Have you heard about the What The Health Documentary? More like What the F***. Let me save you 2 hours of your life.
First off, they claim that meat is as bad as cigarettes. What matters is the quality of the meat. You ideally want organic, grass-fed meat and you don’t want to over do it! If you’re having conventional meat every day such as steak and sausages every day, then yes, that is a problem. Especially if you are eating in fast food restaurants. Not only will they use the cheapest meat, it may contain fillers and preservatives and the processed vegetable oil that they use to fry in, is not good for you.
The other thing they claim as science is that fat and not sugar causes diabetes and heart disease. This is so far from the truth that I almost fell off my chair. Diabetes is not caused by a build-up of fat in the blood. In fact, eating sugar is what increases your bad cholesterol and turns to fat. Fat does not make you fat and definitely does not cause diabetes. In fact, to reverse diabetes you would decrease your sugar and high-glycemic index foods and increase muscle strengthening exercise. You want to avoid trans-fats but good quality fats such as coconut oil, avocado and olive oil are good for you. Cholesterol is the building block to make hormones. Also, our brain is almost completely made of fat. Having a high omega 3 diet is great to reduce inflammation and the risk of Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular disease.
Bottom line is this. If you are a vegan or a vegetarian, that’s OK. What I stress is that you eat enough good fats, get enough complete protein and replenish any vitamins that you may be deficient in like vitamin B12. If you are a meat eater, then please don’t over do it! You require about 0.8g of protein per 1 kg of body. I usually recommend 1-2 palm sizes of good quality meat a day. What is REALLY important are the vegetables! Make sure that half your plate is vegetables per meal. And by vegetables I don’t mean an over abundance of starchy root vegetables. I’m talking the ones most of us don’t crave like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, spinach, chard etc.
There are 2 foods that have NO repercussion when you eliminate them from you diet. In fact, it will enhance your health by removing them all together. Those are sugar and dairy. Are they delicious? Of course! That’s why so many of us have an addiction to them. A little in moderation is OK but don’t make it your staple.
So be careful what you read and watch out there!