Posted on: 17 October, 2004
Author: Kathryn Martyn, M.NLP
What's Good Today is Bad ... What Can I ... entered the Twilight Zone when it comes to the ... ofdiets being promoted today. Starting with the Atkins Diet, thenthe South Beach Diet, What's Good Today is Bad Tomorrow: What Can I Eat?We've entered the Twilight Zone when it comes to the multitude ofdiets being promoted today. Starting with the Atkins Diet, thenthe South Beach Diet, now the Hamptons Diet and more. All higherin protein, lower in carbs, but the distinction should be qualityof carbs, not singling out one nutrient entirely. If you are onthe Atkins Diet, South Beach Diet or any other variation of ahigh protein/low carb diet simply adjust from eating low qualitycarbs like refined flour and sugar products (think if it comes ina box, it's likely low quality) to eating more whole foodproducts like fresh vegetables and fruits - yes fruits.Apples vs. Apple Jacks - You be the JudgeI know the traditional Atkins Diet doesn't advocate much fruit(too high sugar) but think about that for one minute. My strongbelief is that an apple is a good food, a bowl of Apple Jackscereal may not be on an equal level. One is highly processedsweetened by added white sugar and corn syrup, and one isnatural, plucked from a tree and sweetened by the sun. Whichwould you choose? Don't shun fresh fruit for the sake offollowing your low carb diet to the letter.Eliminating healthy, wholesome foods is not the best way to learnto eat better, but severely cutting back on the frequency ofeating highly processed foods is. I saw a site which called it GMor MM: God Made or Man Made. If you think of those terms when yougo to choose your foods, it starts to make more sense. No onesays you shouldn't eat chips, or whatever strikes your fancy, butmake them a treat - and eat the GM foods more often.Common Sense DietCommon sense will answer the question about what to eat. If youare on Atkins, South Beach or any variation of low carb diet,avoid processed foods, not natural foods. Stop using "instant"breakfast, and cook whole rolled oats for instance. Sure youmight have to get up 10 minutes earlier, oh well. You're worthit!You can still stay on a higher protein food plan, but this oneminor adjustment will allow you to continue with your eating planfor a lifetime, rather than a short-time. I'd go insane if Icouldn't eat my daily apple, banana or other fruit. I love fruit.I think there's a very good reason humans desire sweet foods -Vitamin C, and other nutrients, including bio-flavnoids.Can You Be Addicted to Fruit?I heard someone complain they were "addicted to fruit" and I hadto wonder, what do they eat? The person who refuses to eat fruitbecause they believe it is too high in sugar, probably does eatcookies, crackers and sugary cereals. They might even drinkartificially flavored and sweetened drinks, but they refuse toeat a natural food, grown from our earth? That makes no sense, ifyou think about it. Did our planet develop and thrive based onprocessed foods? No, of course not. They are very recent in theevolution of our world. Very recent. In fact, we've had processedfoods less than 200 years while our planet is millions of yearsold.With the high incidence of obesity, and our high consumption ofprocessed foods, it's hard not to draw the conclusion that onecauses the other. You won't hear big industry stating that casebecause our economy depends on us buying the products beingproduced by the companies that employ us. You'll never see itreported that "scientists discovered refined flour kills," evenif it were proven true because it doesn't support our way oflife. We need industry.Witnessing the epidemic of food illnesses such as Mad Cow, andnow Bird Flu, I can envision a society without the mass producedmeat industry. It will come to pass - nothing but your local farmwill be allowed to sell meat because the big farm industry cannotguarantee safety of the food supply. Meat will become much moreexpensive because when they can no longer mass produce it, thereis nowhere for prices to go but up. So do we whine and cry andmoan about our misfortune or do we start to think of meat assomething to savor and enjoy like the Sunday roasts we had yearsago? We never ate meat every day then - and we weren't so fateither. We simply didn't eat as much processed foods. Most of ushad moms at home cooking us dinner, making our lunches and evenfixing our breakfasts.Yes, progress marches on, but when it comes to your body, commonsense rules the day. The Common Sense Diet! Try it on for sizetoday. Article Tags: Atkins Diet, South Beach, Processed Foods Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com