We are all unique! While a diet might work for your friend, it may not work for you.
It’s not because you did it wrong. It’s simply because you are not supposed to “diet” in the sense of temporary nutritional changes to quickly lose weight.
Instead we are supposed to eat Whole Food Nutrition. Luckily, that’s not too complicated!
Eat when you’re hungry and until you are satisfied, and try to eat a little bit from every food group.
I usually say, have at least five different vibrant colors on your plate, at every meal.
Here is my Healthy Made Simple Food Circle to help you get started.
Instead of eating too much processed food, sugar free or non fat food which doesn’t serve you any good,
you can eat all the delicious colorful foods – still lose weight, and become healthy from inside out!
Choose options such as meat from grass fed animals, wild-caught fish, free range eggs, organic vegetables, nuts, seeds and natural fats (like butter, vegetable oils and avocado and coconut).
And of course everything is organic and as local as possible.
When you eat organic whole food (meaning fresh- not processed food), you avoid the toxins found in most non organic foods.
These toxins – including additives, artificial colors and hidden sugars, build up in your body over time as they are very difficult for you to excrete.
Most people are confused about what they’re supposed to eat, likely because there are so many different diets out there.
Each diet claims to work better than the other. However when you try them, you usually loose weight and have more energy the first month, but then you slowly get back to your old food routines, and you will end up gaining everything back + some.
The Healthy Made Simple Diet
You are supposed to eat locally grown, in season food. That is what your body can recognize.
Whole food doesn’t have labels, so you can’t go wrong on the ingredients – you know exactly what you’re getting!
If you do need to buy some processed food, buy the one with least ingredients, and always make sure it’s organic and good quality. (Remember one thing: just because it’s organic doesn’t make it healthy)!
Be wary of organic processed foods which contain things like, sugar, colors, flavors. Make sure it’s from a natural source.
When planning your meals, be sure to get plenty of fat from coconut oil, olive oil, organic butter from grass fed animals, nuts, seeds and last but not least, fish oil.
The Omega’s found in fish oil, are essential to components of good health like flexible joints, good memory and a energy.
Also, make sure you’re getting plenty of fibers, mainly from fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and a little from gluten free grains.
“As a holistic practitioner, I see diet related illnesses daily.
In fact, over 60% of all deaths are due to diet related disease”
The 3 whites
I recommend staying away from “The 3 whites” – white sugar, dairy (of any kind) and white flour.
These are all foods we are not designed to process and digest.
Sugar
If you need to use sugar, use a little high quality organic cane sugar, honey or syrup – or use real stevia.
These doesn’t influence your blood sugar. Be careful when you buy processed foods, as they usually contain some sort of sugar.
Sugar-free, leave it be!
Sugar-free items often have an artificial sweetener instead, which is linked to cancer, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes! These diseases are what the artificial sweeteners was supposed help prevent in the first place?
Dairy
I am sorry to have to tell you, but dairy products are to be avoided all together.
We are ONLY supposed to have milk when we are breastfeed as infants, because we simply can’t break down lactose and casein after weaning.
In fact, about 70% of all people are not able digest dairy, and actually have a sensitivity or an intolerance, without knowing it. This will cause stress and inflammation, which will affect your immune system.
Casein can create neuro peptides and affect the brain in the same way as heroin.
According to Dr. Lipman, sensitivity to casein can cause:
excess mucus production, respiratory problems, constipation, gas, bloating and/or diarrhea.
Dairy sensitivity and intolerance in general, is also known to cause:
skin issues like acne, rashes, redness, eczema, as well as autoimmune diseases, inflammation and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
The casein content in cheese is higher than in milk, which is why you can easily feel like you crave cheese.
This means you actually have a cheese addiction, just like you can have a sugar addiction.
Think about it for a minute! Have you ever had a cheese heavy meal at night, waking up the next morning with a stuffed nose, slime in your throat, a pimple or two, a headache or felt bloated?
That is usually because of a reaction to casein and/or lactose.
Milk has one purpose and one purpose only – To make babies grow!
Goat cheese and sheep cheese on the other hand, have a lower casein content, and are therefore tolerated by most people.
If you occasionally want to enjoy a good cheese, yogurt, butter or cream, make sure you buy organic from free-range and grass-fed animals.
Also, dairy products can have a cross reactivity with gluten, as it contains a similar protein as gluten.
White flour
Just as it is the case with dairy, we are not designed to eat the grain as we know it today.
Instead, we can eat nuts and most seeds, and they can be a great substitute for grain.
When we started using grain (seeds from different grasses), in our diet thousands of years ago, the plants were very different from the once we get most grains from today.
For example; the wheat we know today is often breed and gene modified (GMO) over decades, and provide absolutely no nutritional value for us.
Gluten is a plant protein found in wheat, (all types including durum and spelt), ray and barley.
This protein is what makes the bread airy.
Unfortunately gluten is a protein your body can’t recognize or break down.
Instead your body sees it as an external threat which activates your immune system to attack your own tissue, especially the intestine lining.
This can go on for years, before you actually become aware something is wrong.
Remember, 60-70% of our immune system found in our gut, especially the intestine lining as long as it is intact. When that lining breaks, inflammation and disease happens.
Most os us have a Non Celiac Gluten Sensitivity, NCGS, which can cause the same diseases as if you have full blown celiac, and can cause:
osteoporosis, irritable bowel syndrome, leaky gut, colitis, anemia, cancer, fatigue, cold sores, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis and almost all other autoimmune diseases.
Gluten is also linked to many psychiatric and neurological diseases, including:
anxiety, depression, schizophrenia ,dementia migraines, epilepsy, neuropathy (nerve damage).
Due to the above, is why I recommend no gluten or dairy for 6 month, and then slowly introduce one thing at a time, to see how you react.
A regular blood test will not show anything about sensitivity, intolerance for gluten and dairy, nor a cross reactions between the two. (A delayed cross reaction can occur several hours after eating or drinking something).
Acid/alkaline balance
The human blood pH level should be more alkaline than acid.
While the alkaline level should be between 7.35-7.45 – it rarely is.
When we eat processed food, fried food, breaded food, and dark meat – or drink soda, alcohol and coffee, we consume way too much acid.
Did you know that it takes 32 glasses of alkaline water (pH 10) to neutralize one glass of soda?
Too much acid in our diet causes:
head-aches, fibromyalgia, sore joints, some arthritis, eczema and even cancer, just to mention a few.
Make sure to eat a balanced anti-inflammatory diet meaning organic, locally grown in season.
“LET THE FOOD BE THY MEDICINE AND MEDICINE BE THY FOOD”
Hippocrates