food

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The 7 Ideas That Cured My Sugar Addiction Once and For All

If it seems impossible to let go of something so delicious, I’m happy to tell you that it’s easier than you think.

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels

The scientific studies reviewed by Harvard Health, Healthline, and WebMD all agree: sugar is terrible for our health.

Like so many others, this struck me as a highly inconvenient truth. I grew up in a time when the dangers of sugar were still poorly understood, allowing my sweet tooth to grow unchecked. Then, when adulthood arrived in all its complexity, chocolate and ice cream quickly became my default coping mechanisms. Simply put, sugar was my fuel for getting through tough times.

Fortunately, reason eventually prevailed. It took several years, but I’m now at the point where sugar no longer has any say in my life. And you want to know the best part? What I thought would be a painful sacrifice turned out to be an amazing journey with an even better destination:

  • Removing this sweet coping mechanism from my life enforced a career recalibration, leading to much less stress and more creative freedom.
  • To my great surprise, the varied whole-food diet that replaced sugar and other unhealthy foods proved deeply enjoyable.
  • I discovered the good vibes from understanding how much my healthy diet means to society and those around me.
  • That empty-calorie-binge guilt is no longer part of my life.
  • The occasional sweet treat at a special occasion now tastes even better.

I would love it if more people could experience these benefits. So, please check out the seven ideas that cured my sugar addiction and choose the ones that fit your life. We’ll start with a convenient short version, followed by more elaborate descriptions for the interested reader.

The Short Version

1. Patiently remove your emotional eating triggers

See your cravings as valuable guides for personal growth by using them to pinpoint any areas of life where real change is needed. Then take patient action, acknowledging that meaningful change takes time.

2. Build your personal zero-compromise eating plan

Believe it or not, a diet can be healthy, tasty, practical, and affordable all at the same time. Establishing such an eating regimen is a fantastic one-time investment that will deliver great returns for the rest of your life.

3. Understand how a healthy diet makes the world a better place

The societal value of nourishing food extends well beyond climate change and animal welfare. Fully understanding all the powerful reasons for healthy eating will give you plenty of motivation for positive change.

4. Deactivate your binge-eating triggers

Make any patterns that trigger you to stuff yourself more expensive using a charitable donations contract. This simple idea lets you support some great causes every time you engage in self-sabotage.

5. Keep your environment free from temptations

Bringing highly addictive empty calories into your home also deserves a prime spot in your charitable donations contract. If you commit to always pay the true cost of these junk foods, they become much less tempting.

6. Line up some healthy distractions

Irrational cravings are not particularly intelligent things. A few preplanned distractions are often all it takes to make them go away.

7. Find healthier alternatives

In those cases where some unhealthy treats create genuine value, try choosing something luxurious that at least comes with a few nutrients.

If you need more detail about any of these ideas, please scroll down to the appropriate section below.

1. Weed Out Emotional Eating Triggers

Sadly, my former sugar addiction is far from unique. Nowadays, a tremendous amount of unhealthy food is being consumed to soothe negative emotions like stress and anxiety with disastrous health impacts.

Thus, our first step on the road to effortless healthy eating is to identify our biggest emotional eating triggers and put a plan in motion to gradually weed them out. In some cases, this can be a daunting mission. You might need to change jobs, end an incompatible relationship, or even admit that you need professional help.

On the bright side, it can also be a springboard to great personal growth. In my case, emotional eating resulted mainly from a work situation that kept me overloaded and unable to freely pursue the creative ideas piling up in my head. It took several years, but my determination to weed out this emotional eating trigger eventually led to complete financial and creative freedom — Nirvana for a research scientist like me.

So, next time you’re irresistibly drawn to emotional eating, take a few seconds to pause, open your mind as much as possible, and say to your body: “Talk to me. I’m listening.” Don’t judge. Just listen. If you do, the resulting train of thought will help you identify the root cause behind this unhealthy craving. When it becomes clear what you need to do, thank your body for sharing and get on the job.

As mentioned before, this job will likely require plenty of patience and bravery. But even when you’re still early in the process, the fact that you’re doing something about it will already weaken your cravings. Use the extra willpower reserves liberated by this early progress to double down and eradicate your emotional eating trigger once and for all.

2. Build A Zero-Compromise Diet

Many people still live under the misconception that healthy eating should be bland and boring. Not true! The key to healthy eating is to consume a wide variety of whole foods containing the full spectrum of nutrients. This variety opens tremendous possibilities for making delicious dishes. To give just one example, I would take my 2-minute whole-food breakfast over a typical sugary cereal on taste alone any day of the week.

Putting this into practice will bring different challenges to different people. To me, this was one of the easier steps. Designing the perfect eating plan appealed to my meticulous nature, and my simple lifestyle made it easy to experiment. For those with hectic family lives, it will be tougher. But this only means you need to be pragmatic. The simple plan I use to eat 40 different whole foods per day with only 10 minutes is a good starting point.

Always keep your eye on the prize: Once your zero-compromise eating plan takes hold, it will enrich the rest of your (significantly longer) life. And, if your hectic family life is keeping you from taking this vital step, transform this roadblock into a launching pad by realizing that a zero-compromise eating plan is one of the greatest gifts you can ever give your children.

3. Understand How Your Healthy Diet Benefits the World

After these two inwardly focused steps, it’s time to expand our thought process to the world around us. Few people realize what a tremendous effect their eating habits have on society. Indeed, one of the best things about a healthy diet is that it genuinely makes the world a better place.

In a previous article, I discussed how healthy eating habits promote social justice, combat climate change and other serious environmental problems, improve animal welfare, safeguard our social welfare systems, and improve the lives of those you care about. Fully understanding these positive impacts will bless you with a rich dose of motivation for building and maintaining your lifelong healthy diet.

4. Deactivate Your Binge-Eating Triggers

Is there some combination of events that makes you especially prone to binge-eating? For me, it’s eating in front of the TV. In this environment, my natural satiety response simply stops working. After eating and then eating some more, I get seriously uncomfortable, but my food cravings refuse to go away. Such a total malfunction of one of my body’s key regulatory systems really is quite alarming.

Your binge-eating trigger might be something totally different. Whatever it is, you’ll be much better off removing it from your life. A great way of doing this is to include it in your charitable donations contract. This is an agreement with yourself that you will pay a fixed amount to charity whenever you engage in a specified self-destructive action (like triggering your binge reflex). Over time, it helped me completely deactivate my binge trigger (while simultaneously supporting some great causes).

5. Keep Your Environment Clean

This step is all about nutritional cleanliness — a fancy way of saying that you shouldn’t leave any empty calories lying around. These nutrient-free addictions are designed from the ground up to short-circuit your body’s natural satiety response and make you overeat. Supermarkets only add to the problem by setting up empty-calorie ambushes around every corner to profit from impulse buying.

This is not natural. In an ideal society, these soft drugs (yes, that’s what they are) would be subject to a substantial sin-tax that correctly accounts for their huge societal costs. Unfortunately, however, our society remains quite unsophisticated in this respect, leaving us to fend for ourselves.

Luckily, you can straighten out this twisted incentive by including empty-calorie purchases in your charitable donations contract. This will ensure that you always pay the true cost of these slow poisons, including their effects on your health, productivity, self-image, and those around you.

Another great idea is to always have some veggie snacks on prominent display. Even this former sugar addict had to admit that snack veggies like cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, and peas are surprisingly tasty. They’re also expert assassins of pesky sugar cravings. Other healthy snacking options include a grab-and-go green smoothie and your favorite type of tea.

6. Line Up Some Healthy Distractions

Whenever you feel a craving that has nothing to do with physical hunger, be sure to have a couple of healthy distractions lined up. Start by drinking a glass of water and enjoying a couple of veggie snacks. If the craving remains, it means that your body is really trying to tell you something. Use the “I’m listening” meditation described in Step 1 to find out what it is.

It also helps to change your environment. Perhaps you can go for a quick walk, listen (or dance) to your favorite song, or take a shower. In many cases, this little bit of distraction will let you forget the craving.

Brushing your teeth is another powerful craving-buster. I find this trick particularly useful when some annoying cravings keep bothering me after a hearty meal.

7. Find Healthier Alternatives

Finally, we must acknowledge those occasions where some refined sugar or saturated fat can add genuine value. For example, when friends have you over for dinner, openly enjoying a carefully prepared dessert is better than awkwardly declining for health reasons. You can also use some delicious culinary treats to enhance the memory of any celebration.

In such cases, try to indulge in some luxury treats that at least come with a couple of nutrients. This is a particularly useful philosophy to follow whenever you need to bring something tasty to a celebration or social event. My favorites include premium dark chocolate, nuts covered in sweetened yogurt, and high-quality ice cream with fresh berries. It’s also wise to eat a hearty whole-food meal before going to an event where lots of empty-calorie temptations will be waiting for you.

Good luck on your journey to lifelong healthy eating habits! Completing this journey is one of the smartest things I’ve ever done, and I’d recommend it to anyone willing to listen. 😊

Thanks to Alta Cloete.

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How Many Different Types of Whole Food Did You Enjoy Today?

Answering this simple question can tell you more about your long-term health than any other.

Image by silviarita from Pixabay.

Do you sometimes get lost in all the health advice out there? Me too. The near-infinite number of diet plans, fitness programs, and mindfulness practices filling the internet can easily become overwhelming.

Which made me wonder: How much can we simplify things? Or better yet: Could health be boiled down to a single question?

Well, no. But answering the question in the title will tell you more about your long-term health than any other I can think of (do let me know if you come up with a more important one).

So, why is this question so vital? Because it directly addresses the biggest health problem of our time: We’re overfed and undernourished. Filling your body with a wide variety of nutritious foods will not only keep you in great health (perhaps you never get sick again); it will also help you effortlessly maintain a healthy weight.

Why the Emphasis on Variety?

It deserves repeating: The world is overfed and undernourished. Most of the food in our supermarkets is rich in calories and poor in nutrients. This makes our bodies crave more food for two reasons:

  1. Empty-calorie foods are purpose-built for addiction, shamelessly exploiting our primitive cravings for refined sugars, saturated fats, and added salt. I view this as capitalism’s single biggest failure.
  2. Nutrient deficiencies can trigger our bodies to demand more food, even when our caloric needs are met. That’s why a nutrient-rich diet is a great way to rectify unhelpful hunger signals sent by our bodies.

We’re all too aware of the impacts of consuming too many calories. But the implications of insufficient micronutrients enjoy far too little attention. Our bodies require a wide range of vitamins and minerals to function optimally, and persistent deficiencies bring all sorts of nasty consequences.

Simply put, an impressively high number behind our title question offers the perfect antidote to our “overfed and undernourished” dilemma.

Furthermore, focusing on one simple thing: maximizing the number of different whole foods you eat every day, keeps things attractively simple. A varied whole-food diet simply leaves no space for taking all those slow poisons designed to throw our food cravings all out of whack.

So, let’s see how we can load up on a wide variety of whole foods in a highly practical and deeply enjoyable manner.

The Four Whole-Food Categories

The first objection to a healthy, whole-food diet is that it’s not practical in a busy modern lifestyle. We simply don’t have the time and energy to turn multiple whole ingredients into tasty meals day after day.

Second, we meet the objection that whole foods are no fun. What’s the use of living longer when we cannot enjoy the good things life has to offer?

Let’s put these two limiting beliefs to bed right now. The ideas in the following sections make it so practical and pleasant to enjoy a wide range of whole foods that there will be no excuses left.

1. Nuts, Seeds, and Berries

This is my all-time favorite whole-food category. Not only because of the incredible health benefits and the fantastic taste but also because of the great practicality. You can check out this article to learn how to turn 16 healthy ingredients into a delicious breakfast in as little as two minutes.

The key is to buy nuts, seeds, and berries that are already premixed. In the case of seeds, you’ll most likely need to do this yourself, but, if done smartly, the required time investment is negligible. Buying and premixing your seeds in bulk is also great for your wallet.

In short, if you set this up well, you’ll have a lifelong healthy breakfast that is a pleasure to eat and a breeze to prepare.

2. Cooked and Raw Veggies

Vegetables have developed into rather unfortunate symbols of the sacrifice we must make to live healthy lives. Preparing them can also become a rather tedious task.

Luckily, there’s a straightforward solution to both these concerns. The “meat as vegetable dressing” flexitarian eating philosophy offers a fantastic combo of health, taste, and practicality, throwing in a clean conscience as a bonus. Such meals are perfect for cooking in large batches and freezing for later use. Here are some delicious recipes that will cost you no more than 5 minutes for each of your daily warm meals.

When it comes to raw veggies, simply treat them as snacks. Always have some cherry tomatoes, carrots, or peas lying around the house where you can easily see them. These veggies not only make surprisingly tasty snacks; they also help to naturally control cravings. Another simple idea is to have a green salad (or just a few cucumber slices) next to every warm meal.

Lastly, I strongly recommend building a green smoothie habit. This health cocktail is also best made in bulk and frozen. Do this, and you’ll pay well under a minute of your precious time per glass of green smoothie.

3. Avocado and Other Fruit

Fruit has come under fire in recent years for its high fructose content, but it remains an important source of nutritional variety. Raw veggies are a better snacking option, but adding your favorite fruits into the mix is no problem. Pressed fruit juice is also OK as long as it contains no added sugar.

But there’s one fruit that deserves special mention: the avocado. This fruit is unique because it barely contains any sugar, providing loads of healthy monounsaturated fats instead. If you master the art of avocado management, turning this delicious food into a staple is also very practical.

Start by buying your avocados while they’re still rock hard to avoid any nasty bruises. Then just let them ripen naturally at home. Do a quick check once per day to find the ripe ones and transfer them to the fridge, where they will last for more than a week. With a little practice, you’ll soon learn to manage your avo stockpile so that you always have several perfectly ripened specimens in the fridge just waiting to be eaten.

4. Non-Meat Protein

Protein is the only macronutrient broadly accepted in the dieting community, with both fats and carbs often triggering extreme opinions. But many high-protein foods have another problem: serious environmental and animal welfare impacts. That’s why this category excludes meat.

Luckily, there are plenty of tasty and convenient non-meat alternatives at our disposal. When looking at animal products, fish, eggs, and dairy offer many healthy and delicious options. Eggs are a particularly good option in terms of practicality. Everyone should know how to whip up a good omelet or perfect scrambled eggs in a few short minutes.

When looking at plant proteins, legumes are king. They’re also perfect candidates for the “meat as a vegetable dressing” warm meals mentioned earlier. You can mostly buy these foods canned or dried and add them to the pot with no extra effort.

Putting It All Together

Here are the best time-saving strategies for maximizing your whole food variety and enjoyment:

  • Design your super breakfast of nuts, seeds, and berries.
  • Cook your warm meals in bulk based on the “meat as a vegetable dressing” philosophy, freezing them for highly convenient warm lunches.
  • Make sure to include plenty of legumes in these warm meals.
  • Prominently display raw vegetables as your primary snack foods.
  • Establish a green smoothie habit and regularly include a green salad next to your warm meals.
  • Master the art of avocado management.
  • Learn to whip up some eggs in a matter of minutes.

These habits help me eat about 40 different whole foods every day without spending more than 10 minutes on food preparation. This varied whole food diet naturally controls my cravings, helping me maintain my ideal weight and never get sick without investing any of my limited willpower. Whenever I feel hungry, I eat something I enjoy. Simple as that.

So, how many different types of whole food did you enjoy today? And, more importantly, how many will be you enjoying tomorrow?

Thanks to Alta Cloete.

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How Food Became Capitalism’s Greatest Failure

The origins of our global obesity and chronic disease epidemics

Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay.

Capitalism: that ingenious system for mobilizing people to create value and advance our civilization. Without it, most of us would still be peasants slaving away on subsistence farms. But capitalism has its problems, mainly 1) extreme wealth disparities and 2) huge externalities (costs to society not reflected in the selling price of goods and services).

Most countries have the first issue under reasonable control via tax brackets that take a much larger fraction of income from high earners. For example, in the US, the top 1% pays a 6x higher tax rate than the bottom 50%, contributing 38.5% of total income tax revenue.

It’s the second point that really drives me up the wall — not only because of its terrible effects on society but also because it’s theoretically so simple to fix.

I used to think that climate change was the worst consequence of our failure to fix capitalism. Now, I think it’s addictive food. Here’s why…

Our Primitive Food Cravings

Humans evolved over 200 millennia in a harsh world of great scarcity. Feeding ourselves in this environment required tremendous effort, sacrifice, and risk. That’s where our enormous food cravings come from — those with the strongest drive to face these daily ordeals were the ones who survived.

Then, over the last century or so, everything changed. Science, fossil fuels, and capitalism joined forces to produce an abundance of food that could be conveniently collected in supermarkets with almost no risk or effort.

At first, this was great. The fraction of the population that needed to work in agriculture dropped from more than half to only a few percent, freeing up a tremendous amount of human potential for pursuing higher purposes.

Image source.

But before long, it became clear that we had a serious problem: Our primitive food cravings caused us to gorge ourselves on this newfound abundance. And the result looked like this:

Image source.

It’s hard to fully comprehend the power of these primitive cravings. Just think about it: Being obese sucks! Every physical action gets harder, self-esteem plummets, productivity declines, food and medical costs rise, and life expectancy drops. And yet, despite all these huge incentives to maintain a healthy weight, the trends keep marching relentlessly upwards.

This is not natural. Humans may have strong food cravings, but we have similarly strong drives to survive, improve our lives, and be accepted and respected by the tribe. Something’s seriously wrong here.

How Capitalism Corrupted Food

Raw capitalism cares only about profit. Whatever happens to the customer and society after the sale is made is of no consequence.

In the food industry, this creates a massive incentive to design products that send our primitive food cravings into overdrive. Yes, highly addictive food may be terrible for individual and societal health, but it’s great for profits.

Here are the 18 most addictive foods that emerged from all this profit-maximizing innovation:

  1. Pizza
  2. Chocolate
  3. Chips
  4. Cookies
  5. Ice cream
  6. French fries
  7. Cheeseburgers
  8. Soda (not diet)
  9. Cake
  10. Cheese
  11. Bacon
  12. Fried chicken
  13. Rolls (plain)
  14. Popcorn (buttered)
  15. Breakfast cereal
  16. Gummy candy
  17. Steak
  18. Muffins

Notice the common thread? High concentrations of refined sugar, saturated fat, and sodium. These are the elements that send our 200-millennia-old food cravings into a mindless frenzy. And capitalism has incentivized the food industry to exploit these binge-instincts to the max.

But the creation of these foods is not enough. No, to further boost profits, they must be made available in ways that maximize desire and stimulate impulse buying. Here, we have three main avenues:

  1. Supermarket checkout aisles lined with colorful addictive treats
  2. Fast food restaurants placed on popular routes
  3. Rapid food delivery services

That’s how we ended up in a world that surrounds us with easily accessible food designed for maximum addiction. It’s totally unnatural, and it’s the leading cause of the global obesity epidemic.

Where Are the Nutrients?

To make matters worse, another common theme in the list of addictive foods given above is their shamefully low micronutrient content.

The human body needs a wide range of vitamins and minerals to function optimally. A deficiency in any of these essential micronutrients can cause serious health issues.

Also, nutrient deficiency could be a big part of the reason why our food cravings are all out of whack. For example, this study found very encouraging effects of a high-nutrient-density diet on reducing food cravings.

So, to recap, unbridled capitalism incentivizes the industry to design food for overeating with no regard for nutritional value. This creates entire societies that are overfed and undernourished.

Excessive body mass from consuming too many calories is the most visible consequence of this sad situation. But nutrient deficiency is shortening and diluting billions of lives behind the scenes.

The Costs to Society

In 2014, obesity cost the world about $2 trillion per year, accounting for lost productivity, direct healthcare costs, and the cost of weight management. Given the trends shown above, this number is around $2.5 trillion today.

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We can add to that the cost of producing and distributing all the extra food required to keep about 2.5 billion people overweight. Reaching the obesity threshold requires about 20% more food intake than maintaining a healthy weight. 20% of the average American food expense for 2.5 billion people amounts to another $1.3 trillion.

The economic burden of broad micronutrient deficiency is unknown at present. As a rough estimate, we can note that the average employee takes about 10 sick days per year. In addition, many still come to work when they are sick. Thus, conservatively, illness costs us about 5% of GDP or $6.5 trillion per year. And that’s not even counting the long-term effects on degenerative diseases.

How much of this can be avoided by eradicating our broad micronutrient deficiency? That’s highly debatable, but my own experience shows that it can be brought to zero. Even if nutrient-dense diets can only halve this number, it still represents a massive win.

In comparison, our 37 billion tonnes of annual CO2 emissions costs us $1.85 trillion if we consider a fair CO2 cost of $50/tonne. This is less than half of what obesity costs us and probably less than a quarter of what we pay for letting capitalism freely create addictive nutrient-free food.

The Ridiculously Simple Solution

Like climate change, the fix to capitalism’s incredibly destructive food failure is straightforward: internalize these massive externalities.

In this case, the metric that should be used to update the prices of different foods is nutrient density. Food with little nutritional value and lots of calories (like our list above) should become more expensive, whereas food with lots of nutrients and fewer calories should get cheaper.

Yes, there is substantial uncertainty on how large these adjustments should be, but even if we take only half of the median scientific estimate, it will still have a hugely positive effect on consumer behavior.

But of course, we run into the same problem as we do with a CO2 tax: many powerful players will lose big when we make it more costly to keep destroying the health of billions with nutrient-free calorie-bombs. We might also see protests in the streets when chocolate doubles in price.

That’s why we shouldn’t expect empty-calorie sin-taxes anytime soon. But we still have our free will, so we can always fix capitalism for ourselves.

Create Your Own Economic Incentive

I believe that all those lucky enough to be born into prosperity have a moral obligation to give to charity. Blind luck at the lottery of birth is the single biggest reason why you’re living in material comfort today, and it’s only right to share some of this good fortune with those who were not as lucky.

Once you accept this moral responsibility, you can employ it as a powerful tool to build better habits. It’s simple: Draw up a formal contract with yourself, specifying how much you’ll give to charity whenever you buy empty calories. One hour’s wages is a good starting price point for these donations.

I’ve used this method for a long time to maximize the quality of my diet and control several other bad habits. It’s very simple and extremely effective.

Give it a try! You can always specify that your contract can be adjusted each month to avoid any risk of bankrupting yourself 🙂

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Low-Fat, Low-Carb, Vegan, Carnivore — The Unnecessary Extremes of Dieting

Why not keep things simple with a balanced diet of nutrient-dense whole foods?

Image compiled using photos by Nathan Dumlao, Victoria Shes, Siami Tan, and romanov.

We sure have a strange relationship with food. The world spends as much money on weight-loss products as it would cost to end world hunger. And yet, obesity trends look like this:

Image source.

In the Western world, being at a healthy weight now puts you in a shrinking minority group. Extrapolated trends from this source show that only 1 in 4 American adults are not overweight or obese.

We’ve become desperate to find quick fixes to this fundamental problem. And in our desperation, we do the typical human thing: turn to extremes.

Let’s look at three examples of this diet extremism, contrasted with the simple, balanced approach I use to maintain my ideal Smart BMI of 35/70 and never get sick.

Low-Carb or Low-Fat

We get almost all our calories from three macronutrients: carbs, fats, and protein. It’s hard to get more than 20% from protein, so the bulk of our calorie consumption must come from carbs and fats.

Major reductions in either carbs or fats (and the associated major increase in the other one) is a common theme in dieting. Low-fat diets recommend high consumption of many foods that low-carb diets avoid and vice versa.

This is all quite silly. Things that are forbidden in one type of diet become the staple of the other. Such restrictive diets severely cut down on the number of whole foods at our disposal, making it difficult to achieve healthy dietary variety in a practical, affordable, and enjoyable manner.

No, carbs are not the enemy, and neither are fats. The villains in this story are empty-calorie carbs and empty-calorie fats — all those nutrient-free treats purpose-built for addiction. Cutting these slow poisons from your life is the single best way to maintain a healthy weight. Do this, and you can freely enjoy a wide range of delicious whole-food carbs and fats.

Animal Products

Here, we also encounter a wide range of options, all the way from no animal products whatsoever to a totally carnivorous diet. It can also be a little less extreme, like vegetarian diets allowing eggs and milk and low-carb diets that recommend high meat consumption.

When talking about animal products, though, health is far from the only important consideration. We should also think long and hard about environmental impacts and animal welfare. In fact, it’s simply impossible for most world citizens to enjoy diets rich in animal products without serious environmental damage and the cruelty of factory farming.

These considerations tilt me towards low animal product consumption (especially meat). A little bit of meat can make your vegetable dishes truly delicious while providing high-quality proteins and B-vitamins, but it should be restricted to the bare minimum.

That’s why meat represents only 5% of my calorie intake, with another 10% coming from fish, eggs, and dairy. Aside from the valuable nutritional variety this provides, intelligent use of animal products in plant-rich dishes makes high vegetable consumption deeply enjoyable, securing long-term health.

Intermittent Fasting

Arguably the most popular dieting trend of recent years, intermittent fasting also attracts plenty of extremist views. Some plans impose severe restrictions on eating patterns, and some pundits even claim that when you eat is more important than what you eat.

This is complete nonsense. Obviously, binging on empty calories strictly within an 8-hour window is much unhealthier than eating a healthy, whole-food diet with no regard for fasting.

Herein lies my main gripe with all the intermittent fasting hype: The overwhelming importance given to meal timing diverts precious focus from much more important dietary considerations, such as nutrient density, variety, and moderation.

Yes, there is good evidence of the benefits of intermittent fasting, but it’s no magic bullet. That’s why I focus on nutritional quality and diversity first, adding a convenient 10–12-hour eating window as an afterthought. If I experience genuine hunger outside my eating window, I will eat something healthy, saving my limited willpower reserves for more important things.

The Real Reason Behind Our Obesity Epidemic

Ready? Here it is in two parts:

  1. We’re equipped with powerful food cravings that evolved to keep us alive over 200 millennia of extreme scarcity (before we had access to unlimited food conveniently dispensed in supermarkets).
  2. Food companies quickly learned to send these cravings into overdrive with addictive empty-calorie treats to maximize profits. Product ranges designed for the latest dieting fad grow profits even more.

This is the fundamental problem each of us must overcome to maintain a healthy diet and a healthy body weight in our affluent modern society.

So, how do we do this? Simple: Make sure you spend your time in environments that are completely free of empty calories and ultra-processed foods. Most important: Never allow these purpose-built, ultra-addictive, nutrient-free, empty-calorie-bombs into your home.

Carving out such healthy environments among all the temptations in our modern world is no easy task, but it’s the only solution that attacks the very root of the problem. So, if you’ve tried the extreme solutions mentioned earlier without much success, maybe it’s time to permanently change your environment and uproot this problem once and for all.

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The Ethically Conscious Meat Lover’s Dilemma and How to Solve It

Use the “meat as a vegetable dressing” philosophy to keep enjoying your food without all the environmental and animal welfare baggage.

Image by Janet Cloete.

I love meat.

There, I said it. I love the taste and the texture of choice cuts from dead animals cooked to perfection. I also appreciate the high-quality protein and other nutrients these dead animals bring to the table.

But at the same time, I love the environment and despise factory farming.

Yes, meat is an environmental nightmare, especially beef and lamb (see the graphic below). Pork and poultry are several times better but still much worse than most plant products.

Image source.

Factory farming is one of the great evils of our society, but it’s the only way to supply the growing global appetite for animal products. There is simply not enough land on Earth to give all our farm animals a good life in an environment closely resembling their natural habitat.

So, what can we do?

Flexitarianism and the 5% Rule

At the risk of further angering the world’s vegans, I don’t see a problem with killing and eating animals. This is how nature works — animals higher in the food chain kill and eat animals lower in the food chain. And the apex predator of planet Earth is a hairless ape called Homo sapiens.

But I have a major problem with forcing animals to live terrible and unnatural lives before they are killed. Even worse, we do this on such a grand scale that it causes serious and lasting damage to the environment.

The solution?

Well, it’s three-fold:

  1. Limit meat to 5% of your calorie intake. Add up the calories listed on the food labels of your weekly meat purchases and aim to get it below 5% of your calorie requirement for healthy weight.
  2. Restrict red meat to once-a-year special occasions. The bulk of the 5% mentioned above should come from pork and poultry.
  3. Only buy meat if you know and approve of its origin. If you’re not sure, write to the supplier (and drop them if they don’t answer). Factory farming cannot exist without consumers turning a blind eye. In addition, ethical animal products offer significant health benefits.

Following these three rules will limit your meat purchases and force you to buy more expensive products. That’s why you, as a flexitarian or ethical omnivore, need to be smart and extract maximum reward from minimal meat consumption. Let’s see what that looks like.

Meat as a Vegetable Dressing

Limitations stimulate creativity. You’ll experience this first-hand when you start working towards 5% meat consumption. In my case, this enforced creativity led me to the “meat as a vegetable dressing” concept.

As a child, I disliked vegetables almost as much as I liked meat. My mom had to resort to all kinds of trickery and bribery to get me to eat something green. I’m not sure if it’s related, but I was also a rather sickly child. In fact, I probably wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for modern medicine.

After a mercifully “mild case of cancer” in my early 20s, it finally dawned on me that I need more vegetables in my life. So, I started eating my veggies in the only way I ever found tolerable: next to meat.

Over the years, the environmental and ethical problems of meat consumption increasingly weighed on my conscience, and the vegetable-to-meat ratio steadily grew. To my great surprise, this required no sacrifice whatsoever. I could still enjoy meat every day and, with appropriate seasoning, the vegetables actually contributed to the culinary experience.

Today, meat is relegated to little more than a vegetable dressing. Its role is to make vegetables taste awesome, and it’s doing a fine job! My vegetable intake is now so high that I’m confident my 12-year streak of perfect health will continue indefinitely 🙂

Take It Slow

Following the “meat as a vegetable dressing” principle is easy: take your favorite meat dishes and gradually increase the vegetable-to-meat ratio. As this ratio increases, you can grow more liberal with the spices to really put some zing into your meaty vegetable dressing.

In other words, you don’t need to adhere to the 5% rule right away. Just commit to steadily approaching it over time.

And there’s no need to stop at 5% either. I’m currently just below this threshold and still plan further cuts. The reason? My meat-containing meals remain so delicious that I find it difficult to adhere to Hara Hachi Bu — the healthy Japanese eating habit of stopping when you’re 80% full.

Try it! You’ll be surprised at how far you can push this simple principle without sacrificing any culinary enjoyment. I certainly was!

Your planet thanks you 🙂

Breakfast ingredients
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The Ideal Breakfast: 16 Whole Ingredients, 2 Minutes Prep Time, 1 Fine Culinary Experience

And all the protein and healthy fats a good breakfast needs

Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper. — Adelle Davis

Despite all the noise on the internet, science suggests that breakfast remains the most important meal of the day (1, 2, 3, 4). But, like most things in life, it’s not quite that simple. If you’re the kind of king who enjoys pastries or sugary breakfast cereals a little too much, following Adelle’s famous advice will cut your reign painfully short.

Yes, breakfast should be even healthier than it is large. And that’s not all. It should also be tasty, highly practical, and reasonably priced.

Does such a zero-compromise breakfast really exist? Read on, and see for yourself 🙂

Ingredients

Here is the impressive list of 16 whole food ingredients:

Four different seeds: hemp, flax, pumpkin, and sunflower.
A standard nut mix: peanuts, almonds, cashews, raisins, papaya.
Five different berries: blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, red- and blackcurrants.
Plain Greek yogurt and All-Bran flakes.

Preparation and Practicality

The trick is to have your seed, nut, and berry mixes readily available so that they can be combined in under two minutes. Getting hold of a convenient and affordable seed mixture is the biggest challenge, so let’s start there.

Practical seed management

If you’re lucky enough to have a supermarket or local health food store that stocks a good selection of seeds at reasonable prices, feel free to skip this section.

Everyone else, don’t despair! There is a great alternative solution: Buy your seeds in bulk online. Seeds have a long shelf life, and bulk purchases are generally about 3x cheaper than the small packets sold in local stores. This saving is particularly useful for more expensive seeds like hemp and chia.

So, jump on the internet and check out the health food suppliers in your region. There’s a good chance you’ll find some suppliers who can deliver right to your doorstep. Just make sure to look at the sell-by date to give yourself enough time to enjoy your purchase.

When your bulk seeds arrive, mix them in a large container in roughly equal ratios. Then distribute the mixture in food-grade plastic bags and press out as much air as possible. In my experience, vacuum packing is not necessary if you make sure you store these bags in a cool and dark place.

Finally, get a convenient plastic container that can hold enough seeds for a week or two. When it gets empty, simply refill straight from one of the plastic bags with your stored seed mixture.

Seed mixture in a plastic bag for storage and a convenient container for daily use.

I’ll admit, setting up this sophisticated seed management system is a bit of a mission. But, once it’s up and running, it will cost you a mere 20 seconds per meal and save you lots of money through bulk purchases. And as a bonus, you can have some good laughs showing off your “seed bank” to friends and family 🙂

Other ingredients

Convenient nut mixtures are commonly available in supermarkets at reasonable prices. You could save some money by setting up a similar bulk purchase system for nuts, but not as much as with seeds. I also find nut mixtures a little bit too tempting as a snack, so sticking to the limited weekly portion from the supermarket works best for me.

Most supermarkets also have frozen berry mixes available. These products are highly convenient and circumvent the seasonality of berries. If you cannot find a ready mix, buying two or three different packs of frozen berries to add to your breakfast is almost just as convenient.

Greek yogurt and All-Bran flakes are easily accessible. The only little pro tip I have here is to get a relatively big breakfast bowl, which makes it easier to blend the thick Greek yogurt into the mixture without making a mess.

Health profile

Nuts, seeds, berries, wheat bran, and plain Greek yogurt all boast glowing health credentials. Even raisins and dried papaya bring something to the table. When mixed as described above, this combo amounts to nothing less than the perfect nutritional start to the day.

For breakfast purposes, the high protein and unsaturated fat content is a big bonus. These macronutrients are broken down gradually to supply your body with a reliable energy supply throughout the morning. It also helps to keep you feeling full to avoid the pre-lunch munchies.

A snapshot of the nutritional profile of this breakfast is shown below, as given by the nutritionvalue.org calculator.

When looking at the % Daily Value column, the high content of protein and healthy (unsaturated) fat is clearly visible. On the other hand, the amount of carbohydrates is relatively low, with a disproportionate representation of gut-healthy dietary fiber.

The micronutrient profile is strong too, supplying 40–80% of the daily requirement of vitamins A, C & K, and several B-vitamins. This breakfast is also a great source of all important minerals, except for sodium (which most people get too much of anyway).

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a breakfast with a better nutritional profile.

Culinary experience

Perhaps most important of all, this breakfast mix is a pure joy to eat! It just gets the day started on a lovely note — no sugar required 🙂

The wide range of flavors combines surprisingly well, and each bite is unique, both in taste and texture. It also comes with a satisfying crunch that makes it easy to eat more slowly and naturally respect the recommended amount of chewing.

Variations on the theme

Even the ideal breakfast can become a bit much if eaten every day. Thus, we need a variant or two to keep things interesting.

The simplest way to vary the experience is to add some fresh fruit and/or berries. You will need a bit more time to chop the fresh produce into bite-sized pieces, making this a good option for a relaxed weekend breakfast experience. Those extra ingredients make each bite even more of an adventure!

As a special treat, try substituting the All-Bran with a muesli mix containing plenty of dried fruit. But be warned: This mix can get so tasty that overeating becomes all too tempting. Luckily, as far as weekend indulgences go, this is about as healthy as it gets.

For some weekday variation, my favorite alternative combo consists of the following:

  • A generous helping of 3 types of seeds: chia, flax, and hemp
  • All-Bran flakes
  • Almond milk
  • Fresh blueberries

This one can be enjoyed either hot or cold. For the cold version, mix the seeds, All-Bran, and almond milk in a bowl and let it stand for a minute or two while you wash the blueberries. This gives the chia seeds some time to soak up the milk, creating a delightful texture.

For the hot version, simply heat the mixture in the microwave while you wash the blueberries. The heat transforms the texture from crunchy to smooth, completely changing the experience. See which one you like best! I like both, so I eat the cold version on hot days and the hot version on cold days.

If fresh blueberries are not available at a reasonable price, try substituting with frozen raspberries, crushed into smaller pieces. I find these crushed raspberries a more enjoyable substitute than frozen blueberries.

Enjoy!

The way you spend your morning echos throughout the day. When it comes to getting a good start, an ideal breakfast is a perfect companion to a handcrafted and choreographed morning routine.

In fact, this breakfast can tilt the scales even further in your favor by managing your energy and cravings and optimizing your long-term health.

But above all, it’s simply delicious 🙂 I hope you enjoy it as much as me!

All images were custom-made for this article by Janet Cloete.
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Season 1 Summary: Nutrition

Image by silviarita from Pixabay.

Nutrition is a strange subject area. On the one hand, it can be very simple. We all have a reasonably good idea of what we should put in our bodies and what we shouldn’t. But, on the other hand, actually following through on this simple advice is really tough. Hence, the global obesity epidemic. 

The mission of the Supermorning Nutrition chapter was to automate healthy eating. And it all starts with some food groups that are not only healthy but also tasty, convenient, and affordable. 

Five groups of superfoods

Here they are in all their glory:

These guys can give you all the nutrients (and enjoyment) you need from food. But making them a permanent part of your life requires some proactive action.

Making super the new normal

Here are some proven guidelines for making these superfoods a permanent part of your life:

  • Nuts, seeds, and berries: Buy your seeds in bulk and select packs of mixed nuts and mixed frozen berries. Together with some yogurt, they create the perfect breakfast.  
  • Raw green veggies: These green nutrient bombs taste rather bland, but things like a green drink and smart combinations with other tasty foods can make them regulars in your diet.
  • Cooked veggies, mushrooms, and beans: Here, we focus on the “meat as a vegetable dressing” idea. This will give you very tasty cooked meals with a huge amount of vegetables. 
  • Fish and eggs: The convenience of smoked and canned omega-3 fish and scrambled eggs or omelets can make these high-quality protein sources regulars in your diet. 
  • Avocado (and other fruit): Here we discussed the fine art of avocado ripeness management together with several ways to make fruit consumption even easier. 

Putting these ideas in place takes a bit of effort and experimentation. But once it’s up and running, you’ll have yourself a lifelong zero-compromise healthy diet 🙂 

Healthy, tasty, convenient, and affordable. It sounds like the perfect happy ending! But sadly, this story also has some bad guys who do their best to make us fat, sick and addicted.  

Four food villains

Here are the bad guys in the nutrition story:

It is possible to keep these villains at bay. But this does not happen by itself. We need to take the time to construct some super-powerful defenses. 

Building the fortress

Our healthy eating fortress has four layers of defense:

  • Refuse to pay for self-destruction: Trading time, effort, vitality, and life expectancy for fleeting endorphin highs is a truly terrible deal. Realizing this on a deep level is a great first layer of defense.  
  • Healthier snacking: Sometimes really tasty treats can have some longer-term benefits. For these rare occasions, choosing healthier alternatives makes all the sense in the world. 
  • Home-made meals: Taking care of your health becomes a lot easier when you take direct control of what goes into your body. Home-made food also makes overeating much less likely. 
  • Whole foods: Buying more whole produce is a great way to keep self-destruct foods out of your life. Getting into the habit of reading food labels can also add many good years to your life. 

Making change stick

This chapter conveniently coincided with the end of the year, so I framed this as a New Year’s resolution. But you certainly don’t need to wait until the end of the year for making healthy nutrition permanent:

  1. Understand why diets have such a high failure rate.
  2. Intelligently shape your environment.
  3. Intelligently shape your habits.

It takes some time and effort, but lifelong healthy eating habits are possible. Setting this up will add many years to your life and much life to your years 🙂

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Studying Your Foodprint

Last week’s posts explained how we can all save the world on the fascinating road to optimal health, financial freedom, and self-actualization. 

This week, we’ll be getting a bit more practical. The focus will be on the best ways each of us can cut our ecological footprint. 

Let’s start with a big one: food. 

Plants > Fish, Eggs, Dairy > Meat

This figure from last week’s post tells the whole story. If you want to help save the world, a plant-dominated diet is a must. 

Going completely vegetarian is not required, but animal products, especially meat, must be limited.

Personally, I stick to 5% meat (mainly pork) and an additional 10% fish, eggs, and dairy. The slightly increased ecological impact of these small amounts of animal products is worth it for two reasons:

  1. A healthy plant-dominated diet becomes much more pleasurable, making sure it will last.  
  2. Convenient access to high-quality proteins and other nutrients required for optimal health. 

If you’re too big on the animal products, try limiting your consumption to the following: meat as a vegetable dressing, dairy as a delicious binder for nuts, seeds and berries, and fish and eggs as a super-convenient dinner option.   

Other factors

After the type of food you buy, the quantity is the next most important factor.

If the health, mobility, and body-image benefits of eating less are not enough, add saving the world to your list of motivators. A focus on reducing food waste also helps reduce your footprint.  

The locality and degree of packaging of your food are two more important factors, although not nearly as important as the type of food you eat. Support the local farmers’ market if possible. 

Lastly, a healthy diet can save the world by minimizing your consumption of medical services.

The world spends an enormous 10% of GDP on healthcare, mostly on self-inflicted lifestyle diseases. We can massively reduce this tragic waste by refusing to pay for empty calories and choosing healthier snacks instead, and by committing to home-made meals using whole foods. 

Zero-compromise diet

A healthy and sustainable diet does not need to be a compromise. Nope, if you’re smart, it can still be deeply enjoyable, practical, and affordable. 

You just need to put in the curiosity and experimentation required to design yours. Once you do, it will last you a lifetime – surely one of the best investments you can ever make! 

A detailed outline of such a lifelong healthy diet can be found here. 

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Save the World by Looking After Yourself

Yesterday’s post gave a quick primer on the importance of looking after our environment. It ended with a rather obvious finding: we need to reduce our material consumption. 

It also made a less obvious point: reduced consumption can genuinely improve our lives. 

Today’s post shows how a more sustainable life can boost your health and longevity. 

Excessive animal-rich diets

Producing food for nearly 8 billion humans is our single biggest impact on our planet. Agriculture is the leading cause behind the three most badly breached planetary boundaries discussed yesterday and is also a major contributor to climate change. 

To make matters worse, the rich world consumes about 50% more food than the recommended daily allowance of about 2300 kcal. Food waste explains some of this excess, but the main reason is that we simply eat too much, creating the extremely costly global obesity epidemic. 

There’s no point in sugar-coating things: Consuming a typical animal-product-rich diet of excessive calories is unethical. It simultaneously destroys our health, our welfare systems, and our planet. 

Image credit: Our World in Data

Moderate plant-rich diets

The solution is straightforward: eat less and rely more on plant-based foods. Not only will this help save the world, but it will also add many healthy years to your life. 

Of course, the major obstacle comes from our primitive food cravings that demand instant pleasure regardless of whether it destroys ourselves, our society, and our planet. 

This is where a healthy environment comes to the rescue. If you want to do your part, but continue to struggle with these irrational cravings, please build yourself such an environment. 

Mobility by muscle power

Another way of boosting health by saving the planet is by moving yourself around using muscle instead of fossil power. 

As discussed earlier, making the most of this great benefit will require a home in a strategically selected location. Walking/cycling needs to be convenient and safe, and, ideally, nature should be close by. 

Such a location also brings enormous financial benefits, which is where we’ll pick things up tomorrow. 

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Recap: Mastering Technology Revolutions

Last week, we discussed the double-edged sword of technology: very powerful, but also very dangerous. 

Mastering technology means you’ve learned how to tap it for all it’s worth, without getting burned by its long list of dangers. 

This week’s posts applied this philosophy to our four main technology revolutions.

The checklist

  • Agricultural revolution
    • Be grateful for food abundance and use the incredible nutritional variety at our disposal. 
    • Manage the wastefulness of unhealthy food, and cut down animal products to reduce environmental impact. 
  • Industrial revolution
    • Make sure your stuff is useful (i.e. used naturally at least once per month).
    • Invest diligently in that precious intangible asset of life efficiency. 
  • Techno-scientific revolution
    • Be a responsible consumer to help nudge technological progress in the right direction. 
    • Be a responsible influencer and voter to shape how society uses the power of science.  
  • Digital revolution
    • See your consumption of digital information as food for your mind. 
    • Know what kinds of information are good, bad, and useless. 

Technology has elevated humanity to the god species of planet Earth. 

Only true mastery of this double-edged sword can allow us to rule with wisdom and grace. 

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