It has been said that part of any fitness program, diet is 80% of the game. That's a massive percentage. I have found, in my day-to-day minglings with gym-minded folk, that many people do not put such a high emphasis on diet as they do exercise. But I see it time and again...ladies grinding away at glorified hamster wheels (aka elliptical/treadmill/whatever), yet still with a high body fat percentage. Why?
Diet. (I could throw in lack of weight training too, but that's for another post on another day). And when I use the term "diet", I don't mean "I'm on a diet", I mean eating as a lifestyle.
As I mentioned in one of my first posts, I have experimented with all sorts of eating plans. I have been exposed to many of them, and I have researched many of them. What I am about to delve into here is based solely on my experience and my opinion. You may disagree, but that's ok.
Over the past several months, I have been bombarded with options for supplements, powders, replacements, enhancers, blah blah blah. Bottles and jars filled with various powders of various consistencies and pills upon pills upon pills for this, that and the other thing. On a simple level, I have whey protein isolate. On an advanced level, I have creatine monohydrate, glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, msm, waxy maize and the list goes on and on and on. Anyone exposed to the fitness and especially body building industry knows exactly what I'm talking about.
And this got me thinking.
What happened to REAL food. You know, fresh picked or caught or laid or plucked. I'm talking about fresh spinach and greens, fresh berries, a real hunk of meat, whole eggs. Why so many synthetically-produced, isolated, refined, fractionated things on the "must-eat" list?
What really sparked this delving into whole-food territory, was when it was recommended to me to eat egg whites. Lots of them. So many, that I couldn't justify throwing away all the yolks, so I purchased egg whites in a carton. Yes, EGG WHITES IN A CARTON. Does anyone else see anything wrong and mildly disturbing about that?!?! These egg whites, which by the way don't taste or look anything like real, fresh ones, have been processed, refined and pasturized to the point that I doubt there's anything even remotely nutritious about them. It made me really question what i was eating.
What is wrong with WHOLE eggs?
"oh, they're full of fat and cholesterol" is the typical rebuttal. But, is that a BAD thing?!
Which leads me to the next segwey of the emerging "paleo/primal" eating lifestyle. It's all about whole, real food and all that goes with it (and yes, that means the fatty, cholesterol-laden yolks, the saturated animal fat, etc. etc.). Is there truly anything wrong with this?
I'm a firm believer that nature provided us with absolutely everything we need (from food to medicine), in the most perfect package with which we need it...so perhaps there's a reason that eggs have yolks and meat has fat. Perhaps it's because we're SUPPOSED to eat it that way.
At least, I believe so.
So, concluding, I have this to say: enough with your whey isolate and waxy maize and green powder and egg whites in a carton. I want my food real, I want it whole, and I want it untouched. So bring on the fatty slabs of grass-fed beef, the cholesterol-laden whole eggs and the chicken pieces WITH the skin on. I like my food whole and real.
Wouldn't you agree???
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