See Part 2 of the are you really eating healthy series >
Why do we often chase false nutritional marketing tactics that actually cause us to gain weight, drain our energy and age us faster, rather than learn how to eat in a great-tasting healthy way, and optimize our nutrition by learning how to fuel our body’s right?
The answer is threefold…
- We aren’t yet knowledgeable enough about nutrition, or aware enough to see things clearly, so savvy-sounding inducements (lures, baits, carrots…), usually focused on losing weight or building muscle, look like “shiny objects” we’ve just got to try.
- We don’t think healthy eating is potent enough to help us live at or near our ideal weight, build or maintain muscle, or live disease-free so we’re constantly seeking answers. The more desperate we get, the crazier the search!
- Few of us know what it means to eat “healthy.”
So now we’re posing this question to you, “Do you think you are eating healthy?”
Based on our experience, I’m pretty sure you said something like,“Yeah, I eat pretty healthy,”because let’s face it – everybody wants to believe they are eating“healthy.”In fact, a poll of more than 1,200 participants, released by Consumer Reports, shows that nine out of ten Americans believe their diet is in fact healthy. More than 50 percent described their diet as“somewhat”healthy, more than 30 percent described it as“very”healthy, and about five percent described it as“extremely”healthy.
However,other studies have shown that only 28 percent of Americans limit their intake of sweets and refined sugars, 26 percent limit unhealthy fat intake, and just 30 percent are meeting the Department of Agriculture’s minimum of five servings of fruits and vegetables, per day, which is extremely low to begin with![1]
These basic statistics paint a very disturbing picture. How can anyone be eating“healthy”if they are consuming a high “unhealthy” fat, high “refined” sugar diet that doesn’t include enough vegetables and fruits, let alone beans and legumes, raw nuts and seeds, and intact whole grains? Are we just deluding ourselves? Or is there something fundamentally wrong with the way the majority of us define“healthy” eating?
Think about it, if you were to ask someone if they thought they were eating healthy, they’d probably tell you something like:
And, most of us would probably nod and think that we are doing something right. I mean all of those things sound pretty healthy, right? Of course they do; after all, they all follow the conventional rules of nutrition that we have been taught since childhood – rules created by the USDA, popular diet systems, our trainers and even by our doctors who surprisingly still promote popular high-fat, high-cholesterol, low-carb, high-animal protein diets… as healthy.
To most Americans, eating low-fat dairy, lean meats and low-fat, low-cal or low carb refined foods, with“some”fruit and veggies on the side, is the way to eat healthy– and some following the consumption of a junk food diet or the SAD – Standard American Diet, even consider this“dieting” and do so for weight loss-only, given eating this way is not healthy and nutrient poor.
We feel proud when we opt for no croutons, ask for the dressing on the side, choose fish or chicken over red meat and steak, or periodically pick that side of veggies over the French fries. And frankly, all of these choices to eat better should be applauded – after all, any improvement matters!
However, unless you are starting with the premise of eating more plant-based nutrient rich food, “better” ends up becoming a half-baked healthier diet that isn’t much healthier. You see embedded in those common choices listed above, are 9 “healthier”diet tactics that will cause you to gain weight, drain your energy, and age faster; here’s an example…
[1]http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/26/4/438.abstract?sid=296e5da8-ee45-45ba-a915-459a4bb81a80