What to Eat, Choosing Wisely.
Choosing the right foods can be tricky.
What should you eat at your next meal? Should it be carbohydrates, proteins or fats? Should it come in an easy to carry box or should you get it in a drive-thru for faster service? The reality is that we all have to face these choices everyday in order to survive, but our choices are clouded by many factors. These factors play a big role on choosing the type of food we put in our bodies. For example, you may be craving sugar because you are coming down from a sugar high due to the muffin you had this morning for breakfast. Or, you may be craving protein because that lunch you had earlier was full of processed ingredients, that it did not quite cure your hunger and your body is looking for more quality ingredients. These are just some of the factors that make up our food choices and if we are not prepared and not educated on the foods we eat, we can end up in a downward spiral of malnutrition, leading us to problems, such as weight gain, fatigue, anxiety, depression and more.
I’m here to tell you that choosing foods to eat does not have to be so complicated. It can be as easy as learning a few different core facts and knowing your body. These core facts go way back in time to how our ancestors ate. A time when our body recognized the nutrition in our foods and was able to operate efficiently because of it.
Choosing the right foods is simple really.
The way to choose the right foods to put in your body comes down to one core principle, does it grow in the ground or did it roam on the ground (or water). That’s it! Pure and simple! Consuming foods that are processed or genetically engineered has proven to have detrimental effects on our health. They cause weight gain and can contribute to a whole host of diseases and disorders. More importantly, you are starving your body of valuable nutrients that it so desperately needs to function at it’s best.
With so much information out there regarding nutrition and diet, it’s easy to get confused over what to put in our bodies. However a good rule of thumb would be, if you can’t pronounce the ingredient, you don’t put it in your body. My challenge to you however, is to go a step further and really look at the ingredients in the foods that you choose. You can pronounce soybean oil, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for you? No, and futhermore, this oil is so refined that it’s been proven to cause inflammation throughout your entire body and mind.
Like money in the bank.
To be brutally honest, one of the more difficult aspect of eating whole foods is, well it’s kind of boring. Unless you put a lot of prep work into the food you eat, a steak with a side of brocolli is not as fun to eat as a Frozen or piping hot delivered to your door, pizza. However, if you listen to your body you realize that the steak you eat will make you feel far better and far more satiated then that pizza. This is the decision that we are making on a daily basis that must be carefully considered. Do I want to feel good or do I want to feel bad after eating this particular food? At this crossroads in your decision making process is when you will choose. Personally, after almost 50 years on this planet and seeing my patients deal with the repercussions of bad nutrition decisions, I choose to put food in my body that will make me feel good.
Finally, think of your food choices as sort of a bank account. When you choose healthy foods, you are putting energy (money) into your body (bank) that will serve you later in life when you need it the most.
