EATING HEALTHY

Eating Healthy Is a Lifestyle Not a Diet and There Are Only 2 Simple Rules

Regardless of your age, culture, or religion.

I bet you can still sing a jingle from your childhood biscuits or breakfast cereal advertising. I sure can!

And I still buy them from time to time without questioning what they are made of.

We tend to eat what our parents were feeding us growing up, and what our culture, religion and, yes! advertising taught us to eat.

When we fly out of the nest, convenience becomes very important. We just want our food to come, or be done, quickly and taste good.

Be honest, does healthy come before or after the criteria mentioned above in your food choices?

I won’t lecture you about why it should come before anything else. You are well aware that health is the sine-qua-non condition to any other success in life.

If you are ready to suffer for your summer body or a six-pack, you should be ready to make a more profound change with much less physical effort, by making eating healthy your long-term commitment.

It starts with two simple rules

1. Steer clear of highly processed and refined foods
2. Eat whole foods

This is exactly how I started almost 20 years ago. I would also add the 3rd step to it: adopt a plant-based diet! But let’s explain the first 2 first.

We often hear the terms highly processed, refined and whole, but do we understand what they actually mean?

1. Steer clear of highly processed and refined foods

Highly Processed Food

Highly processed food is made industrially, often of low nutritional value ingredients that undergo various mechanical and chemical transformation processes that impoverish them further down the line.

For example, cured meats and meat products, ready-made meals and sauces, diverse pastries, confectionery and sweets, breakfast cereals, soft drinks and sodas, chewing gums, etc., are all highly processed foods.

Ready-made meals and cured meats are often too high in salt and fat, while pastry, confectionery and cereals are often too high in sugar. If they are advertised as low sugar, or low fat, for example, they are heavy in food additives that ensure that the food still tastes the same, or that at least you can hardly tell the difference.

The food additives, i.e. preservatives, flavorings, colourants, emulsifiers, etc., give the food the taste, colour, and texture that make you like it and want more.

They are listed in the ingredients section on the packaging as “E-” followed by a number or have very technical scientific names that no one understands.

Harmful food additives

There are more than 400 food additives used by the food industry in the EU, and some sources mention several thousands of additives used in the US. Not all of them are bad, but some frequently used ones are dangerous for our health, or at best very controversial.

Although there are many more, I will give you the 9 that I track relentlessly and never buy the products that contain them:

• Sodium Nitrite, E-250 and E-251, and Potassium Nitrate, E-252 are preservatives used in cured meats and meat products, like ham, salami, sausages, bacon, etc. They give them a nice “healthy pink” colour, which is much more appealing to us consumers than the natural pale rose-greyish one. It also prevents the growth of Clostridium botulinum, the bacterium responsible for botulism. The problem is that these preservatives are classified as probably carcinogenic by IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer), operating under WHO (World Health Organisation). Needless to say, natural and harmless alternatives for botulism prevention in this kind of products exist today.
• Monosodium Glutamate, or E621, or MSG, is a flavour enhancer, often found in Asian-style industrial foods like instant noodle meals and sauces. An important part of the scientific community considers it dangerous to our brain by contributing to the onset of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. It may also have a negative impact on the regulation of hunger or satiety.
• Sulphite Ammonia Caramel, or E150d, or E150IV, present in cola drinks and balsamic vinegars, for example, is classified as a possible carcinogen by IARC.
• Aspartame, or E951, and Acesulfame-K, or E950, or Ace K, the synthetic sweeteners used in “light”, “zero” and low-calorie drinks and foods, are often referred to as “slow poisons”. ARTAC (French anti-cancer therapeutic research agency) classifies Aspartame as certainly carcinogenic and Acesulfame-K as probably carcinogenic.
• Patent Blue V, or E131, and Brilliant Blue FCF, or E133, present in any kind of blue candy, like blue M&Ms for example, and blue soft drinks and syrups, are suspected to promote hyperactivity, allergies, and cancer.

Highly processed foods are low in nutrients and high in chemicals that we definitely do not need in our diet.

Refined food

Refined staples, like white flour, white rice, white sugar, white table salt, some vegetable oils, are mechanically, and sometimes chemically, using bleach for example, stripped of their nutrients.

White flour is obtained by refining whole grains, which means stripping the grains off their bran, i.e. outer shell, and germ, and thus also the vitamins, minerals, and fibre. What is left is starchy carbohydrates.

A diet high in refined carbohydrates, i.e. simple carbs, and sugar can potentially put you at risk of serious conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and obesity.

Regular bread, pastry and confectionaries are predominantly made of white flour and sugar.

Refined sugars raise triglyceride levels and may increase the risk of fatty liver disease, cardiovascular problems and Type 2 diabetes. Consequently, we should opt for wholegrain bread and pasta, brown rice, unrefined or raw sugar, and unrefined salt.

The same logic applies to fruit juices. The lack of dietary fibre from the fruit pulp and skin, makes our bodies absorb their sugar within minutes, increasing blood sugar levels and triggering insulin spikes.

On the other hand, when eating whole fruit and veggies, the sugar is gradually absorbed into our bloodstream giving us energy for longer.

There is, however, one “little” problem you should be aware of. Pesticides that are used to “help” grow the crops tend to get stuck mostly on the husk and the bran of a grain. Consequently, you should opt for the organic version of wholegrain products whenever possible.

2. Eat whole foods

What you have just read about highly processed and refined foods gives you a good idea of what whole foods may be.

Whole foods are as nature intended. They are not altered by chemicals, are minimally processed, and are unrefined. These are, for example, whole fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes (pulses), seeds, and nuts. They contain balanced proportions of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, fibre, vitamins, minerals, and countless other vital micronutrients.

Our bodies know how to break those nutrients down, digest them, and use the exact amounts needed for our benefit.

Whole food plant-rich diet has incomparably more fibre, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals than a diet rich in foods of animal origin.

The vital role of fibre

Fibre is considered by many health professionals the 4th macronutrient, along with protein, carbohydrate and fat, even though we mostly do not digest it. Fibre, however, nourishes our gut bacteria that fight free radicals daily to keep us in good health.

Fibre also creates a sense of fullness and helps satisfy the appetite. Foods like beans, leafy vegetables, and whole grains are all high in fibre. Food of animal origin does not contain any.

Research shows that people who follow a whole food plant-rich diet are overall healthier and tend to avoid chronic diseases. It can prevent and help fight hypertension, high blood cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and considerably influence autoimmune diseases, various cancers, or brain disorders.

How does this translate into everyday food choices?

• Avoid or, better, get rid of cured meats. Bear in mind WHO’s IARC conclusion concerning cured meat (transformed through salting, curing, fermentation, smoking, etc.) and red meat (beef, veal, lamb and pork): “An IARC Monographs Working Group reviewed epidemiological evidence, animal bioassays, and mechanistic and other relevant data to reach conclusions as to the carcinogenic hazard to humans of the consumption of red meat and processed meat.”
• Avoid food products that contain several food additives and especially the 9 mentioned above.
• Avoid all “white” products and opt for wholegrain: bread, pasta, rice, and cereals.
• Eat more raw fruit and vegetables. Every day!
• Eat more legumes like beans, lentils, chickpeas, or quinoa (which is not technically a legume but has about the same nutritional qualities) that are rich both in protein and fibre.
• Season your salads with simple homemade dressings using virgin olive oil (or other kinds of unrefined oils), lemon and unrefined salt, and avoid ready-made sauces.
• Avoid snacking. Especially energy bars and drinks! If you have to snack, eat fruit and/or a mix of seeds and nuts.
• Eat real produce and avoid supplements (unless of course, you have a condition and they are a part of your treatment). The vitamin C-like activity of 100g of a WHOLE apple is 263 times more powerful than the same amount of the isolated vitamin C chemical. Research shows that a sample of 100g of a fresh apple contains only 5,7mg of vitamin C, BUT it performs vitamin C-like activity, meaning antioxidant activity, equivalent to 1500mg of the vitamin alone. Taken from the book “Whole, Rethinking the Science of Nutrition” by T. Colin Campbell, PhD.
• Do not fall for labels like natural, low-calorie, light, zero sugar, or low-fat. - “Natural” does not mean healthy, it only means that it is not synthetic. - Anything “low” and “light” contains chemicals, often harmful food additives, sweeteners, emulsifiers, and flavour enhancers, that mimic the taste of “real” ingredients.
• Prepare your own food with fresh ingredients as much as possible. That is the only way to really know what you are eating.
• Eat local and in-season. To give your body the best possible fuel adapted to the environmental conditions and to lower your carbon imprint as much as possible.

Now a little test

Which sandwich should you pick:

a) Ham and cheese in a baguette b) Hummus and fresh tomato in a whole grain bread

Drop your answer in a comment :)

Years ago, due to personal health reasons, I started paying attention to what the food products were made of. I so much wanted to understand exactly what I was eating, that I ended up co-founding a food-tech startup around the subject.

We decoded the packaged food products’ composition to help people know what they eat in one click and help them make healthy food choices. I became the small-typo ingredients lists, and especially food additives, nerd.

I also have formal education in nutrition as well as plant-based nutrition, and am an amateur plant-based chef.