Healthy Thoughts by Dr. Helena

Let's Talk Food

Posted: January 30, 2020
By: Dr. Helena

I love to eat.  I love to try new foods.  People often assume I'm a vegetarian and I never eat meat or dessert. My husband is always amused by this! On Saturday we found a Persian restaurant in Grand Rapids.  I tried everything on the plate and I had to have the Baklava.  I enjoyed all of it with no regrets. 

Just for the record, my favorite thing to order at Old Channel Inn is the fried walleye and at Bone Ends is the Morningstar Chicken BBQ salad.  

I'm not afraid of food per se and I'm definitely not afraid of fat.  I eat coconut oil and a raw egg daily.  I consume fat from beef, chicken, pork and dairy.  I eat full fat Greek plain yogurt and if I drink milk I opt for full fat milk.  

WHY?

The brain and the nervous system are made of fat.  Cholesterol is one type of fat in your brain.  The fat in coconut oil is similar to fat in your brain.  There are studies using coconut oil to help with brain regeneration and it's showing promising results.  It has also been shown, people on long term cholesterol medications are prone to dementia.  The cholesterol meds do a great job of destroying the necessary cholesterol in the brain.  Hormones in the body also need fat to work properly.  By avoiding fat, you can set your body up for hormonal issues.

I am afraid of trans fat; aka Crisco.  I avoid hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats.  These fats scrape your blood vessel walls and are the cause of clogging of the arteries, not saturated fats.  How could a food item from a box ever be healthier then farm raised produce or meats?  It can't.

I am afraid of processed carbs.  I eat them sparingly.  I found when I eat chips at night before bed, I wake up feeling terrible.  It just isn't worth it to me.

Here are rules I follow:

I don't eat fast food.

I don't eat out often.

I don't drink soda.  I live on lemon water.

I rarely eat at night before bed.

We buy chicken, pork and beef directly from farmers that feed their animals right.

I avoid GMOs and eat as organic as possible. 

I limit sugar and processed carbohydrates (unless I'm in New York.  Then I enjoy every bite of pizza, bagels and Italian food.)

I don't count calories. I monitor but don't stress about my weight.  I stress more when I don't fit in my clothes right.  

I exercise three times a week.  Sometimes I exercise more but I don't stress about that either.  I recognize the more weight lifting and biking I do, the more muscle gain I will have.  Muscle weighs more then fat.  As a result, I will fit better in my clothes but possibly weight more.

I try hard to make my plate colorful.  Since my son prefers raw vegetables, it pushes me to eat more too.

I consume home made pickles, drink Kombucha and I love sauerkraut. We are canning more and more of our own home grown produce.

I like food too much to stress about it.  If I'm on vacation I allow myself to enjoy.  I listen to my body and try to balance eating what my body is asking for with trying different things. 

If I'm not happy with what I ate today, I remember tomorrow is new day.  

It is time to have a better relationship with food but to do that we have to start buying and consuming better food.  To purchase junk food and put it in your pantry and then try to avoid eating it is just too hard!  Stop putting it in your grocery cart and you will be one step closer to success. 

I choose food based on how I feel when I consume it.  If I feel like garbage I really limit that food item.  I let myself enjoy "bad" foods in moderation.  I make them the minority of my diet and focus on what foods I really feel good eating.  The more you do this, the more you crave the good stuff!

The details of nutrition can be quite overwhelming but making one change at a time isn't that hard if you want it bad enough.  We are never too old to make changes to our diet and health.  

What you put in your body can also determine how fast you respond to care here at BFC.  You need proper nutritional building blocks to heal.  Eating real food will help your body in more ways then you can imagine!