Eating Healthy – The First Step No One Wants to Take.
With summer right around the corner I’m asked nutrition questions almost daily. Trying to eat healthy today is an uphill battle against deceptive marketing, contradictory information and promises of quick-fix diets, drugs and supplements.
Through my experience in the field of health, fitness and nutrition I’ve discovered that the perception of eating healthy is very skewed.
People think they eat enough protein because the wrapper says “High In Protein!”.
Or they don’t consume a lot of sugar because the container says “Reduced Sugar!”.
The problem is ‘High’ doesn’t necessarily mean enough, and ‘Reduced’ doesn’t mean none.
This should be everyones first step toward eating healthy. I’d even argue that without doing this step first all other attempts at changing your diet are pointless.
So here’s my challenge to you. It’s not an easy one, but I guarantee it will be the most effective change you’ll ever make to your diet.
Ready?
Eliminate sugar.
Yup, that’s it. Remove added sugar from your diet. No tracking food, counting calories or choking down juice cleanses. Just get rid of sugar.
Sounds pretty easy right? I’m not going to lie, you’ve got you work cut out for you.
Sugar is the number one culprit of poor health. It’s excessive consumption is responsible for obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, alzheimer’s disease (soon to be known as type 3 diabetes), chronic inflammation and a host of other ailments.
Animal fat isn’t the problem. Protein definitely isn’t the issue. It all comes back to sugar.
The Fruit Argument:
“Fruit is bad because it’s full of sugar. Your body doesn’t know the difference between an apple and a snickers.”
This is a whole different rabbit hole I’ll spare you from being dragged into. Here’s my simple argument; Have you ever met an obese person who binge eats fruit?
I didn’t think so.
Eat fruit.
Sugar: A Master of Disguise
Added sugar can be found in just about every packaged food and in many places you wouldn’t expect. As sugar is slowly replacing animal fat and cholesterol as enemy #1 when it comes to health companies need to come out with new ways to hide it.
Here’s a short article from Virta Health that provides some quick tips on what to look for along with 56 synonyms for sugar. That’s right, 56 different names for sugar.
Virta Health – Secret Sugars: 56 Different Names for Sugar
The Bottom Line:
The first step anyone should take toward improving their diet is reducing or eliminating sugar and refined carbohydrates. Doing so will drastically improve health, make you more aware of the things you eat and improve your discipline when making food choices in the future.
I’m not saying eliminate all joy from your eating habits. Vacations, birthdays, and other special occasions should be enjoyed with unhealthy food choices once in a while. A random Tuesday night however is not a special occasion.
If the commitment can’t be made to complete this first step, all other attempts at changing diet will likely be unsuccessful.
“Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar.”
– Fitness In 100 Words, by: Greg Glassman
If you’d like to take a look at and track the changes to your body in more detail schedule an InBody composition scan before implementing a change in your diet or exercise routine.
This will provide an accurate view of changes in visceral fat, body fat and lean muscle rather than just body weight alone.
InBody scans for Spur members are $35 for 1 or $50 for 2 and can be set up by contacting John or Lauren.