The biggest thing I've learned: EVERYBODY DISAGREES.
No matter what research you read, you will find someone else who has done research that differs, or even contradicts, what you just read.
This is frustrating and confusing.
However, I have grasped enough to form my own, and I hope, informed opinions.
My Shani has recently expressed she just doesn't know about nutrition, and as I see the multiple posts on Pinterest about "healthy" recipes, I have reached the conclusion that Shani is by no means alone.
On the other hand, she also said she doesn't want to make food complicated, and considering the amount of confusing, complicated information (as well as experimentation with my own body) that I've waded through, I don't blame her.
So, I'm putting together this quick guide to eating better. Not best, not perfectly, not "healthily," but better.
Not that it's difficult to find an improvement to the typical American diet.
1. Know that you are going to be swimming counter-culture against a really strong current.
The American diet is based on profit and convenience. Food manufacturers are all about increasing their profit margin (frequently backed by government grants), and our culture of over-busyness and over-commitment means all those packaged "foods" are the only thing we can fit into our schedule. If you want to eat better, know that you will need to make time and space for it, and you will be the weird one among your friends.
2. Focus on REAL versus FAKE.
Our super-processed convenience meals that can be ready in "five minutes or less!" are made up of more chemicals, preservatives and dyes than actual food. If you want to scare yourself, read the ingredients on the backs of some of that stuff. I don't even know what some of that stuff IS, but food, it ain't!
Actually, the more you process food (grind, cut, bake, boil, mix, etc) the more nutrients are released from the food. So when you're buying bread, or pasta, or microwave dinners, which have been processed, dyed and preserved to fit in that little box, you're not getting the nutrition in the grains, meat, vegetables or fruits that originally made that meal - although you WILL be getting all those delicious "extra" chemicals to make sure the "food" doesn't perish.
So, when at all possible, make your own food. OR, choose foods that only have ingredients you can recognize.
And btw, High Fructose Corn Syrup is NOT an ingredient. (More on that later).
3. Focus on FULL versus EMPTY.
Something that really impacted me in all my nutrition research was a comment I heard in a documentary that went SOMETHING like this, "We're overfed on calories, but starving to death nutritionally!"
A lot of the food we eat is super-full in calories (like one of those huge, delicious Costco muffins - enough calories to equal a meal!), but not at all full of nutrition. Calories are used for energy, but nutrients are used for everything else. So if you're starved of nutrients, you're going to feel hungry, even if you've already eaten twice as many calories than you need!
Focus on eating foods that meet your nutritional needs and are low in calories, instead of "empty" foods that are high in calories.
4. Where to get all those nutrients.
Basically the only nutrient Americans think of is protein. We LOVE protein, and tend to think all our nutritional needs come back MORE PROTEIN.
Actually, what we need are VEGETABLES.
Vegetables are nutritionally dense, while simultaneously being low in calories - how awesome is that? And we need a LOT of them, and we need a VARIETY of them. About half of the food you eat should be vegetables: kale, spinach, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, broccoli, peppers, onions, garlic, carrots, celery, etc. (BTW - potatoes & corn aren't actually veggies. Potatoes are a root - although sweet potatoes are nutritionally dense - and corn is a grain. Also, iceberg lettuce is basically useless, nutritionally speaking.)
Veggies. Eat them.
Since vegetables are about half your diet now, that leaves four "categories" of foods: grains, legumes (beans), fruits and meats.
Depending on who you talk to and what research you choose to believe, each of these food groups can be "bad" for you. I won't bore you with the details, because this is about eating better, not perfectly, and if you're eating real food that's nutritionally dense, you're already doing AWESOME.
(Feel free to read the research - there's TOO much!!!! - and draw your own conclusions).
Anyway, if you divide up the last 50% of your nutritional intake up equally between these food groups, you should be doing well. Here's what these things do for you:
Fruits: SO MANY NUTRIENTS!!! WHOO HOO!!!! THEY ARE DELICIOUS FOR YOUR BODY! YOUR BODY WILL DO A DANCE OF GRATEFULNESS! Also, they are packed with carbohydrates, and good sugars, so they're an excellent source of quick energy. (Warning: fruit juices can be absorbed too quickly into the blood stream, leading to a sugar high, so those are best taken in VERY small amounts).
Grains: Fiber! Carbohydrates! Roughage! Minerals! B vitamins! (Although you'll get lots of fiber, roughage, minerals and vitamins from your veggies, so y'know.) A big problem with grains is that they come to us so over-processed, that we try to stick the nutrients BACK in them by "enriching" them. This chemistry process done to my food frightens me. Also, many grains are genetically modified to produce more grain per stalk of wheat/corn, etc, and we're discovering that messing with food genetics might not have been the best idea ...
Meats/Dairy: Protein, obviously, America's favorite nutrient, minerals and some vitamins that humans can have a hard time getting from veggies. The downside to meats is they are high in fat and calories, so we actually need far less in our servings than we usually eat. Also, the meats typically served to us are low quality, and prepared in ways that are NOT good for our bodies. (Please, don't eat hot dogs or fast-food meats. Just say no.)
Legumes/Nuts: Fiber! Carbohydrates! Minerals! Vitamins! Protein! Good fats! (From the nuts) Gas! One of the protests about legumes is they can be hard to digest, although your body can sometimes adjust. Although, if you choose to go without meat, you'll need these plant-foods for the protein in your diet.
5. Things to Avoid Like the Plague.
High Fructose Corn Syrup. It's in nearly everything as a sweetener, and is basically food-heroine. Seriously, a slow, liquid death.
Aspartame and other sugar "substitutes." Cancer in a powdery form. You THOUGHT all those diet drinks were good for you, but they're actually killing you slowly, and, btw, making you crave MORE sweets. In my opinion, if you have to choose between regular soda and diet, choose regular. (Even though that has high fructose corn syrup. Although sometimes you can find imported sodas that have actual SUGAR, and that is AWESOME.)
Food dyes & preservatives. Please don't let your body become a chemical dumping ground for the food industry's profit margin.
White breads/processed white flour. This form of wheat has been SO processed and ground up, all that's left of it is the carbohydrate, which immediately turns to sugar and hits our bloodstream. This is why it tastes good, leads to a sugar high, but shortly after you will have a headache (sugar crash) and will be hungry again (no nutrients).
All righty! That quick guide turned into a long guide, and I'm sorry! But I hope this helps those of you who want to eat better, but not obsess over fooooooood!!!!!
Also, I'm sure there are disagreements with what I've put, as I've said, there are contradictions EVERYWHERE in nutritional research. So, instead of shouting at me that I'm wrong, feel free to gently and humbly share the research & experiences that led you to YOUR beliefs about nutrition!
