Happy Monday! I wanted to start the week off right – with a rant.
It all began with this article: Smaller Portion the Better?
After reading this article, I began to wonder, where did this all begin? When did women start to think that less is more when it comes to eating? When did 1200 calories (which is basically starving) become the daily ideal?
When and WHY?
Why do women think they have to eat small, dainty portions? Why are women judged when they order anything but a salad at a restaurant? Why do all magazines boast of the new 1200 calorie diet?
Why, why, why?!
Let me be quite clear: when you eat less, your body becomes stressed. It senses the starvation of nutrients and works in to correct that depletion of nutrients by holding onto the nutrients in your body. That is why it is often hard to lose weight and maintain it over a period of time, because your body is working against you, not for you.
This is also the case when we are eating enough calories, but not enough nutrients, which is often the case when our diet is full of processed and refined grains, sugars, and chemicals. Our body senses a lack of nutrition and tells us to keep eating more of the harmful food (because that is the only "nutrition" it knows) in order to get more nutrients.
However, when you eat enough real, whole food to nourish you unique and individual body, this concept changes. Your body senses the return of real nourishment and reduction of stress. It is after this nourishment that our body often becomes more willing to let go of excess toxins and weight.
Plus, these real foods delicious, in addition to being powerhouses of vitamins and minerals. How awesome is that?!
I hope this concept makes sense, as it is rarely spoken of in the traditional health sphere. Basically, when we starve our bodies of nutrients, calories, or both, our body becomes stressed, holds onto weight, and leads to other health problems (migraines, high blood pressure, arthritis, inflammation, etc). But when we eat to nourish our body with real food (not packaged food with added “vitamins”), our body’s nutrient stores become full with the necessary vitamins and minerals to be healthy!
Okay, rant over. My bottom line? Eat more real food – it keeps your body happy!