“Your diet is a bank account. Good food choices are good investments” (B. Frankel)
Let’s talk about one, if not the most important contributor to a better life — your diet..
After reading this piece, you will have a better understanding of why your diet is so important and what you can do to track if you are eating the right foods.
Would you agree that today’s world is pretty polarised and binary, specifically when it comes to diet?
“Be Vegan, Don’t eat meat.”
“Eat Carbohydrates. Don’t eat fats.”
It’s difficult to keep track of what is fact and what is opinion.
Mainstream and social media are only interested in growing their number of followers, they are not interested in what is best for your body. They completely avoid the fact that each of our bodies are different and will have their own dietary requirements.
They fail to give you real and actionable guidance on how to work out what is best for you.
The generic, poorly researched advice they usually provide could even be damaging to your own mental and physical health.
Do not make the mistake of blindly following the advice of an instagram model or post on reddit. (I am not saying you do this but you see what I mean).
Why is your diet so important?
One simple reason. It can fuck up your entiry body and life. Most of us have been raised with poor nutritional education. Because of this we have gotten used to living suboptimally without even recognising a small adjustment to our diet could make us feel better than we currently do, again, both physically and mentally.
Poor diet can lead to:
Life threatening diseases
- Obesity
- Heart attack
- Diabetes
- Cancer
- Limited Brain Function
Non-life threatening impact
- Low energy
- Poor sex drive
- Irritability
- Limited mobility
Doesn’t sound so pretty, does it? This is not a life worth living as far as I’m concerned
What are the things you can do to improve your diet and overall gut health?
Avoid foods your ancestors were not able to hunt or gather.
- Focus on wholefoods such as red meat, eggs, vegetables, fish
Consume a healthy level of proteins and fats (ALWAYS ORGANIC & GRASSFED)
- Red meat, chicken, fish are fantastic natural sources of protein. If your ethics won’t allow you to eat meat, aim for lentils and / or chickpeas. Goat Butter is also a nice source of fats.
Avoid bread
- No white bread because it is full of sugar. If you absolutely want to eat bread, go for dark bread, like rye bread.
Avoid sugar
- Avoid sugar as much as possible. Don’t buy ready made meals, or sauces. Generally, you should cook at home. Avoid chocolate, drink your tea without sugar. Sugar is a drug, it makes you addicted. See what happens when you cut sugar out for a few days. You will have insane cravings.
Avoid alcohol / caffeine
- Alcohol is poison. If you insist on drinking alcohol, keep it to a minimum. Avoid caffeine too. Caffeine, like sugar, is highly addictive
Do Deep Squats
- They help to gain mobility and flexibility in your hips as well as support your digestive system. Here is a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wzrgyAurT8
Avoid processed foods
- Beyond Meat, Beyond Burger. It is full of CHEMICALS. Most of them have been linked to causing cancer.
My take on plant food
- Plant food in moderation might be fine. Plants contain chemicals to protect themselves which affect our digestive system. If you want to eat plants, go for lettuce, cucumber, zucchini and mushrooms. Leafy greens are doing a lot of damage to your system.
But how do you know which foods are BEST FOR YOU? That’s where your biomarkers come into play:
- Energy — Do you feel ready to conquer the day? Or could you stay in bed?
- Mood — How do you feel when you wake up? During the day, do you have mood swings? Do you have a short temper?
- Sex Drive — How horny are you? How do you feel when you see an attractive person walking down the street?
- Digestion — How often do you go to the bathroom and how often do you fart? Do you feel bloated?
- Sleep quality — How are your dreams? Are they vivid? How many hours do you sleep per night?
With the help of these biomarkers, you’ll understand if certain types of foods are impacting you negatively. If your energy levels are consistently low, you lack sex drive and are moody, it could be a sign that your nutrition is inadequate.
The process of understanding which foods react with your body in which way requires diligence and discipline. Cut of foods you believe will have an adverse effect on you and see how you feel. A simple way to start this process could be as follows:
Here is what we did:
- Define a list of staple foods (bring it down to 10)
- Beef, eggs, smoked mackerel, cucumber, asparagus, zucchini, olive oil, coconut oil, avocado (Example)
- Observe biomarkers for 2 weeks and eliminate or integrate food based on how your body reacts to them.
Use and trust your body as a guide, it will not lie to you.
Here is your exercise for this week:
- Create a list of foods you eat and cut out the ones that contain sugar. How many items have you cut out? Send us your list
