Navigating the junk food maze can be a daunting task, but if you want to know how to eat healthy, there are a few simple rules to keep in mind.
First and foremost, let go of the all-rounder, the king and queen of junk foods, “garbohydrates”. Yes, you read that right, ‘garbohydrates’.
The carbohydrates are flour and sugar alone, mixed together and/or combined with fat. They form the basis of the high-energy diet loved by all civilizations.
Since ancient times, our genetic make-up has forced us to crave flour, sugar and fat. In an era of scarcity, it’s just what you need to eat to provide your body with massive amounts of energy in the shortest amount of time, either to overcome a famine or to prepare for the famine to come.
If you need to grow or gather your own food, there isn’t usually much to pick from, and the foods that are readily available aren’t full of fat, flour, and sugar and cellophane-wrapped.
Nowadays it’s the other way around. Almost everywhere you go, pre-packaged, colorful carbohydrates stare in your face, begging to be bought. You can’t pay for a magazine at the newsagent’s without hunching over a counter full of candy. The same applies when you pay for your gas. Your greengrocer has a box of chocolates near the register. Even the pharmacy keeps little packets of jelly beans to tempt you on the way out – and don’t you need a pep talk after your visit to the pharmacy?
It’s insidious. Carbohydrate manufacturers run amok with people’s health, leaving governments to clean up the mess. At the very least, the carbohydrates should be packaged in plain packaging.
But in the junk food era, when the next snack can be ten minutes away (in the form of a chocolate chip cookie or soda) and contains the exact same ingredients as the Garbohydrate meal you just ate, you’re filling up on Garbohydrates 24 /7/ 365 is not a smart move. You just keep getting fatter.
When all is said and done (and when it comes to eating smart, a lot more is usually said than done), if you want to eat healthy, stop eating the carbs; Bread, cookies, pasta, cakes, confectionery, chocolate… and avoid sugary, carbonated soft drinks.
Let me give you an idea of the energy density of carbohydrates.
As our point of reference, one carrot contains about 30 calories/100g.)
Bread contains about 250 calories/100g. The problem is that few people have only dry bread. You smother it with margarine, peanut butter, and honey, which doubles the amount of energy. It becomes a huge storehouse of energy that the body cannot handle. You end up with all kinds of metabolic disorders, of which obesity and diabetes are the two most prominent symptoms.
Boiled lollipops, liquorice, “snakes” and jubes – which are made almost entirely from sugar – contain around 450 calories/100g. Have you ever eaten a 250g pack of licorice in one go?
Add fat to sugar and you have chocolate that contains about 550 calories/100g – almost 20 times the amount of energy found in a carrot. And if you only need about 2,000 calories a day, 550 calories in a few bites means you’re well on your way to exceeding your daily energy intake limit after breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
cookies, do you like cookies? A plain flour and a fat dry cookie can range from 400 calories/100g to 560 calories/100g for a Ritz cracker cookie. And no one had every rit (sic) or one that wasn’t lathered with dip or cheese. The dip’s small plastic container can contain up to 500 calories.
The simplest digestive biscuits are around 475 calories/100g, which translates to over 550 calories/100g for a chocolate chip cookie. Have you ever eaten just one chocolate chip cookie? It’s like trying to eat a peanut.
When I was growing up, if you said, “Mom, I’m hungry,” she said, “Have an apple.” Kids these days are told to eat a snack bar full of fat, flour, and sugar. They are programmed to the carbohydrate lifestyle from an early age.
It’s the same with thirst quenching. In my day, if you said, “Mom, I’m thirsty,” she said, “Have a glass of water.” When kids today say, “Mom, I’m thirsty,” the response is often, “Help yourself a lemonade.” .
Second, if you want to eat healthily, stop eating so much. Some of the meals served in cafes and restaurants are simply gigantic. The people preparing them must have absolutely no nutritional training. There is some evidence that there are “fat police” running around the grocery stores retraining the staff. If you do not have a portion control certificate, you are not allowed to prepare food.
Despite what your mother drummed into you, you don’t have to eat everything on your plate.
And did I forget to mention fries? Don’t order fries. Every 100g contains an additional 500 calories.
If you want to stop eating so much, drink some water before each meal. And instead of ice cream and chocolate biscuits, a piece of fruit for dessert.
Drink green tea between meals. People often confuse thirst with hunger. Keep yourself well hydrated with a drink that doesn’t contain sugar and doesn’t come from a bottle or can.
An apple contains about 50 calories per 100g. Which do you think is better for you, an apple or a Mars bar?
In the meantime, stay tuned, high tuned; avoid the carbohydrates and eat off the top of the hourglass.
John Miller
Thanks to John H. Miller
