The basics for winning the battle for health
5 steps to begin your journey
if I am not meeting my health goals, What do I do first?
1
If our bodies or minds are not working the way we want them to work, the first thing to look at is our diet.
What is our fuel?
What are we putting in our bodies?
A good first step is to keep an honest food journal for the next 7 days and write down everything you eat. No need to change anything. Just keep a food log.
my food log shows that My diet needs improvement. what should i change?
2
It is much easier to focus on what to add rather than getting stuck on what you need to remove.
Make your second step in your journey to eat vegetables with every meal.
Choose colorful organic vegetables like kale, tomatoes, avocado, carrots and broccoli.
Remember that foods like potatoes and corn are not vegetables. They are starches that we should minimize.
I know processed food is bad, but how do I know what is a processed food versus a whole food.
3
Reading food labels is key to identify if a food is a processed food or a whole food. We want to eat living food not dead food. Processed foods are so far from that what God designed that they are dead.
Do not look at the packaging. That is advertising and it may not be accurate. Look at the label that says, “Nutrition Facts”.
Read the list of ingredients. The main ingredient is listed first. The ingredient listed second has the second largest amount and so forth down to the least amount.
If the ingredients are real food (such as tomato, whole grain, olive oil) and there are only a handful of ingredients, the product is not processed.
On the other hand, if the list of ingredients is long and full of things that are hard to pronounce, it is processed and do not eat it.
what food ingredients should i avoid
4
The greatest problem in our diet today is starches and sugars. We eat too much starchy food. We eat too much sugar. We need to cut these types of food to as little as possible.
Starchy food includes white flour, white rice, white potatoes, corn, tortillas, bread, potato chips, and pasta,
Sugary food includes candy, cookies, muffins, juices, and ice cream.
Make these foods a rare treat, not what you eat every day.
what whole foods are best?
5
In my opinion, vegetables are the most important food.
While many influencers are pushing all sorts of fad diets, I believe increasing organic veggies are the key to improving our metabolic health. Most people are deficient in important vitamins and minerals, and do not eat enough anti-inflammatory antioxidant polyphenols. Fresh fruits and vegetables are full of vitamins, minerals, and polyphenols.
And do not forget to add fermented vegetables like kimchi and sauerkraut to your diet. Ferments have probiotics which restore our gut microbiome. A healthy gut leads to a healthy body and a healthy brain.
After maximizing your veggies, focus next on healthy proteins including fish, beef, dairy, eggs, poultry, beans, nuts, and seeds.
Next, eat a variety of organic fruit in moderation. Fruit does contain sugar so be sure not to eat too much. Berries and citrus fruit are the healthiest.
Lastly, consider your fats. The most health promoting oils are olive oil and avocado oil. For more information on the complexities surround fat, read my blog call “The Fat Debate”.
Your next step on the journey is to explore my other blogs which cover the seven keys to good health
I cover these topics in detail in my book Winning the Battle for Health in a Toxic World