The Power of Real Whole Foods
You are a reflection your food choices – both physically and mentally. Taking control of your dietary intake is one of the best decisions you can make for yourself. And not just for the sake of optimizing body composition and limiting fat gain but for the all the health and performance benefits as well. Yes, that’s right – if you want to perform optimally in life you should fuel yourself with the best foods. It amazes me how many people neglect this and don’t seem to appreciate what a good diet can do for one’s livelihood, health, and overall wellbeing. Perhaps it’s easier said by someone who has experienced both sides of the diet spectrum.
What do I mean by real whole foods (RWFs)? Well, essentially if you can pick it, pull it, harvest it, or kill it it’s considered to be real whole food. Examples include:
Primary energy source foods (carbohydrates) like fruits, vegetables, grains (ie. oatmeal), tubers, roots, seeds (ie. rice), honey.
Physiological based/energy based foods (fats) like butters, nuts, certain oils, avocado, olives, egg yolks, certain seeds (ie. flaxseed).
Building block source foods (protein) like poultry, red meat, eggs, certain cheeses, yogurt, and fish.
Composing meals with a source of each of these 3 food types will be a game changer and this strategy is a pillar of the Fitin10 diet protocol.
Here are 8 reasons why you should avoid most manufactured foods and stick with a real whole food diet:
Generally speaking, RWFs are calorie sparse and mostly voluminous. This is going to result in a lower consumption of dietary calories and an uptick in satiety.
They’re more nutrient dense. Typically, processed foods are often striped of nutrients including fiber, vitamins, minerals, essential fats, and/or phytonutrients
Man made foods tend to contain a lot of fillers, stabilizers, preservatives, artificial colors, flavours, refined sugars, refined polyunsaturated fats.
Man made foods are often designed to be hyper palatable, highly addictive, and non-satiating. Many of these foods are designed for over-consumption. On the flip side, try to overconsume foods such as eggs, potatoes, or apples - it just doesn’t happen.
Eating a RWF diet decreases the hunger hormone ghrelin and increases the hormone leptin creating the fullness feeling. Again, this is going to help reduce the amount of calories you consume without doing any calorie counting
Consuming a RWF diet reduces your chances of cognitive decline, the 4th leading cause of mortality. A recent 8 year follow up study from Brazil followed 15,000 subjects and finds significant greater decline in executive function and memory among those who consume ultra processed foods on regular basis. In particular, these subjects have the highest decline in grey matter as well as the highest reduction in the size of the hippocampus, the memory center of the brain.
A RWF diet will dramatically reduce your chances of developing type II diabetes, the fastest growing lifestyle disease in North America. In fact, I will go as far as saying that following a RHF diet would virtually eradicate this disease. Eating RWFs will dramatically decrease consumption of sugars and will increase consumption of diabetes fighting nutrients including fiber, essential fats, high quality proteins, selenium, and magnesium to name a few.
You’re going to experience much greater feelings of energy and alertness following a balanced RWF diet. When you start to incorporate a good balance of fibre rich carbohydrates, high quality protein, along with a spectrum of fats, you’re going to experience blood sugar stability along with good levels of dopamine production. Both of these are going to make a tremendous difference in your overall energy levels, your sleep quality, your recovery from exercise, and how you feel about yourself.
Until next time Fitin10 Nation!
Coach Mark