2779: Talking About Food by Nancy Clark on A Balanced Approach to Nutritious Eating

[00:00:00] Have you ever noticed how a calm mind can really set the stage for a good night's sleep?

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[00:00:31] Just search for Good Sleep in your podcast app and be sure to pick the one from Optimal Living Daily.

[00:00:38] This is Optimal Health Daily, Talking About Food by Nancy Clark of nancyclarkrd.com.

[00:00:45] And I'm Dr. Neal, your host and narrator.

[00:00:48] Hey there, welcome back to another edition of Optimal Health Daily.

[00:00:51] Finally, this is where I read to you from some of the best health and fitness blogs on the web, kind of like an ongoing audiobook.

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[00:01:06] Alright, and with that, let's get right to the post as we optimize your life.

[00:01:15] Talking About Food by Nancy Clark of nancyclarkrd.com

[00:01:21] Food is fuel and food is medicine.

[00:01:24] Food brings people together and is supposed to be one of life's pleasures.

[00:01:28] Shared meals are a vehicle for building relationships, enjoying conversations, and nourishing the soul.

[00:01:35] Unfortunately, in today's society, too many athletes and fitness exercisers alike report that they have no time to enjoy meals.

[00:01:44] Sports parents struggle to gather their student athletes for a family dinner.

[00:01:48] Practices and games inevitably interrupt the dinner hour.

[00:01:52] And even when seated at the same table, some family members may be eating just salad while the rest of the family enjoys steak.

[00:02:00] So much for eating out of the same pot.

[00:02:02] Today's food conversations commonly refer to good food, bad food, clean food, and fattening food.

[00:02:09] We all know athletes who don't do sugar, gluten, white flour, or red meat to say nothing of cake on birthdays, ice cream cones in summer, or apple pie on Thanksgiving.

[00:02:21] We live with abundant food, but we've created a fearful eating environment with our words.

[00:02:27] This article invites you to pay attention to how you think and talk about food.

[00:02:32] Perhaps it's time to watch your mouth so you can start to change the current culture that makes food a source of fear for many athletes.

[00:02:40] Good food versus bad food.

[00:02:42] I eat only healthy foods, lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, and I stay away from stuff and wrappers with ingredients I can't pronounce.

[00:02:50] While this may seem like a noble stance towards being a responsible caretaker for your body, it raises a few red flags for me.

[00:02:58] One, a diet of only healthy foods can be a very unhealthy diet.

[00:03:02] For example, apples are a healthy food, but a diet of all apples is a very unhealthy diet.

[00:03:09] And two, a diet with only unprocessed food eliminates refined or lightly processed grains that are enriched with vitamins and iron, nutrients of importance for athletes.

[00:03:20] For instance, some all-natural breakfast cereals only offer 4-10% of the daily value for iron as compared to iron-enriched cereals like Wheaties, Grape Nuts, and Bran Flakes that offer 45-100% of the recommended intake.

[00:03:39] If you eat very little red meat, which is a rich source of dietary iron, don't cook in a cast-iron skillet, which is a meat-free source of iron, and eat only all-natural grain foods, you could easily have an iron-deficient diet.

[00:03:53] This shows up in anemia and needless fatigue.

[00:03:56] A survey of female runners between the ages of 18 and 22 reported 50% had anemia, and often it was undiagnosed.

[00:04:06] Yes, many hard-to-pronounce and unfamiliar words like niacinamide, ferrous sulfate, and ascorbic acid are listed among the ingredients of many grain foods.

[00:04:16] These are the scientific names for the same vitamins found in pills.

[00:04:21] There's a reason why they were added to foods in the first place.

[00:04:24] Adding folic acid to grains has reduced the risk of having a baby with a birth defect.

[00:04:30] Vitamin B12 is important for those that follow a vegan lifestyle.

[00:04:34] Will the trend to avoid enriched and fortified foods come back to bite us?

[00:04:39] How about choosing the best of both?

[00:04:43] Bad food versus fun food.

[00:04:45] When athletes feel compelled to confess their nutritional sins to me,

[00:04:49] like I eat too many bad foods, chips, french fries, nachos, and so on,

[00:04:54] I quickly remind them there is no such thing as a bad food, or a good food for that matter.

[00:04:59] Is birthday cake really a bad food?

[00:05:01] Is a hot dog at a baseball game going to ruin your health forever?

[00:05:05] Should you not make cookies with your children on a snowy day?

[00:05:08] These so-called bad foods are actually fun foods that taste yummy and can fit into an overall balanced diet.

[00:05:15] Rather than critiquing a single food, please judge your diet by the whole week, month, and year.

[00:05:22] Halloween candy is a fun treat in the midst of a steady intake of fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and wholesome grains.

[00:05:28] So is pumpkin pie with ice cream.

[00:05:31] Depriving yourself of fun foods creates good and bad foods,

[00:05:35] as well as a really bad relationship with food.

[00:05:38] Eating a fun food is not cheating.

[00:05:40] The problem arises when you restrict fun foods,

[00:05:43] only to succumb to devouring not just one cookie, but all 24 of them.

[00:05:48] Binge eating burdens you with not only excess body fat,

[00:05:52] but also self-imposed guilt for having broken your food rules,

[00:05:56] and disgust with yourself for having pigged out.

[00:05:59] Eating the whole thing means you like that food,

[00:06:02] and should actually eat it more often,

[00:06:04] rather than try to stay away from it.

[00:06:07] Contrary to what you may believe, you are not addicted to cookies.

[00:06:11] You are simply doing last chance eating.

[00:06:14] Last chance to have cookies, or so you tell yourself,

[00:06:17] because they are a bad food and I shouldn't eat them at all.

[00:06:20] There's a more peaceful way to live.

[00:06:23] Try balancing a cookie or two into your daily menu.

[00:06:26] After all, you need not have a perfect diet to have an excellent diet.

[00:06:30] A reasonable goal is 85-90% quality foods,

[00:06:35] and 10-15% whatever foods.

[00:06:38] Healthy diet versus a single ingredient.

[00:06:42] Salt, sugar, and saturated fat seem to be today's food demons.

[00:06:47] Rather than look at each ingredient,

[00:06:49] I cannot encourage you enough to look at the entire food and your entire diet.

[00:06:54] Take sugar, for example.

[00:06:56] Are the 3 grams of sugar in your peanut butter really a source of evil?

[00:07:00] What about the 10 grams of refined sugar in chocolate milk?

[00:07:03] That evil sugar quickly refuels muscles after a hard workout.

[00:07:08] That's why chocolate milk can be an effective recovery food.

[00:07:11] After a hard workout, when you're tired and thirsty,

[00:07:14] but not yet hungry,

[00:07:16] the sugar in chocolate milk offers a quick energy boost

[00:07:19] that normalizes your low blood glucose

[00:07:21] and replenishes depleted muscle glycogen.

[00:07:24] While some athletes focus on chocolate milk's 10 grams or 40 calories of added sugar,

[00:07:30] I invite you to welcome its high-quality protein,

[00:07:33] which is needed to repair muscles,

[00:07:34] and abundant vitamins and minerals that invest in your good health.

[00:07:39] The fit bodies of athletes can metabolize sugar much better

[00:07:42] than the unfit bodies of couch potatoes.

[00:07:45] The bottom line.

[00:07:46] You want to enjoy an excellent diet

[00:07:49] and not strive for a perfect, also known as very strict diet.

[00:07:54] You can win good health and perform well with a balanced diet

[00:07:58] filled with a variety of foods

[00:08:00] and enjoy it in moderation.

[00:08:06] You just listened to the post titled,

[00:08:08] Talking About Food,

[00:08:09] by Nancy Clark of nancyclarkrd.com

[00:08:13] And I'll be right back with my commentary.

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[00:09:19] Dr. Neil here for my commentary.

[00:09:22] Listen, my three favorite foods are pizza, donuts, and french fries.

[00:09:28] Not the healthiest choices.

[00:09:30] Homemade chocolate chip cookies are actually creeping up there

[00:09:33] and are about to crack my top three very soon.

[00:09:36] But just because these are my favorite three or four foods

[00:09:40] doesn't mean I eat them all the time.

[00:09:42] Pizza is probably the one I have the most often,

[00:09:45] maybe once or twice a month.

[00:09:47] French fries,

[00:09:48] maybe three to four times a year.

[00:09:50] Donuts, maybe twice a year.

[00:09:53] These are not everyday or even weekly foods.

[00:09:56] But I don't avoid them either.

[00:09:58] When there's an opportunity to enjoy one of these favorite foods,

[00:10:02] I do just that.

[00:10:03] I enjoy them.

[00:10:05] No guilt.

[00:10:06] And I enjoy them in moderation

[00:10:07] because I know that these foods are not off limits

[00:10:10] and I can enjoy them anytime.

[00:10:13] I just choose not to.

[00:10:16] Because as today's author Nancy described,

[00:10:18] a reasonable goal is to consume 85 to 90% quality foods

[00:10:24] and 10 to 15% whatever foods.

[00:10:27] So I try and get back on the 85 to 90% quality foods diet

[00:10:32] as soon as I can.

[00:10:34] All right, that'll do it for today's episode.

[00:10:36] I hope you have a great rest of your day

[00:10:38] and I'll be back here tomorrow for our usual Friday Q&A.

[00:10:42] So I'll see you there where your optimal life awaits.