Canadians are suffering from a gastronomy dichotomy – healthy eaters and not-so-healthy eaters both struggling with excess body fat. It’s what makes our obesity epidemic so confusing.
On one end of the spectrum, we have healthy eaters who are focused on the age old advice to ‘Eat Less and Exercise More’. Unfortunately, if we don’t eat enough or if we burn too many calories over long periods of time, the body’s survival mechanism kicks in. When a constant semi-starvation state is reached the result is the storing, rather than the burning, of excess body fat.
On the other end of the spectrum are those people who are completely unaware of how many calories they are actually eating. A local Canadian bar and grill serves an appetizer of naan and hummus. According to their nutritional facts list, one quarter of the dish is 330 calories! Add a glass of wine and a paltry bowl of soup and the person has just consumed 1300 calories in one relatively unassuming meal.
Our ancestors didn’t struggle with this dichotomy. They weren’t advised to ‘Eat Less and Exercise More’ nor did they have much processed food with hidden calories. They ate when they were hungry. They stopped when they were full. They ate homemade, local fare and took a break in the day to enjoy it.
Your body is a powerful intuitive communicator. When it comes to food, listen to your gut instinct. Keep an eye on those processed calories and go for those familiar homemade recipes that your ancestors knew were important enough to pass along.
