Good Food/Bad Food What's Left to
Eat?
By Kathryn Martyn
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, now the Hamptons Diet and more.
All 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, South Beach Diet or any other variation of a high
protein/low carb diet simply adjust from eating low quality carbs like
refined flour and sugar products (think if it comes in a box, it's
likely low quality) 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.
Can You Be 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.
Kathryn Martyn, Master NLP Practitioner, EFT counselor, author of
Changing Beliefs, Your First Step to Permanent Weight Loss, and owner of
OneMoreBite-Weightloss.com
Get the Daily Bites: Inspirational Mini Lessons Using EFT and NLP for
Ending the Struggle with Weight Loss.
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