Breaking Our Reliance on Food-Like Substances
I just completed a road trip between California and Texas, across some of the most remote parts of the country. Without my large cooler stuffed with fruit, nuts, pre-made salads and hard-boiled eggs, we’d have been in dire straits. I refuse to put chemical-laden, nutrient-devoid, food-like substances in my body. But so much is working against us these days in the options available, that you have to be really intentional to choose health over convenience.
We have normalized ill-health just as we have normalized what passes for a meal. We need to take back control of the most important habit that affects our health – what goes into our bodies three times a day.
It doesn’t have to take extra time or money to improve our nutrition. Small tweaks here or there can have a large impact on our long-term health. The first step is awareness and a deeper respect for the importance of nutrition, and how modern convenience fare doesn’t even meet the definition of food.
Convenient But Deadly
The gas stations to fill up our car were plentiful as were the restrooms along the way. But there were absolutely zero options for real food that would nourish our bodies rather than cause a flurry of inflammation and pressure to detoxify.
Fancy gas stations and truck stops were well stocked with a range of convenience foods in brightly colored wrappers. They were hard to resist after several hours stuck in a car. But we resolved to retreat to the options in our cooler after using the restroom.
The area we stayed in Texas didn’t fare much better though with an over-whelming array of fast-food and chain restaurants serving mass-produced meals. I can only assume market forces are driving the preference for these types of establishments. But it’s not as if the price is any cheaper. A chicken sandwich meal at a popular fast-food restaurant is over $10 these days and is likely to leave you feeling hungry an hour or two later as your body realizes it didn’t actually receive any nutrients.
The organization Moms Across America has carried out a battery of testing on many of the country’s top fast-food restaurants. Working with independent labs these studies show:
They were also tested for levels of vital nutrients like calcium, potassium, manganese, copper, zinc and iron as well as vitamins like B9 and B12 most critical to our children’s developing brains. All were abysmally low and didn’t contribute to recommended daily needs.
While the objective of these studies focused on the danger to our children and the contribution fast-food makes to rising levels of developmental problems and chronic illness in the next generation, the results are applicable to us all.
Plus, it’s not only the category of fast-food that is at fault. Tests have also been carried out on school lunch programs and found the same or worse results. Mass-produced meals using factory farmed animals and cheap ingredients from conventionally grown crops are the culprit. So the chain restaurants that serve their meals on a plate rather than paper bags are no better.
When Emergency Turns to Habit
Years ago, before I knew better, I’d partake of a Starbucks or McDonald’s breakfast when running to catch a plane for work travel. Surely an occasional egg and sausage sandwich can’t hurt me – good protein to start the day right?
The problem is the big brands have cunningly engineered their products and stores to cue your brain into developing a habit. Studies have shown how and why families gradually increase their fast-food consumption over time until it’s a large part of their weekly routine¹.
The foods are specifically engineered to deliver an immediate reward – the salt and grease on the fries, the sugar in the drinks, cause the pleasure-centers of your brain to light up. The large logos are easily spotted as you drive by, generating a craving that is hard to resist.
As more of your weekly intake becomes these food-like substances, the less nutrient rich, whole foods you consume.
The Foods We Need to Crave
Apart from the abundance of chemicals and absence of basic vitamins and minerals, mass-produced food is conspicuously lacking in fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds which need to make up the majority of our intake to fully nourish our bodies.
Pasture-raised animals, eggs, and wild-caught fish are important, but throwing in some iceberg lettuce and lab-ripened tomato is not coming close to our daily needs.
Plants contain hundreds of different phytonutrients such as carotenoids, flavonoids and isoflavones that work synergistically together to optimize health. While you might be able to name 5-10 types of animals you like to eat, there are so many different options in the plant kingdom that were designed to nourish us humans, it should be evident how much more we should be eating.
Vegetables can be broken down into leafy greens (like kale, spinach, parsley); roots and tubers (like carrots, parsnips, jicama, sweet potatoes); cruciferous vegetables (like broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, arugula, cabbage); bulbs or allicins (like onions, leeks, chives, scallions) and that miscellaneous groups of stems and pseudo-fruits (like asparagus, avocados, bell peppers, cucumber, celery, squash, olives, zucchini).
We should mention mushrooms here but that is a whole separate family that is neither plant nor animal yet vitally important to good health.
If the idea of vegetables causes you to cringe, or dismiss as not manly food (a common excuse in Texas), you need to rethink your attitude. It may be that the only vegetables you have encountered are mass-produced and therefore you haven’t experienced the taste sensation of optimally prepared versions.
Nuts and seeds also provide a wide variety of options and are particularly helpful as a go-to snack. Almonds, walnuts, pecans, pistachios, cashews, coconut, Brazil nuts, pumpkin, chia, hemp and sunflower seeds – all contain healthy fats, plenty of fiber, antioxidants, amino acids and minerals like zinc and magnesium.
5 Ideas to Build Better Food Habits
It’s your daily habits that build health and like any bad habit, you need an alternative to replace the bad with the good and a large dose of resolve and intentionality. Here’s some ideas to try:
Make your eggs at home. It takes literally one minute to crack an egg in a pan and scramble it. Throw in a piece of sourdough toast and some avocado, maybe a little arugula, and you have an awesome healthy start to your day. If your morning is just too constrained then you could hard boil some eggs the night before and grab a banana on the way out the door. See Start Your Day With a Heathier Breakfast for other ideas.
Even in the Texas food desert I was pleasantly surprised to find a decent selection of ready prepared meals in the grocery store. Probably not completely free of additives and certainly not organic but a big improvement over fast-food and most restaurant options in the area. From pre-made salads, sandwiches and wraps, to simple meal combinations plated in a metal container ready to pop in the oven for an evening meal. The low-carb brand we found paired a protein like chicken or salmon with a good array of vegetables – all for far less than a typical meal deal in those fast-food places.
There are a huge range of companies now that deliver meal kits and ready prepared meals straight to your door. If you commit to a fixed number of meals a week, the costs are surprisingly reasonable. My son used Trifecta as a college freshman to avoid reliance on the campus dining halls where healthy food was in short supply. Other options include Green Chef, Sunbasket, Blue Apron, Hungry Root, Eat Clean, Hello Fresh, and Every Table to name a few. Then there’s those that combine food delivery with diet advice including Tangelo, Good Measures and Epicured.
Meals don’t need to be complicated or take a long time to prepare. You only need 5 staple meals that you can prepare quickly any time, switching up ingredients a little once you’ve got them locked in your head. Do a little research online or buy a cookbook and then experiment to find something you enjoy and can keep the ingredients available in your fridge to eat regularly for either lunch or dinner. One website to get you started with recipes is FoodMatters.com.
When hunger hits far from home it’s the most dangerous time for your willpower no matter how healthy your regular meals are. Get into the habit of keeping your car or bag stocked with on-the-go snacks. Nuts and seeds are the perfect solution for emergencies, requiring no refrigeration. Beware of conventional brands of protein bars and other packaged foods advertised as healthy. Read the ingredients carefully. I like the superfood bars and meat sticks from PaleoValley. My husband carries RxBars as his go-to snack.
How Much is Too Much?
When it comes to fast-food and chain restaurants, how much is too much is the wrong question. How many cigarettes a day or a week is too much? How much exposure to car exhausts or other toxic fumes is too much? Of course you have to balance reality in your life but do not fall into the trap of normalizing these food-like substances.
I cannot remember the last time I ate anything from any of the fast-food establishments depicted above. The very thought turns my stomach. My husband did persuade me to venture into an Applebees for dinner on the last night of our trip still far from home, and I very much regret it.
My recommendation is to just strike these places off the map of possible food retailers in your brain. This type of food is completely addictive so total abstinence is usually required. You may fall off the wagon here or there but the sooner you can break the habit, the better your long-term health will be.
