3 Simple & Effective Tips for Healthy Eating
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Food marketing can be very confusing. With so many competing health claims (“Fat-free!”…“Essential healthy fats!”) and constantly revolving lists of do/don’t eat (“Eat whole wheat!”…“Wait, less gluten!”), it’s hard to keep it all straight and understand what it really means to eat well.
At Four Wellness Co., we don’t practice one-size-fits-all dietary guidelines. There’s actually quite a range of “healthy diets” that would apply to different people, in different circumstances. For example: animal protein, dairy or gluten work well for some people and not as well for others. Women tend to need more iron in our diets than men. Some people can get the health benefits of spice in their food, while that would mean digestive distress to others.
You get the point—there’s really no possible way for health coaches to define “one” healthy diet for everyone, as what works best for each of us is dependent on our specific body, lifestyle and bioindividuality.
The one nutrition tip that applies to us all
But, we do share one major overarching nutrition tip that applies to all of us:
eat food. not too much. mostly plants.
This adage was originally coined by Michael Pollan (award-winning journalist, author and professor at UC Berkeley) in In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, his book contesting America’s obsession with nutritionism (a focus on eating nutrients rather than on eating food).
Since then, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” has become a popular rule of thumb for following a healthful diet.
Here’s what it means:
3 simple tips for healthy eating
Eat food.
There’s a difference between real food and “edible food-like substances.”
Real food is something your great-grandmother would recognize (she was probably not too familiar with Go-Gurt, for example). You should be able to imagine real food in its natural form (e.g. a cow, an apple tree). And, for baked or prepared foods, you could expect to recognize all of the ingredients and would probably have them in your own pantry (flour, olive oil, salt, etc.)… most of us don’t have Yellow 6 or butylated hydroxyanisole in our home kitchens.
Not too much.
“Calorie restriction has repeatedly been shown to slow aging in animals, and many researchers believe it offers the single strongest link between diet and cancer prevention.”
Many food cultures have rules about moderation. The Okinawans of Japan follow a Confucian teaching, “Eat until you’re 80% full,” and they have the highest life expectancy in the world. (Must be on to something!)
Mostly plants.
(And lots of leaves.) Your digestive system evolved to eat lots of plants, and occasionally meat when a hunt was successful.
Anthropology tidbit: although the fat from meat made our brains “big” and made us the humans that we are, killing a mastodon with handmade tools wasn’t that easy, and it wasn’t something we did three times a day. For early humans, meat was a supplement to a primarily plant-based diet.
Healthy eating in real life
Now, most of our nutrition advice could be summed up with these three simple tips. But it’s also helpful to see some practical applications of these tips in real life—in the grocery store, kitchen, and when you’re out to eat.
How to eat healthy: tips for grocery shopping, cooking & dining out
Here are some of our favorite tips for healthy eating, eloquently described in Michael Pollan’s Food Rules:
Eat food. Don’t eat edible food-like substances; they’re edible, but they’re not food.
Avoid anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can’t pronounce, or ingredients no ordinary person would keep in their pantry. Or high fructose corn syrup.
Don’t eat food that won’t eventually rot. Sure, a Twinkie will last a long time, but it’s laden with artificial preservatives that are not part of a natural, healthful diet—and that don’t break down as easily inside of you, either.
Avoid products that make health claims. Broccoli doesn’t come with a bunch of packaging explaining all its health benefits. Products that make specific health claims tend to be packaged and formulated “edible food-like substances.”
Stay out of the middle of the supermarket. Shop on the perimeter of the store, where real, fresh food is kept near loading docks. Also, get out of the supermarket whenever you can. Shop at the farmers’ market and eat locally and seasonally when possible.
Eat like an omnivore. Diversify. Eat foods of many (natural) colors. Eat wild foods when you can.
If you eat animals, eat those that themselves have eaten well. (Also, eat animal products from animals that have eaten well. We chat more about this with regard to organic animal products and tips to keep in mind for eating dairy.)
Cook. Eat “junk food” if you want, just cook it yourself!
It is not just what you eat but how you eat. Choose small portions, communal meals, and food culture over food science.
Food Rules: an Eater’s Manual
Find yourself confused about what it means to eat healthy?
We often recommend this pocket guide of helpful tips for eating real food, which helps define “healthy eating” in way that’s simple, doable, and still emphasizes that food can (and should!) be enjoyable.
As integrative nutrition health coaches, we appreciate and often refer to these simple, practical tips that explain healthful eating not in terms of lab science, but in human terms we can all understand and implement in our own kitchens and on our own plates.
FOUR WELLNESS TIP
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
