Lack of exposure to plant-based eating is America’s biggest hindrance to health and fitness.
Obviously, we are deluged with all types of information regarding healthy eating in the U.S., but most of that information is a waste of time, especially when it comes in the form of advertisements. Sad to say, mass media can make most people believe almost anything.
Advertised products usually make a “health” claim by telling you what nutrients are in their products, then draw an inference regarding how that nutrient is beneficial to you. For instance, ABC product contains calcium, which has been proven to build strong bones, therefore consuming ABC product will strengthen your bones.
However, ABC product could be a highly processed junk food that also has detrimental additives. Aside from that, what is the absorption rate of the calcium in ABC product? Can excess calcium be stored in your body? How is calcium synthesized by the body?
Those questions we can all find an “answer” to because we’re all “amateur experts” when it comes to nutrition and what to eat, thanks to the internet. However, we think we know much more than we truly know because the true nutritional experts almost all take their cues from corporate America, whose function is to maximize profit, regardless of your health status.
Sure, we know to avoid certain “bad” nutrients like sugar and to incorporate more “good” nutrients like protein, but knowledge like that is bringing not shrinking that spare tire around our midsections.
As I always tell my clients, do what works. The only thing I know of that works, without side effects, is whole food plant-based eating. Not which nutrients you should pump into your body, but what whole foods you should consume. And, of course, learning how to prepare those whole foods in the safest, most effective and tastiest manner, which is normally without any excess salt, sugar and fat.
Becoming a “nutrient expert” is not the answer.
