Do you believe what the papers say?
There is one thing that gets me at this time of year.
I get that it’s a great time to look at what you eat and how you exercise and make changes.
Hell, it’s a brilliant time to make a fresh start.
And I love how everyone gets really supportive.
Facebook groups are full of people sharing their stories and getting right behind complete strangers to spur them on.
And I love the possibilities that a New Year presents.
Everyone likes to dream about what a whole year could bring, what changes you could make. Who you could be at the start of 2017.
But there is something that really bugs me.
It’s the way the media always seem to find a negative spin on our efforts.
Like this week just when you think you have your head around clean eating the papers and news feeds are full of warnings about how it can damage your health.
And then there are all the conflicting stories about what you should eat and when.
There are two food related stories that have caught my eye this week (and made my blood boil just a little) here is my take on them.
The Clean Eating Argument
Here is the original article if you want to have a look.
It starts by calling Clean Eating a ‘fad diet’.
I guess it has become a fad by the number of books that have been written, the sheer volume of recipes that are available and all the health and fitness experts using the term to suit their particular take on it.
Recently chef Nigella Lawson spoke up on the point too and I hear the warning.
With the overwhelm of information about clean eating, all the negative publicity around practically every food available to man it is really easy to see how people can become obsessive and even frightened of what to eat to stay healthy.
Apparently when you type #cleaneating into Instagram there are over 17 million posts, when I tried I found 18,675,483.
What worries me about the majority of these posts (on a site that is obviously all in pictures) is that so many are just picture of slim, muscly models rather than actual food. This gives the impression all you need to do to look like them is eat clean…is it just me that thinks that is crazy?
I believe the media plays a really big part in the negativity that surrounds food and what to eat.
Well it makes a great story and one which will attract many readers.
So my advice here is beware of what you read in the papers, the spin they put on the story is designed to make as many people read it as possible!
My advice on clean eating, beware of the fad and the spin the “experts” put on it.
Everyone has very individual nutritional needs.
If you stick to eating as much REAL FOOD as you can in your diet and reducing the amount of processed food and sugar you can’t go far wrong.
The Low Fat Fizzy Drink Argument
This is an argument that has gone on for sooo long!
And it winds me up every time it gets air time and column inches.
It is a particular bug bear so I will try not to put off any fizzy drink lovers but here is why I have a problem with fizzy drinks.
It is the whole calorie in calorie out system of weight loss that has driven food manufactures to come up with Low Fat or Sugar Free alternatives to food.
When I read another article on why we should/shouldn’t drink fizzy drinks I always feel they are missing the point. So much research has shown that these drinks cause health issues and make us put on weight so the manufactures answer was to find fake alternatives to sugar so that the drinks could be ‘zero calorie’.
Ok that’s the problem solved then right?
Not for me because these drinks are basically artificial/fake/man made they are not REAL FOOD.
Much of the research that comes with drinking fizzy drinks is inconclusive.
Could this be because we just don’t understand what these chemicals actually do to our bodies?
Could it be because we don’t truly know what happens when we drink these beverages?
There is a great infographic floating around lately showing what happens to our bodies when we drink Coke, have a look it’s fascinating.
So it come back to the same thing again.
Just eat REAL FOOD and if it’s fizzy and comes in a can ask yourself if it is real food that will nourish you or is it the unknown substance that could be doing anything to your body?
There, I hope I haven’t added to the negativity and the spin! All we can all do is what feels good, eat the foods that make your body work the way nature intended.
Oh, with just a little of the other processed sugary stuff every once in a while if you fancy it.
Kirsty xx
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