But I am eating healthy Part II - So what is healthy?

Onward with the journey of exploration. So, if I'm not eating healthy now, how do I start? What is healthy? According to Melissa and Dallas, there are four criteria that must be met in order to determine if a food is healthy; "not three, not most...all" criteria.


Basically, the food that we eat should:
1. Promote a healthy psychological response.
2. Promote a healthy hormonal response.
3. Support a healthy gut.
4. Support immune function and minimize inflammation.


So food is really complex and incites a wide variety of responses in our bodies, that's just four of the big ones. In order to get our bodies to have the "right" responses, we need to be eating the right foods! And for me, doing a Whole30 is going to help me to figure out what the right foods are.  

So when I'm asked about this Whole30 "thing", the first question/comment is something like "what will you eat instead of            (insert food here such as bread, pasta, potato)". And my answer, now that I've been properly educated, is " I won't eat those things because they are blocked full of simple carbohydrates that bump up your blood sugar, which bumps up insulin levels in your blood, which increases the amount of food/calories/fat that you store instead of burning, which throws off about a half a dozen other different hormones in your blood, including those that tell your brain that you are full-so-stop-eating, and those that tell you that you are tired-so-go-to-bed and those that tell you that it is morning-so-get-up-energized-and-get-a-healthy-breakfast". Then I stop to breathe...  

But in saying that, I also believe that everyone has a different "healthy food continuum". So what I think is a healthy choice, maybe you don't. Or what you think is healthy, maybe I don't. This is something that Nicole and I often talk about, including how our own continuums have changed since we started reading all this health material. I think your healthy food continuum directly relates to what you currently eat, what you believe, what foods work for you, and what literature/science/testimonials you read. Even if I don't think about the weight loss; if I only try to understand what I need to choose to eat that will make me healthier.

And that brings me back to nutritionally dense foods and why I want to do the Whole30. Besides the fact it has been shown that grains/simple carbs/processed foods/preservatives, can do so many weird things to our bodies, throwing off hormone levels, hurting our digestive system, creating addictions, causing inflammation, etc, why do we think it's good to eat such nutritionally void food when we could be filling our bellies with whole foods that pack a nutritional punch for more than one reason like vegetables which can give us multiple servings of a variety of nutrients? 

I've been mostly ignoring the bread on my plate for some time now, and I've noticed a difference so I'm willing to try more and I want to make that part of my life. I'm not sure how I will make it through the Whole30... I think I'm going to struggle with cutting out dairy and sugar. But if I listen to the stories that others have had, hopefully by the end of the 30 days I'll be able to better handle those sugar cravings. And I'm hoping that I'll be able to add back dairy without too many repercussions. And finally, I'm hoping that next time I'm reading a health book on the beach I won't be feeling like an overgrown seal, but more like a mermaid!