Diet vs. Food: Healthy eating needs to be a way of life. Realistic and sustainable.
“Healthy eating is a way of life, so it’s important to establish routines that are simple, realistically, and ultimately livable.” – Horace
Simply put a diet is made up of food choices that should feed and nourish our bodies but where it gets tricky is making the right food choices to satisfy the particular needs of our own body.
I wish knowing what to eat was easier than it is today but we’ve muddied the waters so much that even I questions, sometimes, whether I’m eating all the right foods for me or not…so it looks we’re all in the same boat! Whole foods eaten in moderation and with lots of variety is always a great place to start but now we have to consider how much of each of these different food groups we need to eat in order to keep everything in balance and satisfied.
There’s a ridiculous number of diets out there and most claim to be based on either science, history, or both and many exclude entire food groups and then advocate for excessive amounts of others. I consider these to be extreme diets and like most things in life, extremes of anything can lead to deeper more complicated issues later. Some of the most commonly talked about diets are paleo, vegan, and keto or some variation of one of these but the one thing they have in common is that are all exclusionary. Why do you think there are so many variations of these diets? Because someone out there tried one and found it didn’t work for them and so they modified it for themselves, gave it a new name, and voilà, a new diet was born. We all have to modify our food choices. We are all different. We all have different needs and we need to respect those differences in order to stay healthy…and stay sane.
Let’s talk food, not Diet
Just because a diet has a name doesn’t mean you have to be that diet. I eat primarily a Mediterranean diet (and it just so happens that I am a descendant of Mediterranean people. This is also something to consider but we’ll get into it at a later date.) but I don’t go around telling everyone I meet…and notice I did say “primarily”. I make changes to suit me. I eat fewer grains because I feel better when I do and I eat less fish than is recommended. Why? Because I live thousands of miles away from the closest ocean and it’s difficult to find truly fresh fish on a regular basis. We have to design our diet the way we design our life…it has to suit us. I could also argue that I eat primarily a Pegan diet too. It’s similar to the Mediterranean diet. Notice the slight adjustment in the name? It’s a combination of paleo and vegan…implying that it is low in starchy food, like grains, and lower in animal products, like meat.
Combining Paleo and Vegan diets…
If you’re like me and you have to watch your carbohydrate intake from high starch foods like grains, a pegan diet is a great place to start.
Both of these diets are based on vegetables being your largest food group eaten but the Pegan diet separates the starchy vegetables, fruits & grains from non-starchy vegetable, which for me is a good thing. I need to watch my intake of starchy foods, especially grains, you may not have to and can consume more than I can. So you see we’re eating the same just with a little modification. This is how we are so posed to think about food, for ourselves, our personal, physical, and sometimes emotional needs.
By eating with diversity and in moderation, we can increase the wide range of nutrients we are getting on a daily and weekly basis without long term negative effects caused by the exclusion of foods and their unique individual collection of nutrients.
Let’s regain some sanity and make this a little easier for ourselves by choosing whole foods from all the food groups, eating them all moderately, and always keeping in mind how the food we eat affects us personally. By doing this, we can regain balance and better health. Don’t let anyone try to convince you that you’re wrong. Only you know how you feel and if you’re feeling good with your choices, stick with it. If at any time you stop feeling good, reassess. Start by eliminating the foods you think might be causing your issues, remove them and see if you feel better. If you do, make some changes. If you don’t feel any better, try eliminating something different. By doing this, you start to see and know what foods are your friends and which are your foes. This is a process and it will take some time but it is all worth it because in the end…you will be feeling good all the time!
We should all be enjoying our food, the experience of having our meals without pressure or stress, constantly questioning ourselves, or worse, having to explain ourselves. Keep it simple, keep it fresh, and keep it real!
Check out Bits and Bites for some basic guidelines, food ideas, and how to create balance in your diet.
