We’ve spent most of our history eating fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, and nuts before modern food production derailed our collective health. Not only are our bodies designed to digest these unprocessed foods, but a whole food diet also brings benefits like weight loss, reduced inflammation, improved gut and heart health, and more stable energy.
The opposite of a whole food diet is the Standard American Diet (SAD), also called the Western Diet, is an ultra-processed assortment of foods that are easy to get and keep us overfed with empty calories yet undernourished. Science suggests widespread adoption of the Western diet is what drives the American obesity crisis, leading to higher rates of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and other chronic diseases.
Eating whole foods is part of the solution. If you prioritize foods in their natural state and avoid ultra-processed foods, you’re more than halfway to a sustainable diet for health and longevity.
A quick note on the word diet. “Diet” is commonly used to connote a restrictive way of eating for weight loss, but what it really means is just “a way of eating.” You can follow a type of diet for a list of reasons beyond weight loss goals, including for health goals, performance goals, or simply because you feel best eating a certain way.
The Roots of Sugar Cravings
As we evolved, sugar cravings were useful to encourage our ancestors to eat sugary foods (like fruit) and fatten up for times of famine. Humans even evolved a “mutation” that helped them store sugar as fat, which provided a survival advantage, so now every human being is born with it!
The end goal is to avoid packaged and refined foods high in sugar, vegetable oils (soybean oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, etc.), and ingredients you can’t pronounce. These foods are often ultra-processed and addictive, and they dominate the Standard American Diet.
How to Get Started with a Whole Foods Diet
Following a whole foods diet doesn’t require a doctoral dissertation. You know more than enough by now to get started: Avoid processed and hyperpalatable foods, eat when you’re hungry, consume fiber-rich plants, and get enough protein to maintain muscle mass.
One diet doesn’t fit all, so don’t force it if a particular approach isn’t working for your body. Just focus on the whole foods we’re wired to eat, and you’ll fare well in the long run.
Get Support for Sustainable Lifestyle Changes
The Bottom Line: Eating less highly processed foods will have positive effects on your overall health and well-being. If you need help making these sustainable lifestyle changes, we are here to help!
At Wellness Academy USA, you can come stay a day, a week, or a month with us on beautiful Coronado Island in sunny San Diego, California to learn how to create new habits that will support health and happiness in your life!