Adult Survival #6: How to Eat Healthy
Dear younger me, you believe that you are immortal like all youth are.
Unfortunately, you are not. You have naught but 8,000 precious weeks being alive on this planet in expectation. If you want to increase your odds of having a few hundred more healthy and vibrant weeks in your later years, you'd better start eating healthy.
But I can't possibly do that! You say. French fries are my nemesis! As previously established, I have no self-control!
Don't worry, eating decently healthy is not as hard as you think.
Let's establish what scientific consensus says is healthy: real food, mostly plants, not too much. Macro ratio between carbs, protein, and fat does not matter as much as quality. Substitute processed carbs and sugars with whole grains and fiber-rich legumes. Substitute red or processed meats with white meats or fish. Substitute trans or saturated fats (deep fried foods, bacon, butter, margarine, coconut oil) with unsaturated fats like olive oil.
How could you possibly do all this? By following these three rules.
- Eat a serving of beans every day.
- For one serving per day, you can endulge in any junk food.
- Swap out table salt with 50% potassium salt, and swap out sugar with monk fruit sweetener.
Why should I eat beans every day? I start with beans because it is the closest thing to a superfood that exists. It is by far the most fiber-dense plant food out there. You don't know this yet, but if those of us over 25 years old don't eat enough fiber, our bathroom trips become quite painful. Not only that, it is packed with nearly complete proteins (compared to other plants), comes pre-cooked in cans for easy consumption and is ranked near the top in epidemiological studies on the dietary effects of healthspan. Yes, you can get all the fiber and protein you need by eating other fiber-rich and protein-rich foods, but there is only one food that does both: BEANS! One can of beans makes it so much easier to hit both goals in a day.
How do I eat beans every day? Buy a giant pack of canned beans from costco to stock the pantry. Any type works, but I like kidney beans. Then, dump one can into a meal of choice every day: rice with beans, beans in soup, beans in curry, beans in salad, etc. Heck, you can even eat a can of beans with a bit of seasoning on its own. You'll get used to it.
Why allow one serving of junk food every day? Why not zero? The second rule is the only way I've found to minimize junk food in a sustainable manner. By allowing myself to eat anything once per day, I am able to satisfy my cravings and prevent binging on junk.
In reality, I keep a tally of junk food servings eaten per week, with a weekly cap of seven. This means I can save up tallies during the weekday if I expect a particularly extravagant weekend meal.
What counts as one serving of junk food? Basically one typical serving size of foods at the bottom of any dietary recommendations:
- One cup of sugary drinks, like soda or sweetened coffee.
- Deep fried food, like fries, tempura, or donuts.
- One small bag of salty and salvory snacks, like chips, pretzels, or doritos.
- One as-sold portion of sweet treats like candies, cookies, ice cream, brownies, and non-dark chocolate.
- One serving size of composite ultra-processed foods like burgers, hot dogs, pizza, and instant ramen.
- One serving size of red, processed, or organ meats like beef, pork, lamb, sausage, bacon, and liver meat.
Most of these are universally understood as junk, with the possible exception of red meat. While I'd love to tell you that red meat is good for you, the scientific consensus now places them near the bottom for long-term healthy aging. (See, for example, Optimal Dietary Patterns for Healthy Aging.) So, in the list it goes.
Also notice what I allow myself to eat in unlimited amounts: fruits and pulp-intact 100% fruit juice; diet soda; air-fried or stir-fried foods; homemade snacks; nuts and seeds; dark chocolate; white meat and seafood; unsaturated fats; white rice. While these foods might not be perfect for certain health goals, such as the caloric density of unsaturated fats potentially being an issue for weight loss goals, they are so much better than all the junk that, from a psychological and motivational point of view, it's much better to allow unlimited amounts of anything other than the designated junk list.
Why should I replace salt and sugar? Because these condiments go into everything and is a core part of the pantry, that also happens to be leading causes of illnesses. By replacing table salt with 50% potassium salt mix, you lower your chances of hypertension and stomach cancer at no extra effort after the initial setup. The same benefit goes for replacing sugar with monk fruit sweeteners: change the purchase habits once, and passively reap benefits by lowering the risk of type II diabetes and other metabolic syndromes. There are other natural, low-calorie sweeteners like allulose as well, that you can also try.