This morning, instead of my usual lighter YouTube personal development fare, I watched Globesity: How the world got fat. It talks about how multinational food corporations are feeding the global obesity epidemic.
The documentary focuses a lot of soda companies. Recently, I stopped drinking diet sodas because I read about how they disrupt metabolism. Then, I switched to regular soda and began chugging it in the same way I was downing diet sodas. The result: gained weight.
Diet soda tends to enhance my appetite, and to my surprise, so did the regular sugary soda. It has been about two weeks, and I’ve only had two diet sodas—both were fountain sodas from a restaurant. By now, I’m not craving soda and my appetite has actually lessened considerably.
While watching the documentary, I was having a coffee with French vanilla creamer and a brownie that I baked from baking mix. Both were full of sugar. I felt sick and stopped consuming them. I love brownies, but they are really unhealthy. I know that I need to reduce my brownie consumption. Normally, I prefer black coffee, but I do, occasionally, use a non dairy creamer.
I like how this documentary talks about how you cannot burn off calories you eat through exercise. Meaning—you are not realistically going to burn off a hamburger you ate that day by exercising very hard. Weight loss and body recomposition are not that linear.
I remember thinking I could out train a bad diet. Especially when younger. Yes, my weight was within the ranges that I found acceptable, but my body composition included a higher than average fat composition. In short: there are no shortcuts when it comes to building and maintaining a healthy body composition. You need to eat a healthy diet and the exercise portion will help you maintain overall health.
This documentary seems to have been made quite some time ago, but it is still relevant, even with the advent of GLP-1 medications. Most people cannot afford the new GLP-1 medications. And those that can will eventually need to discontinue their use and rely on eating a healthy diet and engaging in regular exercise to maintain their weight loss. In addition, I have read that weight loss medications can also result in muscle loss which negatively affects metabolism.
One thing I liked about the documentary is that it asks what a healthy diet looks like. The food pyramid, when consuming processed foods, is not a good example of a healthy diet and the documentary explains why.
When it comes to my diet, I do prefer carbohydrates. But, as I’ve gotten older and pickier, I don’t really like store-bought bread. I use a high protein whole wheat flour for the bread I make. Homemade bread doesn’t contain high levels of preservatives and tastes better.
While on YouTube, I saw a person create healthy wraps. Wraps in the store have high levels of preservatives making them highly processed. The wrap this man made was created by grinding some oats, adding some spinach, garlic, and ginger—combining them all together and then plumping them up on the stove after he had separated the dough into balls.
The resulting wraps looked incredibly delicious and full of life-giving nutrients. I don’t get the same impression at the grocery store when I look through what wraps are available. I was able to find that video and you can view it here.
Though carbohydrates are my favourite food source, I do need to eat more leafy greens, more fruits, and I need to eat more beans, lentils, and split peas. I haven’t been eating them as much as I normally do.
I also want to eat more salmon and tuna. I love Atlantic salmon but it is expensive here in the U.S. now. Instead, I’ve been getting the cheap cans of Alaskan salmon. Lately, I have started eating more boiled eggs for protein.
While I do eat chicken pretty regularly, I sometimes do not like the texture of it. On the bone or boneless–I just lose my appetite for it. Occasionally, I’ll order a hamburger, but I rarely eat beef.
While writing this blog post, I’m making homemade soy milk. Because I’m lactose intolerant, I do not consume a lot of dairy. Lactose-free milks are still difficult for me to digest, as I have learned.
Homemade soy milk is delicious. I love it unsweetened and warm. Because I’m not keen on traditional ways to prepare it, I bought a dedicated nut milk maker on Amazon and that has been well worth the investment.
Below is a photo of my soy milk machine in the process of creating soy milk and a loaf of bread that I made.
Watching the documentary helped me start the day with an intention to eat well and to continue avoiding problematic sodas. It has been nice not drinking so much soda, feeling like I have to drink it, and not littering the earth with all of my soda cans.
Well, I need to get my day started. Thank you for reading. What is a healthy diet for you and how do you push back against processed foods?
Reality Bytes 