Recently I have been challenged on what I believe to be a healthy diet. After all my research I thought I was getting everything dialed in. I knew what foods to eat and what not to eat. I knew how much to eat to eat. I knew when to eat. I knew where to eat.
I knew who I wanted to eat with. And I knew why I was eating…
I thought all my questions were practically answered. Then I realized that their are general guidelines that we can all follow when we eat, but there was no formula that applied to everyone.
Genetics are weird. They make us do weird things. Or should I say they make our body do weird things.
Let me get to the point…
I have thought for a long time that eating meat is great for you. That it is healthy and practically needed in our diet. The protein and fat you get from meat is better than any other plant source. And meat tastes great. Yet there are some people that are allergic to meat and apparently aren’t able to eat it without suffering consequences like acne, lethargy, etc.
The solution that works for some people, even most people, doesn’t work for everyone.
The above statement might seem like common sense to some people, but not to a scientific minded individual looking for a solution that can work for everyone.
So what is a healthy diet? It is the diet that works for you.
It is a diet where you feel energetic most of the time. It is a diet that doesn’t cause you to hold onto excess fat. It is a diet that helps prevents most or all of the diseases of modern civilization. And it is a diet that makes you happy. Because if you don’t love what you eat then you probably aren’t going to eat it for long.
So how do we get there?
After all my research I would say most people are half way there to begin with. Very few people eat junk food all day everyday and get away with it for long. They eventually have to listen to what their body is screaming at them. “Give me real food!”
The key is to remove some of the worst villains from your diet (trans fats, refined carbs, etc.) and add some of the better heroes in your diet (vegetables, wild caught fish, grass fed meat, etc.) Remove a few here, add a few there, and pretty soon your diet looks amazing.
That is what a healthy diet looks like. Less and less bad things over time. More good things added over time. And the results will speak for themselves.
This is our 34rd challenge in The Personal Health Challenge Series…