Wellness Journey with Joe

Week 10 - Nutrition Summary

10/3/2015

So it's time to move on to the mental health portion of our journey, but before we do let's take this week and make a concerted effort to shore up your nutrition habits. 

The previous weeks have laid out an outline from which you can choose the food you eat.  You can see that this outline is similar to the Paleo Diet.  I don't adhere completely to this diet but I believe in its philosophy.  That is; If our species evolved into human beings as a result of the food eaten by our hominid ancestors, the activities they concerned themselves with (problem solving), and the physical fitness in which they gained in living out our lives in their attempt to simply survive then it would behoove us to eat similar food, continue to challenge ourselves mentally, and keep ourselves physically fit if we want to live congruent with our genes.

I say I don't adhere completely to the Paleo Diet and I will explain.  There are many whole foods that we now eat that were not eaten by our hominid ancestors but are prevalent in our society now.  Dairy, legumes, and grains come to mind.  These foods do indeed have many nutrients that our bodies can use.  Dairy, for example, has calcium and protein which our bodies do require.  However, there is a cost.  Dairy also contains high fat and sugar, and now it has been shown in research done in the China Study that the predominant protein in dairy, called casein, is thought to be a cancer causing agent.

Grains contain phytic acid, lowering the ph in our bodies, and are predominantly sugar that gets stored as fat.  Often you will find many vegetarians becoming “grainarians” and discouraged that blood chemistry makers for heart disease and/or diabetes haven’t gone down.

It’s best to avoid these foods altogether but sometimes it is difficult to avoid them completely.  You don’t want to be a food snob when invited over to dinner.  And, conveniently, our bodies are equipped with a “cleansing system” that cleans up many of the toxins we ingest. 

So, while I believe in the Paleo concept I do, once in a while, consume grains, milk, and beans.  Who can resist a slice or two (or four) of pizza, occasional ice cream, or have rice and beans for dinner?  But I realize that there is a cost, so I look at these foods as a treat and keep the consumption of them at a minimum.

We have a saying, “It’s not what you do some of the time, it’s what you do all of the time.  In other words, some of the time you can slip off the wagon, but all of the time get your fresh fiber in a large salad, all of the time drink plenty of water, all of the time eat fruit in the morning, all of the time eat extra vegetables, and all of the time leave the grocery store with nothing but the most nutritious food in your cart and force yourself to make a special trip for the treat.

Also, I am sure it will take you longer to completely change your habits and I’d like to move on with mental health portion of our journey. 

As we change habits I’m sure you already see it takes time.  Time to learn the material, time to shop, time to prepare the food.  There are healthy strategies that you can employ, like involve the whole family in cutting up vegetables and cooking, preparing more than you need and storing the extra, etc. 

But time is sometimes at a premium and something has to give.  When we have so many obligations there just isn’t the time to give to food preparation and fast food is looked at as a “necessary evil.”  I hear all the time, “I just don’t have the time to be doing all that!”

That’s why we’re jumping into mental health next.  Often not being in control of our lives due to unhealthy world views sabotages our quest to eat well specifically and quality of life in general.

Good luck this week reviewing the nutrition information I’ve provided.  For more you can read through the Wellness Mini-Course I have on this website, especially the Introduction and the Nutrition course.