CHAPTER 15:
THE RIGHT FATS
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“I have always been an active, healthy girl, but in my thirties (after a bout with severe exhaustion followed by two pregnancies) I found myself a good hundred pounds over the limit. Something had to be done, as ‘just eating well’ was not doing my body any good. I was inspired by a close friend who had had great success doing a Whole30, and started my journey in February 2011. The first month, I lost ten pounds. And within the next two weeks, five more. In the last year, I have lost seventy pounds and over forty inches from my body. I am still a work in progress, but with the Whole30 on my side, I am making it closer to my goal every day! Thank you for changing my life.”
—Heidi M., Bozeman, Montana
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The last big category on our “makes you healthier” list includes many different foods with one thing in common—they’re all good sources of fat.
We’re discussing good fats for a number of reasons, some of which we’ve already talked about. First, fats are an excellent energy source. And one major goal of this dietary shift is to make your body more efficient at using fats (from your diet and your fat stores) for fuel. Fat is also critical to many metabolic processes, and ensuring that your diet includes adequate healthy fats means you’ve got the right building blocks for vital organs, cells, and hormones.
In addition, fats provide both satisfaction (via palatability) and satiety (via gut-brain hormonal pathways). A meal with a healthy amount of fat suppresses hunger longer than a meal that’s primarily carbohydrate—so we don’t run to the cookie jar between meals. Finally, there is another, more practical reason for including a healthy amount of fat in our meals—calories.
We want you to eat enough calories to maintain a healthy body weight and activity levels. But think about the way you used to eat versus the way we’re recommending that you eat. You used to eat lots of calorie-dense carbohydrates (like grains, legumes, sugars, and processed foods). Now, you’ve replaced those with vegetables and fruit, which are comparative caloric lightweights. Which means your new diet is missing a bunch of calories—and we’ve got to supply them somehow.
We’re not going to add more carbohydrates to the diet—you couldn’t (and don’t need to) eat enough veggies and fruit to fill the hole, and we’re not about to resort to unhealthy food choices just for the calories.
We’re not going to add more and more protein, either. We want you to eat only as much protein as you need to maintain muscle mass and support recovery from activity. (And it’s not like doubling your meat consumption will double your muscle mass.) Too much protein might be just as unhealthy as not enough, so we’ll outline just right protein recommendations in the next section.
So what’s left?
Fat, that’s what.
We’re going to supply energy with good, healthy fat sources. And that’s easy to do, since fat has more than twice the gram-for-gram calories as carbohydrate and protein. See—it really is a great source of energy!
ENERGY COMPARISON
As we mentioned in Chapter 5, our capacity to store carbohydrate in the liver and muscles is quite limited. The average person can store only enough glycogen to perform about ninety minutes of high-intensity activity. But that same person has enough energy stored as body fat to run twenty marathons! Which illustrates that fat is a much more dense and abundant source of energy in the body than carbohydrate. (That’s also kind of depressing, isn’t it? Sorry about that.)
DITCH THE SUGAR, FUEL WITH FAT
Fat is a dense and abundant source of energy, and with time and the right eating habits, we can create a healthy situation in which our bodies can use fat to fuel low-intensity activity (like hiking, gardening, playing with our children, or cleaning the house).
There are some major benefits to being “fat adapted,” able to efficiently utilize fat as energy. First, you’ll no longer need to eat every two hours to avoid the raging hunger, crankiness, or brain fog that comes with relying on glucose to fuel your energy needs. When you’re fat-adapted (as in our Good Day example), you can go many hours between meals feeling and performing just fine, as your body has learned to mobilize your fat stores for energy.
In addition, once you’re fat-adapted, you’ll be able to start whittling away at your fat stores—something you are unable to do when your blood sugar and insulin levels are chronically elevated. (Remember, chronically elevated insulin levels impede glucagon’s energy-access function!)
Finally, when you’re fat-adapted, you’ve got the best of both worlds. Your body will still be able to run on carbohydrate for fuel when you really need it, during high-intensity activity like interval training or chasing after your runaway dog. But you’ll also have an alternate energy source—fat!—for life’s lower-intensity occasions (which make up the bulk of your twenty-four-hour day).*
The key to becoming fat-adapted can be explained simply enough:
Stop giving your body sugar all the time.
FAT: CONTEXT MATTERS
At this point, you’ve probably heard a few forward-thinking nutritionists say that eating fat doesn’t make you fat. The thing is, that’s not always true. A high-fat diet in the context of insulin resistance and leptin resistance can be profoundly damaging. Eating too much fat only adds fuel to your already out-of-control metabolic fire and provides even more energy (calories) for insulin to store. In our Bad Day scenarios, eating a high-fat diet certainly would contribute more fat to your stores. Note, however, that dietary fat is not the inherent problem here—it’s overconsumption, your messed-up hormones, and inflammation that are at fault. The good news? When you eliminate the drive to overconsume and resultant hormonal dysfunction (via the recommendations we’re making here), then eating fat won’t make you fat.
Of course, not all fats are good fats. (Sure, we all know that … but we’re also certain that our roster of “good fats” may surprise you, so stay on your toes in this section.) In addition, even some “good fats” need to be consumed in moderation, because while some is good, more isn’t always better. So let’s talk about good sources of each of the three different categories of fats—monounsaturated, saturated, and polyunsaturated.
TRANS FATS
Do we really need to talk about why you shouldn’t eat trans fats? These Franken-fats (often labeled as “partially hydrogenated”) are not found anywhere in nature. They’re common in processed foods like cookies, crackers, and potato chips, and are used to make margarine and other fake forms of butter. Ingesting industrial trans fats can double your risk of heart disease by raising your LDL cholesterol and depleting good HDL cholesterol. Want to hear the understatement of the century? Trans fats do not make you healthier—so throw away your margarine right now. (It’s really bad for you, it tastes funky, and we’re about to tell you why you should be eating real butter anyway.) We’re serious. Go throw it out. We’ll wait.
RAINBOWS, PONIES, AND SUNSHINE: MONOUNSATURATED FATS
Monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), are the most popular fats in town. Their health-promoting properties are generally agreed upon, and we, your primary-care physician, the government, and “that doctor on TV” all believe that a diet rich in heart-healthy MUFAs do, in fact, make you healthier. (That and refined-grains-are-bad-for-you may be the only thing we all agree on, but we can live with that.)
Monounsaturated fats are found in a variety of plant foods and oils as well as in animal products. Studies show that eating a diet rich in MUFAs improves blood pressure and cholesterol levels, thus reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. Research also shows that replacing other forms of fat with MUFAs may benefit insulin and blood sugar levels, which can be especially helpful if you are insulin resistant or type 2 diabetic. In addition, other compounds in foods containing high levels of monounsaturated fats (such as olive oil) may have an anti-inflammatory effect in the body, helping to keep systemic inflammation in check.
Good Sources of Monounsaturated Fats
Avocado Macadamia nuts
Avocado Oil Olive Oil
Hazelnuts Olives
Avocado and guacamole are great MUFA-rich complements to a meal, and black or green olives are an often-overlooked portable source of healthy fats.
Cold-pressed (unrefined) avocado oil and extra-virgin olive oil are decent choices for cooking—not your best options, but certainly better than the seed oils you evicted from your pantry a few chapters back. The higher levels of saturated and monounsaturated fats in these oils will help protect the oil from oxidation, as will the naturally occurring antioxidants. (You may lose some healthy antioxidants in the cooking process, but if you keep the heat low and the time in the pan short, the downsides are minimal.) In addition, olive oil or any of the other MUFA-rich oils (like avocado or macadamia oil) are the perfect base for salad dressings and uncooked sauces.
If you’re looking for something crunchy, macadamia and hazelnuts are the healthiest of the nuts and seeds, for reasons we’ll talk about soon. Reach for these (raw or dry-roasted) when you need to add texture to a recipe or need something to grab on the go.
LIONS AND TIGERS AND SATURATED FATS, OH MY!
The next category of fats that encourage optimal health are saturated fatty acids (SFAs). Yes, you heard us right! Wrap your heads around it, folks, because this information is here to stay.
The saturated fats found in real food make you healthier.
As you’ll learn in this section, saturated fat from high-quality, real-food sources is not evil incarnate—it’s just misunderstood. So let’s do some saturated-fat myth-busting, shall we? Don’t worry, we’ll start you off easy.
Sat-Fat Myth #1: Fast-food hamburgers are unhealthy because they contain so much saturated fat.
There are a lot of reasons that fast-food burgers are unhealthy, but it’s not fair to blame the saturated fat content. We’ve already mentioned some of the toxic tagalongs in the fat found in industrially-produced meat, seafood, and eggs. That’s not the fault of saturated fat—that’s a direct result of how the animals were raised and the food they were fed. (You don’t find the same unhealthy hitchhikers in grass-fed, organic burgers.) Furthermore, the industrial seed oils in which those fast-food burgers are fried contribute in a significant way to their unhealthiness.
So, yes, those fast-food burgers aren’t very healthy, and it is because of the fat. But don’t blame the saturated fat—blame the manner in which the meat was sourced and prepared. (And the gluten in the bun, and the high-fructose corn syrup in the condiments, and the monster dose of added sodium.)
Sat-Fat Myth #2: Meat = saturated fat.
As we’ve already explained, all foods are a complex blend of nutrients—and meat is no exception. Don’t fall into the trap of food reductionism: “I don’t eat red meat because it’s saturated fat.” In fact, animal products like tallow (beef fat) and lard (pig fat) probably contain a smaller percentage of saturated fat than you may have imagined—less than 50 percent. Even butter, which is often considered synonymous with “saturated fat,” is less than two-thirds SFA! (The rest of butter is almost entirely heart-healthy monounsaturated fat, by the way.)
We like butter.
So should you.
But we digress. Point is, let’s not unfairly oversimplify our fat sources—even animal fats.
Sat-Fat Myth #3: Saturated fat is artery-clogging.
This is the big one, folks. The big myth. The big lie. And we’re about to expose it.
Keep an open mind, OK?
We’ve all heard the one about how saturated fat causes heart attacks and strokes. In fact, saturated fat is often described as “artery clogging!” But while the logic may seem sound (eating fat fills your arteries with fat), the facts don’t add up.
In 2010, the Journal of Clinical Nutrition compiled a landmark meta-analysis of the results of 21 studies that followed more than 347,000 total participants for up to 23 years. The studies tracked dietary habits, including intake of saturated fat and the participants’ incidence of heart attack and stroke. The meta-analysis found: “There is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, or cardiovascular disease.”
Got it? This massive study-of-studies published by a highly respected scientific organization concluded that saturated fat and cholesterol do not cause heart disease or stroke.
Does that surprise you?
We thought it might.
So if saturated fat is not, in fact, “artery clogging,” what is at the root of lifestyle-related diseases and conditions like heart disease and stroke? Take one guess.
Systemic inflammation.
Researchers have determined that low-grade inflammation is involved in the pathogenesis (and your risk) of many lifestyle-related diseases and conditions, such as coronary heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. (Revisit the diagram back in Chapter 7, with inflammation smack in the middle.)
Ready for a summary of what we’ve learned?
You don’t have to be afraid of saturated fat.
LEAN MEATS
Remember, we recommend eating lean cuts and trimming or draining visible fat if the meat comes from the factory-farming system not because of the saturated fat content, or because the fat in meat is “artery clogging.” It’s the potentially toxic contaminants inherent in the factory-farming system that we’d very much like you to avoid.
Here’s the kicker, however.
Not all the saturated fat in your body starts out that way. It may not even come from fat in your diet at all. This is where we get into the myth that turns out to be true—only not in the way you think.
Was that confusing enough or what?*
Sat-Fat Myth #4: Saturated fat promotes insulin resistance and inflammation.
True.
Some forms of saturated fat (particularly the “long chain” versions) do contribute to insulin resistance and, by extension, inflammation in the body, which does increase your risk for cardiovascular disease and stroke. Palmitic acid (PA) in particular is the type of saturated fat most correlated with insulin resistance and inflammation.
But the form of saturated fat that gets all kinds of ugly in your body doesn’t come from eating saturated fat.
The harmful kind of saturated fat comes from eating too many refined carbohydrates.
Stay with us.
Decades ago, research correlated saturated fat levels—particularly palmitic acid levels—with cardiovascular disease. (The more saturated fat people had in their bodies, the more likely they were to have a heart attack.)
As a result of that research, we were all told not to eat saturated fat because it would lead to heart attack or stroke. We were particularly warned against red meat and eggs, as they happen to be higher in saturated fat than other foods are. The premise was simple: Meat and eggs have lots of saturated fat. Saturated fat is associated with heart disease. Therefore, avoid meat and eggs.
But those recommendations were based on faulty logic.
Let’s break this down, point by point.
Point #1: Identifying high levels of saturated fat, specifically palmitic acid, in folks who had cardiovascular disease does not mean that saturated fat caused the problems. (It’s the old ice cream–shark attack correlation.)
Point #2: It’s impossible to eat palmitic acid all by itself. There isn’t a single food out there—not even palm oil!—that contains only PA. Meat and eggs are high in palmitic acid, sure, but they also contain significant amounts of other fats, like oleic acid (a monounsaturated fat).
Point #3: Other fats, like oleic acid, have been found to prevent palmitic acid from inducing insulin resistance.
So what does this all mean?
Eating whole foods that contain PA is not the same as eating just PA.
Real food (like meat and eggs) contains other fats that help protect your body from too much PA. So there’s basically no way to get a lot of PA into your body all by itself.
Unless …
You eat too much refined carbohydrate.
PLAN B
All the way back in Chapter 5, we mentioned your body’s Plan B for storing energy when the liver and muscle glycogen stores are full. In the case of full glycogen stores, the liver then turns the glucose into fat—specifically, a form of saturated fat called palmitic acid (!)—which could be used for energy, but is more likely (because you’re a sugar-burner and not fat-adapted) to promote elevated triglycerides, leptin resistance and insulin resistance, and to be added to your fat stores.
So, when you eat too much carbohydrate, it’s converted directly into PA by your liver. In which case, you would have a lot of PA in your system without the other protective fats—and you would have a rather large amount of saturated fat in the body that didn’t start out that way.
And that’s the behavior that really gives you heart disease.
Eating whole, unprocessed foods with a rich complement of fat and other nutrients is not unhealthy. Overeating refined carbohydrates is.
And it’s overconsumption of refined carbohydrates that contributes to the increased “bad” cholesterol and triglycerides that are some of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
It’s not the saturated fat in red meat or eggs at all.
EAT THESE ANIMAL FATS
So now that we’ve dispelled the major myths associated with SFA intake, let’s talk about which foods contain these healthy saturated fats. (Say it with us: “healthy saturated fats”—the idea is quite liberating, isn’t it?)
Most people think of animal products first when talking about saturated fats, so we’ll start there. (But remember, even animal products like tallow, lard, and butter aren’t just saturated fat—most are also rich sources of MUFA.)
Good Sources of Animal Fats
Clarified butter Goat fat
Duck fat Lard (pig fat)
Ghee Tallow (beef fat)
Saturated fats are your healthiest choice for cooking, especially at high temperature. Saturated fats are very stable when exposed to air, heat, and light, which makes them ideal for sautéing, pan-frying, broiling, or roasting.
Another form of animal fat comes from dairy—butter. Remember, the issues we have with dairy come from its carbohydrate and protein, not its fat. In fact, we think there are some really healthy compounds in pastured, organic butter, like higher amounts of anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids, CLA (conjugated linoleic acid), vitamin E, and carotenoids.
But we have one stipulation when it comes to butter—that it be clarified. See, butter isn’t just fat. (We’re like a broken record with this “food is complicated” stuff, huh?) Butter is only about 80 percent fat; the rest is water and milk solids (proteins). Those milk proteins are a butter deal-breaker in our eyes, as even tiny amounts can be disruptive to the gut if you’re sensitive to dairy or have any degree of intestinal permeability.
The good news is that there’s a way to remove those milk proteins: clarifying your butter.* It’s a simple process by which you melt the butter at low temperature, so the fat and milk solids separate. You then filter out the milk solids, leaving you with nothing but the gloriously rich, bright yellow butterfat.
Perfection.
And so much tastier than the plastic (we mean margarine) spread you used to eat.
COOKING FAT
Your animal fats must be of the highest quality—grass-fed, pastured, and organic. Remember, the fat in factory-farmed meats is loaded with unhealthy toxins—residues from antibiotics, hormones, heavy metals, and pesticides. So the last thing you want to do is save your factory-farmed bacon fat and cook the rest of your food in it. Make sure you’re buying or rendering your animal fats only from 100 percent grass-fed, pastured, organic sources to ensure that the rest of your food is cooked in the “cleanest” fat possible.
COCONUT: THE OTHER WHITE MEAT
There is another fantastic form of saturated fat that doesn’t come from an animal—so you won’t have the same concerns about sourcing. It’s found in coconut and coconut products.
Coconut contains a large proportion (about 66 percent) of a very healthy form of saturated fat called “medium-chain triglycerides” (MCTs).* These MCTs have some very unique properties and are very beneficial to the body.
First, remember how we said fat is an excellent energy source? Well, these MCTs are shorter-chain fats, meaning that they are more rapidly absorbed and metabolized than their longer-chain counterparts. This means that the MCTs found in coconut products are more likely to be burned as fuel by your muscles and organs, instead of being stored as fat.
Sweet.
Studies also suggest that MCTs may help prevent atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease, in part by reducing cholesterol levels and by imparting a slight blood-glucose-lowering effect.
Finally, MCTs are unique in that they do not require bile (which is made in the liver and stored in the gallbladder) for digestion. This makes them a fantastic fat source if you have impaired liver function, digestive malabsorption conditions, or have had your gallbladder removed.
Good Sources of MCTs
Coconut oil Coconut milk (canned)
Coconut butter/manna Coconut (meat or flakes)
Unrefined coconut oil is ideal for cooking, and most varieties don’t transmit a strong coconut flavor to your food. Coconut milk (the concentrated form in a can, not the sweetened stuff in a milk-like carton) is a great substitute for milk or cream in recipes, and can be used in everything from soups and curries to “creamed” versions of your favorite vegetables. Coconut butter is a delicious snack straight from the jar, and coconut flakes or shreds can be used to coat meat or seafood for a delicious oven-baked crunch (or eaten straight from the bag as a portable source of fat).
CAUTION REQUIRED: POLYUNSATURATED FATS
The last category of fats we’ll discuss are the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). There are many different types of PUFAs, but we’re going to focus on omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. We’ve already talked about these guys in reference to seed oils, but let’s review:
The omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA are anti-inflammatory in nature.
More omega-6 than omega-3 promotes inflammation.
Too much PUFA (omega-3 and omega-6) in the diet makes your cells more vulnerable to oxidation—which predisposes you to inflammation.
So you want some omega-3 in your diet to help reduce inflammation, but you don’t want too much of either omega-3 or omega-6, lest that lead to more inflammation. It’s tricky, we’ll give you that—but we’ve got it all worked out for you in just two steps.
Significantly decrease the amount of omega-6 and total PUFA in your diet.
Eat some naturally occurring omega-3—not too much, but enough to provide some anti-inflammatory benefits.
We’ve already made huge inroads on that first step by eliminating all seed oils. Now, let’s talk about another whole-food source of PUFAs that, if consumed in excess, could provide too much omega-6 and total PUFA in the diet: nuts and seeds.
Nuts and seeds contain a varying amount of polyunsaturated fats—anywhere from 2 percent (macadamia nuts) all the way up to 72 percent (walnuts). But please note, there is a significant difference between eating raw, minimally processed nuts and seeds and highly refined seed oils. Raw nuts and seeds contain a wide range of micronutrients, many of which act as antioxidants. So as long as the nuts and seeds have not been extensively heated or refined, these antioxidants should help to prevent oxidation before consumption. In addition, unlike refined seed oils, nuts and seeds contain a wide variety of health-promoting micronutrients, which studies show may work together to improve your cholesterol profile and reduce inflammation.
Of course, some nuts and seeds in the diet may be good, but more is not better. We still want to be careful not to incorporate too many of these fragile PUFAs into our cell walls, whether from whole-food sources or not.
Nuts and Seeds (and Their Corresponding Nut Butters)
Best Choices In Moderation Limit
Cashews Almonds Flax Seeds
Hazelnuts Brazil Nuts Pine Nuts
Macadamias Pecans Pumpkin Seeds
Pistachios Sesame Seeds
Sunflower Seeds
Walnuts
Let’s start with your best choices—cashews, hazelnuts, and macadamias. These nuts are rich in MUFA and contain very small amounts of PUFA per serving. Nuts and seeds in the middle column have enough PUFA to be of concern, and we’d suggest eating these in moderation (no more than a few times a week).
Finally, you’ve got your lowest-tier nuts and seeds—the ones we’d recommend you limit in your healthy-fat rotation. More than half the fat in them comes from PUFAs, and therefore they should be eaten only occasionally, or treated like a condiment, sprinkled on salads, vegetables, or main dishes.
OMEGA-3 TECHNICALITIES
You’ve probably heard that flax, walnuts, chia, and hemp are good sources of omega-3 fatty acids—so why do we say they should be consumed only occasionally? The omega-3s in these sources are in a form called alpha-linolenic acid (ALA)—not the anti-inflammatory stuff (EPA and DHA). Your body can convert ALA to EPA and DHA, but the process is long, and can be impeded by a variety of dietary and lifestyle factors. Even if everything worked perfectly, the amount of EPA and DHA you’d get at the end is so small that it practically doesn’t count. And remember, these foods all give you a serious dose of PUFA and omega-6 fatty acids! Getting a lot of PUFA and omega-6, and just a tiny amount of anti-inflammatory EPA and DHA is not a good tradeoff in our books. (We also could have just said, “Studies show that supplementation of omega-3 fatty acids from vegetable sources like flax don’t decrease inflammation.” That might have been simpler.)
One last thought on nuts, seeds, and especially their corresponding nut butters. Much like the natural sweetness of fruit may promote an unhealthy psychological response (and potentially violate our first Good Food standard), the natural fats, added salt, and perhaps added sugar found in nuts and nut butters can have the same effect.
In plain speech, people find them all too easy to overconsume.
Now, if you were to sit in front of the television and mindlessly eat a whole bag of carrots—no harm, no foul. We certainly don’t encourage that kind of “auto-pilot consumption,” but even an entire bag of carrots isn’t going to send your metabolism spiraling out of control.
Swap those carrots for half a jar of sunflower seed butter (or almonds, or macadamia nuts), however, and we’ve got a serious problem. Nuts and seeds pack a far greater caloric punch than carrots, and you may just find yourself consuming almost an entire day’s worth of calories before you know it. Really. Half a jar of sunflower seed butter has 1,400 calories—and a whole lot of PUFA and omega-6 to boot.
So there are a few reasons that nuts and seeds should be near the bottom of your list of healthy fat sources. They are certainly not unhealthy—but for the several reasons we’ve outlined, they’re not the most healthy of your healthy choices. Reach for these occasionally when adding fat to meals, but choose other fats (like avocado, olives, and coconut) more often.
HEALTHY OMEGA-3
So where should you get your omega-3s? From animals raised in their natural environment and fed their natural diets. Omega-3s are found in green leaves and algae—the food that our food is supposed to eat. (Of course, we can’t digest grasses—otherwise, we’d just eat them ourselves!) When grass-fed beef, pastured chicken, or wild salmon get healthy omega-3s in their diets, we get healthy EPA and DHA in ours when we eat their meat. Of course, factory-farmed animals aren’t fed their natural diets, which means they don’t get enough omega-3s, which means there isn’t much EPA and DHA in their meat. So improving the quality of our meat, seafood, and eggs means we’re also improving our intake of healthy omega-3 fatty acids.
FOOD QUALITY: THE FINAL WORD
Before we wrap up this section, we want to make three very important points about food quality.
Focus on meat, seafood, and eggs first.
If you can focus on the sourcing of only one item on your plate, we think you’re better off improving the quality of your animal protein sources first—even before thinking about organic vegetables, fruits, and fats. We believe that the health of the animal has a significant effect on your health. And while we’re certainly not encouraging you to ingest pesticides, in our opinion the potential downsides of industrially-raised meat, seafood, and eggs are far more harmful than the residues left on produce.
Conventional vegetables and fruit are better than no vegetables and fruits.
The potential downsides of pesticide residues don’t outweigh the major health benefits from consuming vegetables and fruits. We’ll reiterate: Making Good Food choices is the most important factor in your healthy-eating transformation. Focusing on food sourcing comes second, so think about it when you’re able. If you can’t wrap your head around organic, can’t afford organic, or can’t find organic in your community, that’s OK. Just eat your greens!
Do the best you can with what you’ve got.
Thinking about how to improve the quality of your food can send you down the rabbit hole pretty darn fast. The more you learn about where your food comes from and the wide variety of health effects related to farming practices, the easier it is to become confused or disheartened. The last thing we want is for you to become so overwhelmed by all of these new concepts that you become paralyzed in your food decisions.
So, please—don’t stress about your food! You can’t ask for the full biography of every animal or plant you eat, so if the waiter says it’s wild-caught or the label says “pesticide free,” you have to trust that information and make the best decision you can. It’s that simple—we promise.
LET’S EAT!
Congratulations! Not only have you survived the science-y stuff and our “less-healthy” information, but you’ve learned everything you’ll need to know about choosing foods that make you healthier. So what’s left? The best part—eating! Now that you’ve got all your foods in line, it’s time to figure out how to put them all together into actual honest-to-goodness meals.
Hungry? So are we!