I’ll bet that your first response would be “food that is low in fat, low in calories, low in sugar, and high in fiber.” But I’ll also bet that you never thought about whether the food you’re referring to is tasty. Many Americans equate the concept of healthy foods with foods that they think they SHOULD eat rather than with foods that they WANT to eat. Often eating those “should” foods is followed by eating “want” foods so, in the end, more food has been consumed than necessary.
Are your “want” foods really unhealthy? To answer that you need to decide in your own mind whether low-fat, low-calorie, low-sugar, low-fiber, etc. foods are as unhealthy as you’ve been led to believe? If eating them causes you to to “overcompensate” by eating foods with just the opposite profile - high in fat, sugar, and calories - now that’s unhealthy.
Maybe we need to move away from the concept of “legal” foods and think more in terms of what our bodies need for us to run at optimal efficiency. If eating sugar-laden foods makes you feel that you need to take an afternoon nap, I’d say those aren’t healthy foods. If eating very salty foods makes you feel bloated, you need to ask yourself why you would treat yourself in such a way that makes you feel you’re not living at the best level of health. If you’re overweight and find climbing stairs makes you feel winded, whatever you’ve been eating that contributed to your weight gain is obviously not good for you.
On the other hand, let’s take the individuals who aren’t overweight, seem to have plenty of energy no matter what they need to accomplish during the day, and don’t find themselves fixating on food, what do you think they would say about their diet? I bet they’d say that they don’t live to eat but eat to live. I’ll also bet that they eat “closer to the land”, meaning the foods they eat are less processed and more as nature intended them to be. For example, natural peanut butter is simply ground peanuts with nothing added. It’s high in fat but so what. You’re not sitting down to eat the whole jar (I hope!). Dried fruits can be very sweet. They’re high in natural sugar but so what. There’s just so much you can eat of them before the palate will tire of the flavor and at least you’re getting nutrients along with the sugar.
Maybe the answer to what is healthy eating is eating that which will do you no harm and, at best, that which will improve your health. Think about what you’re eating in terms of what good it can do for you. Drink milk or eat cheese because they’re good sources of calcium. Eat fish because it’s a good source of those healthy omega-3 oils. Eat whole fiber foods because of the beneficial fiber they contain. Eat fruits and vegetables since they’re like eating your multi-vitamins instead of relying on pills. I could go on, but you get the idea. The best advice I can give is eat in terms of what you want to eat and not in terms of what you shouldn’t eat. Focusing on the negative (”you can’t eat that”) makes you lose focus on what is good for you. You and I both know that when I say something like that doesn’t give you the go-ahead to eat anything and everything without thought. But don’t obsess either. A large part of healthy eating is enjoying what you eat and who you eat it with.
If you’re interested in learning more, consider reading Barry Glassner’s “Gospel of Food.” It will make you sit up and question the choices you’re making. Everything you do is a decision. And if you feel you need help with making those decisions, consider reading “Is Your Personality Type Making You Fat?”. Visit www.advantagediets.com for more information.
I’d love to hear from you as to what you think healthy eating is.