Answering the Ever So Popular Question: What Should I Eat?

This blog has been a culmination of over a decade of interest in healthy eating and healthy living. While, I may not have always eaten the most healthy diet, I've always been very occupied with what a healthy diet should look like. As part of this interest, I have seen countless practitioners from acupuncturists and nutritionists to energy healers and hypnotherapists.

When I got engaged in 2006, a friend of mine mentioned the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and their Health Coach program and she suggested I find a Health Coach in my area. That's when I found Stacey Morgenstern. I spent 6 months working with Stacey and she was instrumental to opening my eyes to a new way of eating. In this program, we discussed what the Institute for Integrative Nutrition refers to as Primary Food, which are not just the foods you eat, but everything else that feeds your soul and fulfills your life: your work, your relationships, your spiritual practice. In working with Stacey, I realized that a number of things in my life were preventing me from truly "feeding my soul." One of them was my former job. So when my husband (then fiance) called me to tell me he got a raise, I told him I'm walking into my boss's office and quitting that job. That was two weeks before the wedding.

Six years later, I am now enrolled in the Health Coach at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition and in 6 months, I, too, will be able to see clients. Now, when I tell people that I am enrolled in the program, many ask: "How should I eat?" I actually had 3 people ask that exact question over the weekend.

I'm not a professional just yet, and so I am not offering advice. I know what works for me and helped me lose weight, reduce inflammation, feel lighter, or just feel better and so my personal belief is to avoid eating anything white except for cauliflower.

What's White?
Flour
Milk
Iodized Salt
Potatoes
Sugar

Why I Don't Eat White Flour or Anything Made with White Flour:
White flour is refined, stripped of all nutrients, and then bleached. Next, synthetic nutrients are added back into the flour. It is devoid of any fiber and even the nutrients added back into enriched flour aren't absorbed by the body and are often actually toxic.

Why I Don't Drink Milk or Eat Dairy Products:
Even organic milk producers are milking their cows when they are pregnant or nursing because of how much milk they produce during this time. What allows them to produce so much milk? Hormones! And all of those hormones end up in your Milk. According to Walter Willet, head of Harvard's Nutrition program, drinking milk does not prevent bone fractures and actually has been shown to increase the prevalence of a number of cancers. Milk causes phlegm accumulation which leads to inflammation.

                                                     

Why I Don't Eat Idolized Salt:
Regular table salt is white because it's bleached. If you've ever looked at Celtic Salt it's grey, Himalayan Salt is Pink and it is rare to find a natural salt that is white. Most table salt is made in a lab and is actual a chemical compound. This chemical salt disrupts the circulatory system, nervous system and balance of fluid.
                                                  
         

Why I Don't Eat Potatoes:
Potatoes are nightshades, a family of vegetables that have been shown to aggravate inflammatory conditions, especially arthritis and psoriasis. A recent study showed that potatoes are more likely to absorb radioactive materials from the soil than any other vegetable. Finally, when potatoes are fried, a toxic substance called acrylamide is formed. Acrylamide has been shown to cause cancer in lab animals.

  
   

Why I Don't Eat Sugar:
I can write a book about this, but I won't. Nancy Appleton has written 7 books about the topic and has sent me 3 to read and review. Once I read them and digest them, I will summarize why you shouldn't eat sugar, but in the meantime here are her top 10 reasons:

1. Sugar can suppress your immune system.
2. Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in the body.
3. Sugar can cause juvenile delinquency in children.
4. Sugar eaten during pregnancy and lactation can influence muscle force production in offspring, which can affect an individual’s ability to exercise.
5. Sugar in soda, when consumed by children, results in the children drinking less milk.
6. Sugar can elevate glucose and insulin responses and return them to fasting levels slower in oral contraceptive users.
7. Sugar can increase reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can damage cells and tissues.
8. Sugar can cause hyperactivity, anxiety, inability to concentrate and crankiness in children.
9. Sugar can produce a significant rise in triglycerides.
10. Sugar reduces the body’s ability to defend against bacterial infection.

You may not agree with everything I've mentioned here and that's okay. You can read hundreds of diet books and they will tell you a 100 different ways to eat. In the end, the only way that matters is the one that makes you feel your best. I think everyone should experiment with their diet and find the way to nourish themselves that is manageable long-term. Find the lifestyle that works for you and stick with it. That's the only way to lose weight, get healthy and feel your best!