The Golden Rule of Nutrition

So often, people say to me “nutrition is so confusing with all the changing and contradictory rules!” While it’s true that there are many trendy diets such as keto, paleo, plant-based, etc., and there isn’t really a one-size-fits-all diet, there is one guideline for nutrition that has always stood the test of time and will never change: eat real food. Voilà - the golden rule for healthful eating!

While many think they know what real food is (I sure thought I did before getting into this field), people are often surprised to learn that most food Americans eat is not real food. Many people think milk is a real food, but the problem is, the kind of milk we buy in the store has been processed to the point that the calcium can’t be assimilated by our bodies because the phosphorus - a necessary co-factor for calcium absorption - has been destroyed (in fact, the absence of phosphorous is often a test to see if the milk has been pasteurized enough). Wanna know why there are so many lactose-intolerant people these days? It’s because the enzyme lactase, which is necessary to digest lactose, has also been zapped in the pasteurization process. Finally, when we drink low-fat or skim milk, we further mess with mother nature in that fat is a necessary component to digest the protein in milk. In many cases, to compensate for the lack of flavor that the fat offers, manufacturers add sugar. This is a classic case where “food” is not real food.

Real food is that which is in its natural state - unprocessed, unpackaged, unrefined, free from chemicals (including pesticides, which is why to buy organic or from local farms you trust), and no additives. Best is to buy nothing with a label, or if you must, make sure there are only real, recognized, whole-food ingredients on the label. Eat Real! For a great read on this topic, I highly recommend Nina Plank’s illuminating book Real Food.