
My view: It depends. (Helpful, aren’t I?)
Each person is unique, and their needs will differ, depending on their physical state, their preferences, their physiological needs, and even their moral or religious beliefs. So complicated, isn’t it?
There are some key principles however, that can help everyone feel better about what they eat.
There are some main issues with today’s food supply that are making us unwell. The first and foremost is that most of what is sold in grocery stores these days isn’t really actually food. Not “whole” food, anyhow.
Whole food
Whole food is food that has been processed or refined as little as possible and is free from additives or other artificial substances. Whole food has one ingredient, and it is in a similar state as it would be found in nature.
Vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, and eggs would be considered whole food. Plain nuts and seeds could also be considered whole foods.
What is not whole food are items in packages with ingredient lists longer than your arm, with names that are unpronounceable. What is not whole food are products with five different forms of sugar, and preservative ingredients that sound like they were created in a laboratory.
My first suggestion to following an optimal “diet”: if it comes in a package, read the ingredients and nutritional information. Always. You might be surprised what you find hiding in there.
Try to opt for a larger percentage of “whole” food over packaged food. The more you are aware of what your food is made of by reading the ingredients, the more likely you will be to understand what a whole food is and what it is not. This is a start!
Refined foods that are the most troubling include sugar, flour, and refined seed and vegetable oils (like sunflower, soya, corn, vegetable, and canola oils). I will go into much greater detail about these items, including the hows and the whys in future posts.
As a starting point, it is important to understand that these items can lead to inflammation in the body through various physiological mechanisms, and as a result, health issues like diabetes, obesity, arthritis, autoimmune disease, and so much more can develop.
[ctt template=”7″ link=”26Ach” via=”yes” ]If it comes in a package, read the ingredients and nutritional information. Always. You might be surprised what you find hiding in there.[/ctt]
Sugar
I’m sure you have heard of the negative effects of too much sugar in the diet. More and more research is proving that all of our sugar-laden junk food and beverages are more than likely contributing to our present diabetes and obesity epidemic.
The first step toward eating more whole foods and less refined foods is to reduce, and eventually avoid added sugars in food AND beverages. Sugar can hide in so many places, so READ THE INGREDIENTS! Beverages are especially dangerous because the sugar in drinks is absorbed extremely quickly into the bloodstream, which causes a dramatic rise in insulin levels.
When blood sugar and insulin levels go up and down too quickly, in too large amounts, and too often, trouble ensues. It could start as feeling “hangry” a lot, trouble controlling mood especially when you’re hungry, lots of food cravings for carbohydrates, starches, and sugars. You might feel tired, foggy-brained, and experience difficult concentration. Eventually, you may experience inflammation like joint pain, overall aches and pains, digestive troubles like heartburn and bloating, and stubborn weight gain. Eventually, your doctor might tell you that according to your blood work, you are at risk of developing diabetes.
Sugar in beverages is not just found in soda pop. Look at the grams of sugar on the nutrition label of iced tea, energy drinks, vitamin water, sports drinks, Frappuchinos, flavoured lattes, and even fruit juice!
Many believe juice is good for us because it comes from fruit. However, to make juice, all the fibrous parts of the fruit are removed, leaving essentially sugar and water. As well, because the bulk of the fruit is removed, much more fruit is required to provide an adequate “serving size”.
Most consider 1 orange an adequate serving size for a portion of fruit, however, to obtain a glass of juice, there are likely 4 oranges in that glass. Could you eat 4 oranges in one sitting? Even if you could, the fibre in the orange would slow down the release of sugar into the bloodstream to a degree, helping to at least prevent as massive a spike in blood sugar.
The best option: cut out juice, and all other beverages with sugar. Eventually, try to even keep all sugar out of coffee and tea. A teaspoon here and there can add up.
For those wondering, honey, maple syrup, agave syrup, raw sugar, and all those other sweeteners are considered sugar. They become sugar in the blood just like sugar does. Perhaps a smidge slower than refined white sugar, but a similar effect in the end.
Some better beverage options:
- water
- herbal teas
- mineral water (a splash of lemon, lime, a handful of berries, ginger, mint are all great flavour enhancers with minimal sugar)
- bone broth.
In Conclusion
If you are just starting down the path to improving your eating habits, then remember the first rule of thumb is to read all of your ingredients. Take note of what is in all of your food that you buy and you eat. Try to identify what each ingredient means. There are many words that mean sugar, and that will be discussed on this website as well.
If you want to decrease the amount of refined foods in your diet, start with added sugar. The first step is cutting out sugar in your drinks. Pay attention to how many sugary drinks including juice you drink now, and calculate how many grams of sugar that equals, according to the amount listed per serving size on the nutritional label. How much sugar is that? You might be surprised!
If you want to decrease the amount of refined foods in your diet, start with added sugar. The first step is cutting out sugar in your drinks. Pay attention to how many sugary drinks including juice you drink now, and calculate how many grams of sugar that equals, according to the amount listed per serving size on the nutritional label. How much sugar is that? You might be surprised!
By the way, one teaspoon of sugar is the equivalent of 4 grams of sugar. Think about that when doing your calculations. I like to pull out sugar cubes to demonstrate sugar content. One sugar cube is one teaspoon or 4 grams. It’s a great visual to determine the reality of how much sugar you are actually drinking.
I could talk forever about this topic, and there is so much more to say. However, I don’t want to scare anyone away or overwhelm you with too much at once. I hope this was a bite-sized beginning for you to chew on.
Good luck with these beginning steps if you haven’t already tried them. Let me know how they go, and if you have learned or realized anything about what you eat!
In the next article, I will discuss some simple life habits that will help support minimizing cravings, inflammation, and help support more balanced hormones, particularly insulin.