Salt and Sugar and Fat – Oh My!

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Often, when I’m working with
clients, they’ll focus on where they are “bad” with food. And I
use the word “bad” not as a judgment from my end – it’s how
they describe it. They will focus on the salt and the sugar and the
fat. The media does a really good job of villianizing these
ingredients (or putting perhaps false halos around them). And that
takes away from the big picture.

Guess what? Salt and sugar and fat make food taste good!

People seem to think that to eat “healthy”, they need to be eating plain Greek yogurt or steamed vegetables with no seasoning because the second they add any sugar or honey or salt or butter, they’ve ruined their diet for the day.

Am
I saying that everyone should just go all out, adding salt by the
shaker-full and adding sugar and butte to everything? Of course not!
But if that little bit of brown sugar helps your oatmeal with berries
and nuts go down easier or if you’ll actually EAT the Brussels
sprouts that are roasted with some olive oil and bacon, instead of
just pushing them around on your plate? I’d call that a win!

Good nutrition isn’t just about what we eliminate. (And there can be dangers to eliminating things to the extreme.) It’s about the benefits of the foods we eat. Plant foods provide us with fiber, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants. Meats provide us with iron and protein, among other nutrients. Dairy is a great bio-available source of calcium and protein, among other nutrients. We could have the most nutritious meal imaginable – but if it tastes like crap & doesn’t get eaten, it doesn’t do us any good.

Food isn’t just about nutrition

If it was, then we could be robots that don’t care about taste. Food is supposed to be rewarding! If we don’t like what we eat, we don’t have reason to eat and we would die. The reward from eating is several fold: we get to enjoy our food, it makes us feel satisfied, and it gives us energy to go about our day.

Here
are some dangers with eliminating foods:

1) Why we should eat fat: helps absorb fat soluble vitamins, like A, D, E, & K; it’s important for brain and eye health; it helps to keep us full and satisfied; helps to maintain cell integrity; building block for hormones

2) Why we should eat carbs: carbohydrate (glucose) is the body’s and brain’s most preferred fuel source. If we stop eating carbs (or cut way down), we can get a headache, hangry, overeat later, brain fog. Carbs are protein-sparing – if we get enough fuel from carbohydrate, our body doesn’t have to break down muscle.

3) Salt – we all need a little salt. In all reality, our bodies likely don’t NEED excess salt, but that doesn’t mean we should be afraid to add some if it gets us to eat nutritious foods we might not otherwise eat. You will probably never find me skipping salt on my eggs.

Here’s the big picture to consider:

Is your eating giving you:

–
foods you enjoy and look forward to eating?

-a
variety of foods from and within different food groups?

-energy
to make it through until your next eating time without feeling
miserable or constantly thinking about food?

-the ability to be flexible as things change?

If your current diet isn’t giving you these things, try experimenting with adding a little of these ingredients to make food more enjoyable and satisfying.

If you are struggling with how to find an eating pattern that works for you, please reach out. We can work towards a more energetic and satisfied you together.

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source https://betterweightloss.info/salt-and-sugar-and-fat-oh-my/