food commandments revisited

Awhile back, I wrote a post on my “food commandments”, or what, at that time, I thought were important ways to think about food. After I have grown older (okay, only 6 months or so…) and wiser (this one is actually somewhat true, yet I prefer to stay somewhat humble about it), I wanted share my fundamentals of food, from the perspective of a personal trainer, a fitness fanatic, and a health freak, with new knowledge from fresh research and ripe experience.

As follows, here are, in a rather randomized order, just a couple (or more…) of my food commandments::

– eat as little processed foods as possible

– look for foods with the shortest ingredient list possible. seriously, like under four ingredients would be ideal.

– eat as much perishable food as possible – if it can rot easily, that means its real food.

– eat animal sources of protein, but only if truly grass-fed, 100% organic, wild-caught, etc. cage free could mean anything, it doesn’t mean they are roaming free on a beautiful pasture!

– eat oatmeal or muesli (not instant microwaveable oats) instead of cereal/granola.

– do eat fats to keep you full, both unsaturated and saturated. they both exist in nature for a reason. to balance each other out, to keep our hearts healthy, controlling both HDL and LDL cholesterols.

– do consume different types of oils/fats – stick to olive oils, coconut oils, flax and hemp seed oils, grass-fed butter, almond, peanut, etc. (unrefined and not hydrogenated please!) check out this oil comparison chart

– do not use margarine/weird butter substitutes. use the real deal. it goes much farther and isn’t full of creepy, mysterious man-made (oxidized) cholesterols

– do eat the yolks of an egg. and if your going to eat a lot of eggs, then just take out a couple yolks if you must limit your calories.

– eat as little carbohydrates as possible, and the carbohydrates you do eat should come from fruits, veggies, sprouted grains, unprocessed oats, brown rice, quinoa, or other whole oats/grains.

– processed carbs lead to diabetes and obesity, which do not lead to a happy and healthy lifestyle.

– whole wheat bread does not count as an unprocessed carb, unless it says it is sprouted.

– do look out for stone ground flour/corn/grains – this process still retains the nutrients in the grain.

– avoid white breads and carbs at all costs, unless it indicates the flour was stone-ground.

– only use a juice cleanse as a means of re-setting your system, detoxifying, as a starting point to a healthy every day lifestyle. do not replace food with juice on a daily basis as a way to “diet”.

– do not “diet”. eat healthy as consistently as possible, practicing portion control and moderation.

– do cook with as many herbs and spices as possible, to give flavor without crappy condiments.

– only buy protein powder that only uses stevia/stevia extract to sweeten – no sucralose/aspartame scary sweeteners.

– do know that fat-free and low-fat manufactured food items are actually terrible for you, due to the processing which creates oxidized cholesterol, the only bad type of cholesterol.

– do know that even low-fat items still are made from “skim” sources, which uses the same process listed above, which is very, very bad for your poor little body.

– do look for “raw” sources of dairy, such as yogurt, milk and cheese, as these do not go through the processes listed above that create awful cholesterol.

– do drink lots of water to stay full and hydrated throughout the day

– eat as little sugar as possible, unless from natural sources such as honey, maple syrup (as little as possible with this high calorie monster!), agave nectar, stevia, etc.