There is a massive amount of conflicting research/information on nutrition out there. Eggs are great for us, eggs are clogging our arteries, eating carbs is good and gives us energy, carbs make us lethargic and fat. As someone who, after years of treating their body like crap, wants to make an effort and eat things that are good for me, it seems impossible because at this point I feel like whatever arbitrary statement about food you take (like, eating 1/2 green apple increases your metabolism but only on Tuesdays and Fridays), you will find some type of research “confirming” it. Why is it so hard to have concrete research/evidence of what is good for our bodies and what isn’t, at least generally? Isn’t it science? How are we supposed to know what to eat??
In: Biology
For your personal life, it really isn’t that complicated. Anything is bad in excess and few things are terrible in moderation. A little bit of awareness of how you eat will go a very long way.
To start with, just mind your calories and macros. Calories are simple, this just the energy you derive from your food. If you consistently eat more calories than you expend, you’ll grow fatter. If you eat fewer than you expend, you’ll lose weight. Tracking calories is an easy way to prevent over-eating.
Your basic nutrition macros are protein, fats and carbohydrates (sugars, starches, dietary fibres). All three of them are actually pretty important for your body so, extreme diets aside, you really shouldn’t label any of them as simply bad. It’s excess that is bad.
Where it gets complicated is processed foods. The things that are important to our bodies tend to taste good. And processed foods take advantage of that by including those things in excess in order to make food delicious.
Carbs for instance are the most common source of energy for your body. A 100 grams of apple contains about 14 grams of carbs. While 100 grams of whole wheat bread contains 41 grams of carbs. It’s a lot easier to overeat on carbs when you eat bread than when you eat an apple. So while one or two slices of bread for breakfast are great. Eating a foot-long sub is overdoing it.
Processed food makes it very easy to eat nutrients that are good for you in amounts that are bad for you. On top of that, the way you digest food also makes a difference.
When you eat ice cream or a chocolate bar, not only is there a lot of fat and sugar in that food. But the fat and sugar is readily available. Sugar itself is very easy to digest, most of it is absorbed straight into the bloodstream through the stomach lining.
That means that when you eat something super sugary like chocolate. You get a huge immediate energy boost as all that sugar is absorbed all at once. Which immediately gets used up by your body and then your energy levels crash again.
When you eat something like green beans, it’s much harder to digest due to fibre in the foo and the more complex makeup of the green beans. It takes your body more work to digest and as a result, the energy and nutrition contained in the food is released gradually. This provides you with more balanced energy levels and a longer-lasting feeling of being sated.
Anyway, wall of text. If you want to eat healthier try this:
* Track your caloric intake just to figure out if you’re not eating too much or too little, an app like FitnessPal can help a lot.
* Track your macros just to figure out if you’re not eating too much fat, sugar etc.
* If you’re willing to give it a try. Start by making your meals out of unprocessed food as much as possible. Fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts etc. When you cook yourself, you have a much better idea of what you’re eating.
* Exercise. Using your body causes your body to use and process its reserves and food intake much more effectively and it’ll make you feel better too.
In terms of ingredients, don’t worry too much about what’s good and bad. Eggs are not a problem in a varied diet but you shouldn’t eat anything to excess.
The main thing you should watch out for is processed foods because they usually overload on sugars, fats and other things to make the food more appealing to you.
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