Create healthy habits, not restrictions – Part 1

I. Love. Food. It is honestly ridiculous how happy I am when I am eating something yummy.

A few weeks ago I was on a phone with a good friend, and she asked me, “Are you eating?” Worried that I might have been smacking, I asked, “Yeah, how did you know?” She replied, “Because you always hum and dance when you are eating good food.” I burst out laughing. Because she was right. I do love me some food. So when I decided I wanted to be healthier, that was my biggest fear. That I would have to give up something that I loved. My food. I thought healthy meant bland, boring, and tasteless. I thought healthy meant restrictions or following a specific eating philosophy, like vegetarian, vegan, or paleo. So, I researched all three of these philosophies to try to figure out which one would work for me. The answer was none of them. At least not right now.  And eating healthy is not boring or bland, if you know what you are doing. Here is a quick summary of my research of the three eating philosophies and how I decided that none of them were right for me.

I. Vegetarianism

So, according to wikipedia, vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects and the flesh of any other animal). Everything else is fair game. Meat is high in protein, so one of the biggest push-backs against vegetarianism, is that the diet will be deprived of protein. However, there are many non-meat high protein foods – green peas, quinoa, and nut butters just to name a few. You do not need to eat meat to get protein. So lack of protein wasn’t my issue with vegetarianism. My issue is how vegetarianism is defined. It is defined in terms of a restrictions, no meat. Instead of in terms of abundance, more vegetables. Because of this mis-definition, there are a lot of unhealthy vegetarians. You know, the people who don’t eat meat, but eat cheese pizza, mashed potatoes, and chocolate chip cookies under the guise of vegetarianism. Technically, yes, with Wikipedia’s definition they are vegetarian. But if vegetarian was defined as eating more vegetables and fruits than anything else, which I would argue is a more accurate definition, then they wouldn’t even come close. You can be following all of the “rules” of being a vegetarian, yet be very unhealthy. But outside of definition, I am not convinced that eating high quality pasture-raised antibiotic and cage free lean poultry and wild caught seafood is bad for my health. Now, there is evidence that red meat does have negative impacts on health, but there isn’t strong evidence for poultry or seafood. So for these reasons, I reject vegetarianism. Now, I must note, that there are lots of vegetarians for social, ethical, personal, or moral reasons. And they are some very solid ethical arguments for being a vegetarian, but for the purposes of this discussion, I am only talking about health.

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Dr. Kristian Henderson Edwards is a professor of public health, a natural lifestyle enthusiast, and the founder of BLK+GRN, an all-natural marketplace by all Black artisans. www.DrKristianH.com