Your dietary template

October 31, 2012 By

When guests walk into our market one of the first things we ask is “do you have a specific dietary template?”  This is new terminology to many folks, so let me take a moment to explain.

How does one make good eating choices?  In America today, we have no fear of famine (although many go hungry).  There is food all around us; in fact, so much food that the government classifies over 30% of adults as obese (although that number may be skewed).  We eat in our cars, at our desk, in meetings, in front of the tv and many places that, culturally, would not have been acceptable when we or our parents were growing up.  We have not too few choices, but too many!

Our answer is to define your eating template.  This is the list of “rules” that you follow to make your day-to-day choices.

What are some examples of eating templates?  Well, we can go macro to start:

  • Omnivore
  • Whole Foods
  • Vegetarian
  • Vegan
  • Raw
  • Raw Vegan
  • Piscatarian
  • “Paleo”
  • “Healthy”

The problem with defining yourself in such broad categories, however, is it doesn’t always make you think about what your belief system is.  (It’s like saying “I’m a Democrat or Republican”…it can be lazy thinking.)

So let’s drill down:  Taking Omnivore as an example (since most people fall into that category).  Omnivore can mean:

  • I eat anything I want, regardless of it’s origin or quality
  • I eat meat
  • I eat a lot of fast food and junk food

Hmmm, that’s really not a template.  Let’s look at vegetarian:

  • I eat anything I want as long as it doesn’t come from animal products.
  • I don’t like vegetables, but I eat a lot of fruit and grains.
  • I eat a lot of fast food and junk food, but only non-animal!

OK, that may not be very helpful, either.  Let me share with you my eating template, which is loosely defined as “paleo” but I prefer to think of as “whole foods” or “conscious omnivore.”

  • I eat meat from known, sustainable, humanely raised sources, including grass-fed beef, pastured pork, chicken and eggs, and wild-caught fish.
  • I eat vegetables as often as possible, preferably from organic sources, but non-organic if that is my only option, and prioritize local sources.
  • Because of the sugar content of fruit, I minimize intake, focusing on what is available seasonally and, preferably, locally.  I also avoid high starchy vegetables, like potatoes, for the same reason.
  • I don’t eat any oils that require industrial processing, because of their high Omega-6 concentration, so I limit fats to coconut oil, ghee, EVOO and foods naturally high in fat, such as avocados, nuts and seeds.
  • I don’t eat processed foods.
  • Because I don’t digest dairy well, I avoid it except in ghee and grass-fed butter (which is mostly fat, so no whey, casein or lactose).
  • Because I don’t digest legumes well, I avoid them.  Soy is a legume and, because I don’t trust soy (both for GMO and estrogenic reasons), I avoid all soy products.
  • I don’t eat when I’m not hungry, and I stop eating when I’m almost full.

Some might think this restrictive, but I find it freeing.  When eating out, I’ll choose the fish or steak and vegie entree, avoiding the grains and high-starch vegetables.  I’ll ask that everything be cooked in butter instead of canola or other seed oils when I can, but sometimes that’s not an option.  I do my best to stay on my template.

Eating templates help you define what is important to you, help you make daily choices, and keep you mindful and accountable to your decisions.

 What are some eating templates you have defined for yourself?  If you’ve never articulated them, this may be a good place to start.  Let us know what you discover about your own, personal priorities!

 

Filed Under: Food and Recipes, Health and Wellness Tagged With: , , , ,

Traditional Diets and Health

June 10, 2012 By

In talking to the variety of people who come into our market, I’m struck by the range of dietary templates that healthy people follow.  From Vegan to Paleo, locavore to piscatarian, vegetarian to flexitarian, all seem to have a focus on whole, real foods.  This makes sense from a health standpoint.  In reviewing the science of food, books such as  “The Blue Zones”  by Dan Buettner point out that some different cultures eat in different ways with the same end results: longer lives with less morbidity (illness). It’s not necessary to point out that the Standard American Diet (appropriately nicknamed “SAD”) does not lead to long, healthy lives. So what is it that binds these dietary lifestyles together? In a nutshell, it’s traditional foods.

Our “traditions” in America aren’t always the ones that our parents and grandparents followed: eating in our cars, eating in front of the computer or television, and eating at our desks have replaced sitting down for family meals. More importantly, our traditional foods seem to have swung to fast foods, or industrially produced foods. Not surprisingly, our culture has the highest incidence of obesity now than we have had in our history.

What are traditional diets, then? Dr. Daphne Miller, a family physician, does a nice job of linking them together so take the time to watch her YouTube presentation, if you can at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_VC4Ya6i1I .  I’ll boil down the salient points here:

Traditional Diets:
*Eat fresh, local produce (even better, grow your own!) The closer you can get your intestines to the farm the better (graphic, but true).
*If you choose to eat grains, eat native grains prepared traditionally (Westonaprice.org is a good source for properly preparing grains)
*Eat the real food, not the processed version
*If you choose to eat meat, quality over quantity is important (grass-fed, not grain-fed, to lower the Omega-6 inflammatory components). Use it as a “spice” (don’t necessarily make it the focus of the meal). Eat the whole animal, not just for environmental reasons but because healthy animals that have eaten a healthy diet (their natural diet) provide a lot of nutrients from their organ meats and bones. (Avoid the organs and fat in conventionally raised meats, however, as they are the collectors of antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, etc.)
*If you choose to not eat meat, beans are the way to go. Look for the highest quality protein sources you can find.
*Fermented foods provide healthy bacteria for a healthy gut.
*Indigenous oils (ie, ones that you could make without industrialized machinery) are the best option: Coconut oil, olive oil, red palm oil, suet or tallow from healthy animals. Avoid canola, sunflower, safflower, etc., as they are very pro-inflammatory.
*Use healing spices (these can vary from culture to culture)
*Get your sweet, sour and salty from whole foods.
*Follow some familial eating traditions: Communal eating (like potlucks or family meals, holidays, etc.), intermittent or modified fasts (religious examples can include lent), Hara Hachi Bu (eat until you’re 80% full), or Siga Siga (slow down and enjoy your food and life!)

 What I’ve noticed at the market vs. the pharmacy is that people come into the market often at the beginning of their health journey, looking for a way to eat and live that will lead them to vibrancy.  At the pharmacy, I often speak with people who feel that a pill will help them be healthy.  Unfortunately, pills cannot make you healthy in and of themselves (with the exception of acute treatment, like antibiotics).  Pills are not magic bullets…you have to make whole life adjustments if you want to be vibrant and healthy until the natural end of your life.   Join the new movement by embracing the traditional.  Eat real, whole food for life!

Filed Under: Health and Wellness Tagged With: , ,

New Year’s Resolutions: Are You Willing to Make a Change 30 Days at a Time?

January 6, 2012 By

"Above all, try something." -Franklin D. Roosevelt

Yep, it’s that time of year.  Everyone is feeling guilty from overindulging for the last 6 weeks or so and are resolving to make big changes in their diet and exercise routines.  I don’t have any hard statistics, but I bet a big majority of those changes go out the window on or about February 14th.  How can you make a resolution stick?  Let me suggest starting by watching this TED talk from Matt Cutts, a Google executive.

After watching this talk I got inspired to make some changes.  After all, what’s 30 days?  I can do anything for 30 days.  My first challenge was a biggie…the whole30 elimination diet.  This changed the way I ate and I’ve pretty much stuck with it as a template.  I did add a few things back in, some good, some not-so-good.  So a follow up 30 day challenge was no Diet Coke.  Done!  Subsequent challenges included practicing ukulele daily, straightening the bedroom before bed and cleaning up the bathroom after brushing my teeth.  The current one is 5 sit-ups, 5 push-ups, 5 lunges/leg and 5 squats every morning.  Easy and doable.

It takes 21 days to make (or break) a habit.  Why not commit to 12 mini-resolutions this year instead of one big one.  Make the resolution specific…instead of “I’m going to eat healthy!” perhaps your first month will be “purchase grass fed beef instead of industrial CAFO produced beef when I shop.”  Instead of “I’m going to work out one hour per day” you could try “I’m going to walk for 20 minutes daily at lunchtime.”  At the end of 2012 I’ll bet you look back with pride at some of the changes you’ve made in your life.

As for me, January will see me doing the whole30 diet once again, to get back into fine-tune.  I’d like to get that ukulele up to speed as well.  Who knows what else the new year will bring?

Filed Under: Health and Wellness Tagged With: , , ,