I got quite a response to my previous email about women and their health once you reach your forties - especially questions about how I turned my own health around.
You may have noticed that there always seems to be a miracle food of some sort that is supposed to be really good for you. Back in my 40’s, bagels became the darling. They were supposed to be so much better for you than toast or muffins. The reality is, they are not. Most are made from enriched white flour and that is exactly what turns into sugar in your blood.
Today Greek yogurt seems to be the darling of nutrition, but if you look at the labels, many contain as much as 20 mg. of sugar, or 5 teaspoons! Definitely not an ideal choice. Some varieties are fine, but be sure you look at sugar content before you buy.
Once I took a good look at the symptoms I had developed, I knew I had to take action. For me to improve my health, I needed to eliminate the white flour, refined sugar foods from my diet.
I made a series of changes that were actually quite simple. Simple, but consistent. The first thing I did was tackle my sugar addiction. i was eating refined sugar in all sorts of forms - white bread, bagels, white pasta, store bought cookies, candy. I didn’t know at the time that these were all essentially turning to sugar in my blood, and that was the culprit for all my maladies. I knew the cookies and candy were, but had no idea that all "white flour" foods do so as well.
I’m convinced that 4 things are necessary to make dietary changes for the better and I use all three of these techniques:
- you need better foods, high nutrient foods, to crowd out your desire for the poor quality foods
- you need to eat enough, but not too much, so you don’t feel hungry
- you need to have quality food choices available to you all the time
- you need to understand labels and stop buying low nutrient or highly chemicalized foods.
So that’s what I did. Now you may be saying that you can’t imagine living withoutthose low nutrient, high sugar foods again. The truth is, I’m not saying that and I don’t do that. Instead, I use my 90/10 formula which basically means that 90% of the food I eat is high nutrient, and I relax on the other 10%. What I have in my home is high-nutrient so I have some wiggle room when I am elsewhere.
Quick Results
It works. Just 6 months into this new way of eating I found my triglycerides dropped a full 200 points, and they have remained in the normal range ever since. I added some nutrients that increased my good cholesterol significantly and put me in a low risk range for heart disease. I eat 3 meals every day and am rarely hungry. It really is simple when you make the shift to high nutrient foods.
Share how changing your eating has changed you
Several of you have told me about changes you made and how it helped. Share them in the comments section and help other women who read this.