Due to the many misconceptions surrounding what it means to eat a healthy diet, today I thought I would give a simple, straightforward message of what a real healthy diet looks like, compared to one that may seem healthy, based on typical guidelines and recommendations, but is really far from it. Most of us want to be healthier, and many of us are actively trying to become healthier – I want to make sure that your actions are not a waste of time or money, and make sure you are focusing on what should be the biggest priority.
Think about every message you regularly receive regarding health. This includes everything from what you are told on morning talk shows (it’s the GMO’s that are responsible for our health problems!), along with what the box containing your breakfast is telling you (heart healthy cheerios with zero cholesterol!), to things you hear in your doctor’s office (you need to cut back on salt and meat consumption), along with the advice your friend gives you over cocktails (have you tried removing gluten? All those health problems are probably because of gluten!).
If you’re like the typical American, these four examples are probably only a small chunk of the health advice you hear during the day. Then, when you go to the grocery store and try to make what should be a simple decision of what to eat for dinner, you get overwhelmed, stressed out, and likely make poor choices (because when we are stressed out and in cognitive overload, we fall back on our old, unhealthy habits).
Out of all of this, I see clear three problems.
The first is this overload of information. Simply put, there is too much advice being offered, and that creates an overwhelmed, confused population, which does not help us live healthier lives. We have to remember, stress is one of the leading causes of poor health. If we aim to eat healthy but compromise our state of mind in the process, then we aren’t doing ourselves any favors for our health. Good health advice should be simple, straightforward, and should not result in a stressed-out state.
Furthermore, this overload of information is enough to make us overwhelmed with all our decisions, throwing in the towel when we can’t figure it out. Have you ever found yourself in a grocery store aisle, starring at the wide range of (fill in the blank), and been so frustrated you just walk out, or otherwise grab the standard one – the one you know isn’t healthy, but you’ve bought it before, it tasted pretty good, and it didn’t kill you on the spot. This is common with something like salad dressings: Should I buy the low-fat one? This one says oil free – (how is that even possible!?). This one says sugar-free, but that one is touting the heart-healthy benefits!
What are we supposed to do with all this?*
The second and third problems have to do with the information itself.
One problem with all that commonly known information is that, even though some of it is rooted in some form of sound health principle (e.g. eat whole grains, buy organic, avoid GMO’s, etc.), the way that this information propagates creates certain problems. More specifically, when messages like these propagate throughout the public, our focus is taken off of the more important things and shifted to factors that should be of lesser concern. For example, sound health advice such as “avoid GMO’s,” turns into a marketing campaign for unhealthy products. Then, when we go to the store and see “non-GMO” on a box of cookies, our brains are tricked into thinking they are healthy!
Finally, there is the problem of health advice stemming from outdated, flawed science. We are all familiar with this one: avoid fat because it will make you fat and give you a heart attack. Yes, we (hopefully) all know this advice was wrong (please eat your fats!), yet there are still many lingering bits of health advice that have long been overturned in the scientific literature, and yet still propagate through public knowledge.
Yes, this last one is a HUGE problem, one that most of my work is devoted to overcoming. For the purpose of today’s article, I will not try to debate any of these topics, but I will help you to see that sticking to my advice helps you avoid most of these ill-advised recommendations.
So here we have our three problems. My goal for today is to help you overcome these three problems with some simple, scientifically sound advice.
Our three problems to tackle today:
- An overload of health information
- Sound health advice turns into poorly propagated information
- Propagation of poor health advice
So what’s the secret – what’s my advice to avoiding all of this? Here it is: eat real food.
Yep, that’s it.
I can almost assure you that, if you are currently eating the Standard American Diet, you will make the largest improvements in your health by forgetting all that information out there and sticking to this one piece of advice.**
No dietary recommendation (e.g. eat organic, avoid GMO’s, decrease salt intake) compares to the results you will see if you focus solely on stepping away from what is processed to consuming only quality foods.
Focusing on this one thing, buying whole, real food, takes (most of) the confusion and frustration out of what to buy at the grocery store. When you no longer have to worry about buying gluten-free vs. organic vs. vegan, and simply only reach for real, whole foods, then life becomes drastically simpler as your stress levels decrease and your health improves.
Just eat real food
So what exactly does it mean to “eat real food?” And if all we have to do is eat real food, then what is fake food?
If you feel like you need a detailed answer, that’s no problem: Find out what I do not count as real food.
If you don’t have the time to head over there, don’t worry. I understand we’re trying to focus on today’s three problems, the first of which is an overload of information. Therefore, I have no intention of overloading you with dozens of ways to decide what is or isn’t real food.
Overall, if you need one piece of knowledge for what is or isn’t real food, it is this: always consume foods that you purchased in their whole form. This means that you should avoid foods that come in packages, with any sort of marketing. If a food needs to be marketed, or otherwise comes in a package with a bunch of ingredients, it probably isn’t a whole food – it is most likely a producer trying to sell a food-like product by using key health buzzwords.
Exceptions to this rule are packaged foods that contain only real ingredients. For example, if you wish to make a salad, and you see a package of lettuce containing a variety of lettuce, then it is simply a package containing a variety of real foods. But once anything extra starts getting added, such as dressing containing sugary, flavored oils, or other chemicals, just don’t buy it. Buy the lettuce and put your own dressing on it. I know, it takes an extra minute of your time and gives you one more thing to do, but your body will thank you for it.
A second exception example: meat comes in a packaged form. If it doesn’t, then you live on a farm eating your own farm-fresh foods and you have none of these problems. Just because chicken comes in a package doesn’t mean it is a processed food. But, if you look on the ingredients and see anything other then chicken, then yes, it is processed. If there is breading on that chicken, it is no longer just chicken. Moreover, if anything is added to the chicken itself (i.e. injected into it) then don’t buy it (yes, manufacturers have started injecting chicken with fillers like salt and carageenan to make it weigh more – I know, not cool).
If you’re frustrated that I have to take the time to spell this out, I can empathize with you. The problem is that people are really good at trying to twist my advice to keep up their bad eating habits: “She said chicken is an exception – oh look, this whole chicken breast only has breading that says it has whole wheat in it. And they only used heart-healthy oil to fry it in!” No, this fried chicken is not a whole food. However those raw chicken wings that the butcher prepared for you, only by removing them from a de-feathered bird and covering them in plastic – those are a real, whole food.
Remember, just keep it simple: buy foods in their whole form. Make sure there are no extras on the ingredients list. Bring these foods home and cook them. That is food, and that is what makes you healthy.
How health buzzwords can set you up for failure:
Now that we understand how to not overwhelm ourselves, what about our other two problems, the problems that have to do with the advice itself. Why should we avoid advice like avoiding GMO’s and buying organic, when these things will clearly help our health.
First off, understand that I am not telling you to avoid this advice altogether. If you are choosing between organic tomatoes and conventional tomatoes, considering money isn’t a large factor, of course you should opt for the organic ones. Rather, I am telling you that you should shift your focus from all this specific advice to my simple advice: just eat real food.
To help you understand why simply focusing on eating real food is better than trying to focus on several specific pieces of health advice, let’s go through some examples.
First, let’s continue on with the GMO’s example from earlier: why does focusing on eating real food negate the need to worry about GMOs?
Here’s the problem with focusing on avoiding GMOs. If you eat whole, real foods, then you will avoid most GMO’s anyway! People today are terrified of GMOs, thinking they are lurking behind every corner. However, in this country, only a couple handfuls of foods are actually allowed to be genetically modified.
The top four genetically modified foods, responsible for the vast majority of genetically modified foods on the shelf, are corn, soy, cotton, and canola. That means that the foods that are almost always genetically modified are industrial seed oils (i.e. vegetable oils), high fructose corn syrup, and anything containing soy. Guess where these are found: processed foods. Guess where they are not found: whole foods.
If you avoid processed foods, then you will avoid most, if not all, GMOs. If you consume processed foods, then you are almost certain to be consuming GMOs.
Furthermore, let’s talk about the science supporting the advice to avoid GMO’s. This is one of those gray-area pieces of advice: yes, there is definitely good reason to avoid GMO’s, as they generally have higher levels of pesticides and they may be more pro-inflammatory. But there isn’t any strong data to suggest that because a food is “GMO” it is going to be a major contributor to terrible health.***
However, there is solid evidence to show that things like sugar, vegetable oils, and processed wheat are major contributors to poor health.
When you opt for non-GMO and ignore overall quality, you could very well end up eating non-GMO sugar and vegetable oil, which absolutely is going to lead to poor health. However, if you opt for non-processed, you avoid most, if not all of the GMO’s, but more importantly, you avoid all the other junk that is actually (i.e. has been scientifically proved to be) contributing to poor health.
Do yourself a favor and make it simple: avoid processed foods. By doing this you will avoid the corn, cotton, soy, and canola, which are unhealthy for numerous reasons, only of of which is being genetically modified.
Let’s look at a second example, one that is a little trickier because it likely has a higher impact on your health: organic foods. Yes, when choosing between organic and non-organic foods, organic is obviously going to be the better choice. But in life it isn’t so simple, because organic foods are often much more expensive, and depending on where you live, often more difficult to come by. I don’t know about you, but I’m not overflowing with money, so when I go to the grocery store I have to make some choices. If you walk into the store focusing on buying only organic foods, you’re definitely going to end up paying more. If you’re on a budget, that extra spending may be enough to stress you out and leave less money for healthy foods and activities.
Just as important, if organic is your sole focus, many of those foods you purchase are likely going to be less healthy than some non-organic, whole foods. For example, say you want to avoid buying non-organic eggs (because the organic ones are too expensive), and instead opt for organic cereal. You just made a choice to avoid a whole, healthy food, for one that is refined – one that is going to give you a large dose of sugar and spike your insulin. Rather, if you eat the non-organic eggs, there might be a few extra chemicals that come along with them, but they will also provide a satiating meal with the perfect mix of fat and protein, will provide lots of nutrients, and most important, will not spike your insulin. Yes, if you can afford the organic eggs, it will be an improvement; but if you can’t, avoiding that processed food is what is key.****
Eating a whole foods diet, one containing a few pesticides, is much healthier than one containing organic, industrial foods. Opt for whole foods now, focus on organic later.
I could go on with more examples of products:
- Gluten-free: Avoiding gluten often results in buying highly refined grains that have been even further modified to remove the gluten. Furthermore, gluten-free products are often high in sugar and contain extra additives to replace the job of gluten (i.e. any form of “gum”).
- Lower your cholesterol: the perfect marketing scheme on highly refined, sugary products. If what you are about to buy is marketed for lowering cholesterol, this is a key signal that this product is highly processed
- Vegan – this simply means that no milk, butter, or eggs were used. These products often contain vegetable oils, sugar, and refined flour
- Paleo – this basically just means that no grains or milk was used. These products often contain other refined products.
None of this is to say that a gluten-free, vegan, or paleo lifestyle is good or bad. Rather, I simply mean that opting for products that are marketed as such often lead to consuming more processed foods. Avoid processed foods and you will avoid most of the unhealthy foods anyway.
Remember, real food doesn’t have to market itself. If you want to go vegan, then buy fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains. If you want to go paleo, buy real meat, vegetables, and nuts. Don’t buy those products that are simply marketing to you. These products are just more processed foods.
Remember, whatever type of diet you are trying to follow, whether it is a specific type of diet (vegan, paleo, LCHF, etc.), or you are simply trying to eat better overall, opting for real, whole foods will give you the biggest health improvements for your time and energy. When starting the journey to improve your health, start with this simple advice. Once your kitchen is stocked on real, whole foods, and you have stopped consuming processed junk, then we can talk about how gluten-free, non-GMO, organic foods may help your health improve even more.
Some Hard Data to Back Me Up
If you’re still not convinced that this is a good approach, here’s some science for you: a recently published clinical trial (1) examined the effect of two types of diets: a low-carb high-fat diet vs. a high-carb low-fat diet. The great thing about this trial, compared to others, was that both groups were additionally told to focus on quality. Therefore, all participants shifted to a diet that was high in quality, whole foods, while some ate more carbs and some ate more fat.
What did the researchers find?
It turns out that the results were, well, not too exciting. Both groups showed improvements, and those improvements were the same in each group. Therefore, the only changes were a result of a shift to quality foods, while the specific condition (high-carb vs. low-carb) didn’t have an effect.
I think we can learn a lot from this study. While the macronutrient war continues to rage on, with experts on either side of the macronutrient spectrum constantly arguing for one type of diet over the other, this shows that this war is irrelevant: both diets work, as long as the focus is on real, whole foods. Therefore, there is no need to worry about macronutrient ratios, when you can simply focus on real, whole foods.
A second study (2) examined the effect of two paleo-type diets compared to a control diet. Note that all three diets consisted completely of whole foods, but the paleo-type diets were more nutrient-dense. For example, the paleo-type diets contained more polyphenol-rich carbohydrate, compared to just rice given in the control.
The results were, altogether, uninteresting: all three meals resulted in healthy responses, with a few measures being slightly improved on one of the paleo-type diets. For example, one of the paleo-type diets resulted in slightly lower insulin levels, but overall the responses were the beneficial across the board.
The reason is simple: all three meals contained real, whole foods, and consuming real, whole foods creates good health.
Across the board, diets that focus on real, whole foods, are the diets that are successful. Focus on real, whole foods first. This is where the largest health improvements are made.
Once you’ve made it to this step – once your diet is consistently made up of real, whole foods – then it might be time to start focusing on specific changes.
For example, maybe gluten is a big problem for you, and therefore cutting it out is going to benefit you. But you will find that out only after you make the big leap from processed foods to real food.
Moreover, maybe going organic is a huge deal for you, because your body may not be as good at detoxifying. In this case, going organic is a really good idea – but you will only find that out once, overall, your diet is cleaned up by removing all the processed junk.
A few things to finish off with: at the end of this article I brought up this whole idea of various diets being better than others. Should I go low-fat or low-carb? Vegan or keto? What about paleo/primal? Before you stress out about these, consider these studies. Remember, what matters most is shifting to real, whole foods. Once that is done, then you can consider the specifics. Once you are eating real, whole foods, then it is time to start making decisions on cutting out specific foods groups.
For more information on this specific topic, check out my other articles on eating real food.
For now, just remember this: healthy eating does not have to be confusing and stressful. If you’re just starting to get into this whole health thing, and you find yourself overwhelmed by all the messages, just forget it all and focus on buying real, whole foods. That’s where you’ll find the largest improvements.
**Disclaimer: Please remember, as always, I am not telling you to forget what the doctor said and to heed only my advice. Everything I say should ALWAYS be used as advice to be used in conjunction with the advice of your doctor. Never change any major behavior without consulting your doctor first.
(That being said, if your doctor disagrees with my advice today to eat better quality food, then it is probably time to find a new doctor)
*By the way, my answer to the salad dressing problem: skip the store-bought salad dressings. They’re all filled with toxic vegetable oils and most are loaded up with sugar. Buy some high quality olive oil and vinegar and make your own instead. If you insist on buying salad dressing, a few companies are popping up with good quality products. These good quality dressings are made from avocado oil and do not contain any sugar or other processed junk.
*** Here’s my view on GMO’s: some crops (e.g. corn, canola, soy, and cotton), are genetically modified to be able to withstand higher levels of pesticide, or produce this pesticide themselves. These should probably be avoided, as this means they contain higher levels of toxins. However, other GMO’s, like papaya and apples, have been given other modifications that prevent problems that consumers might even be thankful for. For example, apples have been genetically modified to avoid browning, and this non-browning trait will likely have no effect on your health.
****The alternative would be to buy another organic breakfast food, such as organic whole grains. This means actual whole grain, not a product containing some whole grain, along with other junk.
References
1. Gardner CD, Trepanowski JF, Del Gobbo LC, Hauser ME, Rigdon J, Ioannidis JPA, Desai M, King AC. Effect of Low-Fat vs Low-Carbohydrate Diet on 12-Month Weight Loss in Overweight Adults and the Association With Genotype Pattern or Insulin SecretionThe DIETFITS Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2018;319(7):667–679. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.0245
2. Bligh, H. F. J., Godsland, I. F., Frost, G., Hunter, K. J., Murray, P., Macaulay, K., … Berry, M. J. (2015). Plant-rich mixed meals based on Palaeolithic diet principles have a dramatic impact on incretin, peptide YY and satiety response, but show little effect on glucose and insulin homeostasis: An acute-effects randomised study. British Journal of Nutrition, 113(4), 574–584. http://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114514004012