Good food versus bad food is a concept fully ingrained into general diet culture. The idea that eating ‘superfoods’ ‘clean foods’ ‘good foods’ like avacados, nuts, nut butters, healthy bars are good for managing your weight whereas chocolate, burgers and pizza are going to derail your diet completely.
Yet in reality for he vast majority of us calorie consumption matters more than where those calories come from.
Yes, if you eat nothing but pizza and crisps your body composition is going to differ from someone who eats the same amount of calories but in only chicken and veg, but on the basis most of us aren’t so polar in our diet that we only eat one type of food or the other, mixing the foods you like in is going to have minimal impact.
Equally though, the calories in some of these ‘good’ foods are pretty high in comparison to the calories in ‘bad foods’. That’s particularly the case with snack type foods, where say a smoothie might seem a healthier option to a fizzy drink but is going to take up far more of your daily energy intake than a zero calorie drink will.
The key here is balance and moderation, being aware that certain foods do provide your body with more nutritional benefits but equally foods which simply taste good and you like are not going to suddenly drastically change your bodies composition.
Eating a mixture of foods you like and foods that make you feel good and energetic is going to make you feel so much better and feel much more sustainable than trying to spend you whole time attaining to a holy grail of clean eating, and actually probably have a lot less impact on your physique than you think.
Heather Sherwood Fitness 