We're eating ourselves sick. A bold statement for quite a few people in Germany and Europe. A look at America reinforces this impression, as the lists of permitted additives in US states are considerably longer than in Europe. In short, the following points apply almost universally in the Western world: We eat too much, and we eat the wrong things.
The consequences are often lifestyle diseases or even nutrient deficiencies. However, we don't want to dwell too much on the general deficiencies of the food industry. After all, we are still responsible for our own health. Furthermore, health is not just the absence of disease; good health also provides protection against future diseases.
Habits are powerful—both in a positive and negative sense, no question. In this post, we'll show you how to gain control over your habits and what simple tricks you can use to help yourself live a healthier life.
The power of habit
Habits are things we do without thinking about them.
Just like brushing your teeth. Habits make our lives so much easier because they relieve our brains of the effort of weighing up every decision: Do I want to do this now? Why do I want to do this? How do I do it? When? Is it worth the effort?
Our brain makes up to 20,000 decisions a day. And each one costs energy. That's precisely why habits are so important and so beneficial, because they literally save you strength and energy. This is exactly what you should take advantage of when it comes to eating healthier. Once you've managed to make healthy eating a habit, you no longer have to think about it and literally waste energy.
One of the most effective steps you can take to increase your energy levels, prevent discomfort, and generally improve your health is to switch to a plant-based, nutrient-rich diet. This diet has been proven to significantly reduce the risk of disease. You don't have to completely avoid meat and animal products. However, increase the quality of the products (organic is better) and reduce the quantity and frequency.
There are numerous scientific studies highlighting that a nutrient-rich, plant-based diet can prevent the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, certain cancers, and autoimmune diseases, and can also support their recovery. One conclusion that emerges from this is that we can strengthen our immune system and, to a certain extent, have control over this aspect as well.
What exactly is a healthy eating habit?
This plant-based diet focuses on nutrient-rich foods that serve as healing agents for our bodies, helping us achieve a healthy body weight. Your diet should therefore consist primarily of plant-based foods. Animal products such as meat, sausages, fish, eggs, or milk and dairy products should be consumed in small amounts.
The logical question that arises is whether this diet must always be followed 100%. From a nutritional perspective, it is certainly wrong to say that a relatively small amount of a single food is bad. It is equally wrong to say that a 100% plant-based diet has greater health benefits than a 95% plant-based diet. The overall daily diet and lifestyle are far more influential than the selection of individual foods or dishes that are consumed only rarely and in small amounts overall.
Ultimately, it's desirable that our diet consists of natural foods that are minimally processed. In summary, the majority of our food should be fresh and unpackaged.
Vegetables and fruit as the basis of your diet
Vegetables, fruit, legumes, and nuts should form the main components of our diet. I would like to slightly modify the often-spoken recommendation to eat more fruit and vegetables. This recommendation ultimately means sticking to a disease-causing diet high in processed foods, white flour products, and sweets, and supplementing it with a little more fruit and vegetables. However, the goal should be for the "basic building block" of our diet to consist of unprocessed fruit and vegetables.
Such a nutrient-dense diet meets nutritional needs by focusing on natural, minimally processed plant-based foods. However, in our modern world, we have 24/7 access to high-calorie, nutrient-poor, inexpensive convenience foods. This makes it easy for us to become overweight, with all its health consequences. To achieve optimal health, we must move away from the typical, standard diet presented to us in advertising and base our diets on natural, plant-based, and health-promoting foods.
The vicious circle of habits
But it's precisely this vicious cycle of habit that often presents a major challenge to break. Our way of life is shaped in such a way that it's generally easier to eat unhealthily. The range of processed foods, convenience foods, sweets, and snacks available is vast, even massive.
Reducing the fat and calorie content of certain foods suggests that they are good for us or even "better" than other foods. But this is rarely the truth. Even though many people now know that natural foods are healthier, a large portion of our society still frequently eats ready meals or processed foods. It's important to note that other factors also contribute to this decision, such as financial ones. However, the range of organic products in discount stores is also constantly growing. So it's more about making conscious product choices and changing the weighting of individual components in a dish. You see, the cost excuse is based more on convenience. A habit that needs to be broken.
From a biological and physiological point of view, our body most needs completely unprocessed foods such as vegetables, fruits, legumes and whole grains.
This vicious cycle is essential if you want to eat healthier. Even though this is a significant hurdle and establishing habits requires some effort, it's a worthwhile step. And the journey doesn't end there. Because healthy eating is the foundation – and building on that, there are several other ways you can actively do good for your body.
Cover photo by Dan Gold.
