Good
Food / Bad Food - What's Left
to Eat?
We've entered the Twilight Zone
when it comes to the multitude
of diets being promoted today.
Starting with the Atkins Diet,
then the South Beach Diet. Both
higher in protein, lower in carbs,
but the distinction should be
quality of carbs, not singling
out one nutrient entirely. If
you are on the Atkins Diet or
South Beach Diet simply adjust
from eating low quality carbs
like refined flour and sugar products
(think comes in a box) to eating
more whole food products like
fresh vegetables and fruits -
yes fruits.
Apples vs. Apple
Jacks - You be the Judge
I know the traditional Atkins
Diet doesn't advocate much fruit
(too high sugar) but think about
that for one minute. My strong
belief is that an apple is a good
food, a bowl of Apple Jacks cereal
may not be on an equal level.
One is highly processed sweetened
by added white sugar and corn
syrup, and one is natural, plucked
from a tree and sweetened by the
sun. Which would you choose? Don't
shun fresh fruit for the sake
of following your low carb diet
to the letter.
Eliminating healthy, wholesome
foods is not the best way to learn
to eat better, but severely cutting
back on the frequency of eating
highly processed foods is. I saw
a site which called it GM or MM:
God Made or Man Made. If you think
of those terms when you go to
choose your foods, it starts to
make more sense. No one says you
shouldn't eat chips, or whatever
strikes your fancy, but make them
a treat - and eat the GM foods
more often.
Common Sense
Diet
Common sense will answer the
question about what to eat. If
you are on Atkins, South Beach
or any variation of low carb diet,
avoid processed foods, not natural
foods. Stop using "instant"
breakfast, and cook whole rolled
oats for instance. Sure you might
have to get up 10 minutes earlier,
oh well. You're worth it!
You can still stay on a higher
protein food plan, but this one
minor adjustment will allow you
to continue with your eating plan
for a lifetime, rather than a
short-time. I'd go insane if I
couldn't eat my daily apple, banana
or other fruit. I love fruit.
I think there's a very good reason
humans desire sweet foods - Vitamin
C, and other nutrients, including
bio-flavnoids.
Addicted to
Fruit?
I heard someone complain they
were "addicted to fruit"
and I had to wonder, what do they
eat? The person who refuses to
eat fruit because they believe
it is too high in sugar, probably
does eat cookies, crackers and
sugary cereals. They might even
drink artificially flavored and
sweetened drinks, but they refuse
to eat a natural food, grown from
our earth? That makes no sense,
if you think about it. Did our
planet develop and thrive based
on processed foods? No, of course
not. They are very recent in the
evolution of our world. Very recent.
In fact, we've had processed foods
less than 200 years while our
planet is millions of years old.
With the high incidence of obesity,
and our high consumption of processed
foods, it's hard not to draw the
conclusion that one causes the
other. You won't hear big industry
stating that case because our
economy depends on us buying the
products being produced by the
companies that employ us. You'll
never see it reported that "scientists
discovered refined flour kills,"
even if it were proven true because
it doesn't support our way of
life. We need industry.
Witnessing the epidemic of food
illnesses such as Mad Cow, and
now Bird Flu, I can envision a
society without the mass produced
meat industry. It will come to
pass - nothing but your local
farm will be allowed to sell meat
because the big farm industry
cannot guarantee safety of the
food supply. Meat will become
much more expensive because when
they can no longer mass produce
it, there is nowhere for prices
to go but up. So do we whine and
cry and moan about our misfortune
or do we start to think of meat
as something to savor and enjoy
like the Sunday roasts we had
years ago? We never ate meat every
day then - and we weren't so fat
either. We simply didn't eat as
much processed foods. Most of
us had moms at home cooking us
dinner, making our lunches and
even fixing our breakfasts.
Yes, progress marches on, but
when it comes to your body, common
sense rules the day. The Common
Sense Diet! Try it on for size
today.
By Kathryn Martyn, M.NLP |
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