The Boring, Simple, Overlooked Reason as to Why You Don’t Feel Well!
As a nutritionist, I have had the pleasure of working with some pretty amazing individuals over the past decade.
Some of my past and present clients include; high level athletes, chronically ill patients suffering from nearly debilitating auto immune conditions, elderly individuals with wear and tear injuries, and some that are forced to lose weight by their spouse in fear that they will be sleeping on the couch forever (or so they say).
One dietary intervention that seems to accelerate all of my client’s results is one that is so incredibly simple that it often gets overlooked by fancy marketing gimmicks or sexy diet fads such as keto, paleo, low carb etc.
This one intervention has helped my clients stabilize blood sugar, improve their recovery from moderate to strenuous exercise, improve the quality and amount of daily bowel movements they experience, lessen joint pain, improve mood and sleeping patterns, and help with the not so pretty conditions such as erectile dysfunction, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and fatty liver disease.
What is this seemingly magical dietary intervention? Mini drum roll; eating a diet that is 80-90% made up of fresh, natural, unprocessed whole food’s. I told you it was going to be boring.
You might be thinking; what does whole foods even mean?
Glad you asked.
A whole food’s diet consists of food that has not been ultra-processed in any way. For example, ultra-processed foods item would include cereal, refined bagels, toast bread, frozen chicken nuggets, imitation meats, packaged goods/chocolates/candies/crisps and so on.
Another clear example is white rice vs brown rice. Brown rice that is unprocessed and left in its natural state is filled with slow digesting carbohydrates, fiber, important nutrients and can be an essential staple within a balanced diet.
Brown rice is considered a whole grain which includes the germ, which contains a tonne of vitamins and minerals as well as the “bran”, which is loaded with fiber and something called an endosperm.
White rice on the other hand is simply brown rice that has been refined, with the germ being removed along with the nutrients it contains. The fiber content is also lowered due to processing, which makes it digest much faster.
In this scenario brown rice would be considered a whole food.
Another simple example is fruit. Fruit left in its natural state is considered a whole food. However, a fruit roll up is not – that would fall under the ultra- processed food category.
Why is this so important?
Ultra-processed foods are highly palatable, lack essential nutrients and are often high in fat, calories, refined sugars and saturated fat. These are all factors that may contribute to poor health and lowered performance as you age.
Highly palatable, processed foods have one mission when they are created; make money at all costs and do this by making the product taste very good, regardless of what has to be used within the product to accomplish this. I am sure the guy who created twinkies or the dunkaroos brand, wasn’t thinking about solving obesity issue in America or how a poor diet can lead to poor health down the road.
I noticed very early in my career how emotionally attached and addicted my clients were to their “afternoon snack” or “after dinner dessert”. These foods literally had control over them. Grown adults being controlled by food!
This doesn’t mean that having a snack such as a pastry should be demonized. Every once in a while these foods should be enjoyed with good company if that’s what makes you happy.
The issue arises only when processed foods make up a large number of your total daily calories on a consistent basis. Why? Because these foods taste so good, you are more likely to consume more calories even if you don’t feel hungry, while lowering the amount of essential nutrients you consume.
One elegant study, conducted in 2019 by Kevin Hall & Colleagues really drives this point home. The authors separated the individuals within the study into two groups. One group would consume an unprocessed diet (whole foods) while the other would consume an ultra-processed diet for two weeks.
Meals that were given were matched in terms of fiber, protein, fats, carbs, sodium and sugar, however participants were free to eat as much as they wanted. What were the results?
The participants eating the processed food:
· Ate on average 500 more calories per day, mostly in the form of fat and carbs
· Ate much faster
· Had increased hunger levels
· Gained more weight
The participants eating the unprocessed food diet:
· Burned less calories, yet still burned more fat and lost more weight
· Decreased hunger levels
· Consumed less calories
Reasons to adopt a whole foods diet
· Provide more nutrients
· Provide more cancer fighting compounds
· Contain more fiber
· Fill you up faster and for longer periods, which leads to the consumption of less calories, which may help with weight loss
· Often do not contain preservatives, sweeteners, fillers and hidden source of calories/fat
Why Ultra-processed foods are not ideal
- Less nutrient density
- Low fiber content
- Often times they are extremely high in calories and low in protein
- Contain filler ingredients: sweeteners, preservatives, hidden fat
- They are highly palatable (leads to overeating, which may lead to more cravings and weight gain)
- More likely to contain heavy metals, or by-products from processing
- May Lead to blood sugar imbalances
Take home message:
Every time you sit down to eat try to fill your plate with more whole foods than you do processed foods. A general rule of thumb is to consume 80% of your daily calories from whole foods and the remaining 20% from processed foods. This number is not something that should be set in stone. For some, you may need to keep this ratio at 90/10, while for others you may be able to be more flexible and still maintain great health. Tune in and feel what your body is asking of you.
Tip: make whole grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables and lean animal protein staples in your daily diet, and you will effortlessly be able to increase the amount of whole foods you consume and hit the 80/20 guideline needed for maintenance of good health.
Reference:
Hall, K. D., Ayuketah, A., Brychta, R., Cai, H., Cassimatis, T., Chen, K. Y., Chung, S. T., Costa, E., Courville, A., Darcey, V., Fletcher, L. A., Forde, C. G., Gharib, A. M., Guo, J., Howard, R., Joseph, P. V., McGehee, S., Ouwerkerk, R., Raisinger, K., … Zhou, M. (2020). Ultra-Processed Diets Cause Excess Calorie Intake and Weight Gain: An Inpatient Randomized Controlled Trial of Ad Libitum Food Intake. Cell Metabolism, 32(4), 690. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2020.08.014