What should I eat to be healthy and lean?

What a difficult question to answer!!

Over the years I have been lucky to have met and learnt from many different groups of people, all with different ideas about what a healthy diet should consist of. My Nutrition lecturers at Uni taught me about the food pyramid and the importance of a balanced diet: 60% carbohydrates especially whole grains, 30% protein and 10% fat. They advocated low fat products and calorie restriction for weight loss. Many of my yoga teachers have been strong advocates of vegetarian/ vegan living and believe that people who follow this lifestyle can become more awakened or spiritually aware. Some workshops I've been on have been run by people who eat just raw foods as they believe the live enzymes in food makes you feel ALIVE! I have worked with some advocates of juicing detoxes while others I have met have been against it. Many strength coaches I have worked with/ learnt from strongly believe that we should eat like hunter gathers and believe that 'new' foods (those we have started to eat in the last 10,000 years such as grains, legumes and processed foods) are a major factor in the obesity epidemic and the increase in diseases such as cancer, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, inflammation of all kinds and more. The emphasis is often on increased protein especially meat. Some holistic nutritionists and trainers warn too much protein and not enough carbohydrate and fat is just as damaging as too much carbohydrate and not enough protein and fat! They say insulin is not released only in response to carbohydrate but also in response to large amounts of protein out of balance with carbohydrates and fats! And then clients, friends and family often say to me that they know what they should be eating but they just don't.

Have you ever defined yourself as something... a vegetarian, paleo, raw, healthy, unhealthy... I have and I felt like it put me in a box. I believed the way I was eating was right and the way others ate was wrong. I closed myself off to new possibilities and better health and started to define a part of myself through the way I ate. When you are stuck in this box you become defensive and judgemental about people in the other groups. I've seen it over and over again. For example an old friend of mine used to get angry when he talked about his ex girlfriend who was a veggie. He judged her and labelled her as unhealthy, fussy and mocked her reasons for being vegetarian. He called himself a paleo eater but often bought cheap meat, drank diet coke and ate eggs from caged hens. Because he ate a lot of protein he defined himself as healthy because he had been told protein was the most important thing. Recently I felt inclined to do a detox. I done an environmental estrogen cleanse recommended by Charles Poliquin a teacher whom I respect and trust. A family member of mine got angry at me when I told her about the cleanse. She also said that she doesn't think some of the advice I give to my clients is right. How could I advise cutting out cereal and bread... where would they get their carbohydrates from?! What I found is that when I tried to explain the reasons I was doing the cleanse and why I gave the advice I did she was not listening to me and became defensive. She had preconceived ideas about what is healthy (which she had been taught as a child) and could not open her mind to new possibilities. This made me think about the way I had judged people in the past and believed so strongly that what I knew was the truth, to the point where it would upset me if someone didn't think the same.

Unfortunately many of us have been told that one way of eating is right and never questioned it. If we have never known any different, or many people have told us this is how it is, we become conditioned by this belief. I often say to new clients that eating cereal is unhealthy. It's not a real food. Its full of sugar. It's addictive. It makes you fat. It causes insulin spikes. It can cause mood swings. Add milk – once pasteurized it's dead and offers little in terms of real nutritional value to anyone, valuable enzymes are destroyed, vitamins (such as A, C, B6 and B12) are diminished, fragile milk proteins are radically transformed from health nurturing to unnatural amino acid configurations that can actually worsen your health. Finally the eradication of beneficial bacteria through the pasteurization process actually ends up promoting pathogens. They look at me like I'm crazy! But that's no surprise. If you have been eating cereal with milk since you were a kid and your parents said its a great way to start the day and teachers said the same and all the adverts market the product as healthy then why wouldn't you believe it.

SO the most important thing when deciding 'what should I eat' is to drop what you think you know about food. When I start with a new client they almost always say they know what they should eat but they just don't eat that way. I often wonder why they don't and do they really know what they should be eating?! Does anyone?! So what should we do? Follow the food pyramid, eat high protein, eat paleo, become a veggie, eat according to your metabolic type, try juice detoxes to lose weight, follow a calorie controlled diet. Who should we listen to? The Doctor, a nutritionist, our personal trainer or the person with the most qualifications? Personally when I look to someone for advice they will have certain qualities about them:

• non judgemental
• speak from experience
• open to new ideas
• they look healthy
• their main priority is to help you, not to show how clever they are

Nowadays I do not like to define myself as any of the groups that I have talked about although I would advocate aspects of all of them. I have followed vegan, veggie, raw, juicing, calorie controlled, paleo and have found aspects of all of them useful. A big part of my job now is to get people to drop what they have been taught and open their minds. Not just to food but to movement, exercise, love, fashion, beauty whatever! Don't believe everything you're told. I don't want people I work with to become followers but to do what feels right for them. There are however some basic guidelines that I would like to offer. Things that feel true to me right now about health. I will not be upset if you don't believe everything that I say but please experiment and find what works for you. Cut out all processed foods for a week and see if you feel any different. Try new things, see how you respond. Let your own body be your main teacher.

** Remember that our natural state is one of balance, wholeness and vitality.
PROBLEMS WITH THE FOOD PYRAMID
1. Who will give you advice based on the food pyramid? – Doctors, researchers for the government, newspapers, magazines, dieticians - all speak with one voice. The advise tends to be exercise, stop smoking, reduce salt, reduce animal fat and red meat. Base your diet on grains – bread, pasta etc. small amount of protein and fats and lots of fruit and veg.
2. Some good points – reduce sugar, eat plenty of vegetables, stop smoking
   ** However please consider:
3. Many people do poorly on grains, cut them out for 2 weeks see if you feel any different
4. Many have a low tolerance for dairy products. Pasteurization kills important enzymes in milk which help us to digest it. Ideally we would go for unprocessed dairy products from pasture-fed cows. You will only find this at farmers markets.
5. Low fat diets are dangerous – good sources of fat come from ghee, butter, coconut oil, lard , olive oil, nuts, seeds, organic meat etc. Fats to stay away from trans fats – found in processed food, margerine, vegetable oil.
6. No distinction between foods grown organically and those grown with pesticides and commercial fertilizers. Organic farming works with Mother Nature not against her.
7. No distinction between processed or whole foods. A processed or non food is any boxed item such as cereal or cookies, a desert item any dressings/ sauces, anything in a tin. Look on labels how many ingredients can't you pronounce or know what they are. The strange words listed are the various concoctions used to colour, stabilize, emulsify, bleach, texture, soften, preserve, sweeten add or cover smells.
8. Unrefined salt serves the body in a number of ways I.e. Aids in balancing blood sugar, clears the lungs of mucus, aids in the prevention of muscle cramps... Go for unprocessed sea salt.

SO WHAT SHOULD I EAT

A. Nourishing traditional foods

1. PROTEINS – Fresh, pasture-raised meat including beef, lamb, game, chicken, turkey, duck and other fowl: organ meats from pastured animals: seafood from deep sea waters: fresh shellfish in season: fish eggs, fresh eggs from pastured poultry.
2. FATS – Fresh butter and cream from pasture-fed cows, preferably raw. Lard and beef, lamb, goose and duck fat, extra virgin olive oil, flax seed, coconut oil.
3. DAIRY – Raw, whole milk and cultured dairy products, such as yoghurt, kefir and raw cheese.
4. CARBOHYDRATES – Organic wholegrain products properly treated for the removal of phyates, soaked and fermented legumes including lentils and beans. Sprouted or soaked seeds and nuts. Fresh fruits and veg both raw and cooked.
5. BEVERAGES – Filtered or mineral water, meat stocks, veg broth, fresh veg/fruit juice
6. CONDIMENTS – Unrefined sea salt, vinegar, spices, fresh herbs.

In addition to this in my diet I've found I feel good if I have good quality red wine, 70% or more dark chocolate and organic black coffee in moderation. And also a cheat meal every week where I eat whatever I want but that's just me :)

WHAT SHOULD I AVOID

A. Newfangled foods

1. PROTEIN: Processed meats containing addictives and preservatives, such as salami and luncheon meat.
2. FATS: All highly processed vegetable oil, margerine, tub spreads and low fat products
3. DAIRY: Pasteurized, homogenized commercial milk and cream, processed cheeses, reduced fat dairy products
4. CARBOHYDRATES: Bleached and fortified white flour products: commercial dry cereals, granolas, refined sugar in all forms, such as dextrose, fructose and high fructose corn syrup, irradiated and genetically modified grains, irradiated and genetically modified fruits and veg, most canned products, milk chocolate
5. BEVERAGES: Fizzy drinks, diet drinks, fruit juice, commercial rice and oat milks.
6. CONDIMENTS: MSG, artificial flavours, additives and colours, chemically produced food preservatives, aspartame.

Taken from Nourishing Traditions (Sally Fallon)

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