When it comes a healthy eating plan, it seems like some foods are heroes and others villains. And like a twist in a bad movie, sometimes the villains become heroes and the heroes become villains – remind me, is bread good or bad just now?
Why is this?
In our bid to make life easier, we love hard and fast rules. We love absolutes: always do this, never eat that. Food is either good or bad. “Is chocolate bad?”, I’m asked. “Is fruit bad?!”
We also know that everything tends to go in cycles. In fashion, music, in the gym, and with healthy eating. Something becomes too popular and it’s not cool anymore. There are always contrarians who take pride in doing the opposite …until it becomes popular again.
This leaves us in a difficult situation. As soon as some expert starts demonising an ingredient, you’ll find someone else promoting it.
Sugar is a great example just now. Many ‘experts’ tell us sugar is a toxic, addictive, drug-like substance that will make us fat, sick and tired. “Avoid it at all costs”, they say. Others will have us believe our body runs best on sugar, that it’s a stress-buster and the only reason we get addicted is because we’re too uptight with our eating behaviours.
We can say the same for gluten. Or eggs. Or dairy. Or fruit.
How do we make sense of this? Which ingredient can we trust?
The answer is context. Whether or not a food or ingredient is helpful or not depends on the context. Who are you, and what are you looking to achieve?
Is chocolate bad? No, there are no ‘bad’ foods. But whether or not it moves you closer to your goal or not depends on where you are now, what your goal is, and what the bigger picture of your healthy eating plan looks like. What else have you eaten today?
Who are you?
Are you overweight? Are you lean? Do you have a dietary controlled health condition like coeliac disease or diabetes?
Maybe you recognise that you’re overly restrictive around food. Perhaps the advice to eat more sugar is for you. But if you’re overweight and already guzzling loads of the stuff, you’d likely benefit from eating less sugar.
What are your goals?
An elite athlete in season or an aspiring fitness model probably needs to be a lot stricter with their healthy eating plan than does a regular person seeking health and happiness. Maybe you want to look, feel, and perform well, but life just isn’t as fun without enjoying a few drinks with pals at the weekend. There’s always a cost-benefit trade-off. And life is more than food.
What’s the bigger picture?
Unless you’ve got an allergy or sensitivity to a particular food, there’s not a single food that can ruin everything for you today. One chocolate bar doesn’t make you overweight on it’s own. One chocolate bar might even be helpful today. What else have you eaten?
Indeed, in the right context, even something like smoking a cigarette could actually be helpful to someone. In the right context.
BIG IDEA: Categorising foods as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ is overly simplistic and can be unhelpful.
TAKEAWAY: Whether or not a food is a good choice for you or not, comes down to context. Who are you? What do you want? How does this fit into the bigger picture?
ACTION STEP: So be cautious of the extremes. Forget the absolutes. And check out Fad Free Fat Loss: The step-by-step nutrition guidelines I share with my personal training clients in Aberdeen.
Always Keep Reaching!
Mike
