Modern Feast and Famine: Creating a Balanced Diet

by Jessica Sanders

According to Dr. Scott Saunders, fat isn’t necessarily bad for you.

“If you think about human existence, animals and everything, the normal state is feast and famine…”

Hundreds of years ago you would feast on available food and then lose most of the fat while scouring for food during the famine. How rich life would be during the harvest season…and how thin it would be during the cold winter months.

Now, however, we have plenty of feasts, but no famine. In the modern food world, food is readily available, and we never offer our bodies the time to “rest” from eating.  To find balance between feast and famine in a thriving world, it is time to switch your focus to eating whole foods.

No to Supplements, Yes to Whole Foods

You would think supplements seem like a natural solution to a healthy and balanced diet. With loads of vitamins and minerals in one small pill, you’ll surely get all the nutrients you need to strike a balance. This may seem like a good idea. Better yet, whole foods offer a plethora of benefits you might not get from a bottle of supplements, including:

Fiber

Many whole foods, including fruits, vegetables and legumes also come packed with dietary fiber. Healthy levels of this nutrient help prevent heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

All nutrients

Whole foods don’t simply provide one vitamin, but a whole spectrum of nutrients that your body needs. For example, a citrus fruit may not just have ample vitamin C, but calcium, beta carotene, vitamin A and antioxidants.

Phytochemicals

This naturally occurring protective substance is an important reason to focus on eating whole foods. Natural News reported, “Phytochemicals are thought to be responsible for much of the disease protection granted by diets high in fruits, vegetables, beans, cereals, and plant-based beverages such as tea and wine, according to a University of California, Davis report.” These help protect against diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer and tissue damage.

Ultimately, however, Saunders points out that the main reason to focus on whole foods is your body’s eventual resistance to vitamins. “The problem with taking something every day is we don’t absorb them very well.” But, why is that? He continues, “The bacteria in your intestines are proliferating according to what nutrients they are getting; and so, they’re taking up your nutrients.”

Eating a variety of whole foods ensures that you have a balanced diet of vitamins, nutrients, antioxidants and phytochemicals. But, with diet experts at every turn, it’s no longer easy to decipher exactly what your body actually needs.

Balancing Your Whole Foods

Having a balanced diet is eating just enough of the things your body needs to keep it humming along happily. However, with new diet trends emerging every week, it’s hard to know what you need and what you don’t. Here are a few important ways to balance your diet.

Better Omega-3 to Omega-6 ratios

The modern western diet primarily contains food like corn, soybeans and canola and safflower oil, which creates high omega-6 levels and low omega-3 production. Out hunter gatherer ancestors maintained a 1:1 ratio of the two, and subsequently suffered from none of our modern diseases like heart disease and diabetes. Work to maintain a 1:1 to 6:1 balance of omega-6 to omega-3 to avoid such health problems by eating whole foods.

Go from Wheat to No Wheat

The reason many health professionals are seeing wheat allergies is the amount of gluten in processed wheat products today, which is hard for the body to break down and use. However, when you balance your intake of wheat vs. non-wheat products, your body can better handle the gluten.

Saunders explains, “If people have wheat periodically, occasionally, like maybe for a couple weeks have some wheat, but then they don’t for a month or so… you’re not going to get those kind of problems.” The problem is daily intake. Balancing the amount of wheat you have will lead to a healthier body.

Ultimately, the most well-balanced diet is one that’s catered to your body and what you need. The ratio of carbs, to fat and protein will all depend on how your body uses these nutrients. And, when it comes to feast, be sure to balance it with the appropriate amount of whole foods, for our own modern version of a healthy famine.

What keeps you going after a tough day of not dieting but you want the next day to be normal again?

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