People Don't Know What Healthy Eating Is

According to the boss at Whole Foods, people don't know how to select healthy food. Do you think that is true? I have to wonder about that considering there is so much information out there, if people take a few minutes to learn it.

There are a few things you need to know to eat healthy and I can tell them to you in two sentences. Here you go:

Eat primarily fruit, vegetables, whole grains and lean protein. To determine your caloric needs per day; if you are a woman take your weight times 10, a man times 12. That is how many calories you need per day to maintain your current weight without exercise.

That's it. The end.

Now, to achieve this, you do have to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. You can't rely on processed foods to be healthy. You have to cook, a little. You have to steam veggies, grill fish and/or chicken, hard boil eggs and cook oatmeal, couscous, quinoa, brown rice, etc... It is not difficult.

You also have to learn the calories in the foods you eat. If you are reading this online, then you have access to all the calorie information you need about almost every food on the planet just by using Google. I can even help you by referring you to this site, that has great calorie counting information on it.

So when the boss at Whole Foods says that people don't know how to select healthy food, I shake my head. Maybe he is right. Maybe people don't want to know. What do you think?

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Comments

[lff]

Great article! Finally something on nutrition that is not biased toward the organic. With their emphasis on dubious reporting of how un-healthy conventional agricultural products can be the organic food industry is steering many people in the wrong direction. People can easily be misled to believe they should just reduce their intake of fresh fruits and vegetables so they can afford organic produce. With price differentials in the 20 to 150% range this is not a healthy option especially when they make up the needed calories with the worst of the processed alternatives. This article at least gives them some information so that they can appropriately differentiate.

Thanks.

lff

[spuzz99]

Irene,

Although you are correct that eating healthy can be that simple, I think you are missing John Mackey's point. I think what Mr. Mackey is referring to are indicators, such as Whole Foods Market's shrinking bulk sales and growing prepared food sales, that Americans are less interested in and have less time to prepare healthy food from scratch these days. He has his finger on the pulse of the sales figures that support this fact. I have also heard him point to staggering statistics about the health of Americans that reinforce his point, such as:

The Center for Disease Control predicts that 1 out of 3 children born after the year 2000 will develop diabetes.

At least 30% of American children are overweight.

US Childhood obesity more than doubled in the last 30 years.

At least 70% of American adults are overweight.

Most schools offer mainly highly processed foods due primarily to their low cost, not based on nutritional value.

Currently approximately 6.3% of Americans have diabetes.

http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pubs/estimates.htm

Mr. Mackey wants Americans to eat healthy, cynics could say for his company's sales growth which I'm sure he would openly admit, but I also believe for the good of all life on Earth. Mr. Mackey became a vegan after reading extensively on the food industry. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend the YouTube video of the conversation between John Mackey and Michael Pollen. Great stuff.

Thank you

[Irene Rubaum-Keller - Huffpost Blogger]

Hi spuzz, Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment. I was focusing on the idea that Americans don't KNOW how to eat healthy. Whole Foods is planning on putting in information kiosks to enlighten people. From the comments here, I can see that he may be right. There is so much confusion. Seemingly, not so much about healthy foods but about healthy caloric intake levels. As my esteemed boss, Dr. David Heber, says, "Everyone who eats is an expert." He knows, he has been an expert in the field for over 30 years.

[Promise]

I have a friend who went to work on an organic farm. She was already healthy and was slim by normal standards. After a few months, I went to visit her. She had lost a lot of weight and looked really thin to me. The woman who ran the farm looked positively skinny! When I commented on her reduced weight, she said that the food they ate was so good....so nutrient rich... that they didn't need to eat a lot. They were easily satisfied and hence lost extra weight. They also worked very hard on the farm and were all strong and healthy, although none of them was young.

I think that part of the present obesity problem is that our food supply has become so impoverished. Industrialization of food production has come up with foods that look great but are poor in quality. So we eat more to get satisfied. If we all spent a little more and bought high quality organic food, we would be more quickly satisfied and not have to keep on eating just to fill up. And, we'd be more healthy and energetic.

[Irene Rubaum-Keller - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks for commenting Promise. Nutrient dense healthy food, lots of physical activity and a good social life are the keys to health and longevity. It seems your friend has found that.

[ewoman]

I love your story, Promise. I come from a long line of Virginia farmers, and I love looking at the old photos of their slim bodies and hear my mother talk about breakfasts that almost broke the tables because they were so laden with food that consisted of fruits and fruits of their labors. That combination of hard work, little money to buy sugars and candies, and eating local food seemed to work wonders.

[arabianway]

If human beings were clones, then a one size fits all approach would work. We're not and it doesn't.

Some things tho' are irrefutable. Sugar and processed foods do not promote health. The more fresh vegetables and fruit we eat, the better off we will be for it. The body needs some fat. Read the labels if you are buying something canned or packaged. If you see ingredients there that you do not recognize, don't buy it. After you have been doing this for a while you will lose your taste for some of the junk that is passing for food. Diet soda will taste like the poison it is.

The obsession with weight and diet in this country and the sheer numbers of ways to deal with it are mind boggling. The latest, catchiest diet books make lots of money for whoever thought them up and most are based on some pretty sketchy ideas and pseudo-science.

Think too about the green consequences of eating factory farmed animal products. If slaughterhouses had glass walls we would all be vegetarians.

[Irene Rubaum-Keller - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you arabianway. You are right that many of the diet books on the market are simply profit driven vehicles for the publisher and the writer. People want the easy way out, and will pay for the promise of easy, quick, painless weight loss. There have always been snake oil salesmen and I guess there always will be.

[singermuse]

I'm sorry, but no, it's not "it" it's not the end.
A 120 lb. woman who exercises regularly cannot live on 1200 calories a day. This is starvation, and will cause serious metabolic problems including the looming threat of obesity, yes! obesity!
If she starves her body, it will slow down, maybe even shut down, and she will GAIN WEIGHT.
If she is healthy and reasonably active (she doesn't have to be an ultra marathon runner), she needs more like 2200-2400 calories for normal bodily functions, that is, if her thyroid/endocrine system/metabolism are functioning properly.
If it were a simple problem of calories in calories out, we wouldn't have the obesity epidemic that we have these days. I know far too many men and women who have starved themselves and exercised into the ground with no real results.
But when you eliminate ongoing metabolic problems, adopt a healthy and ABUNDANT diet, the weight WILL come off at a healthy 2 lb. per week.

[Callyson]

You took the words out of my mouth--favorited.

[Irene Rubaum-Keller - Huffpost Blogger]

Hi singermuse, Thanks for your comment. Actually what I said was you take your weight, times 10 and that will give you the number of calories you need per day, without exercise, to maintain that weight. If you exercise you can eat more and still maintain your weight. If you personally get to eat more than that, good for you. Most of us cannot. It really is calories in/calories out, at least according to all the science and experts we currently have in the field of obesity.

[singermuse]

Bless you Irene, but again I agree to disagree with you.
Here on the Huffington Post there is Dr. M. Hyman who has extensive research on the connection between obesity, inflammation, endocrine imbalances, and yes also what kind and how much food people should eat.
A few years ago there was a wonderful book out called "lean and free 2000" that spoke to the very real need women and men have to not starve themselves, and the correlation between caloric restriction and increased obesity. We have a nation of obese dieters, but what we really need is a healthy nation of exercising, abundantly eating, long lived people. This IS possible.
It is true that starving people don't like to move much, but even were they to drive everywhere as many do here in this country, they'd still need more than 10 calories per lb. of weight just to have normal body functions: sleep, menstruation, thyroid function, skin suppleness and a host of others.
Also I am aware that I am talking about abundant eating WITH moderate exercise to insure a lean, healthy body. So your calorie count would have a point for a person who lives on the couch.

[gfk]

I think people don't want to know. If they plead ignorance, than they can go on eating whatever they want and blame their genes. They can continue to not take responsility for their weight and their health.

[Irene Rubaum-Keller - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks gfk. Yes, the data says our obesity epidemic stems from the fact that we are taking in 26% more calories than we were in the l970's. We are eating more junk food as well.

[daryapino]

I'm afraid I have to disagree with the calorie equation. I've had my basal metabolism tested and I burn over 600 calories more per day than you equation recommends I eat.

If we eat whole foods (your first sentence I agree with), we really don't need to count calories.

[Irene Rubaum-Keller - Huffpost Blogger]

Hi Daryapino, You are a rare bird with a fast metabolism. Good for you.

[LMPE]

Julia Child sought to make cooking interesting. Unfortunately, so many people resort to junk food. Rush Limbaugh spent a few years sitting around his house eating junk food, to the point where his then-wife forced him to apply for unemployment benefits. In later years, he ranted against government handouts.

But the point is, our disgusting diet might kill us before global warming does.

[Irene Rubaum-Keller - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks for commenting LMPE. At least we have personal control over what we put in our mouths. Jack LaLanne says, "No one is putting bad food in your mouth." I have to agree with him.

[CarlyHope]

if its so simple

why does our country have a massive obesity problem

Jerks

[Irene Rubaum-Keller - Huffpost Blogger]

The obesity has sky rocketed in our country since the l970's. We are taking in 26% more calories now than we were then.

[leftcoastindy]

The 2 sentences is all anyone needs to know. Since humans never starve on purpose, you have no need to count calories. Eliminate most of the bad stuff (processed, overcooked, refined, meats-especially non-lean), replace with raw and stemed vegies and nuts (salads without most of the dressings) and if you start getting too skinny, slowly increase how much you eat. Why do you need to count anything or read up on anything? The average adult needs only 5 to 8% protein in their diet, or maybe 10% for active lifestyle/regular exercise - not 20%.
This is not rocket science.

[Irene Rubaum-Keller - Huffpost Blogger]

Hi leftcoastindy, Yes if most of us ate only fresh, whole foods, we probably wouldn't need to count calories. Until then, it is a really handy tool.