Ah, food! We love it, don’t we? But the question is does our body love the food we eat?
Anne Wigmore said “the food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison”. Maybe at times this is not a truth we choose not to believe, but it is impossible to deny it. We literally are what we eat. 90% of the cells in our body will die and regenerate in a single year, and one of the key things that determine the state which you and your cells ‘reappear’ in is the nutrition you give yourself.
So what if all your body is getting is chemically produced preservatives, sugar, refined carbohydrates, GMO foods and bad forms of fat? You might love the taste of that food, but I promise you your body doesn’t. This is the form of SLOW poison mentioned above. It won’t make you drop dead from a bite, but over time it damages the body and leads to a range of problems.
The world of nutrition can be overwhelming to anyone, and the more you know the bigger it gets. We know the feeling and that’s why we want to create this guide for you to follow to help you to dispel myths and understand how the food you eat affects you. Its a massive subject which we intend to dive into with time however in this introduction post we have gathered some initial advise to help you get started on the road to EAT WELL.
1. Cook From Scratch
Learning to cook is probably the single biggest thing you can do to directly improve your health. While the actual food content of a prepared packaged meal may not be so bad, the things added to it by companies to make it taste better and last longer for their own profits are often what are the damaging things. If you cooked a meal at home would you put a load of chemicals in it so it sits on your shelve for a month or put 10 teaspoons of sugar and salt in it? If you can’t cook, learn to, and your health will dramatically improve. Unfortunately the reason why alot of people don’t cook is because of time in which case you need to prioritise time to do it, or:
2. Get a Solid Prep and Plan Game
We get it. Not everyone actually enjoys cooking and alot of people would rather be doing something else or they have too many other things to do. Unfortunately watching TV and completing to do lists are not going to improve your health or prevent chronic disease, but our society for right or wrong now is driven by us working longer hours and we are pressured to do more in our days. Prepping food is one of the best ways to get around this. Some people like to cook a massive batch once a week a refrigerate/freeze portions of it. Others use slow cookers so a healthy warm meal is ready for when they get home from a late shift. Some cook more more for dinner and use leftovers for lunch in Tupperware. Throw a bunch of stuff in the blender for a breakfast smoothie on the go. Find a way that works for you and your life. If you know for a fact that you can’t make it work for certain days of the week/meal times, find a restaurant or shop that has a has a healthy ethos and:
3. Read The Label
Everything you pick up in the shops, TURN IT OVER and READ. It does not matter if it is gluten free, vegan, dairy free and Eskimo friendly – read it! Don’t worry too much about the technical table with grams etc, just focus on the ingredients list because that will tell you what is actually in there. Make it a rule that if you have to take time to read it, because there is an exhaustive list of unpronounceable stuff in the ingredients, lots of different oils and flours and sugar, just put it down again. Your body doesn’t want it. It’s hard work to start with, however over time you know exactly which products are good and bad so you don’t have to do it anymore.
Even better, try to buy products that don’t have a label because they haven’t been played around with and processed e.g an apple doesn’t need a label because it is just an apple – it is in it’s natural state which is designed naturally for our consumption.
4. Balance
Getting the right balance of your macro nutrients (protein, fat, carbohydrates) and your micro nutrients (minerals and vitamins) is essential for your body, but it’s a hot debate and where people tend to get confused. We will get more into this in later posts, however if you were to look at your plate the main bulk of it should be natural forms of carbohydrate ie. vegetables; more colours the better and especially the green kinds. Reduce white things such as potatoes and rice and kick out refined things such as pasta and bread from your staple diet. Proteins and fats should compliment the veg, whereas most of tend to have a massive portion of meat/fish, some white carbohydrates and possibly a single carrot on the side. Most men at this point complain they will starve if they try this, which is not true. If your body is telling you it needs more food, bulk out the veg, especially starchy veg like sweet potatoes, parsnips, swede and squash, which links to our 5th point..
5. Eat To Be Satisfied
Eat healthy food until you are satisfied (not stuffed) and eat food that gives you long lasting energy (ie real food). If you are satisfied and eat food which gives you sustained energy and stable blood sugars then you are far less likely to feel the need for sugary snacks. Starting the day with a bowl of cereal is perhaps one of the worst things we can do: it is full of processed grains and sugar which are extremely pro inflammatory and break down extremely fast so our blood sugars spike, then crash after an hour so we’re craving for another sugar hit by 10am. If you are hungry – eat real food! You will end up eating less and save money.
6. Know How It Is Made and Where It Comes From
Unfortunately we live in a time where things may not be as they seem and corporate interests undermine quality. Is the food you buy organic or full of harmful, invisible pesticides? Has your food come from an animal that has been looked after and been given a natural healthy diet or has it been caged, stressed and force fed corn and antibiotics. Find a source that can prove how it produces it’s food and that you trust. Organic farmers markets are often a great place to start.
As I said, it’s a massive subject and can be the most confusing, but implement some of the principles above and we’ll be expanding on each and new areas to keep you well informed. If you have any questions though, please do just ask.
Dr Jamie and Dr Judith
