The Wellness Wheel: Eat. (adapted)

In early January we released our Wellness Wheel and in mid-January, I devoted a few days of the blog to a more in-depth look at our Wellness Wheel to explore each section of the wheel and how it relates to our Move.Eat.Be. program.

On Monday, the USDA announced the newest Dietary Guidelines and I've devoted some time to reading the (ugh) 112-page document. Today, I explored the recommendations about eating more seafood. And, I very much enjoyed the article in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal by Bill Tomson and Ilan Brat and the quote included they therein from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association which said, "A recommendation to add fish to your diet doesn't mean you should cut back on leaf beef." It made me snicker. I'm pretty sure if I took the time to dig back in the historical records to find when eating more chicken became all the rage somebody from some beef association likely said something very similar. If they had their way, we'd be eating beef for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Getting to the point... we're editing our Wellness Wheel. I realized two things: One - We had a category for "lean meat" which really was meant to include seafood. Two - I don't want to add to the confusion created by words like lean, light, low-fat, etc. So what was previously named our "lean meat" category will now be called "seafood and meat."

The renaming, of course, raises the question about what kinds of meat, and how much, you should include in your diet. We believe it is best to discover what works best for you by awakening your body and paying attention to how you feel. Some people will feel better eating no seafood or meat. Some people are better off sticking to mostly seafood or chicken. Some people thrive on red meat. And others, still, feel their best with all types of "seafood and meat" in their diet. Taking some time to discover what works best for you is the secret to sustainable, life-long wellness.

Until you discover your own personal approach plan to Eat. seafood and meat, here are some guidelines:

• Organic, sustainably-raised and natural is always best
• Consume smaller portions of all seafoods and meats (a serving is about the size of your computer mouse)
• Choose minimally processed versions (as whole and as close as you can get to nature). Generally speaking, this means:
• Little to no ground beef, sausages, hot dogs (unless you know and trust the producer)
• No fish sticks or chicken nuggets (unless you make them yourself from whole fish or chicken)
• No "meat" in cans or any kind of "pressed-meat patties"
• No cultured, or in vitro, meat

Why? All too often, we are told to reduce our calorie intake by switching to "lean meat" or "low-fat dairy" and other such terms. This advice is included throughout the USDA's new dietary guidelines. Unfortunately, when a food manufacturer takes a natural fruit, vegetable, grain, dairy or meat and processes it to force it into a product that can be called "lean" or "low" the resulting food-like product  does far more harm to our health. We are much better off eating appropriate portions of the original, non-processed food even if it is the "full fat" version. Hence the new Eat. category of "seafood and meat." Choose well. Eat. (real). 

Who Knows?

What products are safe? Is Bisphenol A (BPA) bad for us as water bottles and canned food linings? Should we worry about the chemicals leeching into our skin from our shampoo and soaps? Is Genetically Modified Food a danger to our long-term health? Should we allow 2-methylnaphthalene to be used in our cereal box packaging? 


The bottom line? Who knows. Which is the very reason we are at risk. The FDA considers and  approves (in the vast majority of cases) chemically-created additives and genetically-modified organisms to be used in our food, health products and the packaging that gets those products to us. The problem with the entire system is that it doesn't take into account the entire system. Any one of these chemically-derived additives could be perfectly safe on its own in a laboratory. And, it could even be perfectly safe in a controlled environment where the other things it interacts with are also controlled. 


In the real world? Who knows. There are so many variables we cannot possibly predict the affects. The recent revelations on Flouride in our drinking water is only one example. There are, I fear, thousands of other examples.

One very effective way to reduce the number of additives you are consuming is to eat the vast majority of your meals at home, using whole, natural foods. If you buy whole food with minimal to no processing, you have a much better chance of avoiding the chemicals and additives that could be causing signficiant damage to your health. Eating true may require a bit more effort, particularly when you first start. Make the effort. It is an investment worth making.

Eat as Nature Created

Humans are incredibly egotistical creatures. Well, most of us anyway. We continue to think we can out-smart and out-process what nature creates. And, the more we do so the more we suffer from obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancers and so on.


Who remembers the commercial from the 1970s about Chiffon margarine? The raccoon feeds margarine to Mother Nature who is surprised it isn't butter. Mother Nature responds with "It isn't nice to fool Mother Nature" and then creates harmless lightening (in today's television world the lightening would have maimed, if not killed, the raccoon... Ahhhh, the 70s how we miss you so). 


If we only knew then what we know now. The margarine was bad for us. Trans fats are evil. How many more "discoveries" do we need to compile before we finally admit the error of our processed-food ways? 


The LA Times published an article about a study that says the trans-palmitoleic acid founds in full-fat dairy products can protect against diabetes. This is my favorite line from the 
article...

 "The findings 'suggest that efforts to promote exclusive consumption of low-fat and nonfat dairy products ... may be premature.'"

Is this to say our "experts" were wrong again? I'm aghast. The chemists must know how to make better food than the Earth! And, when oh when, will these findings simply say, "Opps. We were really wrong on that one. Sorry, folks!"

I'm curious about the processed nature of the milk products the participants of the study were consuming. Perhaps it was raw-milk which would be an even better sign for our future health. I'm not a scientist or a medical Doctor, I'm the grand-daughter of a dairy farmer raised on whole, non-processed milk. I can still picture Grandpa walking from the milking barn to the house with a bottle of fresh milk for our breakfast. You can't get much closer to nature than 15 minutes from the cow who had spent the previous day roaming the pastures eating grass at her leisure. 


In fairness, I must admit... I trust Grandpa and the cows more than I trust a chemist.