My Common Sense Eating Principles

1. As long as you aren't eating the Standard American Diet (SAD) and ARE making changes towards eating a wide variety of whole foods—including lots of vegetables and fruits, you are already doing a lot to prevent diet-related chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cancer.Historically, humans have survived and thrived on a wide variety of diets—from really high carbohydrate diets to eating mostly animal blood, meat, and milk to diets highly comprised of just fat. The only diet that seems to really make people chronically sick is our own nasty Western diet (coupled with minimal physical activity), also known by some as the Standard American Diet, which includes lots of refined carbohydrates, highly processed foods, meat, added sugars and fats, and few fruits and vegetables.

2. Don’t wait until you are hungry to decide what to eat (that usually ends in an overeating disaster). Have a rough plan in your head, know what healthy options you have on hand, and consider getting into the habit of eating smartly every 3-4 hours (this works well for some people).

3. If you don’t want to play the fad-diet-of-the-month game, don’t. You’ll live, I promise (and be much better off, I might add!). Speaking of diet fads, JUST DON’T DO THEM. They don’t last long-term (usually only a few weeks to several months), nor do they create new, healthier habits—these diets and fad eating styles are merely band-aids on a wound, temporary fixes that might give you a motivating high for awhile but will inevitably leave you back at square one again. I’ve seen fad diets fail, again and again and again. Enough already! The healthiest way to eat is the way that you can eat for the rest of your life—a way that promotes health, keeps you satisfied, is pleasurable, and supports a positive relationship with food.

4. There are no superfoods. At least in the sense that one particular food is so amazing you need to spend an inordinate amount of money, time, or effort to acquire and consume it to the exclusion of other perfectly healthy foods. No one food will guarantee life to 102 or cure your cancer. Unfortunately, nothing like this exists. Now, are some foods “more super” healthwise than others? For sure! But, there will never be one superfood that does more for your health than a balanced, overall healthy way of eating and living. The hard truth is that superfoods are good business for health gurus, food manufacturers, and the media—not for you and me. Tell Dr. Oz to shove his Garcinia Cambogia and Acai berry. Don’t fall for the hype!

5. Eat food. Real, whole, basic foods. What do I mean by this? Whole fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds, intact grains, fresh fish, poultry, and meat. Avoid the cheaply manufactured, energy-dense, sugary, and salty foods that crowd the supermarkets and beckon to us from the fast food menu board.

6. Rely heavily on foods that have few calories by volume—conveniently, these are most often the plant foods we should be eating a lot of anyway, as mentioned above. Eating this way is a very promising strategy in weight loss and sustained weight control for life. When you think about it, it’s common sense: if you feel more full (on fewer calories) for a longer period of time, you will be less likely to consume unnecessary, extra calories that can lead to weight gain. Best foods to help carry out this strategy? You guessed it: fruits and vegetables--the beneficial components being a high water and fiber content.

7. Eat strategically to promote satiety—along with a larger proportion of lower calorie/high volume foods, you want to include a modest amount of satiety-promoting foods with each meal and snack. Fat and protein do the trick here: think regulated portions of nuts, cheese, avocado, eggs, or lean meat and fish.

8. COOK. From scratch. Start with whole, fresh ingredients. Hamburger Helper and Panburger Partner are NOT your new kitchen assistants. If you find yourself staring with dread at or are wondering how a handful of basic food ingredients sitting on your kitchen counter could ever be as exciting and delicious as the Monster Thickburger, you probably need some assistance getting started with healthy cooking. Pour over healthy recipes on the internet (check out my own blog recipes or one of my favorite recipe idea sources,Cooking Light), hire a dietitian to help you prepare healthy meals, or take some healthy cooking classes. Cooking for yourself is an essential survival skill in the healthy living wilderness!

9. Eat at home 95% of the time--goes hand-in-hand with cooking. If you can't eat at home, at the very least, BRING your food from home. Once you let restaurants, food-sellers, and food manufacturers prepare even a moderate proportion of your meals, you lose control over your eating...and your health.

10. Whole dietary patterns over time are more important than single foods or nutrients. Consistency with your overall way of eating is key, so it’s not necessary to get overly obsessed with nutrient details. Our health relies not so much on the individual nutrients we eat as it does on the source of those nutrients (the whole food item) and the amount eaten. So the next time a food fear-mongering health guru shouts at you “...but that has FRUCTOSE in it!” just smile to yourself and eat on. You know better.

Yuhao Sun IAN SUYUD1501