Good Eating

Eating is one of your most powerful action steps to building health and avoiding illness. So what is healthy food for humans?

Trends and patterns we can all agree on.

You may be surprised to learn that most nutrition experts agree that the following recommendations promote overall health and provide protection from disease:

         Eating more fresh fruits & vegetables
         Cutting out white flour & sugar, fast food, hydrogenated fat, 
          processed food, caffeine, MSG & other chemical additives
         Hydrating (eating or drinking more liquids, reducing dehydrating foods)
         Eating moderate portions
         Exercising regularly

Focusing on these very clear goals will almost certainly improve your health.

But what should I eat on a daily basis?

Here is where things get a little murky for most folks. Humans are capable of surviving on a variety of foodstuffs. But there is a preponderance of evidence suggesting that humans thrive on a 
WHOLE FOODS, PLANT-BASED DIET 

Dr. T. Colin Campbell is one of many to assert that this diet: 
"is most consistent with the biologically-based evidence, supported by the most impressive array of professional literature, consonant with the extremely low disease rates seen in the international studies, far more harmonious with the environment, possessed of the power to heal advanced disease, and has the potential, without parallel, for supporting a new, low-cost health care system." 

With all this agreement, why are we all still so CONFUSED about what to eat? 

Prominent nutritionists like Marion Nestle - professor and chair 
of the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at 
New York University – warn that confusion stems from 
WHERE & HOW we are informed about health &nutrition:

On the one hand, our advice about the health benefits of diets based largely on food plants - fruits, vegetables, and grains - has not changed in more than 50 years and is consistently supported by ongoing research. 

On the other hand, people seem increasingly confused about what they are supposed to eat to stay healthy. 

As a population, Americans are eating more animal- based foods - and more food in general - to the point where half of us are overweight, even our children are obese, and diseases related to diet are leading causes of death and disability. 

In thinking about this contradiction, I have often wondered what role the food industry might play in creating an environment so conducive to overeating and poor nutritional practices and so confusing about basic principles of diet and health. 

The Food Industry and Scientific Reductionism: 

Two strong forces that direct public discourse on nutrition

WHERE We Get Our Information: The Food Industry 

As the result of advertising, health claims, 'educational materials', lobbying to influence governmental policy, co-opting nutritional professionals by providing research funding, and commanding a major portion of the economy, the food industry wields an inordinate amount of power over what people think and eat.

HOW We get our Information: Scientific Reductionism 

A reductionist outlook attempts to understand the whole (health) through the characteristics of its aspects and parts (nutrients, diseases) by breaking down the big picture into many variables. The problem for you and I is that it lacks the sophistication to understand the complex interactions of all the parts it has created. 

Reductionism is a great way for researchers to begin addressing detailed questions and for product marketers to justify and sell their products, but it is a very confusing way to make daily decisions about diet.

whole thinking on health

A holistic view considers various parts (nutrient & disease data, information source, etc.) to develop an understanding of trends and patterns. This big picture view of health makes more general observations: identifying ways of eating that promote overall health and provide protection from disease. 

Deciding what to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner cannot wait for research and reduction to decipher health and nutrient complexities. Holism facilitates more timely discernment. 

Every bite is an opportunity. 

Good stuff is what you want to be made of.