Canadians are suffering from a gastronomy dichotomy – healthy eaters and not-so-healthy eaters alike are struggling with excess body fat. It’s what makes our obesity epidemic so confusing.
Should We ‘Eat Less and Exercise More’?
On one side of the spectrum, we have healthy eaters who are focussed 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.
How Many Calories Do We Actually Consume?
On the other side 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. No one advised them to ‘Eat Less and Exercise More’ nor did they have much processed food with hidden calories. They ate when they were hungry and they stopped when they were full. They ate homemade, local fare and took a break in the day to enjoy and digest 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.
Our Vince’s Power Up Program Mission is simply to educate our customers on the importance of using food as fuel. For all your Power Up news make sure you check out Vince’s Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Also make sure to follow @VincesMarket and #powerupwithvinces, sign up for our Power Up Newsletter and keep an eye out for nutrition tips and tricks from me, our in-house nutrition expert!
To our health & wellbeing,
Shannon, Guest Blogger
