The one thing I think everyone should be eating.
Paleo, vegetarian, high fat, low carb, raw, juicing, gluten free, dairy free, FODMAP, GAPS, SCD, failsafe, low GI, vegan, blood type.
What the heck are we supposed to eat these days? Does anybody know?
Is anyone else’s head spinning? The nutrition advice seems to change as often as I change my underpants. Well, okay, maybe not that often.
I grew up avoiding fat like it was going to kill me, now everyone is telling me to tuck into butter, cream and bacon.
Every style of eating can make great points as to why we should eat their way. There is research, there are studies, there is living proof. How can everyone be right?
How can the vegans and the paleos both be right?
I have been thinking about this a lot lately.
I do subscribe to the theory of bio-individual nutrition. That basically means we are all different and there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to eating. You are a unique individual and depending on the circumstances and point in time, certain foods may be great for you and certain foods may be bad for you. This became very apparent to us as a family when we discovered that one of us who could not tolerate gluten in the past, can now tolerate gluten. The difference? Some kinesiology work. Did the stress or emotional blockage make it hard for the body to digest gluten at that time? I don’t know exactly, but it sure seems that way to me.
Okay, so that is great. Eat what makes you feel good. Easy! But the process of working out what makes you feel good can take some time, some committed food diarizing and maybe some outside help from professionals. I do think it is a good way to go and something I am following through with all of us as a family.
In the mean time, I was thinking about what to eat. Should we be dropping dairy? Eating more raw foods? Again, head spin time.
Then it occurred to me…… you know what I want us to keep focusing on eating? What I think everyone should be eating? What is best for everyone’s health?
Quality food.
Simple as that.
I don’t think anyone’s health can ever benefit from eating poor quality food.
What we try to eat:
♥ organic
♥ free range
♥ grass-fed and finished
♥ fresh
♥ seasonal
♥ local
♥ whole and unprocessed
♥ GMO free
♥ ethical food grown with love
What we try not to eat:
♥ factory farmed meat
♥ caged eggs
♥ artificial additives – colours, flavours, preservatives, fillers
♥ unsustainable foods
♥ artificial sweeteners
♥ GMOs
♥ chemicals
♥ nutritionally devoid foods
♥ processed foods
♥ added hormones and antibiotics
Think of a ham and salad sandwich.
Poor quality sandwich: Bleached GMO wheat, preservatives, canola oil, synthetic vitamin laden bread, chemical-filled and hydrogenated fats margarine, nitrate-filled factory farmed processed ham, pesticide riddled tomato and lettuce.
Good quality sandwich: Organic stoneground sourdough bread, organic pasture fed butter, organic, free range happy pig ham, fresh local organic tomatoes and lettuce.
So if you feel like eating a ham and salad sandwich, have one, but make it a superior quality one.
You get my drift?
I think if you are eating good quality food, you can’t go far wrong. Start with that, first and foremost, and then investigate your bio-individual nutrition. So, organic fetta makes you feel sick? Then you might need to avoid dairy.
But just make sure it isn’t crappy, poor quality, heavily processed, nutrient stripped food that is making you sick in the first place.
Anyway, what do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Got anything to add?