Healthy v. Healthful

I am required to conduct practice health histories for my studies at IIN (see bio) so I have been practicing on a lot of friends. Over and over, I am seeing the same trend. People tell me they "eat healthy," yet they have almost no fresh fruits and vegetables and very little fish, plant proteins, nuts or seeds on their daily menu. All of the foods I have just mentioned are not only full of vitamins and minerals, but some have also been shown (in various studies) to fight cancer, reduce the risk of heart disease and even turn back the clock on aging. Some otherwise very smart people are calling a diet full of packaged, processed and preserved foods "healthy" simply because they are low in fat and calories. This diet is actually what I refer to as the health-e diet, and the "e" stands for empty, as in empty calories. Cardboard is low in calories too, but is it good for you? Because honestly, if you are living off fat-free processed cereals, you might be as well off just eating the box (one study with rats actually suggested this - yikes!).

In order to be healthy, you must have a healthFUL (as in FULL of Health) diet that includes lots of fresh fruit and vegetables and at least some power grains (see my post on multi-tasking whole grains), fish (vegetarians - take your fish oil capsules!), plant proteins (chick peas, lentils, etc.) nuts and seeds. As best-selling author and food-expert Michael Pollan says, being healthy is a as simple as 7 words: "Eat Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants." A "healthy diet" is not one full of boxes with labels that tell you it's healthy (i.e. special K with skim milk, lean cuisines for lunch and dinner and low-fat cookies, cheese and yogurt for snacks); it's a diet full of fresh, whole foods that are created by mother-nature, not a factory. This brings to mind another favorite Pollan-ism of mine , found in his new book "Food Rules," featured on Oprah recently, "If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't." So, next time you are thinking about what to eat, don't choose something that a food-manufacturer tells you is "healthy," choose something you know is healthFUL because it grew out of the ground. You really can't go wrong if you stick to that rule.