Everyone wants to be healthy, but few people these days are. It isn’t for lack of trying, of course. More people are going to the gym than ever before. The problem is our nutrition. The average person’s diet is at least fifty percent junk food, and many more people rely almost exclusively on food that has very little nutritional value. Why is this? Some say it is more convenient, and to an extent this is true. Fast food is a quick alternative to healthy home cooked meals. It is also laziness, however. When you eat nothing but junk, your body cannot perform to the best of its ability and you feel fatigued. This in turn makes you lazy and unwilling to change.
Change is the only solution, however. No exercise regimen in the world can outwork a bad diet. Healthy diets used to be common sense, but nowadays it seems as if every piece of nutritional information is contradicted by something else. In “Eating For Longevity”, we give you 5 diet changes to extend your life.
Junk Food Is Poison For The Body
First, avoid junk food like the plague. This includes most frozen foods, pre-packaged items, fast foods, and desserts. For most people, an occasional indulgence leads to more “occasional” indulgences. Cheat days are only for people who can control themselves, and this takes time. At any rate, I find that once I started eating healthy I not only stopped craving junk food, but when I did eat it again it didn’t taste very good.
Veggies Really Do Make You Stronger
The second rule is to eat plenty of vegetables. Everyone always says to eat your fruits and veggies, but forget to mention that fruits are packed with fructose. There is no such thing as a “good sugar”. Sugar is the cause of the obesity crisis. In moderation, sugar is not harmful, but just because something is not harmful does not mean that it is good. All fruits that you find in your grocery store have been genetically modified to be bigger and sweeter than they were originally. Important vitamins like vitamin C, which many people believe can only be found in citrus, are actually readily available in many vegetables.
Carbs Are Overrated
Rule number three is to cut the carbs. This goes along with rule number two, because carbohydrates are converted into sugar by the body. Any sugar you could possibly need is obtained from eating clean carbs. I stress clean carbs, because a lot of people seem to think that pasta, bread, and cereal are actually beneficial. A lot of people are wrong, as evidenced by today’s health crisis. The only carbs you need are from whole foods like rice, potatoes, and maybe oatmeal.
Fat Is The Missing Link In Most “Healthy” Diets
The fourth rule is to eat more fat. Due to a number of rigged studies conducted in the mid twentieth century, all of which have been disproven, people still believe fat and cholesterol to lead to heart disease. Saturated animal fats like the kind found in butter and steak are actually important for overall health. Other fats like polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats can be found in healthy products like avocados, nuts, and olive oil. The only bad fat is trans-fat, and this cannot generally be found in whole foods. Meanwhile, it has been proven time and time again that dietary cholesterol does not have any adverse effects on bodily cholesterol.
Food Must Be Of The Highest Quality Possible
The fifth rule is to obtain your food from a good source. Organic vegetable are essential to avoid eating harmful chemicals. Dairy is probably best avoided unless obtained from a source that uses organic grass fed cows. Meats like steak and chicken are highly beneficial despite what you may have heard. Veganism and vegetarianism are fine if you really have a problem with animals being killed for food, but claims that a plant based diet are better than a well-balanced animal based diet are simply not true. With that said, factory farming is horrible and does not yield meat of any value. Grass fed and pasture raised animals are essential if you want meat from a healthy and sustainable source.
The Main Point
All of the rules layed out here make up what I consider a common sense diet. People have eaten like this for thousands of years, and have evolved to become the most powerful and intelligent creatures on this planet. All of a sudden we started eating carbs and sugars while we demonized fats and cholesterol. Now almost everyone has a chronic disease and even our young people are dealing with obesity. Use your common sense and take back your health.
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