A message from Founder and Owner, Coach Tristan Mitchell:
This month I wanted to revisit a Pride piece from November of 2020, the topic is the importance of whole foods in our diets, they were important in 2020 and still are today!
We get a lot of questions about various nutrition trends that are popular these days and I love that more and more people are wanting to make conscious decisions about the food that they are consuming. Unfortunately it’s hard to make an informed decision when there is so much misinformation out there about what foods are best for us. I would argue that the place to start is simple - whole, unprocessed foods. This should be the foundational starting point for everyone.
There are many benefits to this. throughout humanity’s evolutionary process we have consumed whole foods, both from animal sources and plants. These foods are packed with vital micronutrients that our body depends on to operate at an optimal level - they are necessary for a healthy immune system, energy production, hormone production, mental clarity, and so much more. We know that processed, hyper palatable foods are devoid of anywhere near the same nutritional value. Highly processed foods tend to be high in refined sugar which, when consumed at too high of quantities, can cause chronic inflammation in the body which is linked to a cascade of negative health consequences - this is not the case with whole, unprocessed foods.
It’s also much more difficult to over consume whole foods, we evolved mechanisms of appetite control that ancestrally consistent foods (whole, unprocessed) trigger effectively in the vast majority of us. Our bodies know when we’ve had enough and signal to our brain that we are good. Unfortunately, processed, hyper palatable foods are literally engineered to bypass these mechanisms which make it very easy to over consume. On top of that, these foods are designed to make you want to over consume - when you know this you can see why America is dealing with an obesity and diabetes epidemic! Now people can tell you that all you need is willpower to not overconsume, but I would argue that when you are eating foods that are engineered to be overconsumed that the deck is stacked against you in a way that makes it extremely difficult to willpower your way to moderation.
When we eat more ancestrally consistent foods we nourish our bodies. We don’t create high levels of inflammation (which can become chronic) and it’s much easier to regulate appetite so we don’t overconsume calories. We can pull the levers of calorie counting, weighing your food, macro ratios, intermittent fasting, and other nutritional strategies, but if we don’t have the foundation of consuming the vast majority of our calories from whole and unprocessed foods then these other aspects of our nutritional choices become less effective in their influence on our overall health. Keep it simple and reap the rewards of the health benefits and remember, simple doesn’t mean boring - if you need ideas for some fantastic recipes checkout Whole30, Primal Kitchen, and one of our members own Recipe Runner!
