No Food is Healthy....

In the news this week the FDA announced that is looking at defining what “healthy” means on packaging. I’m always concerned when the word “healthy” gets thrown out as it relates to food. NO food is healthy. (WHAT?) Before you lose your mind, hear me out….

So, like I said food isn’t healthy or unhealthy. Food is nutritious. If you eat a lot of different types of nutritious food YOU can BE healthy. We can all agree that broccoli is good for you but if that’s all you ate would this be healthy? Of course not, your body needs lots of different vitamins and minerals, proteins and fats. Broccoli is therefore nutritious as part of balanced diet.

The reason for the little side bar is that when we talk about nutritious foods the conversation needs to start and end with WHOLE FOODS.

So the question then is what is a whole food?

It is food that is close to nature. It looks like the plant it is derived and very rarely needs a package around it or a food label to tell us what it is. If it does have a food label, the list should be short, and you should recognize the ingredients as other real foods. In general, think of fresh/frozen vegetables and fruit, raw nuts and seeds, eggs, raw oats and grains, whole fat (and unsweetened) dairy, and clean meats as your typical real, whole foods.

I have a chance to do some public speaking throughout the year, sometimes to younger kids and athletes and I always explain it this way; Assuming that as an athlete or anyone who’s looking for their best results you want to fuel your body with the best quality fuel. Eating processed foods is like fueling your body with oil and water, while eating real whole foods is like fueling your body with rocket fuel.

The standard American diet consists primarily of refined and processed foods. Processed foods tend to be higher in refined carbohydrates, have less fiber, and more often than not have unnecessary ingredients---all of which negatively impact metabolism.

Eating whole foods can be more challenging especially when we are all busy and prepackaged processed foods can seem more convenient. We’ve talked in previous blog post about the need to meal prep when trying to eat better as whole foods tend to take time to prepare. Our friends at Thomas Reese Olive Oil Company & Bistro (next door to Fuse Fitness Coaching) not only use whole foods in all of their meals, they also offer Meal Planning Workshops and Salad in a Jar Classes to make meal prep easier! Check out their website or Facebook page to reserve your spot in the next class and workshops.

Our supplement of the week here at Fuse Fitness Coaching is the Metabolic Nutrition System (MNS). It’s a combination multi-vitamin, fish oil and probiotic. It’s a great insurance plan (to when we don’t always eat enough of the whole foods we are suppose to) to insure that our metabolism is functioning at its best so we can burn fat and build muscle. Talk to a Fuse Fitness Coach to learn more or to get started with MNS. If you’d like to receive 20% off MNS or any other of the great Advocare products click here.