BryantheRyan.com Challenging conventional wisdom about nutrition, fitness and overall health

What I eat and Why

I have been asked on multiple occasions what I eat. To be honest, what I eat has changed so dramatically in the last year that I try to avoid the conversation all together.

Although I am no longer a vegan, the experience forced me learn much about our current food system. I therefore refuse to eat any meat or animal product (other than cheese, sometimes) from a grocery store.

Modern animal food production is truly appalling and is a result of American's demand for cheap food. The process by which a chicken nugget is made and how animals are raised and slaughtered is enough to make any human sick to their stomach.

Enough animal rights talk as that is not the topic of this article. Here are the foods that I eat and drink regularly, where they come from and why I eat them. For I believe that where our food comes from is as important as what we eat (more on this later).

- Eggs from a farmer 2 miles away from my home

- Beef Steaks, ground hamburger and roasts from local farmers

- Raw Almonds from either Trader Joes or Pick n Save

-Raw Sunflower Seeds from Pick n Save

- 100% Natural Peanut Butter from Trader Joes

- Bacon from my good friend's family farm. Approx 20 miles from my house

-100% organic virgin Coconut and Olive Oil

- Fair Trade and Organic Coffee

- Fair Trade and Organic Yerpa Mate Tea, Black Tea and Green Tea

- If vegetables and fruits are season I eat massive amounts of them as well. I love all fruits and veggies, the only vegetable and fruit that I do not like are radishes, celery and peaches. Ehhhh. Even though I have never had a true peach from a tree, they have always been the fake grocery store kind.

I refuse to eat fruits and veggies from the grocery store. Which means that I do not eat any fresh produce unless it is in season. The produce we buy at the grocery store is laced with tons of pesticides and fertilizers and travels half way across the globe to your diner table.

- Miller Lite and other local beer. I love beer, so I try to buy beers that are brewed in Wisconsin as to cut down on the shipping mileage. This is tough, because my favorite beer is Blue Moon and it is made in Colorado. So sometimes I splurge

- Other than some random dinning out at restaurants, Jager-Bombs at bars and M & Ms  I pretty much stick to these food stuffs.

Why do I eat these foods?

All of these foods are whole foods. No added preservatives, chemicals, or ingredients that I can not even pronounce are found in these foods. This is not by mistake.

I steer clear of all processed foods as much as possible as they closely resemble that of cardboard and newspaper. This is bad news for me because one of my favorite foods used to be tortilla chips and salsa. I have since forsaken my indulgence in this past time.

Also, the majority of the foods that I eat are low-carb. I am on a low carb kick right now so I eat a lot of almonds and a lot of eggs fried in coconut oil.

Am I going to have a heart attack?

Well I sure hope not. Although it is entirely possible. I honestly believe that the way I am eating is completely healthy. Fat and cholesterol have been deemed as the so called causes of heart disease and diabetes. When looking at the facts this is simply not true. Basic bio-chemistry of the human body tells us that dietary fats and cholesterol are not directly converted to fat and cholesterol in our bodies.

If you were to observe the increase in sugar consumption of our citizens and the increase in diabetes and weight gain, you would see a direct parallel between the two. Why? Sugar in the form of fructose and some glucose is processed by our livers. When we can not use these substances as energy they are released as fats, in the form of triglycerides in the blood, and LDL cholesterol as well. Two of the main indicators of heart disease in humans.

It is not the fat that is killing us, it is the sugar. Plus when sugar is digested the hormone insulin is needed to digest it. The pancreas releases this hormone and when it is forced to release more than it is capable, the disease called diabetes takes place.

Why do I care about where food comes from?

Believe it or not, many people used to care about where their food came from. I am not alone in wanting to understand the origin of my food.

Because honestly how many of us know where our food comes from? Sure you buy food from the grocery store, but where do they get it from? The answers to the questions vary depending on the food item in question.

Lets look at it this way. The outside aisles of a grocery store contain the majority of whole foods. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, meats, cheese and dairy. These products come from a wide array of states and even countries. The middle aisles are less complicated as the majority of these foods come from a corn field in Iowa.

Look at the ingredients of any processed food (any food that is sealed in a bag or other devise) and I can almost guarantee you that some form of corn product is in the top 3 ingredients. Those corn products are refined and processed in a factory, sealed and shipped to you for your guilty enjoyment.

Why don't I drink Milk?

This topic is truly for another article all together (which I have already written here). We don't need to drink milk, in short: Drinking the lactic fluid of another species is truly disgusting (humans are the only mammals on the planet that would even think of doing this). Calcium is a mineral found in soil and is present in large quantities in meat, and vegetables. The benefits of calcium are vastly over exaggerated to get you to buy more of it. Much like the propaganda surrounding vitamin C in oranges. Oranges are a middle of the road food when it comes to vitamin C levels. Broccoli and other dark green vegetables contain way more vitamin C than our circular orange friends.

Coffee

I understand that I may be sounding a little hypocritical by denouncing the consumption of fruits and veggies out of season, yet I drink coffee that is grown half way around the world.

In my defense, I refuse to buy coffee that is not Fair Trade certified and organic. This provides that the farmers who grow this coffee are paid a fair wage for their services and that no harmful chemicals were used in its growing.

Yes it costs more money, but the trade off is well worth it.

What are Raw Almonds and Sunflower Seeds?

The majority of the nuts that we eat are roasted and salted. Raw nuts are simply nuts that have not been cooked or salted. They are a less crunchy, but the trade off with nutritional content is well worth it. See when a a food that is grown from a plant is picked, it is at its highest level of nutritional content. Cooking produce kills much of the live nutrients that are found in these products. Eating nuts raw way the most nutritious way to enjoy these tasty morsels as it is in its most raw state when consumed.

Every time we spend any amount of money at the grocery store or farmers market we are saying that we agree with the way a certain product was grown, raised, harvested and distributed. Want to buy $1 a pound ground beef? Then you are supporting the use of Confined Animal Feeding Operations, the use of hormones and steroids in your meat and the distribution of meat raised in Colorado and Nebraska that makes it on your plate.

Final Thoughts

This may sound a bit corny, but you are what you eat. Next time you sit down to eat ask yourself what you believe in and what values you hold dear. If you have empathy towards other humans and animals then why are you eating fast food?

If you eat fast food and other easy to make cardboard cut outs that we call chips and frozen pizza, do not wonder why your belly is huge and you have acne on your face.

In my experience with other people, you can tell a lot about a person by what they eat. And I mean a lot. How they view food is almost identical to how they view and interact with other humans.

Ryan