It Only Takes 3 Steps to Eat Healthy - Simplifying Health

Healthy eating has become so complicated that if we eat according to one diet, we are without a doubt contradicting another one’s guidelines. This can make it difficult to know what steps to take towards eating better for our bodies, or if those steps are even helpful at all.

As humans, we love simple things. This tendency is one of the main contributors to the unhealthy diet pervading the globe in the first place. We traded health for convenience. Out went the home cooked meals and in came the take-out and microwave dinners. The problem with all of these new “diets” is that they are inherently complicated.

NO MEAT

NO DAIRY

NO CARBS

NO SUGAR

EAT ONLY WHAT CAVEMEN USED TO EAT!

How am I supposed to know how cavemen ate?

All of these hoops to jump through don’t exactly follow the natural human principle of WE LOVE SIMPLE THINGS. In fact, it can cause an even greater barrier between people and their desire to eat healthier. In trying to solve the problem, we only push it farther away by creating more confusion.

            To appease our desire for the easy life in a way that actually works, author and journalist, Michael Pollan, came up with a wonderfully bite sized way to eat healthy:

Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.

These seven words seem almost too good to be true, but let’s break it down.

Eat Food.

This part of the phrase can seem very … obvious, but we have to look how Pollan categorizes “food”. We are accustomed to food meaning anything that is edible, but Pollan would say otherwise. Processed food is edible, but he refers to it as a term called, “edible food-like substances”. This distinction puts into perspective how processed food isn’t really food at all. Food in this case is WHOLE FOODS - the kind of food from the earth: plants and animals alike. Another famous quote of his applies breaks this concept down even further: “If it’s a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, don’t” (Houston Chronicle, 2010).

Not Too Much.

            Processed “fake” foods are a big problem, not just because they are void of nutrients, but also because they tend to be high in calories. The average American consumes 3,600 calories per day, which is way above the US Department of Agriculture recommendations (Renee, 2018).

Eating a diet high in processed foods, then, is not a great idea. It is common to overindulge when eating processed foods than if we were to eat whole foods. The people from Okinawa, Japan – one of the Blue Zones in the world where they have mastered the art of longevity – have a phrase they say for this exact concept:

Hara Hachi Bu.

It is a phrase that reminds them to only eat until they are 80% full (Blue Zones, 2021). It is better to feel satiated, not stuffed. This concept is one of the key factors for their longstanding health.

Mostly Plants.

            A repeated theme amongst most diets is that we should be consuming a variety of fruits and vegetables. Going back to the Blue Zones, like Okinawa, a key source for their longevity is that their diets are predominantly plant based. A diverse diet of many different types of plants means we receive a multitude of necessary vitamins and minerals, good sources of carbohydrates (yes, even sugar), healthy fats, and essential amino acids without having to always turn to animal protein sources. Does this mean we should not eat animal products? Not at all. They key is diversity and moderation, but eating plants tends to be the common thread between all forms of healthy eating.

Healthy eating doesn’t have to be a brain teaser or a secret to decode. Sometimes the answer is so simple that it tends to be overlooked. Let’s keep things simple, like our foods. Using Michael Pollan’s “Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants” mantra for a healthy diet, more people can change their eating habits and feel like it is possible for them to make a positive impact on their health.

Houston Chronicle. (2010, January 23). How to eat - diet secrets from Michael Pollan (and your great-grandma). Michael Pollan. Retrieved May 21, 2022, from https://michaelpollan.com/reviews/how-to-eat/

Renee, J. (2018, December 2). The average calorie intake by a human per day versus the recommendation. Healthy Eating | SF Gate. Retrieved May 21, 2022, from https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/average-calorie-intake-human-per-day-versus-recommendation-1867.html

The Okinawa Diet: Eating and living to 100 - blue zones. Blue Zones - Live Better, Longer. (2021, April 30). Retrieved May 21, 2022, from https://www.bluezones.com/2017/05/okinawa-diet-eating-living-100/