Ok so last week I spoke a little about supplements. This week I’m going to tell you about diet as a whole.
To start off I’ll ask you what are some things that make you hungry? Is it the sight of food, an empty stomach, the way it smells? Well all those would be correct answers. Food stimulates our sense and therefore makes us desire it.
There are two ways to desire food. Hunger- the physical sensation to find food. And appetite- the psychological desire to eat a specific food.
Now we all know we have certain foods we need to eat. Well actually I lied, we have certain nutrients we need to eat. I went over those but again here is a run down of them: carbohydrates, protien, fat, vitamins, minerals, and water.
These have varying amounts in each food item obviously but the point I want to make is that there is no ultimate food to eat. Too much of anything is bad for you. It’s best to look at it as “What do I need? And when?”.
To find out what you need and what portion, the usa government has a website called my plate. That would be a good place to start if you don’t know where to start on your diet.
But for this, there are a few standards set in place for each nutrient called the dietary reference intake. What these do is obvious by name but it actually is a lot of different standards like recommended daily allowance or adequate intakes, the estimated average requirement, estimated energy requirements, tolerable upper intake level, and acceptable macronutrient distribution ranges.
But obviously as you can see, these are not practical to plan meals. So there are more general guides that evolve over time. I’m sure you all heard of the basic food groups? This is where that came from. So grains, dairy, protien rich food, fruit, ans vegetables.
Grains primary macros are carbohydrates and proteins. Some foods are enriched, meaning they put back the nutrients that were taken out during processing (most store bought bread is this way). And there is fortified foods, meaning there is an added nutrient that wouldn’t normally be there.
Dairy products are good sources of protiens, phosphorus, and the b vitamin riboflavin. Some milks are fortified with vitamin A or D.
Protein rich foods include beef, pork, lamb, shellfish, fish, ect. Beans, eggs and nuts are also included. Generally protien rich foods have good amounts of iron, zinc, and b vitamins.
Of the two above, protien and dairy, soy can be used as a good replacement. But just as all things, make sure you know where you are getting it from.
Fruit and vegetables are best when fresh. They can be blended together if you don’t like their taste. Or do those do it yourself water infusions. Both fruit and vegetables are good sources of micronutrients. SO MAKE SURE YOU EAT PLENTY OF THESE. I cannot stress this enough. If you don’t get enough micros your body functions will fall apart and you’ll get disease.
Again this is basic stuff, make sure you don’t eat too much, too little. Switch up what you eat sometime but make sure you like what you eat. It’s okay to have your comfort zone and leave it too. But if you’re in the midst of a crappy diet, take one step at a time towards healthier food. And if you are anal about your food, it’s okay to have a donut once in awhile. It’s not okay to have it every day but you’ll be ok if you have it once.
Some foods will not have nutrition labels like fresh fruit or meat. But always make sure you read them. They are regulated by the government (at least in the usa). If it doesn’t have a label, chances are you can google it. If you’re really concerned about your food, find out where they get it from and see how it’s produced. Be wary of things that advertise some health aspect of their food. For instance, hot cheetos say right on the bag “0 Grams Of Trans Fat”. But let’s be real, it’s hot cheetos ffs!
Daily values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet which is super high for any normal person.
Although organic labels are eye catching, there hasn’t been much research to determine their nutrition content vs industrial raised. During the late 1900s there was a lot of industrialization of farming which made more adundance of food in the usa. This put a lot of small farms out of business because they are out competed. The commercially run farms did not produce a variet of crops, instead they made mostly corn, soybeans, or wheat. These all require pesticides and there are a lot of addatives put into the crops. Organic food has none of that. So like I said before, if you’re really worried about where you get your food from, research around. Ask the butcher, or deli person where these came from and look up their name online. See how they produce their food ect.
) I’ll probably be going against the grain of many con men and women out there who wish to just sell you a product, lifestyle, or diet food.
