Health trends grab our attention, make us at least consider changing to follow what is recommended.
But there are always reversals …
i.e., one day it’s bad to drink coffee, the next – we’re told it has many benefits.
It is like you are just *tossing the dice* in a game where the rules keep changing.
It’s confusing and frustrating, especially after you followed a *trend*, changed your eating habits, only to learn years later the narrative has changed.
Maybe you, like Bruce and I, have experienced the following *trends* over the years:
Low Fat/Fat Free
We’ve been *sold* for decades on eliminating fat from our diets. Thus, the low-fat, fat-free trend exploded as the medical field directed us to change what we ate.
My mom changed their diet when dad suffered a heart attack.
She followed the doctor’s strong advice …
strictly cooking only chicken breasts and ground turkey in place of beef.
No more full-fat products for dad.
Now, there is new research that proves eating good fat is best for your health.
Funny thing … my dad’s heart health never improved by this strict diet.
His cholesterol and blood pressure remained high.
Over the following years, he had open heart surgery, stents put in, carotid artery surgery.
Sugar-Free/Artificial Sweeteners
The sugar-free trend has been a die-hard trend for years. We were easily sold on switching to diet drinks, thinking it will save calories. It made sense … even gave you a sense of relief and accomplishment while battling extra weight.
I bought into diet drinks in my past life.
It’s crazy remembering how I’d drink a diet soda while eating a Snickers bar.
(Of course, I didn’t lose any weight!)
Replacement sweeteners are exponentially more harmful than plain ol’ sugar. (More information found at the end of this blog post.)
Energy Drinks
Energy drinks are all the rage now and are being consumed in astonishing amounts. US energy drink sales shot up to $3.7 billion in 2020.
42.35% of Americans aged between 30 and 49 consume energy drinks on a regular basis, ignoring the facts about harmful effects including:
heart trouble, insomnia, anxiety, high blood pressure, infertility to name a few.
The Latest/Greatest Diet
And then, there’s the slew of the latest, greatest diet that will knock the pounds off. Recognize any of these diets? Have you done any of these over the years?
- Grapefruit Diet
- SlimFast
- Scarsdale Diet
- Cabbage Soup Diet
- Beverly Hill Diet
- Jenny Craig
- Subway Diet
- Atkins Diet
- South Beach Diet
- Nutrisystem Diet
- Juicing
- Gluten Free Diet
- Paleo Diet
- Whole30 Diet
- Keto Diet
- Mediterranean Diet
I followed/suffered many of these diet trends through the years of trying to lose weight …
The Grapefruit Diet (I decided I’d rather NOT eat than do this.)
The Cabbage Soup Diet (lasted about a week.)
The Atkins Diet. (I DID lose 50 pounds on the Atkins diet – and kept it off,
Now I eat low-carb/high protein/no sugar
with a higher regard for choosing healthier products.)
Supplements/Vitamins
Adding to the confusion is the volume of *healthy* supplements which is a growing market worldwide. The global dietary supplements market size was valued at USD 151.9 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.9% from 2022 to 2030.
Because of this prosperous growth and the hurry to get to market, many of the supplements are produced by companies taking shortcuts which greatly alter the quality and purity of the product.
In my next blog post, I’ll share what supplements and vitamins we take – and why.
Organic/Cage-Free/No GMO/Grass-Fed
Bruce and I THOUGHT we were doing great by changing our diet to organic products and grass-fed beef.
Yeah, with more research, we’ve learned it’s not so great. There is a rising trend for these products, BUT what you don’t know can harm you. There is a lot of wiggle room that allows such labels.
I go more into this in my recent blog post.
How can you navigate the *trends* – how can you discern and choose what is best for your health?
- Do Your Own Research
That is what Bruce and I have been doing for years as we seek ways to improve our health, especially since we’re older and intend to live out our remaining years with vitality. The more we learned, the more we chose to make drastic changes to how we eat, how we live. - Discern What’s Best for You Right Now
Once you dive into the research for restoring and improving your health, you’ll fall down a rabbit hole of massive information overload. You can and will need to discern and choose what is best for you right now – what your body needs first. - Choose The Best Quality
Not all vitamins and supplements are produced by the highest standards. (It’s a huge profitable market, so of course, there will be brands that skip certification of ingredients, toxicity, contamination to get to market quickly.) I repeat … do your research.
In my next blog post, I’ll share how we eat and live to give you some ideas. We call it de-toxic-fying.
Right now, I’m wondering who among all our readers is a Health-Seeker?
I’d love to hear from you, learn what you are doing to strengthen and restore your health.
Here’s to YOUR health,
Trisha and Bruce
RECOMMENDED READING:
Fats: Why Healthy Dietary Fat Is Crucial
Is Fat Good for You? Everything You Need to Know About Dietary Fats
Just How Bad is Diet Soda for You?
What Happens to Your Body When You Eat Artificial Sweeteners
12 Dangerous Side Effects of Energy Drinks, According to Science
I enjoyed reading your books years ago, and I’m glad to see that you’re back on social media. Re: health & fitness, based on my own personal experience, I’ve lost a tremendous amount of respect for the medical community. Based on my personal experience, I now feel that not all, but most physicians may mean well, but they end up being puppets and loudspeakers for Big Pharma and massively incompetent or intentionally-tainted research studies. IMO, your points 2 and 3 above are “spot on”: do your own research, and choose what’s best for you.
Wonderful to read your words, Joe! We are definitely on the same page … in agreement about the broken medical system, and about the puppet doctors whose strings are controlled by Big Pharma. I read that in medical school, there is only one class on nutrition. It’s up to us to take control of our health.