Eat Fresh – Good Health Is Like A Game Of Chess

Eat fresh – good health is like a game of chess! Great nutrition doesn’t happen by chance. You and I have to plan for it. We must learn the major players, the deadly opponent’s pieces, and then devise a plan to win!

Keto and plant-based eating are the most popular trending diet of choice today. They basically consist of eating the following;

• Vegetables
• Fruits
• Protein choices (plant-based, animal, etc.)
• Eggs
• Nuts and seeds
• Unrefined oils

And is a diet choice consisting of NOT eating the following;

• Refined sugars
• Dairy
• Grains
• Processed foods
• Sugary and caffeinated beverages
• Unhealthy oils

Keto and plant-based eating is very popular with people who are physically active. It is also well-liked by paleo dieters too. According to The Huffington Post, in an article entitled “The Pros and Cons of the Paleo Diet,”

“Let’s have a quick look at what our ancestors ate:

60 million years ago: Our oldest cousins, the earliest primates, ate a lot like, well, primates. They subsisted mainly on fruit, leaves, and insects.
2.6 million years ago: Evolution at work! Humans started using tools and fire, and moved to a hunter-gatherer diet.
10,000 years ago: At this point, “agriculture” had taken the world by storm.
Paleolithic humans definitely got some eating habits right. In general, they consumed:

three times more produce than the typical American,
more fiber,
more protein,
more omega-3 fatty acids,
more unsaturated fat,
more vitamins and minerals,
and much less saturated fat and sodium.
That said, Paleo fans tend to overlook the fact that hunter-gatherers were not models of pristine health. Paleolithic humans suffered from parasites, infectious diseases, and even atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).”

Modern science has done a lot to eradicate lots of the diseases that have plagued mankind over time, for which I am grateful. We, as humans, tend to take a good thing and think that more is better…and better…and better. This hasn’t worked out so well for us in the foods department. Genetically altering foods does seem to be back-firing on our health. Hence the movement toward keto, plant-based and paleo diets, searching to begin eating more like our ancestors did.

So what is the best method to eat fresh? After all good health is like a game of chess? How do we plan to win at this chess game of health? You and I must learn to “listen” to our bodies. By this I mean that we are most healthy when we pay attention to how we feel before, during, and after eating. Are you hot after eating something? Does your stomach feel like you ate lead? Do your lips feel funny, tingling? These are all good questions to ask as we develop our unique plan for success.

My daughter and I eat gluten free, grain free, sugar free, dairy free, soy free and nut free most of the time. We truly believe that we can eat fresh easily and consistently. Good health is the game of chess that we are determined to win! We feel better, look better and sleep better. What diet changes could you implement to experiment on a healthier you?

If you are ready to make changes, but don’t know where to start, check out our new digital class, Grain Free For Beginners. It is designed to educate you so that you can make good decisions for yourself. It is our way of walking alongside you to help you to have the support necessary to effect permanent healthy changes.

Following any of the above mentioned diets will help to get you away from processed foods and sugars (cane and corn), two of the most dangerous components in the fight against autoimmune disease and cancer. It may not be real easy at first, depending on your level of potential addition to sugars (carb-rich processed foods become sugar inside you from the moment you digest them). Hence the game aspect of our health…if it were easy to eat healthy with all these tempting convenience foods wouldn’t everyone be doing it? Our food addictions as a nation are mind-boggling. There are many many people who have developed autoimmune disorders, who then are advised to change over to healthier diets, who simply do not.

I read a study that was done entitled, “Evidence for sugar addiction: Behavioral and neurochemical effects of intermittent, excessive sugar intake.” Below is an excerpt of the findings,

“Food is not ordinarily like a substance of abuse, but intermittent bingeing and deprivation changes that. Based on the observed behavioral and neurochemical similarities between the effects of intermittent sugar access and drugs of abuse, we suggest that sugar, as common as it is, nonetheless meets the criteria for a substance of abuse and may be “addictive” for some individuals when consumed in a “binge-like” manner. This conclusion is reinforced by the changes in limbic system neurochemistry that are similar for the drugs and for sugar. The effects we observe are smaller in magnitude than those produced by drug of abuse such as cocaine or morphine; however, the fact that these behaviors and neurochemical changes can be elicited with a natural reinforcer is interesting. It is not clear from this animal model if intermittent sugar access can result in neglect of social activities as required by the definition of dependency in the DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Nor is it known whether rats will continue to self-administer sugar despite physical obstacles, such as enduring pain to obtain sugar, as some rats do for cocaine (Deroche-Gamonet et al., 2004). Nonetheless, the extensive series of experiments revealing similarities between sugar-induced and drug-induced behavior and neurochemistry, as chronicled in Sections 4 and 5, lends credence to the concept of “sugar addiction”, gives precision to its definition, and provides a testable model. “

Amazing, all things considered! It is no wonder, then, that there are so many people who are turning to these alternative diets. If I could have just 5 minutes of time of required national air-time, my message would be to eat fresh – good health is like a game of chess, but we CAN win the game!

Here at Grain Free Mama’s, that is what we are all about. Great health food and the corresponding fabulous quality of health is our passion. Life is an adventure, and eating the best we can ensures we have the energy, mindset and desire to take ahold of all that this wonderful life we have has to offer. Sign up for our gfmama’s email list today. The sign up form can be found on our website, www.gfmamas.com, and also on our Facebook page (in the top sidebar). We would love to hear from you! Until then….remember “You are what you eat from your head to your feet!”