Eat Real Food!!
The world of food and diet has become very overwhelming and misleading. It’s very easy to get caught up in trending diets, quick fixes, and convenience eating. It has become very difficult to know what is the best road to health. More than ever we are seeing sickness, obesity and diabetes rates sky rocketing. More and more people are reaching for fad diets as they yield quick results. My biggest worry is that they are not sustainable results nor are they a sustainable way to maintain health.
The purpose of food is to nourish and provide our body with energy. This allows us to heal and to live! We only have one life to live and we need to start living it by treating our body kindly and with compassion. We need to fill it with real food.
I know it’s much easier said than done. For sure anything worth doing doesn’t come easily. Change will take courage, honesty and self awareness. But let’s take baby steps, let’s celebrate the wins, and learn from the obstacles.
So first things first; what is real food? Real food is natural; unprocessed and unrefined food. It’s alive; it still contains live enzymes. Most of all it is good quality; it’s been grown in nutrient rich soil and free of chemicals. These words natural, alive, and good will help us to uncomplicate the way we think about food. Real food is comprised of carbohydrates, fibre, protein, and fat. All these are vitally important for our body’s ability to produce hormones, recover from daily stressors and function optimally.
Carbohydrates. Man oh man; these guys are getting a bad rap these days. That being said complex carbs such as whole grains help to curb our appetite. Carbs are fuel for our body’s vital energy needs. Where the problem is simple or refined carbs such as crackers, white pastas and refined flours. These refined carbs break down to sugar very quickly and cause spikes in blood sugar levels which contributes to the mid afternoon snooze and cravings. Bottom line is that our bodies do require complex carbohydrates to run properly.
Fibre! This guy has hidden super powers. Fibre is only found in plant foods and is essential for digestion to take place. Fibre creates bulk; by doing this as it moves through our colon it is able to remove unwanted fats and toxins. Ideally one should consume between 30-40 grams of fibre daily. Good daily fibre intake are associated with less body fat, lower blood pressure, fasting insulin and LDL- cholesterol; to name a few. Fibre can be found in whole grains, fruits and vegetables with their skins, nuts and seeds. The closer to a foods raw natural form the more beneficial fibre they contain.
Fun fact! Did you know that proteins are the largest component in our body after water. They are essential for production of many hormones that regulate our body, enzymes that ignite our metabolism and antibodies that neutralize bacteria. Proteins are divided into two categories complete proteins (animal source) and incomplete proteins (plant source). Protein is required in our daily diet. When we don’t consume enough protein our body will draw it from muscle tissue. That being said too much is not a good thing either; too much in our diet can increase the load of the kidneys and contribute to other health issues. Focus on quality over quantity!
Not all fats deserve a bad rep! Fats are an important part of our diet. They provide our body with more energy than any other component of food, they are building blocks for cell membranes and hormones and they are super important to carry fat soluble vitamins to the body’s tissues. The problem is with excess fats. When we store too much fat this is when we worry about obesity and the strain to our cardiovascular system due to build up in our arteries and liver. This is not typically a concern when we eat a diet full of unprocessed REAL food.
To wrap things up the way we eat doesn’t need to complicated or fancy; think simple, think clean, think unprocessed. Eating mindfully and wholly will lead to good well rounded health.
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
