What to eat???
Low Carb, high carb, high protein, high fat, Vegan, Vegetarian, low fat, paleo, juice diets/cleanses, atkins, meat only,5;2, fasting, ketogenic,grain free, flexitarian..
It’s a tough world out there with so much diet confusion and choices about what food you should eat and what you shouldn’t , it’s tricky to sum up what’s best for our health. I am only talking about diet here and how it affects our health, clearly social, environmental and community support affects our health also.
In different parts of the world there are lots of contradictions of what we in the west deem as a ‘healthy diet’. For instance, the Inuit tribe in the Arctic eats nothing but fat from whales or seals with no vegetables or fruit, they have very low incidence of heart disease. The Maasai tribe in Kenya and Tanzania , have a diet of mainly cow’s blood, milk and meat, huge amounts of cholesterol filled food but with low cholesterol in their blood and very low incidence of heart disease. Meanwhile the Haazda tribe in Africa has been healthy for over 40,000 yrs on a diet of nearly 30% honey(sugar!) ,with no chronic western diseases and no type 2 diabetes.
These people don’t know what a nutrient is, yet have excellent dietary health.The connection with all these contrary diets and their robust good health is there are no processed foods, no added chemicals, mechanisation, no fat removal or added sugar, no over cooked nutrient depleted food. All of their foods are fresh, unprocessed and close to what the original raw material was. We are probably eating against our genetic makeup and against ‘nature’ and our body’s way of reacting to this is by ‘dis-ease’.
Yes genes clearly play a role and ‘epigenetics’ has shown us that the gene loads the gun,but the diet and lifestyle/environment pulls the trigger. The study on the Pima Indians of north Mexico and Arizona, both genetically identical but each had different diets and environments shows us this. The ones based in Mexico were poor but active farmers , had high carbohydrate diet of grains and corn and small amount of meat - with no sign of Diabetes or obesity. Whereas the Arizona Indians also had a high carbohydrate diet of grains, but had processed foods, a sedentary lifestyle with a high incidence of diabetes and obesity. Same genes, different diets, lifestyle and health outcomes.
So what do we do? whatever type of diet you wish to follow, some basics are good to keep in mind.
Grow and eat food seasonally- food to suit our body, eat fruits and veg in season - not green beans from Peru in November(for you ,the nutrients are depleted by the time it’s got to you anyway,and for the planet too)...Buy in season and freeze?
fresh local organic fruit and vegetables, grass fed local organic meat and dairy products
Cook from scratch whenever possible
Avoid food from a box / bag / carton (it’s processed, not just for you but for the planet too)
Increase fibre - feed the microbiome - seeds, nuts, beans, vegetables.
Eat variety - 9-10 vegetables per day, yes that means lots of veg per meal.
We are flawed humans - we eat 21 meals per week, try and only have 3 of those to be ‘whatever you fancy’ and everything else to be the good stuff, Enjoy your food.
Use spices and herbs daily
When ordering in restaurants, ask for salad instead of chips and if you want chips, ask for half and half salad.
In takeaways - get vegetable sides eg, Indian food has amazing vegetable side dishes instead of just rice.
Most Importantly ; LISTEN to your body, eat what you feel like eating and that doesn’t mean just eating the same thing out of habit. If you regularly don’t feel great and there’s nothing showing up at the doctor’s check up, look at your diet first and then at how you live..maybe it doesn’t suit you.
