Eat This, Not That… “Good” Food Vs. “Bad” Food
Eat This, Not That… Good” Food Vs. “Bad” Food:
One of the most commonly asked questions I receive from clients is related to whether a certain food is considered “good” or “bad”. Sometimes the answer is simple. For instance, if we’re talking about French fries covered in cheese sauce, clearly the answer is a definitive “bad”. However, often the topic can be a bit more complicated.
Bad Foods It is not surprising people are more confused than ever about their diet and how to lose weight and achieve optimal health. Whether its Atkins, South Beach, Paleo, Zone, Vegetarian, or any other “diet”, there seems to be some study to justify eliminating this or that food group. While I am not a proponent of elimination diets (diets that suggest you should eliminate a macro-nutrient group entirely, for instance no carbohydrates), I would like to address foods that are considered “empty calories”. These are the undeniably “bad” foods. Empty calorie foods are made up of mostly or all solid fats and/or added sugars. They contribute calories without any real nutrients. Here are a few examples:
- Cookies, cakes, pastries, baked goods, any white flour food
- Soda, energy drinks, sports drinks, and fruit drinks
- Sausages, hot dogs, heavily processed meat
- High fat cheese
- Fried food
(Click here to view the USDA Food Pyramid’s table showing the amount of “empty calories” in common foods: http://: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/emptycalories_count_table.html)
Not only are these “empty calorie” foods low in or completely void of nutrients, but most are very high in calories. Our bodies require a very specific balance of nutrients and if our diets are deficient in certain nutrients, symptoms will arise and your general well being will suffer. I am not referring to macro-nutrients such as protein, carbs or fats, but micro-nutrients like selenium, zinc, B vitamins, iron, and countless others.
In addition to lacking micro-nutrients, empty calorie foods typically contain a host of other manufactured food substances that can literally be toxic to our bodies. Familiar ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, sodium benzoate, and aspartame, for example, may be added to foods to preserve the shelf life or simply to make them taste salty or sweet. There are literally thousands of these additives and chemicals added to our food supply. In very small amounts, our bodies are generally pretty good at processing and filtering unwanted substances. But, over time, these chemicals accumulate and begin to wreak havoc on our health.
Good Foods On the other hand, certain foods provide a high amount and variety of nutrients while contributing fewer calories. These are the “good” foods. Not surprisingly, these foods come predominantly from plants. The following foods are considered extremely nutrient dense:
- Green leafy vegetables
- Beans and legumes
- Raw nuts and seeds
- Orange, yellow, and red colored vegetables
- Berries
- Onions, mushrooms, cruciferous vegetables (like broccoli and cauliflower)
- Oily fish (mackarel, sardines)
- Eggs (omega-3 fed only)
Highly nutrient dense foods contribute to every bodily system functioning properly. The result is increased energy and focus, proper digestion, weight management, disease prevention, and general well being. The problem is, most Americans consume far more “bad” foods than they do “good” ones. The first step to improving the ratio of nutrient dense foods to empty calorie foods in your diet is to eliminate or drastically reduce the amount of processed food you eat. You may have heard the saying, “if your grandmother wouldn’t recognize it as food, don’t eat it”. So this leaves fruit, vegetables, meat/poultry/fish, seeds/nuts, and beans/legumes.
“Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants. “ … Michael Pollan
It may be a difficult transition at first, but by slowly eliminating the “bad” foods from your diet and incorporating as many of the “good” foods as possible, you will notice improvements in every aspect of your health. Check out Revolution Personal Training’s “Food” section for recipes!
Thanks for reading,
Tara