It's Official, We've Been Lied to

On September 12, 2016, the New York Times published an article about the Sugar Industry, and how we've all been duped. Well, I guess the article makes it official - many health and fitness experts have known this for a long time. There have certainly been many books written and documentaries filmed on the topic before. My first source of information on this topic was "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. There are many others. In a nutshell, we have been lied to. Fat does not make you fat. It does not lead to heart disease or the myriad of other illnesses that have been linked to fat in the past. In fact, the culprit has been sugar all along. The real tragedy here is, of course, that many of the foods that were "bad" for you because of their fat content had extra sugar added to them to make them palatable when the fat was removed. And instead, people who were trying to get better, actually got worse.

So.....what the heck? Our trust in the food industry has been shattered. What do we do now? Who do we trust?

The way I see it, it's pretty easy. And I've been saying it for years. Just. Eat. Real. Food. That's it! Eat food that grows in the ground. That you have to pick off a tree. Food that comes from the earth, not from a factory. And no, that doesn't mean you can't eat chocolate chip cookies! It just means pay attention to how many you eat. Follow the 80/20 rule: 80% of the time, eat food that is good for you. 20% of the time, eat your treats and enjoy them. But it also means, when you're looking at processed food, go for minimum processing when possible. If you like tortilla chips, go for the ones that contain as many whole ingredients as possible. Skip the low fat yogurt. Try fruit juice with club soda instead of Coke. Make your guacamole and salsa instead of buying it off the shelf. It tastes SO MUCH BETTER anyway!

And remember, life is too short to spend eating bad food. <3