A link going around Facebook right now is “25 Reasons to Stop Eating Sugar.” A stack of sugar cubes (When did you last see any of those? If ever.) opens up a series of panels with warnings we’ve all heard before. Sugar makes you fat. Belly fat, specifically. Just belly fat, nowhere else? Sugar gives you cavities. Sugar keeps you hungry. Of course there were the obligatory super scary warnings intended to freak you out. Sugar feeds cancer! Oh no, really? I don’t know actually. And honestly, I don’t care.
People love to point fingers at a particular villain. That one group we can blame for all our ills. Even that one particular food! Rid your diet of these evil foods and you’ll be glowing with health! “Sugary” drinks. Gluten. No more! People who have no reason to go on gluten-free diets are giving up breads. The totally-not-supported-by-actual-science “Wheat Belly” diet has folks pretty much reviving the old Atkins schtick which, in its heyday, was a fad sufficiently widespread to tank the stock price of Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
Food and diet fads and fears are going to come and go. Trying to blame any one particular food accomplishes very little except maybe to make for a grabby meme that goes viral and of course there’s the occasional breakout monster bestselling book. There is truly just one culprit and it actually is getting quite disturbing. We can get a glimpse of what’s happening by checking out this year’s “Food 3000 Conference” going on in Amsterdam for food “influencers.” The name Connie Diekman may ring a bell for you. She’s a former president of the American Dietetics Association, now the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Diekman did PSAs for years. She’s over in Amsterdam right now and check out the kind of stuff she’s tweeting:
Don’t worry about “processed”? Processing “helps enhance” food quality? And what’s with that hashtag #spon ? It’s short for “sponsored.” It means you’re reading a SPONSORED tweet. Maybe they shortened it so you wouldn’t figure out that former ADA President Diekman is accepting cash to tweet about the virtues of processed food. She’s not the only one. There’s a slew of people with “RD” in their Twitter handle over there just gushing over how beneficial and nutritious processed food is! This is definitely the most flagrantly stupid:
When you’re ready to go mano a mano for a Nature Valley Strawberry Yogurt bar in the post-nuclear apocalypse, you’ll decide just the word “nature” is sufficient to know you’re eating the best! Well, yes it is “yogurt” that doesn’t need refrigeration. And it contains strawberry powder. Everybody loves their fruit powdered.
There’s only one rule for the best “diet” any of us could consume. Here’s what I like to go by:
It’s simple to know what to eat when you eat simple foods.
High fructose corn syrup? Trans fats? Chemicals we can’t even pronounce? It’s easy to avoid them. When you eat whole foods. No packages, no labels. Prepare it yourself. You’ll be consuming sugar and grain and even fat. All of it, naturally-occurring. But there’s an awful lot you won’t be eating. And that will make all the difference.
Am I crazy if that hashtag combo #f3k #spon makes me think “Fuck Sponsors”?
2 comments
I eat whole foods and don’t vilify particular food groups. I do, however, have to look at what’s effective for me. No matter how hard I tried, the old food pyramid was not my friend. Filling up on grains and limiting fat and meats didn’t work. The minute I flipped that, essentially eliminated grains, added good fats and proteins, I started losing consistently. I think I actually eat more calories now and it’s far less frustrating.
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You illustrate why it’s so important to find what’s going to work for YOU! It doesn’t matter how great some “diet” is supposed to be or how successful it was for somebody else if it doesn’t work for you!!
No matter what you eat, you can’t go wrong when you keep it whole! I was at the grocery store today and I saw those new Kellogg’s “Nourish” oatmeal cups they’re pitching to women. Good lord what a marketing concept! And nearly two bucks for one little cup of stuff they’re calling “superfoods” to grab you! Just look at the bottom shelf and buy the big container of rolled oats!