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What is in your food?
Last month, I posted several entries about simple, yet effective nutritional strategies. The message was clear, eat real food and stay away from the processed, artificial junk that fills most store shelves. Forget about all the fad diets, complex calculations, and worries that you were a few decimal points shy of hitting a certain nutrient percentage for the day.
I don’t follow any diets. I don’t count calories and I don’t count nutrient ratios. If you do, that is fine, but don’t spread fear to those who prefer a more basic approach to life (there are bigger problems in our world today). The Keep It Simple approach to nutrition works well, even if it isn’t very marketable from a business standpoint.
Personally, I eat real food when I’m hungry (ex. fruits, veggies, meats, eggs, fish, nuts, etc.), and I bust my ass in the gym. If I want to go out for a nice bite to eat, I go out and don’t lose sleep over it. Nutrition doesn’t need to be complex. More and more people want to discuss the nutrient habits of our ancestors (which is fine), but many who do seem to forget that our ancestors didn’t sit around the fire calculating specific ratios on the abacus.
Furthermore, why do so many nutritionists harp on the importance of reading the labels? What happened to eating food that doesn’t have a label? Why not instead promote fresh foods that will spoil? If you pick an apple from a tree, it doesn’t come with a label. The more real food that you can eat, the better. If you must fall back on an old chemistry class to determine the ingredients listed on a package, there is a good chance that it was not intended for human consumption.
And for a comical take on reading the labels, take a look at the video below. You won’t run into these problems if you simply eat real food from a plant or animal.
Ross
7 Comments so far
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Hey Ross! it’s your boy Chuck. Man you can’t stress this message enough. As for the video, So truthful man, Very truthful. Man. The strawberry & lime one had me dying man lol & what a way to end it off with the Cough Syrup lol. Good one Ross. Keep the good stuff coming man. I’m 4ever interested.
Ross is bang on the money here.
The overly complex nutritional recommendations I see on a few online message-boards never cease to amaze me! Eating “clean and real/natural” has been a revelation for me, and I have never had to delve into needlessly complex methods.
“many who do seem to forget that our ancestors didn’t sit around the fire calculating specific ratios on the abacus.”
Nice way of putting it Ross – and something that resonates with me as a reformed abacus counter. There comes a point where attending to the nuances of diet becomes a hobby – and this is fine if there is an end goal, such as finding the best diet suits you and better understanding what is good and what is bad.
However, if you come to rely upon that hobby as a permanent part of your life then there is nowhere to go other than into a counter-productive spiral of ever-increasing detail. Much better to accept that you now have a good idea of the foods you should eat and make a hobby out of something else.
Methuselah
Pay Now Live Later
Not my blog, but this article lists fruits and veggies that are in season by the month, very helpful if you want to eat fresh, natural, produce!
http://www.wisebread.com/fresh-fruits-and-vegetables-by-the-month
Thats a good point you’re making.
As the saying goes
“Formula for Success? A straight line, a goal”
or in other words Keep It Simple
-Jim
Once again, it’s like you’re reading my mind. I don’t know how many times I tell my clients to just keep it simple and eat whole foods. If it comes in a can or a box, it proably should be consumed with caution. I think a lot of people want nutrition to be complicated to justify their poor eating habits. Anyway, keep up the good work!
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