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| A picture completely out of the context. |
When someone asks me about what they should eat, I usually ping them back with a question; "what are your goals?"
You see, we are unique. When you buy a new car, the salesman will ask you a bunch of questions, like "do you have kids?", "what do you need a car for and for what sort of terrain?" It's one's individual needs, i.e. the context, that defines what kind of a car one should get. Why is it that when it comes to nutrition we often offer very strict and precise guidelines to the people we know nothing about?
Does a professional athlete have the same nutritional requirements with a white-collar worker? What about diabetics, cancer patients or other folks suffering a disease? People have different needs. This should be a no-brainer.
It's all about the context.
My Plate
There are dozens of different diet programs available: the paleo diet, raw food, vegan, zone, low-carb... List goes on and on. What they all have in common is their polarized nature; good foods vs. bad foods. A nature, that just doesn't mix well with the human one.
For example, some paleo folks could compete in the Olympics with the amount of mental gymnastics they're able to pull off in order to transform evil neolithic foods into holy paleo foods.
"Milk is unhealthy for all, but feel free to supplement with whey protein after your primal workout." Wait, what? Don't get me wrong, I support the whole paleo eating concept and 80 % of my diet would easily fit into that framework. But honestly, what's the point of all the rules, if people simply aren't capable of following them!?
Seriously, eating healthy really isn't that hard, people!
A while ago, USDA published new nutritional guidelines and the food plate. Once again, I wasn't quite satisfied with them. So, I made my own. You can see the illustration below. I nicked the idea from FITBOMB. Shame on me.
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| The Minimalist Plate. Let's keep it simple! |
