High-value food – Best diet for physical and mental health

WHEN When it comes to food and nutrition, it’s easy to get distracted by what our diet can do for us physically.

We are so used to focusing on macros, calories, grams and pounds that we forget the emotional side of eating. We were trained to think of ’emotional eating’ as negative, when it is not necessarily so.

Food is fuel, but it is much more. And even if you have physical goals, balancing them with a form of nutrition that takes your mental health into account is always a good idea.

Especially now.

That’s why, in my book Good food, bad diet, I present to readers the concept of “High-value food”.

Here’s what the concept does (and doesn’t).

High-value eating is a form of nutrition that nourishes the body physically, while recognizing and normalizing that emotional nutrition is also a healthy part of food.

High-value eating shows us how food can add to our lives and health without restrictions – something that the culture of diet has made a regular occurrence for many of us.

High-value eating does not divide food into numbers and has zero tolerance for guilt and shame. He never attributes moral labels as “good” or “clean” to what we eat. All of these things are unnecessary for general health and well-being.

High-value food recognizes that while some foods may not be the most physically nutritious, these foods bring us joy and should not be excluded from our diet. I’m not talking about ‘cheating days’ here; it’s more of a daily assessment of the balance you need. That means basing most of your meals on an abundance of plants, fiber and protein, but it also means that sometimes eating means eating pizza or hamburgers, if that’s what you want at the moment.

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So, how do you implement high-value food in your life – and for its physical and mental benefits? See how.

Be a pencil, not an eraser.

We are so used to ‘erasing’ – taking food out of our diet unnecessarily.

This limits our nutrient intake and the variety of foods we eat, but it also doesn’t make sense.

All we need is for a diet guru to tell us that gluten is ‘toxic’, and it goes away from our diet! But, unless we have a legitimate medical condition, most of us don’t have to stop eating gluten, dairy, wheat, sugar or any of the other usual suspects. Be a pencil and add these foods back to your diet.

Eat whole or minimally processed foods when possible.

This is a given: buy the best quality food you can and make most of it whole or minimally processed. There is a place in everyone’s diet for ultra-processed foods, but they shouldn’t be the mainstay of what you eat.

Understand your lifestyle.

Many of us try to change our lifestyle to suit a diet, but this is frustrating and does not last long. Instead, choose a dietary pattern that fits your life.

Be intentional.

If you want a brownie, don’t torture yourself with coming and going about whether or not to eat it.

Eat – then move on. Be aware of the general quality of your diet, as well as what you want and how what you eat makes you feel.

Understand that there are no “bad” foods and that nothing terrible will happen to you if, from time to time, you drop the salad and eat foods that are less physically nutritious.

Eat for yourself, not for everyone else.

Everyone you know may be on some kind of eating plan that looks great, but if it doesn’t work with your lifestyle, preferences or goals, then it’s not worth doing. Don’t get into the fashion movement: do what works for you.

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