You’ll notice I don’t mention how many calories a meal has in my recipes or anywhere in the blog for that matter.  I do mention the nutrition impact a meal has but the longer you stick around with me, you’ll see I don’t care about calories, or even how much fat, protein, or carbs a meal has.  Yes, someone wanting to lose weight will most likely pay attention to calories but I do not believe they should ever be the focus of what you are cooking.  The bottom line here is even if your goal is to lose weight, you don’t need to focus on calories.  Here is why.

I quickly realized counting calories is a confusing mess and decided to just focus on eating nutrient-rich, REAL food.  I use that phrase a lot… REAL FOOD since the typical American daily diet consists of 67% processed foods with maybe 10%-20% of the daily intake consisting of fruits and if we are lucky, veggies!

I have friends in programs that watch their calorie intake and I see the kind of things they are eating.  Now, I know this may sound harsh and judgmental, but I am going to go here.  If the weight loss program you are on tells you that you can eat a package of low fat and no sugar jello topped with non-fat whipped cream because it is ZERO POINTS, then that means that program is not looking out for your long-term health.  It may get you short-term results but at the cost of long-term exposure to horrible ingredients.  That is not healthy weight loss.

When we as a society started to care more about calories and less about what is actually going into our body, the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer began.

2 years ago I shifted my lifestyle to more real food and less processed food and lost 12 pounds and losing weight was not my goal, it is just where my body weight was supposed to be.  I am eating food that works for my body, treating myself to a nice treat or glass of wine occasionally but I stay away from processed foods, dairy, meat, and try to limit my processed sugar intake.  I knew I needed to heal my gut and get on a healthy eating track. On a daily basis, I just eat when I am hungry and stop when I am full.

SO… What can you do now?

Next time you are shopping for food.  Allow yourself extra time at the store.  Maybe just 10 extra minutes.  As you grab anything that comes with a label, turn it over and give it an inspection.  Here are my tips on what to look for:

1. Skip the calorie, fat, and protein content.  Look at the ingredient list instead.  How many things are listed?  Can you pronounce most of them?

2. The first thing on the ingredient list has the highest amount of that thing in the product.  For example, if sugar is the first thing you see, it is really high in sugar.

3. If you are buying any kind of cracker, cereal, or bread you will want to look for a specific ratio.  Dr. Greger in “How Not to Die” calls it the five-to-one ratio.  The ratio of grams of carbohydrates to grams of dietary fiber should be five or less. For example, if a package of bread has 15 grams of carbs and 3 grams of fiber, it passes the test and is healthy bread.  If it has 30 grams of carbs and only 3 grams of fiber, it does not pass the test.

4.  Stay away from anything labeled low fat, low sugar, fat-free, or even sugar-free.  Something artificial has been added in to add flavor and replace all that good fat our body needs with something our body won’t recognize.

5. Just because it says vegan or gluten-free, it does not equal healthy.  Look at the label.

I hope you can tell how passionate I am on this subject.  My short time in this food world has opened my eyes to just how nasty our food system has gotten.  If you have any questions on anything, please send me an email to ask.  Your future health depends on it.