When I was a kid, we didn’t eat dinner. Nope! We ate supper which typically consisted of meat, potato in some form and vegetables or a salad. We ate whole wheat bread frequently, pasta once per week and rice occasionally. Mother Fran was a bit of a health nut so milk was served as the beverage, fruit as the dessert. She cooked with lard, butter and oil. Most vegetables were straight from the garden and sometimes the freezer.
We rarely had chips, soda or other types of junk food. I’m pretty sure she had never heard of a Ring Ding, Twinkie or Fluff. We did enjoy the occasional brownie, ice cream and homemade cake. Mother Fran was ahead of her time when it came to cooking healthy meals for her family. Our diet had plenty of protein, healthy fats and some carbohydrates.
Since the 1980’s, nutritionists, doctors and our government have recommended a low-fat diet that focuses on 6-11 servings of bread, grains, pasta and rice daily. Mother Fran followed this advice and changed how she cooked. Containers appeared on the table advertising low-fat sour cream, low-fat cottage cheese, sugar-free pudding. She stopped cooking with lard and margarine replaced the butter on the table.
I followed this advice as well and even took it to the next level by becoming a vegetarian. My diet consisted of plenty of grains such as brown rice, pasta in every shape, whole wheat bread. I ate beans, tofu, cheese and eggs. I used to joke that I was a “cheesetarian”! Salad became the main course topped with low-fat dressing. I ate toast with breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and pasta for dinner. This diet contained little fat, little protein and lots of carbohydrates. My favorite beverage was an ice cold IPA which only added to my carbohydrate intake. Over the course of 20 years, I gained roughly 40 pounds on this “healthy diet”. At one point, I topped the scaled at a 182 pounds on my 5’7″ frame.
I have spent a lot of time reading about nutrition, health and diet over the last 5 years. It has become one of my favorite pastimes. I have learned a ton and have incorporated what I learned into my diet and lifestyle. I have hit the reset button on my diet several times by completing a Whole30. My diet at this point has more in common with how I ate as a kid than my vegetarian or low-fat past! I eat lots of eggs, meat, fish, vegetables, avocados, nuts and fruit. I eat more vegetables now than when I was vegetarian. On average, I eat dairy maybe once per week as I have found it causes me to have sinus issues. I rarely eat bread, pasta, grains and even stopped drinking my ice-cold IPA and all other beer. I drink plenty of water and tea with coconut milk. When I want an adult beverage, I enjoy wine, hard cider. Hey – nobody is perfect!
There are different camps in the nutrition world and they have varied and often contradictory beliefs about what type of diet we should eat. When I became a vegetarian who incorporated lots of “healthy grains” into my diet, I thought I was choosing health. Now, I have learned that these “healthy” grains cause an increase in blood sugar in the body. The rise in blood sugar cause the pancreas to release insulin. Insulin is known as the fat storage hormone. Elevated levels of insulin cause the body to store fat in the cells. Proteins and healthy fats do not cause blood sugar to rise to the same degree which means the body does not have to release as much insulin after eating. Keeping insulin in check means fats can be burned as fuel instead of being stored in our cells. I also learned that whole wheat bread raises blood sugar higher than table sugar.
Keep in mind, this is my understanding of what happens when we eat carbohydrates like refined flour, whole grains, bread, pasta, muffins, cake etc. I am not a doctor, I am not a nutritionist. I am a just a gal who wants to choose health with every decision I make. I want to grown old gracefully. I want to be physically fit and trim, capable of doing any activity I set my mind to.
Keeping an open mind allowed me to change my long held beliefs about what constitutes a healthy diet. Changing my beliefs has had a powerful impact on my health. My current way of eating has allowed me to drop the final 16 pound or so of weight that I wanted gone. I now weigh about 135 pounds and have dropped several pant sizes. Most importantly, I don’t worry about what to eat, I don’t stress about it. I don’t count calories or feel deprived. I just eat real food! And eating real food is one of the key components of solving the Health Puzzle! Life is good in My Little Blue Kayak.
Choose health,
Lake Girl
Image by Mary Pahlke from Pixabay