September 2024 - Healthy Diets

Most everyone agrees that good nutrition plays a major role in maintaining health and preventing disease. The problem is the wide variety of conflicting advice about what specific foods we should be eating or avoiding to best support good health.

 There is no shortage of dietary advice available to us through friends, family, books, websites, and social media. Much of the advice includes versions and combinations of: “no meat”, “all meat”, “low carb”, “no carb”, “no sugar”, “low salt”, “low fat”, “high fat”, “gluten-free”, and “eat whatever you want as long as you stay under X calories per day OR as long as you eat within a specific minimal timeframe each day”.

Perhaps some of this conflicting advice stems from the fact that we are all individuals with a variety of different health risk factors, health conditions, activity levels, nutritional deficits, etc. It is a fact that a specific diet may save the life of one individual but cause or worsen disease in another. This is why it is important to consult a healthcare provider and dietician before trying any diet that severely restricts specific food groups and/or portions. This is also why you should think twice before recommending specific diets to others. Even so, there are a few bits of more universal dietary advice which almost all of us can feel good about following:

• We should increase our consumption of real, non-processed foods.
• We should decrease consumption of sugar and artificial sweeteners.
• We should decrease consumption of highly processed foods which are often high in sugar, salt, and/or partially hydrogenated oils (trans fats).
• When we eat processed foods, we should read food labels, compare the labels on our various processed food options, and choose the options that are lower in sugar, lower in trans fat, and higher in fiber.

What are REAL Foods?

Real foods are foods that are:

• Unprocessed
• Free of chemical additives
• Rich in nutrients
• As close to its natural state as possible

Real foods include fruits, vegetables, beans, whole grains, nuts, seeds, dairy, eggs, meat, fish, and poultry.

Real foods often have a much shorter shelf life than processed foods.

What Are Processed Foods?

Processed foods fall on a continuum from minimally to heavily processed. Heavily processed foods often include a long, difficult-to-pronounce list of added ingredients used to improve flavor, texture, and shelf life. These ingredients include various types of sweeteners, salt, oils/fats, coloring, and preservatives. Many ready-to-eat foods such as crackers, cereal and deli meat are more heavily processed.

To Learn How to Understand and Use Nutrition Labels

Did you know?

There is a vending machine in AC2 by the 1st floor elevators that offers salads, sandwiches, and more. Students with classes in the evening or on Saturdays have a meal option when the Café is closed. Be sure to check it out!