No-Diet Diet Series: Eat Real Food

The No-Diet Diet Series

Value #2: Eat Real Foods

Eat More REAL foods that are nutritionally dense.

 

Have you ever heard of “empty calories”?  You can take in food that has no nutritional value, or you can consume foods that offer tons of vitamins, minerals, and energy.  Here is an example of both:

 

Empty Calories:

4 Teaspoons of white table sugar has about 60 calories in carbohydrates.   That’s it- you get nothing else- no nutrients at all.  That is where the term “empty calories” comes from!

 

Nutritionally dense calories:

1 cup of chopped cooked broccoli contains about 60 calories of carbohydrates, but also give you Vitamin B, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, copper, manganese, zinc, and chromium- the exact micronutrients your body needs to metabolize those carbohydrates.  It also gives you lots of Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin E, folate, potassium, beta-carotene, calcium, zinc, and selenium!

Because of these nutrients reaching your body’s cells, you are satisfied, and you won’t be left needing more carbs.

 

I want you to think of it like this- eat what is grown or raised, not what is manufactured.  There are over 40,000 products on the grocery shelves today with added processed sugars alone- what we call “Dead Food”.  The key is finding those items that 100% come from real products.  Here is a new way to think about what we eat:

 

Living Food vs Dead Food

Imagine you have two shelves in your pantry, one that is labeled "DEAD FOOD" and the other labeled "LIVING FOOD". 

 

On the "DEAD FOOD" shelf is a little tag that reads: "These foods will make you disease prone, will cause degenerative diseases such as Diabetes, heart disease, and Arthritis, and will make you overweight.  They will also make you fatigued and prone to develop high blood pressure and high cholesterol.”

 

The "LIVING FOOD" shelf's tag reads: "These foods will protect your body from cancer, heart disease, all degenerative diseases, and obesity, and they will sharpen your mind, and energize you."

 

THERE'S YOUR CHOICE!

 

In case you haven’t guessed, “LIVING FOOD” is real food, grown and/or raised on farms- hopefully local.  This product is fresh, delicious, and most of all, full of dense amounts of nutrition.  The “DEAD FOOD” is manufactured, altered, processed in labs and plants all over this country- and the world.  This food is completely void of hydration, generally without much nutritional value, and must have lots of salt, fats, and sugar in order to have any taste at all. 

 

An average American in today's world consumes up to 6 pounds of food each day.  Over your lifetime, that's around 80 Tons of food that passes through your stomach and is digested by your body!  What you eat really does matter!

 

Those shelves are not imaginary- there is a real difference in the types of food we have available to us each day. Here are some suggestions:

 

  • Eat all you want of Green Leafy vegetables, like Spinach, Kales, local lettuce, Zucchini, and many more; In addition, learn to roast Root veggies, like Sweet Potatoes, Butternut Squash, Beets, and local Red Potatoes.  Enjoy 2-3 serving of fruit each day, such as Blueberries, Strawberries, Mango, and many more. 

  • Locally-raised Free Range Chicken and local eggs, Grass-fed Beef, and humanely raised pork are better for your body, and better for the environment as well.  Limit your intake of meats to serving sizes approximately no larger than the palm of your hand.

  • If you eat bread, limit your intake to 1 slice per day.  If possible, learn to make your own bread, or buy fresh-made local bread.

  • Mostly, learn to enjoy preparing and cooking these products for you and your family.  NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING takes the place of your whole family sitting down at your table and enjoying a meal together!

  • Limit your intake of dairy as much as possible.  If you love cheese, make sure you are eating real, hard cheeses only.  It is a great idea to eliminate all dairy from your diet and see how your body reacts.  Chances are you may never go back to consuming dairy.

 

We are proud of you to taking the step to get started on this journey.  Eating Living foods will change everything- how you feel, how you see life, and how others see you.  Remember- this is a journey- one step at a time. 

 

“There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.”     -Ronald Reagan     

Have a great day- make the most of it!

Bobby Bland