What food should I be eating???

4 min to read

Nowadays, there’s a lot of information (or mis-information) about what we should be eating for a healthy lifestyle, which mostly centres around losing weight. Or do we mean bodyfat???

We do realise the irony of adding to the masses of information with our own blog!

It’s our opinion that our diets should be a healthy balance of carbohydrates, protein and fats, with a couple of portions of fruit and lots of vegetables.

We’re not really offering specific advice on what to eat in order to lose weight but more along the lines of a sustainable lifestyle, that’s healthy and can be maintained.

Our approach towards nutrition but also towards exercise and life itself, is to try to simplify the things that seem difficult. A rebuttal to this point is that “sometimes there is no way to simplify something” and therefore, we must digest the problem (pun intended) in it’s largest and most difficult version.

Nonsense! We can always simplify problems, even if only by a small amount. Here’s a few helpful tips that can simplify your eating plan, so that you have a basic guide for whatever you’re goals are, or what position you’re currently in.

Nutrition, also termed “diet”, “food pans”, “eating plans”, “food diaries”, “watching weight”, “counting calories” etc. all largely mean the same thing. However, they’re often packaged differently to make it sound as if they are unique and that they’re the REAL answer to nutrition/weight/fat loss.

Something we never hear people say is that the easiest way to lose weight with your food choices is simply to not eat food at all. You’ll lose loads of weight and really quickly too!!!

Too facetious? Ok, let’s go about this with at least a little bit of science 😊

Let’s start with debunking our least favourite pop culture myth, that carbohydrates are bad. Carbs are not bad (in reality no food is bad) but in fact necessary for the vast majority of us! However, not all carbs are as good as others. Carbs are sugar, starch and fibre.

Sugar is considered the most basic form of carbohydrate but that isn’t fair to block that in with high complex and more starchy carbs, such as wholewheat pasta, sweet potato and lentils. The latter 3 have a completely different response on the body, than does sugar and is often measured by their placing on the glycaemic index (GI) and also glycaemic load (GL) (Mayo Clinic, 2022).

In short, GI ranks foods from low <=55 and high from >=70-100, with the highest having the quickest effect on a person’s blood stream (LowGIHealth.com.au, 2010). Sugar has approx. 65 GI but lentils comes in at 21 GI, meaning that the effects on your blood sugar will be vastly different were we to eat a high sugar diet vs a diet containing lots of lentils (NHS, 2022).

We know this can be a bit confusing 🤨

In general, if your food choices represented lower GI foods, as opposed to higher GI foods, then the effect will be much longer lasting and a healthier choice. GL on the other hand, is measured by GI x carbohydrate / 100. The lower the GL, the longer lasting the effect has on our blood sugar and also the lesser effect it has on our insulin response (Diabetes.co.uk, 2019). If we mix our carbs, however, with a version of protein (chicken, white fish), some fat (avocado, fish oils/vegetable oils, cheese) and lots of veg, then the GL will come in at a lower level too (NHS, 2022).

This shows that mixing carbs with other foods, means a heathier and more balanced response on the body and further shows why a balanced food intake is desirable.

Next on the list is protein. Every gym goer’s go-to answer for how to get “ripped”, “shredded”, “cut”, “jacked”, “big”, “slim” etc. Yikes, protein looks like it does lots of things…

In short, protein is needed for growth, repair and maintenance in the body, especially for bones and muscles. Our protein needs change across the course of our life and also vary depending on bodyweight and activity levels.

Some people will tell you that you need to be eating 2-3 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight bro! This works out to be between 160-240g for an average man in the UK weighing 80kg, which would be the equivalent of 6-10 cans of tuna or 5-8 chicken breasts per day (Ross et al, 2011). Sound realistic?

That amount of protein has its merits if you’re a full-time athlete and participating in 3+ hours of intense training a day. For most of us, however, we only need about 0.75 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight, working out to be around 56g/day and 45g/day for men and women, in the UK, of average body weights, respectively (British Nutrition Foundation, 2021). This is only about 2 cans of tuna per day, or 1-1.5 chicken breasts, which is realistic.

Another added benefit of adding protein to a balanced meal is that it has a direct effect on stomach hormones, which affect how hungry we feel. A decent portion of protein per meal, approx. 20-25gs, will have an affect on raising our leptin level and reducing ghrelin levels, which makes us feel more full (Kollias, 2022).

Lastly on the list of recognisable food groups, fat. This is arguably the food group causing the biggest stir nowadays, with popular diets such as Atkins and the Keto Diet being made famous (Everyday Health, 2018). Whilst these diets have their merits, we would only recommend them for very specific (obese and prediabetics) populations, as they allow for a vast drop in blood sugar and therefore, it allows the insulin sensitivity of these individuals to normalise (Diabetes.co.uk, 2019).

For most other people, we would recommend a varied diet and not just focusing on fat as a sole energy source. Whilst it’s calorie dense and has benefits to insulin sensitivity, it lacks things that helps us grow and repair the body found in protein (insulin like growth factor) and readily available energy broken down by carbs (glycogen) (Pathol, M, 2001). It’s also really hard to maintain, socially difficult, soulless and challenging for many. Research shows that when we pick a diet that restricts all other food groups, there’s approx. an 80% failure rate in diets long-term (Livestrong.com, 2021).

What this demonstrates is that no matter what diet you pick, it’s highly likely you won’t achieve your desired weight loss target and sustain it long term, circa 1-5 years.

Enjoy your food and don’t feel guilty about it!

In the end, it's just food... 😉

Overall, we’d recommend that people have a varied and balanced diet, that would consist of at least 20-30% high complex carbs, 30-40% protein and 30% fat, with as many vegetables as you can eat!

This will mean that you’re getting the necessary balance of energy from carbs, repair, maintenance and fullness from protein and a healthy insulin profile from fat.

Below are a short list of foods from each group that we’d recommend. There are obviously more but these are an easy guide 😊

References

British Nutrition Foundation (2021) The science of protein, https://www.nutrition.org.uk/healthy-sustainable-diets/protein/?level=Health%20professional

Diabetes.co.uk (2019) Glycemic Load, https://www.diabetes.co.uk/diet/glycemic-load.html 

Diabetes.co.uk (2019) Insulin Sensitivity, https://www.diabetes.co.uk/insulin/insulin-sensitivity.html 

Everyday Health (2018) What’s the Difference Between Keto and Atkins?, https://www.everydayhealth.com/ketogenic-diet/diet/ketogenic-diet-vs-atkins-diet-how-they-differ/Kollias, H (2022) PrecisionNutrition, Leptin, ghrelin, and weight loss, https://www.precisionnutrition.com/leptin-ghrelin-weight-loss

Livestrong.com (2021) 70 Dieting Statistics You Should Know, https://www.livestrong.com/article/13764583-diet-statistics/

LowGIHealth.com.au (2010) Glycaemic Index Food List, http://www.lowgihealth.com.au/glycaemic-index-list-of-foods/

Mayo Clinic (2022) Nutrition and Healthy Eating – Carbohydrates: How carbs fit into a healthy diet, https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/carbohydrates/art-20045705

NHS (2022) Glycaemic Index, https://www.mkuh.nhs.uk/patient-information-leaflet/glycaemic-index-gi

Pathol, M. (2001) National Library of Medicine 2001 Oct; 54(5): 311-316

Ross, AC., Taylor, CL., Yaktine, AL., et al., editors (2011) Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine, National Academies, Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs): Recommended Dietary Allowances and Adequate Intakes, Total Water and Macronutrients, Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids (2002/2005) and Dietary Reference Intakes for Water, Potassium, Sodium, Chloride, and Sulfate (2005).