There has been a lot of talk among nutritionists and health experts about what foods we should be eating and which ones we should all avoid, and the answers seem to vary from one to another, so we thought we would help organize the many varied answers to this question and put them into a helpful guide for you. A lot of this information is sourced from a panel of experts, including authors, nutritionists and body coaches, so you can rest easy knowing that these are definitive answers.
There isn’t a simple answer for everyone, unfortunately, as different body types mean that different types of foods are going to be needed. Some people also have food allergies or medical conditions that mean that they can’t eat certain foods and that they need other specific foods in order to be healthy. Even spiritual beliefs and cultural tolerances play a part in determining what food to eat and which to avoid. The panel we derived this information from focused more on what we should NOT eat. Most people know what kinds of foods are going to be tolerable for them and what their favourite healthy snacks are, but not everyone is so up to date on which foods they should be avoiding. Modern diets consist of a lot of foods that our panel labelled as dangerous, and this includes vegetable oils and seed oils, and basically any type of chemically extracted oil. These were found to contain excess fat, sugar and carcinogens (cancer-causing substances). The best kinds of oils are always going to be organic and cold-pressed oils, and if you don’t know which kinds those are or you don’t know if the restaurant you are visiting serves those, then you need to call and find out.
One of the panel’s experts, David Gillespie, said that eating polyunsaturated seed oils is dangerous in and of itself. What’s far worse, however, is cooking with these oils, as they produce vapours that are considered toxic and that have been linked to cancer.
Not everybody will find this information to be surprising or novel, but people do need to be aware of how pervasive unhealthy foods are. Most of the food in the cafes and restaurants all around us are made from vegetable oils or contain sugar, and it’s hard to avoid this stuff without making every meal at home. I am very careful with what I stock in our house and what I make for my family, but even I have my guilty pleasures and let a few of these things in from time to time. I think it’s important to have a balance. It’s okay to have little sugar and use unhealthy oil every now and then, but if it is a cornerstone of your diet, then you are going to have some serious health problems.
You may start to feel guilty about what you are eating, especially after reading about the kinds of things that are in your food, and you don’t want to turn a blind eye to the unhealthy food that is all around you. You need to be aware of what you are eating and how it affects you, but you should also relax and enjoy your food. We all have foods we like to indulge in that are not very healthy for us, and that is okay to do that sometimes, but it needs to be done sparingly, and we need to think about the long-term ramifications.
In our lives, we have found some great raw foods that are served at local restaurants. These are delicious foods that are incredibly healthy, and they may not be something we have time to create at home, so we definitely appreciate the ability to enjoy them from time to time.
What is it that we should be eating, then?
The best advice we can give, and that our panellists also gave, is that you need to listen to what your body is telling you. If you are always sick or overweight or just feeling bloated and slow all the time, then you need to change up your diet. Try to find healthy alternatives to some of the foods that are hurting you. Instead of vegetable oil, you can use avocado oil, ghee, lard, and organic butter. You can also use the very common coconut oil and olive oil for everyday cooking and get similar results to what you get from vegetable oil. The sugar we eat is another matter entirely, and we will get into that in another post, so keep checking back with us for that one.
