Building a Healthy Diet

I know what you’re thinking already, what’s with the kiddie building blocks when we are talking about something as important as nutrition? Well, it’s really as simple as the blocks themselves, I just wanted to point out is how easily we are attracted to bright colors, packaging, and what’s on the outside. Like attracting a kitten to a glittery play toy, or a small child to colourful blocks, our commercial food industry is out to attract us to their fancy packaging of what they want us to believe is good for us, don’t “buy” it!
I am here to tell my version of the truth, and sadly, I come by my opinion out of personal experience. Of course, I fed myself and my children all of those foods…ALL of them. I wish I knew then, what I know now. I wish I knew that I was destroying our stomachs, and opening ourselves up to very serious autoimmune issues, I wish I knew…

The Components to Include
So how exactly does one build a healthy diet? Isn’t it forever evolving? Why do we have to keep figuring out what’s good for us? How the heck are we supposed to believe one industry over another? The simple answer to that is to use our common sense. How can a packaged, processed food possibly be better than a whole food? It isn’t, so why do we buy it and feed it to our families? Convenience, price point, availability, time, habits. There are so many reasons, very respectable reasons, why we do it, but my goal is to change this, to make it easier to prepare foods at home, to educate to anyone interested, why we need to avoid processed foods, at all costs, especially the cost of our health, because without our health, what do we really have?

I believe that to build a healthy diet we need to include foods that follow the NAG principle, Natural, Alive, Good for you (totally stole that from my nutrition school CSNN, credit goes to them). However, on top of NAG, I believe that buying local food while in season offer great benefits (besides being cost effective), eating local will ensure that the produce you are eating is packed with nutrients that foods travelling a great distance lose. Eating a variety of food species to keep the microbiome flourishing, I aim for 40 species a week, but don’t panic two types of apples count as two and a greens powder in your water can cover ten easily in a pinch (getting 40 is easier than you think), and having a binder (yes, actual paper here) in your kitchen of all of your favourite, easy-to-make recipes, so that in a pinch you can make something out of nothing. Having the right staples in your pantry and fridge will keep you from falling prey to the takeout Gods and the snack monsters.

The Ideal Diet (hint: There Actually is One)
Yes, there is an ideal diet. The ideal diet is one that adapts and fluctuates with our needs. We want our diet to support what’s happening in our life at any given moment in time. Are we growing? Pregnant? Sick? Training for a marathon? Relaxing on a vacation or just grinding through a regular work week? There are so many factors that come into play when talking about your diet, but the single most important component to consider and learn to be aware of, is whether or not what’s going in our mouth is serving our body in a healthy way.

I heard a nutrition guru speak on how she helps herself stay on track with her eating and she said that when she gets home with her groceries, she spreads it all out on her counter and tells herself that this food that she will eat this week will be what the cells of her body will be made of after, and it stopped me in my tracks. Do you want your body built and serving you built on a foundation of frozen pizza or a homemade healthier version of the same thing? I will pick the homemade I-know-what’s-in-it version each, and every time. It is my goal to help others do the same. Keep an eye out for easy recipes like my Creamsicle Smoothie, which is easy to make, packed with protein, has no sugar and consists of 5 basic ingredients, and tastes like a Creamsicle ice cream! Can it get easier than that?

Supplementing Your Diet (Do You REALLY Need to?)
The unfortunate answer to this in much of the population in North America is yes. The food we buy today is not packing the punch of nutrients as it did a hundred years ago when we were mostly growing our own produce. This is largely in part because the soil our food is grown in is exhausted and depleted of nutrients that we are still to this day seemingly not taking action to correct. With the exception of organic, our foods are still being loaded with dangerous chemicals to make them grow bigger and look more attractive (sound familiar?). Organic is here but is still too expensive for most to afford and with sneaky practices happening at food labeling, we hear all the time how people don’t trust that it’s actually organic or that organic even makes a difference. It makes a difference! But that’s another topic to dig into at a later date.

Added to the poor food and soil story is the number of us that have had important organs removed (gallbladder for instance) that effects how we process our food and absorb what little nutrients are actually in our food. These factors alone have proven to me, again, personal experience here, that sometimes a healthy diet alone just isn’t enough. It is this reason that I will recommend adding and rotating supplements throughout the year to help support your gut and ensure that an adequate amount of vitamins and minerals to fuel our cells and promote cell growth. No benefits here except more energy, better sleep, less anxiety, no brain fog, balanced hormones, better metabolism, happier moods, stronger bodies that are ready for anything!

Sub-Conclusion (because I never feel that anything is finished, we should always be expanding our thoughts and knowledge)
I believe with everything in me that to be healthy, we need to pay attention to our bodies in a holistic way, we need to eat well to fuel our bodies, supplementing when necessary, move our bodies to keep them strong and flexible, and to be mindful of our thoughts. As they say, thoughts become actions, actions become habits…or something like that 😉