A Health Supportive Diet
Hopefully all of you will agree that one key factor to staying healthy is good nutrition. But is there a diet that is the most health supportive? Many modern dietary practices claim to be “it” some even show promising results, however, these are often temporary and in the long run prove hard to sustain. The purpose of this blog is not to shun any particular diet, rather share with you my approach to food and health.
I am well aware that maintaining optimum health goes beyond just food and diet, other aspects of our life, which do not necessarily come in a plate, also play an important role in our health (exercising, a meaningful job, a spiritual practice, among others) but food is one key factor and here it will be the main topic.
For several years now, I have been practicing a way of eating that has helped me stay relatively healthy (rarely catch a cold), has helped me keep my body weight at a good range (for my age and height), supplied me with a steady level of energy throughout the day, and be less dependent on pharmaceutical drugs when dealing with minor aches and pains. I also use this diet with my clients (work mostly with people dealing with serious health issues) where I make the necessary adjustment to each particular client’s needs and health issue.
This way of eating is very inclusive and can work for anyone. Whether you are a vegetarian, vegan or meat eater.
The basic foundation of the diet is consuming as much as possible whole, unprocessed foods. When eating whole foods, we do not need to count calories, whole foods are nutrient dense, your will feel satiated sooner, and this feeling will sustain you a good few hours, so you rarely will overeat.
When eating whole foods we do not need to worry about whether we are taking enough of a specific nutrient, rather than worry about quantity of nutrients, emphasis on the “wholeness” of the food is more important. Nutrients in the whole food come perfectly proportioned so that the body has all it needs to assimilate it. So when we consume a whole carrot, we are taking in all its nutrients (iron, calcium, phosphorous, sodium, potassium, B-Vitamins, fiber, vitamin A, water). It is not the same, drinking the carrot juice or taking just vitamin A, as eating the whole carrot. When we take just one nutrient alone, we may throw our body off balance, which may result in a craving, which often we may not even know why and what we are craving for. As my teacher and mentor, Annemarie Colbin says in her 1996 published book Food and Healing “if you take the Vitamin A pill in the morning, you may be spending the whole afternoon looking for the rest of the carrot”.
So, I take all this into consideration when making my food choices. The bulk of it, consists of fresh seasonal organic (whenever possible) vegetables and fruits, beans, whole grains, nuts, seeds, mostly plant-based protein, small amount of animal protein, good fats, such as olive oils, all kinds of herbs and spices, sea salt, sea vegetables. For sweeteners, maple syrup or crystals, rice syrup (all in modest amounts), some dairy products (fermented if possible, like Kefir), lots of herbals teas and filtered water.
Minimum or avoid altogether consumption of all processed food, such as sugar, white flour, cured meats, products containing high fructose corn syrup, shortening, commercial oils, fried foods…
Additionally, at every meal the goal is to create balance. How do we create balanced meals? There are many ways to approach it (color, flavor, texture, macronutrients, micronutrients)… and that will be the topic of our next blog.
Till then I hope you keep whole foods in mind as you make your daily food choices.