What is Healthy Eating?

Removing all the morality and science of food, let’s talk about a realistic definition of “healthy food”:


“Foods I can eat frequently that give me enough fuel to get through the day AND don’t make me miserable.”


Most doctors, websites, and books have generally the same list of “healthy foods”:


  • Protein like meat and legumes. 
  • Fresh fruits and vegetables.
  • Healthy carbohydrates like rice, quinoa.
  • Healthy fats like almonds and olive oil.
  • Occasional cheese and dairy.


 

Why is it that these are the foods that happen to end up on every list on every website when it comes to “healthy eating?” 

Simple.


They are full of vitamins and nutrients while also being lower in calories than the processed foods that have been designed to be overeaten.


They also fill us up, making us feel satiated, and keep us under our calorie total for the day.

 

Now you’re starting to get it:


If we can prioritize these foods on our plate even occasionally, we’ll feel full more often while eating fewer calories… 


Which leads to sustainable weight loss and maintenance! 


Let me drive this point about calories vs energy into your brain (not literally). 


Here are 3 foods in the exact same quantity, 200 calories:

And here’s a huge plate of broccoli, also 200 calories:

In this context, the realization that we might overeat certain foods compared to others starts to become more clear:


  • If we accidentally overeat broccoli, we might eat an extra 20 calories. And who accidentally overeats broccoli?
  • If we accidentally overeat spaghetti, we might eat an extra 500-1000 calories. 
  • If we accidentally eat a family-sized bag of Sour Patch Kids, we might eat an extra 2000 calories (and have no tastebuds left on your tongue)[6].


Which brings me to the next point: 


We humans are terrible at estimating how many calories we eat. Like, really really bad at it. I bet the proportions of the above foods surprised you. 


We consistently eat much more than we realize, by 40%+.


To make matters worse, we also OVERestimate how many calories we burn through exercise. 


One study showed that Fitness trackers like AppleWatch or Fitbit overestimate exergy burned through exercise by 20% or more. 

So when we “can’t lose weight,” it’s not because we have a broken metabolism. 


It’s not because we have bad genetics.


Or that we’re not eating for our blood type.


It’s because we consistently eat too much food without realizing it.


Because we always have a ready supply of new energy from recently eaten food, more than we need, our body NEVER has to dip into our stored fat to burn for fuel. 


And when we think we’ve out-exercised our bad diet, we really haven’t.


So it’s time to stop “trying harder” and instead “try differently”:


In order for us to get healthy, we need to find ways to include more foods that fill us up AND taste good.