Nutrition and misinformation

When I first decided that it was time to change my lifestyle, I plunged into reading and quickly found that there is a lot of conflicting advice out there. To my further dismay, once I started reading food labels on absolutely everything (which I had done before, just never to the same extent or with the same level of attention), I quickly came to see that the food industry does not have our health or best interests in mind. I know how naive that sounds, but I hadn't realized how far it actually went.

Big Food, as it's known, is an industry driven by profits. These days it's doubly bad, since concepts like "clean eating" and "wellness" have flared up in popularity. Everyone needs to eat, so Big Food can't be avoided altogether. On top of that, the industry sponsors various nutritional studies, so we're not always getting balanced, objective information, either! There are a lot of half-truths and partial facts out there, and while I'm no expert, I've done a heap of reading in the past five months. To clarify a bit, here are what I've come to see as being the essentials:

• There are macronutrients and micronutrients. The three macros are: fat, protein, and carbohydrates. Contrary to popular belief, only two of these are mandatory for our health, and they are fat and protein. Without amino acids (proteins), we would die. Same goes for fat. The benefits we get from carbohydrates have more to do with gaining fibre and micronutrients, aka vitamins and minerals. The rest of it is sugar. 

• Sugar is, put simply, not good. There are something like 60 legal names for sugar now, including things like sucrose (table sugar), glucose, fructose (fruit sugar, though it also comes in highly processed and chemically-altered versions quite frequently!), cane sugar, etc - we recognize these names. However, many people don't realize that honey, maple syrup, molasses, corn syrup, and agave also count as sugars. Then there are all of the chemically-created sugar alcohols like dextrose and maltodextrin, which most people don't realize are also sugars. It's a big list! So when you're in the so-called health food aisle and see a package of granola bars that proudly claims to have "no added sugar", they likely mean "no added sucrose", specifically - these things could still be packed with sugar. Read your labels and remember that the food industry is NOT on your side! They're in it to hook you via the sugar addiction that's rampant in North America, not to help you eat well. For the record, fruit juice and alcohol of every kind also falls under the category of sugars. 

• And what's so wrong with sugar, you ask? The shortest possible answer is that it's nutrition-less calories that raise your insulin and most often get converted directly into fat. Sugar is responsible for gaining fat, not fat. Problematically, many sugar replacements, including artificial sweeteners and even natural sweeteners like stevia also raise insulin levels even without provoking a spike in blood sugar. The better option is to retrain your taste palate and learn to do without it. I say this as someone who use to take 3-4 tsp of sugar in her coffee, so I do know the struggle! 

• Carbohydrates, in the form that we most often eat them, are nothing but long chains of sugars. Unrefined carbs also have fibre in them, however, and that makes a big difference. Dietary fibre doesn't get absorbed. It sits in the intestines and forms a gel, which other nutrients get attached to and are pulled out of the body along with the fibre. Many people count their carb intake by calculating net carbs, which means subtracting the amount of fibre taken in from the amount of carb taken in. Fibre is great! Refined carbs are a problem because they've had their fibre stripped away. Refined carbs are: flour (including whole wheat - the fibre husk is stripped away, then re-added later in much smaller quantities, not enough to offset the refined material), bread, pita, tortillas, naan, white rice, and pasta. Unrefined carbs would be things like potatoes, carrots, and all other fruits and vegetables. Don't get me wrong: veggies and fruit are healthy, but the carb factor needs to be considered! While there is no one commerical diet plan that wins, cutting sugar completely (as well as its replacements) and significantly lowering your carbs will make a huge difference to your health. The ketogenic diet, which is the lowest-carb eating system out there, restricts carbs to 20g per day and has started being prescribed to cancer patients. Cancer cells feed on sugar, so an obvious solution to fighting cancer is to cut off the sugar supply! (Read more about ketogenic and low-carb eating plans here.)

• Weight has more to do with having the right balance of hormones than the right balance of calorie intake/expenditure. Too many sugars (in sugar and carbs, both refined and unrefined) will create an imbalance and loss of sensitivity to insulin. Too much insulin makes people gain weight, suppresses the saiety hormone (leptin) and increases the hunger hormone (ghrelin). It's better to shoot for an eating plan which is higher in healthy omega 3 fats, moderate in lean proteins (chicken, fish, eggs, lean beef), and very low in carbs. 

• I've already talked about fasting, but it needs another mention. Intermittent fasting, whether in shorter periods (16 hours) or longer (48+ hours) can be incredibly helpful in terms of giving your body a rest from constant digestion as well as triggering an important, cell-cleaning process called autophagy (the breaking down and recycling of partially-used amino acids). If you're looking for a cleanse of some sort, the answer doesn't lie in fancy juices and smoothies, whether homemade or commercial. The best food to eat to cleanse your body is no food.  

• You do not need to buy anything to eat well and be healthy. You don't need fancy equipment, expensive meal replacement shakes, gym memberships, or anything else. Maybe a decent pair of shoes for walking. This is what I particularly like about fasting, too: it's free. No one benefits from promoting fasting. It's a non-action. There are no profits being made from it, which makes research about it so much more believable. 

• Exercise is obviously important, too, just not as important as the way we eat is. Dr. Fung gives the balance as about 80% nutrition and 20% exercise. He also recommends getting at least 30 minutes of exercise per day, however, so don't think that correcting your eating is the full answer! 

That said, while my entire body is currently aching from the extra hard/fast swim I took yesterday, I'm due to move. Off for a walk in the park!