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Working Through The Maze of Healthy Eating Facts

With all the confusion about various healthy eating facts, it's hard to know which foods to eat.

Most of us aren't eating properly, we're letting our taste buds decide what we eat. But when we start to focus on the benefits of healthy eating, the fog starts to clear. Our ancestors ate instinctively. They didn't have the FDA to tell them which foods were healthy choices. They ate what nature provided for them and they learned which foods their body liked and which foods it didn't based on how they felt.

Healthy Eating Facts
By Dr. Price

Dr. Price did extensive research on the eating habits of of primitive people. In all the places he went, he found that there were several things in common about their diets. But the most interesting fact is that they didn't have tooth decay (despite not having toothbrushes), crooked teeth, arthritis, and other diseases that were so common in the cities of the world. However, if a family left the village and moved into a city where the foods were different, (probably more processed) they then began to develop the same diseases common diseases.

In the study, he noticed that about 1/3 of the diet of the natives was some type of high quality animal protein. The rest was a combination of of plant foods like vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. This is very similar to concept offered by Dr. Barry Sears in The Zone Diet where he presents evidence that we should have equal proportions of calories from fats, proteins and carbohydrates at each meal.

Healthy Eating Guidelines must include the basic principles:

1. Eating the right balance of foods

2. Eating natural and whole foods

3. Eating the right foods for your body chemistry

Healthy Eating Facts
on Balancing Your Diet:

Balance your daily diet consuming 1/3 with protein and the other 2/3 should be carbohydrates.

Fats and oils are important too and can come from any part of the diet. However the fats should not represent more than 1/3 of your daily caloric intake.

The carbohydrates should be made up mostly of vegetables and fruits

This helps to keep a favorable pH in the body because vegetables and fruits are alkalizing to the body and protein foods end up being more acidic.

Healthy Eating Facts on
Natural Whole Foods

Most Americans are eating too much protein and too many refined carbohydrates. So why were the native people able to eat so much animal protein and still be so healthy? The first reason is because the native people either ate their meat raw or it was very rare.

Eating properly includes focusing on eating whole foods and avoiding refined and GMO foods. According to Steven Horne, an expert in natural health, if you just implemented this one step, more than half of your physical symptoms would resolve themselves!

Healthy Eating Fact on Carbs

Try to get most of your carbohydrates from low glycemic, non-starchy vegetables and fruits. Limit dates, pineapple, potatoes, yams, wheat, corn and other grains. While these foods may be wholesome, they will trigger more insulin production (which makes you store fat) so eat them in smaller portions especially if you're trying to lose weight.

Try to avoid refined sugars. Substitute with honey, molasses, freeze-dried sugar cane juice (sucanat), grade B maple syrup especially when baking your occasional sweet treat.

When baking use whole grain flours, including oat, spelt, quinoa, rice flours

Healthy Eating Facts on Protein

When possible eat foods raw or slightly warmed as cooking minimizes and destroys enzyme and other nutrients.

Eat red meat as raw as possible, except for ground beef. Cooking any protein food at high temperatures neutralizes the benefits of the amino acids in the meat

Some foods like poultry need to be fully cooked, but it's important that they not be over cooked or cooked at high temperatures

Cook meats at low temperatures, slow cooking in a crock pot will is one of the best ways to cook high protein foods

Low temperatures and slow cooking allows the body to use the protein more effectively and so you require less

Since you're eating less protein (2-4 ounces for the average adult), try to buy high quality meat from grass fed cows

Try to find a farmers market that sells eggs and chickens that are able to peck around the farm.

The darker orange and thicker the yolk the better the egg. If I can't find farm fresh eggs, I like Eggland's Best Organic eggs with Omega 3

Eggs should be soft cooked, soft scrambled or soft boiled, when eggs are hard boiled and rubbery, the protein value is neutralized

The pasteurization of dairy foods involves high temperature heating. While it's done to prevent food-borne illnesses, pasteurization has caused the dairy products to be more mucous-forming than when consumed raw. Raw milk provides more health benefits but most states have banned the sale of raw milk.

Don't eat farm raised fish because it has been raised on fish food. It is poor quality and is frequently artificial colored to make it look appealing.

Try to eat “wild caught” fish, read your labels

Fats are essential to the body so make sure you are consuming a high quality fat.

Healthy Eating Facts on Fats

Good sources are monosaturated fats like olive oil, avocados and nuts.

Butter is a saturated fat but small quantities of organic butter is better than trans fatty acids found in hydrogenated oil.

Bake with butter, avoid margarine, as well as trans fats, hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils.

Omega 3 is an essential fatty acid and can be found in ocean fish and flax seeds. Many people find supplements helpful to get this necessary oil.

Healthy Eating Facts
on The Right Body Chemistry Foods
The third of the healthy eating facts is to avoid the foods that don't make you feel well. These are foods that cause allergic reactions. Just as our looks and personalities are all different, so is our biochemistry.

Even if a food is whole and natural, it still may not be compatible with our body chemistry. Dr. James D'Adamo and Dr. Peter D'Adamo have done decades of research on eating for your blood type which helps to explain why “one man's meat is another man's poison.” One of the major causes of chronic diseases are food allergies. Some people genetically lack certain enzymes to break down certain foods likes milk or wheat. If someone has a lactose intolerance they usually can't drink milk because they have a reaction to that food.

Sometimes the symptoms aren't that obvious but they can lead to gastrointestinal disturbances, respiratory congestion, rashes, fatigue, migraine headaches, auto-immune disorders, hyperactivity, anxiety and depression just to name a few.

Testing For Allergens

This is a quick way to test if any food is a potential allergen. Take your pulse to get a beginning number. Then eat or drink a little bit of the food and then take your pulse again. If your pulse is more than 6 beats per minute faster after eating or drinking that food, it's probably an allergen to your body. The best way though, is to eliminate the suspected food for a week or two and then re-introduce it.

These are some of the common foods that cause allergies: Wheat, Tomatoes, Dairy products, Corn, Nuts, Chocolate, Eggs, Food additives, Soy, Shellfish, Peas, Oranges,Berries, Beans, Gum Arabic.

The benefits of healthy eating are so important to living a disease free life. Eating properly for good health may take a little trial and error but it's so worth it to feel good. If you are suffering from a chronic disease or just want to obtain optimum health, it's helpful to know which foods might be better for you. Even following the “eating right for your blood type diet” at least 75% of the time will be beneficial even though you eat some of the “avoid” foods once in awhile.

The book will give you more information.Eat Right 4 Your Type: The Individualized Diet Solution to Staying Healthy, Living Longer & Achieving Your Ideal Weight

We hope these healthy eating facts helped you work through the complicated maze of good nutrition.

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