On Health Food

For some huge portion of my childhood, I was inundated with “health food.” After years of failed dieting, my parents turned their sights on the food types. 

This is how I rationalize it today, but really I can’t recall having any “normal” food, outside of occasional “rewards” and “treats.” We ate off brand “health food” for the most part. Our cereal had no sugar and was a pallid fibrous substance, our grocery stores seemed dusty and incapable of affording proper lighting. I got the sense, as a child, that the rest of the people who ate this sort of food were either terminally ill and on macrobiotic diets, or Sikhs. 

The wonder that I would experience when going to a friend’s house and seeing a pantry full of brand names, was huge. 

It has been proven today that one of the healthiest things a person can do is lose weight. (Weight Loss and Improvement in Comorbidity: Differences at 5%, 10%, 15%, and Over www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5497590 )

The sorts and types and kinds of foods you eat in this pursuit, are largely irrelevant. 

Though I cannot imagine how crappy I’d feel if I went on a diet of Twinkies, so long as I kept energy balance in line, I could improve my health by eating just shy the amount of Twinkies my body required to function. 

Of course there are extremes here and I’m sure that a long term Twinkie diet would produce unintended consequences. 

But what does this say about “health food.” Is much of the health benefit one seeks not possibly achieved by simply losing weight? 

I really enjoyed my conversation with Chris Kresser, and I do believe that often I am lacking some micronutrients, I’m sure I’m not alone in this. 

But, I can also testify that for huge portions of my life, I did not lose weight by eating health food. I can quite easily over eat a salad with an extra virgin olive oil dressing, and baked potatoes, especially if covered in some fat, and steak, and raw cheese (this isn’t my preference but seems to be made a big deal of, at the “health food” stores).

So, I think simply switching to “health foods” as a long term strategy for weight loss and maintenance, is a bad strategy. I personally find it as flawed as merely not eating carbohydrates, eating for blood type, starving yourself, or any of the other diets that purport skirting energy balance. 

BTW, understanding that energy balance is a requirement for weight loss, doesn’t mean you have to count calories. Many can achieve it without counting calories. The mistake for me, is labeling things as good and bad, and assuming the good stuff shouldn’t be governed. 

Olive oil, and brown rice (as a kid, white rice was “bad” but since the cool word nowadays is lectins, I think it’s brown rice that’s poo-poo’d,) and anything else considered “good,” can be over consumed. 

Eat your liver, and take your vitamins, reduce carbs if you feel better getting energy from fat, do all the healthy things you feel good about doing… but weight loss remains supreme for overall health and none of those listed above guarantees weight loss.