I love that I am hearing more and more people talking about their food with a tone of discernment.  A lot of you are nailing some great adjustments, and your performance and overall well being are improving by leaps and bounds.

However, I am also hearing a lot of comments that are spin-offs of the old “How do I eat...‘healthy’ of course” line.

For the sake of clarity, we’re going to discuss a nutrition punch list, or hierarchy of goals.  The things at the top are going to be the most fundamental and important.  The things at the bottom are great additions, but not if they don’t build off the concepts above them.

Number 1:  EAT REAL FOOD. 

What is real food?  Meat, seafood, veggies, seeds, nuts, fresh fruit count.  Things that have ingredient lists, come in boxes, or have commercials usually aren’t Real Food.  Cereals, breads, crackers, pastas, sweets, soda and most snack foods are bad news.  Processed and enriched stuff is junk food...drill that one into your head.

Number 2:  KEEP YOUR HORMONES IN CHECK.

Once you’re putting Real Food into your system, minding your hormones is the next most important thought.  With each meal, snack or taste you should have a protein, carb AND fat source.  Your hormonal response to your food is more important than the gross calories you eat (write that down and put it on the fridge).  The goal is to avoid sweeping changes in your blood sugar.  When you eat carbs (ALL carbs), they turn into sugar.  When too much sugar is floating in the blood stream you secrete insulin to store the excess sugar as fat.  If you frequently have too much insulin in the blood, you’re not only storing fat, but setting yourself up for chronic disease.  Eating protein and fat with your carbs helps keep things in check.

Number 3A:  ADD SOME PRECISION AND ACCURACY.

Keep track of what you’re eating for some period of time.  Also, read up on the Zone Diet and give it a whirl for 1 Day, 7 Days, 2 Weeks or a Month.  Write down how you feel.  You don’t have to do this forever, just man up and make a commitment for some pre-determined period.  The Zone Diet is the best way to balance your hormones that is out there.  It is backed by clinical studies at Harvard and abroad, and created by a guy who used it to make sick people well (mentally, physically and emotionally sick people who are now healthy and functional), and fit people into world champions.  You gotta respect a program that yields volumes of rave clinical reviews and also produces a trophy room full of gold medals.

Number 3B:  UPGRADE YOUR REAL FOOD.

Once you’re committed to Real Food, keeping your hormones in check, and you’ve kept track of the results, NOW you can (if you choose) start worrying about the quality and origin of your Real Food.  The best upgrade?  Wild meat.  This means food that wasn’t fattened up in a feedlot or protein factory.  Wild, Grass-Fed, and food that came from someone’s hunting trip are all great upgrades.  Another possible upgrade is local, pesticide-free or organic produce.  Don’t go overboard here, a farmers market or roadside produce stand once a week or so is fine.  Don’t buy anything that is not Real Food just because it says “organic”.

Number 4:  SUPPLEMENT INTELLIGENTLY.

Remember, Real Food is the base...supplements should not be replacements.  That being said, high quality fish oil is a good anti-inflammatory, and supports healthy blood chemistry.  A good multivitamin is probably plenty.  Taking an antioxidant rich supplement is a luxury item.  Some people have done damage to their system and will need some additional help, and this is where to add those specialty supplements.

It is important to get this stuff prioritized, because it is easy for the food industry to trick you into believing you are eating healthy, when really they are just steering you into higher margin versions of the same nutritional play-dough, or the latest designer supplement. 

The most important is always going to be eating Real Food.  Why?  Because it has the most trickle down effect on the rest of your nutrition.  If you are eating meat and veggies, you have almost no risk of any of the deficiency diseases that food manufacturers claim.  You won’t lack fiber, vitamin B or anything else.  Things like osteoporosis, rickets, diabetes, and others DO NOT occur in people who don’t eat processed foods (particularly carbohydrates).  Eating Real Food also does a pretty darn good job moderating your hormone levels on it’s own.  You can go from sick to well without too much trouble.  Add some precision and accuracy  and you can go from well to fit or Elite Fitness depending on your commitment to said precision.

Here is where people get mislead though.  They jump at words like “Natural”, “Gluten Free”, “Organic” and “Paleo” and lose context.  First off, there is no regulation of the word “Natural” in food marketing.  7UP has used it on their soda cans.  Kinda takes the magic off of it right there. 

The other three can also be misleading.  Remember, how your food affects your hormones is second on our punch list.  Let me just get this one out of the way, a Newmans Organic Oreo is an Oreo.  Now, if you eat a handful or organic raisins alone as a snack...you’re not exactly helping yourself out. Your stomach is an indiscriminate vat of acid.  It doesn’t use catch phrases.  You put in sweet carbs (toffee, bread or bananas) and it pumps glucose into the blood stream and let’s insulin deal with where it ends up.  Same goes for those Paleo pancakes or pastries.  They may have almond flour instead of wheat flour...but they have a ton of honey and no protein to speak of.  Are they better for you than Betty Crocker...sure.  But is chewing tobacco better for you than a cigarette...yes indeed.

Sorry, but a cookie is a cookie.  I’m not saying you have to live an ascetic life with no treats.  You could salvage it by pairing it with a protein source and trying to Zone it out, but don’t lose focus. 

At the end of the day, you want Real Food and you want to eat enough protein and fat so that your clean carbs aren’t jacking up your hormones.  If you have a couple extra bucks and the opportunity, try adding some wild protein or local produce.  At least once, weigh and measure your food and write down how it made you feel and perform.

Do this as much as you can, and you’re on the right path.  Enjoy the forrest.