Feel Great Food With Lee Holmes DEBUNKING DIETS
If you've wondered near and far for a suitable way of eating but you tend to find yourself swinging from one popular diet to another, then this information about diets might help... Paleo Diet In the Stone Age, our cavemen and cavewomen ancestors would only eat what they could hunt with their bare hands. The Paleo diet mimics this hunter-gatherer lifestyle; For example, you’d never see a caveman eating a processed granola bar, so you probably shouldn’t be eating a processed granola bar either! The Paleo Diet removes all grains, beans, soy, dairy, certain vegetable oils and refined sugar. What you’re left with is unprocessed foods like vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, certain fats, nuts and seeds. Whilst I do think removing processed foods is helpful, by demonising food groups, such as carbohydrates or dairy, we can lose benefits of many nutrients that we need to support our gut function and immune system and start to fear food. It’s important to focus on balance – if you’re absolutely craving a block of chocolate, just eat a few pieces! You should enjoy eating, not be afraid of it. The paleo diet is often misconstrued as just eating meat, meat and more meat. This shouldn’t be the case. By following a balanced paleo diet, you can minimise stress on the body and increase your vitality but I think its also important to eat prebiotic and fibre rich veg like sweet potato and some paleo enthusiasts don’t include them and they are an integral part of having a thriving and robust digestive system. Keto Diet Basically it's a very low-carb, high-fat way of eating that involves drastically reducing carbohydrate intake, and replacing it with fat. Once we starve our body of carbohydrates, our energy 96
Issue #6 | The Inspired Guide | December 1st 2019
fuel source, we put our bodies into a metabolic state known as ketosis. Instead of using carbohydrates for energy, our bodies burn fat. Sounds great, right? Whilst the ketogenic diet can help with weight loss and reducing blood sugar, I like to look at the ketogenic diet with a pinch of salt. Once we demonise a whole food group, food no longer becomes our friend. Carbohydrates are not the enemy and everything, including carbohydrates, should be eaten and enjoyed in moderation! Not to mention that by cutting out carbohydrates, we lose out on the benefits of many nutrients that we need to support our gut function and immune system. In particular, we may miss out on very important prebiotics that are found in root vegetables, seeds, fruit and more. Probiotic Diet Probiotics are finally experiencing the recognition they deserve and I’m loving every single minute of it! Probiotics have been used for centuries to treat a variety of bowel conditions including constipation, diarrhoea and irritable bowel disease. Probiotics help balance and grow our gut microflora which in turn, supports positive moods, boosts energy and can help produce other essential nutrients. The probiotic diet includes sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, kombucha and various yoghurts. While consuming probiotics is great for us and our guts, some people do experience not-so-subtle effects, such as gas and bloating from these foods, so it’s important to eat them in moderation and start off slowly. Also if you suffer from histamine intolerance, fermented foods can be aggravating.