Fueling Your Life Well

The old addage “you are what you eat” really is true.  I don’t know if you recall the big stories that hit in 2007 about mass spectrometer analysis of human hair, but if you do you will recall that if we are what we eat, in the US we would mostly be Corn and Soy. In fact, a 2007 CNN story revealed an average of 69% of our hair in the US is derived from corn!  Compare that to an Italian’s hair at the same time - 5% Corn.

Granted, in Italy today things are changing as young people shift away from their native Mediterranean diet, but what are we seeing today? More Diabetes, Obesity and Heart Disease - go figure…

Corn is not the killer, mind you, and neither is Soy but these mass spectrometer results reveal how insidious fillers are in our food - we give corn and soy to chickens and cows as feed and we use corn as a sweetener in almost every candy and condiment on the US market.  Pick up a package of almost anything at your local grocery, read the ingredients and you’ll see - corn, corn syrup, soy - almost always in the first line or first 3 ingredients.

Luckily, however, we are awash with choice and if we can adopt the idea that food is medicine and perhaps apply a little of the K.I.S.S. principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid) to the way we eat, a few small shifts can go a long way towards optimizing your health and wellness.

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9 Good Eating Habits for Ideal Wellness

I personally believe in an 80/20 principle when it comes to eating - if you can do great 80% of the time, you can relax 20% of the time and you’re going to be just fine. Now if you are eating a special diet to cleanse or heal, you must be strict and aim for 100% but hopefully you are eating to heal for a specific reason with a limited time frame and can relax somewhat (food sensitivities excluded) after a 2-4 week period.

So, that said, here are 9 general principles that will help you shift your diet to a healthier place:

• Avoid packaged foods - Packaged foods have unwanted fillers so keep them to a minimum in your diet
  
• • Replace them with whole fruits, vegetables and nuts
    
• Avoid Simple Carbohydrates - Simple carbohydrates (like white rice, white bread) become sugar in the body, spiking your blood sugar, getting packed away as fat and taxing the pancreas
  
• • If you do eat them, combine simple carbohydrates with fats, proteins and fiber to stabilize your blood sugar as fat, protein and fiber take 2x as long to digest
    
• Try to get 5 servings of fruits and vegetables in per day - it will maximize your nutrition and fill you up!  At least ½ of these should be GREEN
  
• • If its hard to get enough green foods in particular, try a green smoothie or a green food drink or supplement.  Not only are green foods highly nutritious, they are also alkalinizing to the body which can improve immunity.
    
• Drink ½ your body weight in ounces in water per day - a well hydrated body is high functioning body!
  
• Replace refined sugar with honey, xylitol or stevia - refined sugar is like eating or drinking inflammation and is a huge contributor to heart disease, diabetes and obesity.  Try to keep it to a minimum in the diet - reserve it for special occasions and holidays!
  
• Watch portion size - remember a deck of cards is one serving of meat!
  
• Replace some meat with vegetarian meals - its old news now that meat-heavy diets tax our planet and our food resources as time goes on and world populations increase.  In Chinese Medicine, balance is key and eating some meat is recommended, but here in the West we tend to overconsume.  Partake in Meatless Mondays or devise another tradition you like to remove some animal protein from your diet - your body and the planet with both thank you!
  
• Eat fish! Its a lean protein with heart healthy benefits, definitely a go-to choice.
• Consider Intermittent Fasting - If you tend to eat emotionally or like rich foods in particular, intermittent fasting can be an excellent way to stimulate the metabolism, control caloric intake and still be able to eat what you love.  The health benefits of intermittent fasting are very interesting, and its been touted as a research backed health movement in Europe for some time.  Check out this blog post I wrote about it previously for more information.
  

Simple, Healthy Eating Habits Are the Best

Truly, what all the above amounts to is eating simple - its a very Chinese Medicine based principle.  Simple, natural foods in reasonable amounts will serve you the best.  Make vegetables the base of your diet, and let everything else be an additive.  

Then, if you are what you eat, you won’t be corn or soy anymore, you’ll be you!  A beautiful balanced healthy you.  And it WILL show - in my Facial Acupuncture sessions I always include a lot of diet and nutrition counseling as well because truly, how your skin looks is about 85% what you eat, how you live your life, how you hydrate and how your genetics have lined you up.  Its about 15% everything on the outside - that is why Facial Acupuncture treats the whole body, not just the face.  Some more food for thought!

If you’re looking for more resources about food and diet, check out these books - they are some of my favorites that I always keep on my shelf and home and recommend to others.

Until next time,

~Rebecca

healthy eating habits, healthy fasting, healthy eating tips