The Truth About Food Revealed
With the new U.S. flipped Food Pyramid rollout last week, I’m curious, what does “eating healthy” mean to you?
When I graduated with a Bachelor of Science after studying fitness, nutrition, and health, I thought eating healthy meant you should…
- Be in a caloric deficit by eating less and moving more
- Have a snack or meal every 2 hours
- Always eat 3 solid meals per day
- Eat low fat, lean meats, veggies, fruits, dairy, starches, and whole grains according to the food guide pyramid (aka the “plate”)
So I did exactly what I was taught, and I felt like crap instead of feeling great and having my ideal health and weight.
While the new flipped Food Pyramid is a big step in the right direction (more in alignment with how our ancestors ate before the industrialization of food) – there’s a LOT more to eating healthy than what we were taught in school or what you might have read about diets and nutrition.
In fact, some so-called healthy foods aren’t healthy for you.
It took me years to figure out what foods were healthy for my body. When I finally figured it out, it made getting the results I desired so much easier!
So I want to help you cut to the chase and get to the bottom of what foods are healthy for you so you can feel like your best self too, instead of wasting time trying to figure it out.
I see too many clients and people feeling frustrated about food and eating healthy. They’ve tried just about everything with little to no results. They’ll literally say…
I’m eating healthy, but I’m not getting any results!
OR…
I’ve tried (insert any type of diet) but didn’t get the same results others get.
Do you find yourself feeling frustrated like this too?
In theory, the clients I’ve worked with are “eating healthy.” They are often eating a Paleo, Whole30, Keto, or a generally well-rounded and clean diet. In some cases, they are eating mostly organic foods, good sources of meat, and even avoiding some of the well-known inflammatory foods.
But they still aren’t getting results. They still struggle with digestive upset, weight, anxiety, hormone imbalances, or other nagging health issues.
All because eating “healthy” isn’t always healthy for YOU – There’s a difference between eating healthy and eating right for your body.
Eating right for your body will incorporate healthy foods, but not all healthy foods are right for your body.
Most diet approaches tend to focus on food elimination, which is good considering that oftentimes it means eliminating the top inflammatory foods such as gluten, dairy, sugar, soy, alcohol, and even other grains or foods containing lectins.
However, most dietary approaches fail to consider two key components to eating healthy for your body:
- Macronutrient (protein, carbohydrate, and fat) balance
- Specific food sensitivities
Eating the right balance of proteins, carbs, and fats gives your body the right ratios of fuel so it can function at its potential. Understanding and eating according to your macronutrient needs can instantly:
- Reduce digestive stress
- Increase energy
- Fight off food cravings
But you can still run into issues when eating the right balance of macronutrients if you’re eating foods that you’re sensitive to.
Food sensitivities aren’t always obvious. They don’t always show up as digestive upset, which is why you might think you don’t have any. Other common food sensitivity symptoms can include:
- Anxiety
- Skin breakouts
- Low energy or fatigue
- Poor sleep
- Weight gain or resistant weight loss
Food sensitivities or poor macronutrient balance could certainly be secretly sabotaging your healthy eating efforts and results!
Consider a banana, for example. Globally, most would agree it’s healthy food full of potassium and nutrients, but if you have a sensitivity to bananas OR they contain too many carbs and sugars for what your body can tolerate in one sitting, then they aren’t a healthy food for you.
When you eat something like a banana that has these negative effects on you, it spikes blood sugar and inflammation, reduces nutrient absorption, disrupts hormone balance, messes with your sleep and energy, and leaves you craving more food to get another energy bump.
Wearing Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) for as little as two weeks will help you gather real-time insights about how your body is responding to bananas or other so-called healthy foods your body might be having a response to.
And it’s wild how clients come to me eating organic, grass fed beef, doing their best to eat clean protein, and we find they have a beef food sensitivity keeping them from obtaining their ideal health and weight.
When my husband found out he was sensitive to beef, he lost 5 pounds within a week of removing it from his diet.
Beyond these two key components, there could be even more to consider, such as high oxalates and FODMAPs (Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides, and Polyols).
Oxalates are naturally occurring elements in foods and in the body, but an abundance of oxalates leads to kidney stones, chronic joint pain, mineral deficiencies, and more.
Some of the foods highest in oxalates include:
- Dark chocolate
- Nuts
- Berries
- Citrus fruits
- Beets
- Sweet potatoes
- Zucchini and other summer squashes
- Dark leafy greens such as spinach and certain kinds of kale
Just about every one of them is considered a healthy food!
Some of the highest FODMAP foods are:
- Garlic
- Onion
- Fruits
- Grains
- Certain nuts and legumes
See how you could be eating so-called healthy foods that aren’t actually healthy for YOU?
There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to eating healthy for YOUR body.
If you’re ready to figure out what foods are right for your body so you can function at your potential with more energy…
I currently have TWO CLIENT SPOTS OPEN for January to work with me one-on-one.
(NOTE: My client openings are filled on a first-come-first-serve basis, so make sure you apply and schedule ASAP)
As the (W)holistic Health Boss, my mission is to support busy, health-minded people like you in getting access to the right lab tests and resources so you can find the missing pieces to your health puzzle and get back to feeling like yourself again (or for the very first time!).
Are you ready to feel like your best self? If so, let’s do this!
Let’s reveal the truth about food for your body specifically!