Food is one of the great delights in life.  Enjoying what you eat is not only a critical part of a full, happy life – it’s necessary for optimal physical health. The taste and smell of food is actually an important part of digestion! When a food has a pleasant aroma, just smelling that food starts the flow of chemicals in your stomach that will help you digest that food. Taste has an even more powerful effect on digestion than smell. Unappealing foods don’t stimulate our digestion to the same degree as do appealing foods.  As a result, we don’t digest them as fully, and poor digestion leads to less than optimal health. Further, enjoying the aroma and taste of a meal causes the release of a host of feel-good chemicals that have beneficial effects on both body and brain.

But who needs reasons to eat foods that they enjoy? The reason we’ve gone through all of this is to assure you that we’re on the same page with you when it comes to food: Eating should be fun, not a chore. Our goal is to show you how to make healthy eating satisfying and enjoyable. In fact, we believe that once you get used to eating the ReEvolution way (the way your body is meant to eat), you’ll start enjoying your meals more, on top of becomming a fitter, healthier person!

Simple Enjoyable Healthy Eating Principles:

1. Eat Natural (Whole) Foods

What is a natural food, and why should you care? In essence, a natural food is any food that hasn’t been processed or altered by modern technology. These include fresh meats (not cold cuts), raw nuts (not roasted nuts), fresh fish, fresh and frozen veggies, fresh and frozen fruit, eggs, beans, true whole grains, and some dairy products like raw milk cheeses and high quality yogurts . These are the foods that our bodies are designed to eat.  When we do eat these foods, it is easy for us to stay fit, lean, and healthy. Sadly, most of what we eat today is processed food. Processed foods, like fast foods, snack chips, baked goods, frozen dinners, and everything made with sugar, are designed to pack in as much flavor as possible. These foods may delight your taste buds at present, but they reek havoc on your body. Numerous studies have documented how obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and certain forms of cancer are tied to the consumption of sugar and artificial ingredient-laden processed foods.

But the idea that processed foods do us harm in the long run may not be motivating next to the fact that they taste good right now. What is motivating is the immediate difference in the way you’ll feel when you cut back on processed foods and replace them with natural foods. Most processed foods are full of sugar and/or white flour. Eating these foods sends your body on a blood-sugar roller coaster. Almost as soon as you eat them, your blood sugar soars. And since blood sugar tends to correlate with energy levels, you feel great. But within 15 or 20 minutes, your blood sugar crashes back down, actually getting lower than it was before you ate. When this happens, you feel tired and edgy, and you end up craving more processed food.

Sugary or floury foods are similar to tobacco in their effects on our systems. They give us a quick high, followed by a crash, which makes us crave more of them, and sets us up for addiction. It’s no coincidence that America’s biggest cigarette manufacturers have long been involved in the processed food industry as well. Both cigarettes and processed food get people addicted to substances that they don’t need and rake in huge profits while ruining people's health. Phillip Morris, maker of Marlboro cigarettes, founded Kraft foods. Not many people realize that brands like Oreo Cookies, Chips Ahoy, Ritz Crackers, Miracle Whip, Triscuts, Teddy Grahams, Post Cereal, Stove Top stuffing, Kool Aid, Jell-O, SnackWells, and many, many others were created and marketed by the same people who make Marlboros. RJ Reynolds, maker of Camel and Kool cigarettes, also founded Nabisco foods. Pretty disturbing, hugh?

In converse to processed foods, natural foods supply our bodies with a steady stream of nutrients, providing lasting energy and stabilizing our mood. As a result, natural foods make it easier for us to focus throughout our days, and also help us sleep more deeply at night (you need stable blood sugar to get a good night’s sleep!). As you make the transition to eating mostly natural foods, you will also notice your skin becoming clearer, the shape of your body changing, and a generally increased sense of vitality and well-being. These changes take a little while, and breaking the habit of eating junk food can be tough (check out Controlling Appetite and Cravings for help). But we promise that if you start reducing your consumption of processed foods and eating more natural foods within a few weeks you’ll start feeling better and soon thereafter you'll start losing weight and looking better as well. As your blood sugar stabilizes and your body gets healthier, you will also stop craving junk foods. In fact, most people lose their taste for processed junk foods a few months after switching to a whole foods diet. All of the artificial ingredients, sugar, waxes, and dyes just start to taste wrong.

So how do you go about eating more natural foods? For the most part, it’s simple – apply the “Cave Man Rule”. If you can imagine a food existing out in nature 10,000 years ago, when it could have been eaten by a cave man, it’s a natural food, and your body is probably designed to eat it. For instance, picture a caveman holding an apple, or some almonds, or a piece of meat. It’s easy, right. If you can’t imagine a given food out in nature 10,000 years ago, it probably isn’t natural, and your body probably isn’t designed to eat it. Try picturing a caveman holding a Twinky... Choose natural foods for most of your meals and snacks, and you’ll be amazed at the difference in your body and your life. Check out some option with our Tasty Healthy Food Menu.

Beans, grains, and dairy are all products of agriculture, and not, strictly speaking, cave man food, but in their natural forms, they are whole foods and an important part of a healthy diet. Our ancestros have been eating these foods for thousands of years, and our bodies are well adapted to them. All sorts of beans, including black beans, kidney beans, red beans, pinto beans, and chick peas (and hummus) are wonderful sources of carbs, protein, and fiber. Real whole grains like oats, quinoa, buckwheat, barley, amaranth, and true whole grain breads (look for sprouted grains, stone ground breads, or dark rye - most other breads are overly processed) are also highly nutritious. Dairy products, especially organic yogurts (buying organic is especially important with dairy products. Commercial milk is full of artificial chemicals and toxins) and raw milk cheeses, provide protein, healthy fat, and calcium, and are wonderfully nutritious and filing. See Choosing Healthy Food for more advice on how to ID high quality food.