I see new posts all the time claiming ‘eat this and you will not get that’ or ‘do not eat this to have 80% less chance of getting a disease’. That’s all well and good but I have a different theory. Just eat healthily and avoid most of these things and stop worrying about the latest fad! Let me break down my thoughts.
High Concentrated Diets
Too much of anything is not good so no matter what diet you eat make sure it is balanced. I am forever seeing “high protein diet” or “Low Calorie diet”. No no no you need a balanced diet. Think about natural fats, a flow of calories and some healthy protein. Every element of food you can eat normally has an ugly sister. Protein from say hemp is a great source but protein from red meat that is not organic is not.
Chemicals
Chemicals are nasty things and the biggest issue we have is that we don’t know what the manufacturers and farmers are doing half the time. The only way to really avoid as many as possible is to go organic and don’t eat too much of the foods that are more likely to have chemicals in them. One good tip is make sure you really clean fruit and vegetables (especially those with seeds or crevasses like strawberries).
Regular
One of the biggest things that surprise me is how many people eat all their daily calories/fats in one or two meals and do not eat for the rest of the day. They then wonder why their body is storing fat. If you put 2000 calories into your body and then do not eat for 12 hours your body is going to wonder when the next meal is due. At that point it will start storing some of that energy as fat. Try to each every 3 hours and reduce portion size, break the day up with fruit snacks. Not only will you stop your body from storing so much but you will have more energy throughout the day.
Meat and Dairy!
There are lots of articles online about why you should avoid these, like this article recently published http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/mar/04/animal-protein-diets-smoking-meat-eggs-dairy. There are two sides; ethics and health issues. The bottom line is I do not think these are the best foods for us but I do believe they are fine for our diet in moderation and without chemicals.
My Concluding Thoughts
Firstly these ideas and words are all my thoughts and not backed up by anything scientific. I read a lot of articles and publications about food and healthy eating and this is just my views on the matter. So please just read this article for some insight and investigate further before acting on it.
I do hope it inspires someone to become more aware of what they eat. It is all about having balance, regularity and avoiding unnatural substances. Unfortunately the farmers have had to add all sorts of stuff to ensure their crops are amazing year on year to make sure the bills are paid. This has been driven by the consumer so we cannot blame them.
If you are looking to change your eating habits try this website, they have everything you should need http://www.realfoods.co.uk/.
One of my thoughts that I can never figure out the answer to, is how will we cope when the government say okay enough is enough we need to eat properly. They will implement legislation that will have to be complied to within say 5 years. But we just do not have the space for it all. Think about organic chickens. The amount of chicken we eat in the UK could not be farmed organically and free range; we just don’t have the space let alone the funds. Some clever person will solve it, but until then let’s keep our thinking caps on.