What Diet Is Best For You? The One That Makes You Feel Your Best.
By Amanda Warren
If you’re like me, you probably know at least one person who makes horrible dietary choices but still never seems to get sick, looks great, has tons of energy, and is always in a great mood. In fact, that person may even be you. Or maybe – once upon a time, that was you.
Many of us learned poor dietary habits from our parents. Often times, they didn’t know better because they learned poor eating habits from their own parents. Sometimes they were also misled by whatever diet was being touted by mainstream doctors at the time.
When I was growing up in the ’70s and ’80s, my mom was one of those parents who tried to stay current on what doctors were recommending. Her parents had horrible diets, which she later learned and revised only after she went to college. She wanted my sister and me to learn healthy eating habits when we were young. This included forcing us to eat green vegetables every night at dinner – whether we liked them or not.
When doctors started recommending whole wheat bread over white bread, my mom started buying less bleached flour-based food products. Bread, English muffins, bagels, pasta and pancakes often became whole wheat. It was definitely not as tasty but we adapted.
Like everyone else, though, she was misled by other dietary recommendations. My sister and I were slim and athletic and we didn’t have any chronic health problems. But my mom still stopped making us eggs as often because she was concerned about us getting high cholesterol. She stopped salting our food because there were warnings about salt. She started buying low-fat milk and cheeses. She started steaming and boiling vegetables more often than cooking them in oil. Dinners seemed to become more about pasta than anything else because that was being recommended by doctors. It seemed like she stopped buying and serving us as much meat too. Fat was the enemy.
Of course, what we ate was still probably better than what many kids ate while growing up. Even today, some people do just fine with that kind of diet. Some people do just fine on vegetarian and vegan diets too. Everybody is different because every body is different.
Because of health issues I was experiencing a few years ago, my doctor recommended that I try a Keto diet to see if I felt better. Lots of protein and fat – less carbs including starchy vegetables. Wow – what a difference. Not only that – when you start eating this way, it doesn’t take long before you stop craving carbs and sugar. It’s never a bad idea to have a cheat day once in a while – which I do. But overall, I feel and look so much better on the Keto diet that I don’t really want to cheat that often.
There is so much information now readily available at everyone’s fingertips that we no longer have the excuse of being enslaved by our parents’ misinformation or bad choices. Nor should we remain subservient to the often ethically compromised healthcare system and the medical doctors that are often beholden to it. You can easily learn for yourself about new findings that show the benefits of MCT oil, for example, or why it is so essential for the body to have enough hydrolyzed collagen to keep healthy joints and ligaments, as well as healthy skin that keeps you looking your best.
It is essential to begin finding the right combinations for your own body as early on as possible. Far too many people wind up letting their weight and general physical condition get so far out of hand that desperation forces them onto the toxic quick-fix “solutions” of prescription medications, or even the more radical weight loss programs that can have long-lasting negative consequences.
Remember: Food should be your medicine, not a source of bodily injury.
