There are many schools of thought on this, but I am going to put everything into 3 areas.
- There are the things everyone can eat if they don’t have an actual allergy to the food or an autoimmune condition that might limit you a bit more. (Green Light)
- The foods that are fantastic and you should eat lots of them because of their nutritional density and how they affect your body positively (Full speed ahead)
- The things that you can eat if you have gone through a 30 day clean eating cycle known as a whole 30 and have slowly introduced the foods back into your system to see how you fare with them, and eaten with some moderation (Yellow Light)
- And the big no-nos that really aren’t helpful or possibly even harmful to your metabolic health (Red Light)
This is not all encompassing, but can give you a starting point, and I put links to reference articles for each to hopefully help explain why things are on certain lists. Here goes…
Green Light
- All Fruits – especially berries, as others can spike blood sugar if you overconsume
- All Veggies (Excluding the ones below)
- All Meats and eggs – preferably grass-fed, pastured, or cage free, but conventional is better than convenience foods. If it’s conventional, get leaner cuts, but grassfed can be fatty.
- All Nuts and seeds (Excluding the “nuts” below) – preferably ones with high omega 3’s and low omega 6’s
- High Omega 3 oils – coconut oil, olive oil, macadamia oil, avocado oil, sesame oil, walnut oil, flaxseed oil, fish oil
- Animal fats – lard, tallow, ghee, or other animal greases
Full Speed Ahead
- Fermented foods
- Bone Broth
- Offal (Organ meats) – liver, heart, tongue, kidney, etc.
- Wild Caught Seafood
- Water!
Yellow Light
- White Potatoes – can spike blood sugar
- White Rice – Jasmine or Basmati preferably
- Full Fat Dairy – preferably local and raw
- Chocolate – specifically high cacao content, low sugar and milk, really dark chocolate
- Properly soaked and prepared beans
Red Light
- Wheat and gluten containing grains
- Refined Sugar
- Most Legumes/Beans – this includes peanuts and soy/soybeans
- Inflammatory Oils – canola oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, grapeseed oil, soybean oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, peanut oil
- Sodas and bottles of anything at the store
- Preservatives and things created in a lab
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