I know I promised a post about me next but in talking to a friend this morning about fruits versus fruit juices something dawned on me. A positive dietary change can be something as small as cutting down on juices to something as big as eliminating an entire food group. All depends on your personal views on better health. I was trying to explain why I'd choose the whole fruit over just fruit juice to him. Ultimately what it comes down to is CALORIES and quality of them. On average, a moderately active 125-pound woman needs 2,000 calories a day; a 175-pound guy with a similar exercise pattern needs 2,800 calories. (According to "The Harvard Medical School Health Guide")
The question is: Do you want to consume those calories by eating cheap, processed, refined, artificial or deficient foods? Foods like commercial crackers, cookies, frozen meals, twinkies, soda pops, sugary cereals. Sure they taste good but we all know that a small portion of any of those things pack on the calories way too fast. The more natural options are lower in calories and provide a lot more health benefits such as vitamins, minerals and fiber plus you can eat a lot more of them! In essence, if you make the right food choices, you can actually eat a lot more! Blah blah blah..I know you've heard it all before but think about it like this......
In a society where people wanna get "The most bang for their buck" so to speak, you wanna spend your money wisely. Why not apply the same logic to your calories...
I sometimes shop at the dollar store hoping to get more toys for my kids for less money. I always regret it because the toys inevitably end up broken within minutes of getting home. Poor quality junk for the most part. In an effort to save money, I end up wasting it!
In comparison, you can waste all your calories on one meal at McDonald's or you can use them to eat tons and tons of beautiful nutritious foods throughout the day. Make the most of your calories. If they don't offer you much benefit, Don't eat them. Spend them wisely...
Why does junk food "call to us" when it's so bad for us? Why is it that some of us crave the wrong foods so much that it bacomes a daily struggle?
ReplyDeleteHmmmm.Good question. My guess would be that
ReplyDeleteA: As we grow up we develop a habit of associating those foods with pleasure and comfort..reward. Most of us are not raised by the mentality that food is for survival and nutrients. We look to food for much more than we should. It really is simple and should be consumes for those purposes.
B: I'm not qualified to get all scientific with this answer but food creates responses, addictions, reactions in our bodies. The more we feed that, the more we depend on it.