Eat this.
Eat that.
Don’t eat that.
Oh, you can eat that now.
No, you really can’t eat that.
You can eat that, just…
How many times a day do you see a post, article or news segment with one of the above messages? It’s becomes confusing when the messages are mixed. All are based off a new scientific study, but they conflict in messages. What is a person to do?
The news likes great headlines and doesn’t always look into the quality of the information they give. A great example is John Bohannon, who convinced the world that chocolate helps you lose weight. Turns out, it was a hoax designed to show the flaws in how media portrays nutrition.
So what do we do?
At AnamBliss, we believe that a good start is to begin to improve our relationship with food. The constant good and bad really adds unnecessary stress to our daily lives. Food is really about nourishment for our bodies. Making sure we have all the necessary nutrients to function. It isn’t something to be guilty about, to punish yourself, or to avoid.
Our main suggestions:
- Eat lots of vegetables. Try to get at least 50% of your daily diet to be vegetables. If you can, try to increase the amount to 60-80%. You’ll get lots of nutrients (Including protein!), feel more full and eat fewer calories. Win, win and win.
- Eat close to the source. This means eating food in it’s most natural state, whole grains, beans, fish, fruit and veggies.
- Minimize or eliminate the processed food. It may be vegan, gluten-free, paleo or just say healthy, but it doesn’t mean it is. If you do go for something in a box, try to minimize the number of ingredients, make sure you can pronounce all or most of the ingredients, and that there is very limited added sugar.
- Enjoy a treat! Every now and then, it just feels good to eat something fun. When you do, relish it. Really taste it and take your time.
- Check in with how you feel. After you eat something do you feel good? Do you feel lethargic? How does your digestive tract feel? If you don’t feel good, you may want to look at the ingredients to cut things out. Do you feel stressed, tired, or bored? The answers can help determine your emotional needs around food.
You may have noticed that we didn’t call out certain foods. For us, creating a base set of guidelines that allow everyone to make changes based off their own life, believes and needs is important. We will dive deeper into different aspects of nutrition for education and suggest. Join us in the exploration and conversation.