What To Eat and What Not To Eat

Not too long ago I wrote about figuring out what diet plan is right for you (find that here). Today I want to take that down to an even more fundamental level and tell you straight up what to avoid and what to incorporate into your diet.  What I have noticed is that there is a lot of confusing information out there.  Things like don’t eat fruit, spinach or kale.  Don’t eat beef. Avoid fish because it has a lot of heavy metals.  This information comes from different places - biohackers, devout vegans, and big food companies alike.  I am frustrated by this information because it makes it feel IMPOSSIBLE to do anything right, but there are true fundamentals to follow and then you can choose a specific plan that falls into those fundamentals if you like.  My goal with this blog post is to make it pretty freaking simple for you.

Let’s start with what to eat - because food is life.  We need it to be the best and healthiest version of ourselves.

Eat:

• Vegetables
• Fruit
• Meat - beef, pork, chicken, fish, turkey, lamb, bison
• Starchy vegetables like sweet potato and squashes
• Water (filtered whenever possible)
• Butter, high quality Olive oil (like Braggs), high quality Avocado oil, unrefined coconut oil

Gosh, look how simple that list is!  Now here are some nuances for you.  Opt for regenerative or organic whenever possible.  Regenerative is best because the animal is eating its natural diet (vs. industrialized grain that is loaded with pesticides and not a natural diet for most animals) and it is literally helping to rejuvenate the land by rotating where they are eating from.  This way they naturally agitate the land and fertilize it with urine and manure and then move on to a new pasture to continue the process.  A great book about regenerative farming is “A bold return to giving a damn.”  

When it comes to meat, try talking to farmers in your local area.  This meat will be FAR better than anything you are getting in the store and I can guarantee those animals are treated with a lot more respect and care.  Industrialized meat is often pumped with antibiotics and growth hormones.  I recently learned that 70% of the nations antibiotics are used in animals 😳🤯

If you can or are willing, incorporate some liver or heart into your diet.  There is a company called Force of Nature that has a ground beef, liver and heart blend that is very good and you can’t tell that you are eating liver and heart but you are getting the nutrients from it.  Force of Nature is also a regenerative farm so it's a win-win!  There are also other regenerative farms that will ship meat to your door.  One of those is White Oak Pastures out of Georgia.

When it comes to fish, Salmon is by far the best (and my personal favorite).  Always opt for wild caught.  This is really important because farmed fish are not fed their natural diet and therefore you are not getting the health benefits of the fish.  You can tell by the difference in color from wild caught to farm raised.  And now that the industry caught wind of that - they are actually adding COLOR to the food they are feeding farmed salmon!!  You can safely assume that anything you are getting in a restaurant is farmed.  If you see “Atlantic” or “Faroe Island” that is farmed Salmon.  Please hear me, this doesn’t mean never enjoy salmon in a restaurant again, just make sure you are aware.

When it comes to fruits and vegetables, opt for Organic whenever possible or go to your local farmers market which is even better.  Organic foods are made without pesticides and are non-GMO.  Food from your local farmers market will be far more nutrient dense because it is traveling only from the farmers field to your table.  Many of our grocery store veggies have traveled a long way to get to you and they will lose nutrients each day they are out of the ground.  And you will also find that tomatoes, carrots, apples, basically anything you buy locally, tastes SO MUCH BETTER!!!!

The number one thing that I hear after sharing this information with people is that it is too expensive to eat healthy and to that I have a few important points to make.

Yes, it is more expensive AND there are ways to combat that which I will get into.

The most important part of this though is that it is a CHOICE to be healthy and that might mean sacrifices in another part of your budget.  Food is the highest monthly budget item in my budget.  I will NOT sacrifice good, healthy food and this is why.  (One could argue that if you eat out for breakfast and lunch everyday you are already spending more than having healthy food at home).

If you don’t pay for your health up front, you are going to pay for it far more in the future.  You are going to pay for it in the form of “health care” costs - doctor visits, surgery, chemotherapy, medications.  You are going to pay for it in missed work and lost wages.  You are going to pay for it in missed joyful life - instead you will be too tired or too sick to enjoy life.  I have seen this first hand with people I love in my life, no longer able to live the life they really want to live and also being unwilling to change their diet.  I can’t make you choose the healthier way, but I can implore you to consider the long term effects of not choosing the healthier way up front. 

 To save some money consider these things:

• Farmers markets - you can often get the farmer to give you a deal when you are buying multiple things from them.  
• Farm shares - you pay up front but you can get tons of veggies or meat or whatever the share is for each week or month.
• Aldi's - has lots of organic options at a good price
• Costco - make the most of that membership!  Costco has tons of organic food options and you can get it in bulk.  You may have to sift through the bad to get to the good but there is a lot there.  Condiments such as primal kitchen buffalo sauce and mayonnaise (made with avocado oil) and raw organic cashews are great options.
• Buy in bulk - when something is on sale buy as much of it as you can!  Obviously you need to be able to use it or store it but this is a great option to save money.

Okay now let's shift into what not to eat. Unfortunately, this is the majority of things in the grocery store. 

• Sugar and sugar alternatives like Sucralose (aka splenda)
• Sugary drinks like any soda, juice, gatorade, caprisun, hawaiian punch etc.
• Preservatives and ingredients that you can pronounce
• Food dyes
• Anything ultra processed like TV dinners, frozen pizza, mac and cheese out of a box, canned raviolis (I used to live on this), any of those 100 calorie pack things, anything Enteman’s, muffins and most breads (even gluten free breads are loaded with shit), cereal.
• Seed oil (vegetable oils, canola oils, sunflower, safflower etc.)

Sugar is a silent killer.  Sugar increases blood sugar which according to Dr. Casey Means is the foundation of most of the chronic health issues in America today.  If you think about what you typically feed your kids in a day - it is no wonder that childhood type 2 diabetes is on the rise and our kids are sicker than ever.  They start with cereal and maybe a glass of sugar filled OJ.  Then they go sit at school for long periods of time.  Then they have a frozen pizza or crappy processed “chicken” nuggets from school lunch with french fries, followed by a devil dog or cookies or cake loaded with sugar.  If you have a teenager perhaps they are indulging in an afternoon Dunkin Frozen “pumpkin” “coffee” which has 46 TEASPOONS of sugar in it.  Just for a second, can you imagine making a coffee at home and adding FORTY SIX TEASPOONS of sugar??  You would never.  Sugar is killing you and it's killing your kids.

Food dyes are linked to all sorts of health disorders such as ADHD and even cancer.  These dyes are banned in other countries because of their known health risks but they are in all the things we feed our kids - cereals, juice drinks, gatorade and even “yogurt” for kids.  I bet we can all think of kids that we know that are on meds for ADHD - I know multiple.  It’s no wonder why when you look at the diet of an American child today. 

Ultra processed foods are often cooked at high temperatures and have preservatives and other chemically processed ingredients that have a profound effect on our health.  Lots of these foods also have added sugar.  These foods are often contributing to high blood sugar levels as well.

Seed oils are one of the worst things you can eat. They are also touted as the healthier oil options and it couldn’t be further from the truth.  These oils are processed at very high heat and cause them to go rancid.  Because of this they need to be bleached and deodorized.  These oils are highly chemically processed and highly inflammatory to your body and contribute to killing our gut microbiome.  These oils are in almost all processed foods.  You will be hard pressed to find ANYTHING that doesn’t have them in it, even organic foods.  You just have to read the labels and be aware.  I recently learned that one of my favorite crackers has seed oil in it.  I swear that they didn’t when I first started buying them, but that is another thing you have to look out for.  You have to continually check your labels for changes in ingredients.  Please also know that anytime you go out to eat, you will be eating seed oils.  Very few restaurants have changed the oils they to healthier alternatives.

Now that I have plagued you with the bad - just know this - it is impossible to be perfect and no one is asking you to do that.  You just need to have an awareness of what is actually bad for you.  Many things, like Cheerios for example, will say heart healthy on the box.  It is a lie.  Understanding the ingredients in your food is the best way to actually know what is healthy.  I go out to eat several times a month with my hubs.  While we try to make better choices, we always do enjoy ourselves and that actually goes a long way to your health as well. Stay far away from fast food restaurants though and opt to go out to eat only a few times a month instead of daily.

These are the fundamentals.  The more you can opt for local, organic, regenerative whole foods for yourself and your family, the higher quality of life you will have!  Need help with all this information and incorporate it into your life?  That is what my coaching program is all about - you can book a call with me to learn more about it HERE.

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