[attach id=236527 size="medium"]You are, biochemically, an individual with your own biochemical fingerprint, which is your key to good health and keeping slim.[/attach]
There is so much information on successful diets that we get an overload just thinking about which one to follow.
Not that I agree with the concept of diets. However, it is necessary to look at your food input and make changes if you are not feeling as you should, with either energy, weight or general health issues.
The most important issue about a healthy food change is to understand that you are an individual, and what is good for you is not necessarily good for your friend, spouse or mother.
The other point to consider is the quality of the food you eat. So many people scrimp and save on the food they buy, but don’t think twice about spending large amounts on mobile phones, cosmetics or even a designer handbag. Your food budget should be high, not because of the volume, but because of quality.
Chemical additives, processed and artificial foods, as well as sweeteners, all undermine the most careful attention to calories and carbohydrates by interfering with the complex mechanisms of your body and making it store food as fat.
There are some tips to healthy eating, which, even if you must diet, can be incorporated into your everyday eating routine.
First of all, are you allergic, sensitive or intolerant to any type of food? Sometimes you are not even aware of this. One example of this is a person who had colic as a baby and spent most of her adult life being intolerant to dairy foods. She only discovered this when a nutritional consultant worked with her on a food diary and corresponding symptoms. Other allergens are more obvious, such as nuts, fish or some fruit.
Your food budget should be high, not because of the volume, but because of quality
Allergy specialist John Mansfield, who has written about allergies and food sensitivities, says they are a major cause of being overweight. To help discern your allergies, be suspicious of the foods you crave or eat most often (that is, you can’t manage without them). The most common are wheat, dairy products, corn, soy, sugar, potatoes and tomatoes, yeast and egg.
Varying your diet will help avoid future food sensitivities; if you constantly eat the same food it can lead to huge intolerances.
We all know that processed foods are not good for us. Avoid anything preserved with nitrates or packaged, processed, refined, or in any way interfered with. Insulin regulates glucose sugar in blood cells and helps it to enter other body cells to be used as either fuel to burn or stored for future use.
People who have high levels of circulating insulin, or ‘insulin resistance’ have more difficulty losing weight than those with normal insulin levels (JAMA, 2007). Insulin resistance occurs from a diet high in processed foods.
While on the subject of preservatives, avoid artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame. Psychobiologists at Purdue University in Indiana, the US, found that artificial sweeteners interfere with the body’s natural ability to use the sweet taste of food to gauge its caloric content and so self-regulate its food intake (Int. J. Obes. Rebt. Metab. Discord., 2008). You then get the impression that the food has no calories and so overeat. They are not only bad for you; they are self-defeating.
No food programme will work if you are not absorbing the food’s nutrients: a very difficult assessment to make. If you suffer from irritable bowel syndrome, speak to a doctor and check for low stomach acid, a leaky gut and possible Candida yeast overgrowth and parasites.
It is difficult to cook from the basics, instead of buying pre-packed food. However, it is always going to help if you know exactly what is in your food. Even if you prepare it in advance and freeze it, eating organic foods or safe locally produced food is always going to help.
Although cows, sheep and chickens are designed to eat grass, most are fed on cheap grains, such as wheat or corn. If you are wheat or corn intolerant, or gluten intolerant, eating meat fed on corn or wheat is going to exacerbate your condition and you will begin to wonder what you can eat.
Rotating your sources of protein (so that you don’t eat the same product, such as steak) for at least four days, will minimise the chances of overexposing yourself to pollutants and chemicals. Plan a week with a mixture of fish, white meat, red meat, if you eat it, as well as eggs and other proteins.
Avoid additives and diet foods. Every year, you eat roughly your own body weight in food additives, including dyes, flavouring agents, preservatives and emulsifiers. Just like fake sugar, these trick your body’s taste control mechanisms, which regulate your sense of feeling full, and so are likely to make you put on weight.
A typical strawberry milkshake at a fast-food outlet, for example, contains around 45 such chemicals. Diet and fitness coach Paul Chek once observed: “You would need a small booklet and a short course in chemistry to even begin to understand what you are eating, if you like Neapolitan ice cream.”
So remember that you are, biochemically, an individual with your own biochemical fingerprint, which is your key to good health and keeping slim.
kathryn@maltanet.net