There Are No Bad Foods!
photo credit: evelynishereA lot of people want to know, “what foods are really bad for me?” or they try to make a list of “forbidden foods” when they start their next diet. What qualifies a food as being “bad” anyway? For most people’s definition, they are referring to foods that are high in fat, calories, and/or sodium but provide little nutrition. The list goes from sodas to candy bars to bacon and sausage, to pies and cakes and cookies and ice cream. But if you try to cut all these foods out of your diet forever–and most of them happen to taste very good–you aren’t likely to succeed in sticking with it.
Dietitians have a saying, “There are no bad foods; only bad diets“. There isn’t anything wrong with having a slice of pie once in a while, or 2 strips of bacon with breakfast once in a while. The problem is, many people in our culture treat themselves constantly to chocolates and cookies and high-fat pastries and coffee drinks and ice cream all day, every day, to make themselves feel better in some way. Maybe you get a burst of energy from one of these treats, or one of these foods calms you down; maybe a snack distracts you from the stress at the office or soothes you before you go to sleep. Whatever the reason, ingesting a large amount of these so-called “junk foods” on a nearly-daily basis doesn’t really do you any good, and certainly makes the battle to lose weight a whole lot tougher.
Instead of putting these on a list of Never Eat Again foods, change the heading to “one-a-day treats” and be sure that you only have a total of one of them each day: if you have a cinnamon roll for breakfast, don’t add a mid-morning donut, a piece of cake with lunch, a candy bar in the afternoon, a soda with dinner, and ice cream in the evening! All these foods will add up to a very bad diet overall.
But a treat once in a while is not a bad thing. Indulging occasionally can help keep you motivated to make lifestyle changes that will get your weight to where you want it, and have a healthy and balanced diet.
Written by Laurie Beebe
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About The Author: Laurie Beebe has been a registered dietitian for 25 years and is certified in adult weight management. Laurie currently serves as a Related posts:
5 Comments
Are you saying that foods containing artificial trans-fats are not bad? There is a proven direct link between trans-fat consumption and heart disease and it is now widely acknowledged there is no safe intake limit.
ReplyYes, I am saying there is no one serving of one food that will be the downfall of your health and will be responsible for weight gain and illness.
ReplyIf you consume a lot of foods with trans fats (or with sugar or with cholesterol or with saturated fat or with sodium or even too much protein) then your diet is bad and may lead to ill consequences. But I stand by my assertion that there is no specific forbidden food that should be avoided for life.
America’s Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences say there is no safe intake amount of trans fatty acids in the diet. States across the U.S. and even whole countries like Denmark are banning the use of partially-hydrogenated oils (the cause of these artificial trans-fats). Who’s advice should I follow? Theirs of Laurie Beebe’s?
ReplyYes, Matthew, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, “The National Academy of Sciences’ report is the first attempt by a panel of experts to set a safe intake level for trans fat. The panel found that, like saturated fat, trans fat promotes heart disease. Furthermore, the panel concluded that the only safe intake of trans fat is ‘zero.’ However, because it would be impractical to eliminate all trans fat from the diet, the panel recommended that people consume as little trans fat as possible”.
ReplyI do not argue that it is wise to avoid trans fats…. trans fat, however, is not a FOOD and my assertion is that there are no bad FOODS, not that there are no bad components IN some foods.
[...] The best diet is one which retrains your eating habits – avoid diets that replaces normal meals with foods that you’d never otherwise eat. You may feel that you want to cut out certain foods – that’s fine, but don’t demonize any particular food or food group: remember that there are no “bad” foods. [...]
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