These words are my least favorite and most frightening to see on any packaged food. When I see these, I normally run. Or, at least wander down the aisle in search of something better.
- Diet
- No-Carb
- Sugar-Free
- Fat-Free
Here's the moment when I remind you all that I'm not a nutritionist, and I have no degree or certificate.
My exercise and nutrition logic operates off the principle of evolution. I do my best to estimate how people evolved to eat and make small changes at a time to get to that.
That being said, my biggest idea to help my health is to cut back on processed foods. Especially those with chemicals in them. Also to note, people evolved eating fat. They needed it to survive. Now, at the same time I don't believe people nowadays physically work as hard to stay warm and to get through their daily lives. So I don't believe people have the same dietary needs for fats now as their ancestors did.
At the same time, chemical based sweetners, which as far as I can tell haven't had long term testing done on them, scare me quite a bit. I come from a family that has seen a lot of cancer in the relatively recent future. I can't pretend to know the exact causes of the cancers, but I can't help but worried about the food supply.
There are concerns about aspartame (and other artificial sweetners) not only shaping tastes of people to avoid healthier foods but also becoming addictive. Some studies and groups have started linking other health concerns and problems with aspartame. I can't believe everything I read, but if a small fraction of that is true, and there are many other alternatives that have been eaten by people for thousands of years, I see no real reason to take the chance.
Fats help keep your skin moist, keep your brain and eyes healthy, as well as keep your organs humming along efficiently. While I believe it's clear that you can definitely have too much fat in your diet, doing away with it entirely hasn't been proven effective anyway.
There are 4 main types of substances in our foods, and keeping a good balance helps get your diet on track.
- Carbs
- These are sugars and starches. They provide energy for your brain and other organs as well as all of your muscle movements. Carbs aren't just table sugar though, this includes potatoes and many fruit & vegetables. Worth 4 kcal per gram.
- Proteins
- These are the building blocks of muscles. Proteins also make up other tissues in the body. Definitely can't live long term without them. Worth 4 kcal per gram.
- Fats
- These are responsible for lubrication, storage, and organ health. Fats keep your body insulated, keep your brain and other organs (including skin!) healthy, and keep your joints moving comfortably. Worth 9 kcal per gram.
- Fiber/non digestible
- These are necessary to keep your digestive system healthy and to keep your hydration balanced. Fiber basically is that which the human body can't digest or make use of, it can't be broken down by us. This helps to clean out our intestines of other particles and to keep everything flowing at the right speed. Worth roughly 0 kcal per gram.
Now just looking at this, I'd hope you can agree that some of all of these is needed. Too many carbs leads to excess sugar in your system - which ends as jittery-ness, storage of energy as fat, and excess sugar in your blood stream which can leads to diabetes. However, if you eat extra carbs in any one day, you can counter with burning more off. More exercise will eat up more carbs.
The biggest concern with excess protein consumption lies in how it is digested. A by-product of protein break down is urea. This is a major component of urine. A body with excess urea has to work the kidneys much harder, which not only can lead to kidney damage it can cause dehydration and electrolyte imbalances from the extra urination. Also, the backup plan for the body to excrete even more urea is to sweat it out via lungs and sweat glands. This can lead to bad breath, more BO smell than normal, and skin breakouts.
Excess fats obviously are obviously going to cause extra fat storage in all sorts of bad places. We've all heard of plaque in our arteries as well as seen the effects of excess fat storage in the body.
Too much fiber can keep you from eating enough to keep yourself energized, but not enough can contribute to diarrhea and/or constipation which both can affect your fluid balance.
The problem here is if you take out ALL FAT from your diet, you will increase intake in another category, and whichever you choose has different outcomes.
My high school "Animal Science" teacher gave us a rough rundown of a good basic place to start with diet. He suggests that for the average person 60% calories from carbs (remember this includes most fruit & veg), 30% calories from fats, and 10% calories from protein. Fiber needs can't be expressed the same way because no matter now much you eat it's still worth 0% of the calories. His thought for primates was roughly 20-30% of the total amount/volume you eat to be fiber based foods. Obviously age, health, and activity levels change each persons exact needs. Someone who is obese will have lower fats, an athlete or anyone trying to build muscles will have higher protein needs, and someone who is underweight needs more fat.
The best way typically to "diet" is not to change up a good balanced meal plan. You need to focus on increasing the burning of calories and decreasing the consumption. The goal of weightloss or health increase is not in changing everything about the way you eat to make you miserable. It is in changing your lifestyle to accommodate your goals. If eating food you really like and a lot of it is important to you, you need to figure out the best ways to burn off that food or how to subtly make them less calorie dense. If being a relatively sedentary person is your style (I can't condone complete laziness because I do believe your body is a use it or lose it machine), then you can shift your eating habits to suit that - high calorie high vegetable meals can keep you trim and healthy.
You can't keep yourself healthy in the long run with yo-yo or fad diets, and you can't stay happy eating food you hate anyway. Change the whole picture, or learn to love yourself as you are. Diet foods aren't going to give you the body you dream of with no work involved. At least, they can't sustain it. Healthy lifestyle is a balancing act.
Next subject: remembering that emotional/mental health is linked to all health and just as important in your life balance.
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